Animals

Shark researchers start fundraising campaign for new expedition

Off Cape Cod, OCEARCH researchers tag Mary Lee, a Great White Shark. OCEARCH

June 18, 2016

1 minute to read

If you’re a fan of Mary Lee the Shark and her toothy friends, now’s your chance to help the researchers who are studying the majestic sea creatures.

OCEARCH, a nonprofit that tracks and conducts research on sharks around the world, has started a Kickstarter campaign to help fund an expedition to tag juvenile White Sharks off Long Island, New York, this summer.

“The data will build on the ongoing research and previous findings from Great White Sharks Mary Lee, Lydia, Katharine, Betsy, and Genie; and will allow us to complete the sample size necessary to draft the first scientific findings for the North Atlantic White Shark,” OCEARCH wrote on its fundraising page.

Donated funds will go towards helping the expedition and keeping the data open to everyone in the nonprofit’s Global Shark Tracker, the nonprofit said.

Some sharks tagged and tracked by OCEARCH have their own widely popular Twitter accounts where research information and shark news is posted. Mary Lee, the Great White that was tagged by OCEARCH in 2012 off Cape Cod, has 98,000 followers. Katharine, a shark described as a “misunderstood but sassy girl just tryin’ to get some fish” on her account, has 39,300 followers. Another Great White, Lydia, has more than 26,000.

OCEARCH estimates that about 100 million sharks are killed every year and currently researchers working in shark conservation don’t have enough data to understand the migratory patterns of the predator to help.

If sharks are lost, the ocean’s food chain will collapse, which would affect the whole planet, OCEARCH expedition leader Chris Fischer said in a video on the fundraising page.

“You can help turn the tide,” he said.

With four days left, the campaign has raised $61,313 of its $150,000 goal. Rewards for donations range from T-shirts to a tour of the research ship at expedition kickoff party.