Saturday, June 02, 2018

SOFA - quod erat demonstrandum!

The SOFA: a humongous area in the NE Pacific where GWS disperse to forage.

Behold - and yes it is long!



Synopsis here - and yes this is impressive as hell.
And here's a nice, and short video about the technology - again, very impressive in terms of scope but also cost!



And now, re-read this.
See what I mean?
  • The GWS are by no means "aggregating" but instead, they are actually dispersing in a huge area after having aggregated at the coast! I mean, seriously: watch the first video at 42.12: does that look like congregating to you?

  • In the SOFA (which is the much better name than CafĂ©) they very much appear to be foraging and not mating: case in point, just listen to what Barb's got to say at 1:21ff of the first video where she explains how the data illustrate that those Sharks engaging in ROD are most likely targeting prey like Bigeye Tuna.

  • Which obviously means that the GWS are mating in the known coastal aggregation spots like Domeier had postulated all along!

  • And those infamous, and totally cockamamie hypotheses by Jorgensen and Chapple, respectively, that they may be lekking or, gasp, sniffing for female pheromones?
    Right...

  • And oh yes that would very much be a q.e.d - just saying!
    And no this time I'm gonna be magnanimous and refrain from mentioning sniffing glue and the like! :)
But I'm digressing as usual.
Keep watching this website and also, keep watching this space.

To be continued no doubt!

No comments: