Sand tiger sharks (Carcharias taurus) are a common sight off the North Carolina coast, but we actually know very little about them! Why do they aggregate in large groups, oftentimes near shipwrecks? Where do they mate and give birth? And why are some groups that we see predominantly female? These are just a few of the questions that Spot A Shark USA is trying to answer.
Developed by the North Carolina Aquariums and Tanya Griffin Houppermans, Spot A Shark USA is a citizen science program designed to study the health of sand tiger populations along the east coast of the U.S. Most sand tigers have a unique spot pattern on their skin that can be used to identify each individual shark. Anyone who dives with sand tigers and captures images of them can upload their photos to the Spot A Shark USA website. At that point an analysis of each shark's spot pattern is done, and then the shark can be matched to an individual already in the database if it has been seen before, or else it is recorded as a new shark .
An aggregation of sand tiger sharks off the coast of North Carolina. (Photo by Tanya Griffin Houppermans)
Sand tigers have individual spot patterns that are as unique as fingerprints for humans. (Photo by Tanya Griffin Houppermans)