Wonderous Whitetip Sharks Caught on Camera
One of the most charismatic species we’ve encountered during our cruise, oceanic whitetip sharks never fail to impress our team members when they show up on camera. Treat yourself to multiple shots of these large pelagic predators congregating around ROV Hercules’ Zeus camera only ten meters from the surface with this highlight video.
While oceanic whitetip sharks have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 2018, it was only last year that the National Marine Fisheries Service designated them as “overfished,” giving them critical additional protections.
These long-lived and slow growing sharks are apex predators that maintain the delicate ecosystem within the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument as well as the other oceanic environments in which they’re found.
Learn more about this expedition funded by NOAA Ocean Exploration via the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute.
Kingman Reef & Palmyra Atoll
The deep-water areas around Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll are within one of the largest marine protected areas in the world, the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM). Despite a growing number of expeditions to explore deep-sea environments of the PRIMNM, including a 2019 Nautilus expedition, many areas remain unexplored.
