We're going to need a smaller camera.
That's (roughly) what the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute said yesterday when it announced a new initiative to give researchers a closer look at the secret lives of sharks. The deeper insights won't come from divers or underwater drones, but from miniature video cameras attached to a shark's fin.
Designing such a camera was a jaws-dropping technical challenge. It had to stay on the lucky shark for up to nine months, have 10 hours of video recording time and be able to survive dives down to 3,000 feet (1,000 meters) and bursts of acceleration of up to 25 miles per hour (40 kph).
The main goal behind the project is to capture footage of the "White Shark Cafe", a patch of ocean between California and Hawaii where white sharks feed each winter. As the sharks often dive hundreds of feet below the surface, the ritual up until now has been a mystery to scientists.
Shark Week may never be the same again.