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University Report
Air Date: April 15, 1997Contact: Chris Lowe, (808) 236-7430
Hammerhead Shark Research In Kaneohe Bay
Did you know that five to eight thousand, yes thousand hammerhead sharks are born each year in Kaneohe Bay on the Windward side of Oahu? You must now be wondering, "how much food and energy does each shark need in order to survive." That's what a University of Hawai'i graduate student is trying to figure out.
Chris Lowe does most of his work in a lab located on Coconut Island. Using a treadmill designed for sharks, he counts each time a hammerhead shark beats its tail. That number is used to help calculate and measure the amount of oxygen each shark takes out of the water. So far, Lowe has determined that each shark burns about 29 kilocalories per day. The second part of Lowe's study is to determine how much food each hammerhead shark needs in order to survive in the bay.
This is the University Report, I'm Tracy Orillo Donovan.
