Meet Lydia , the shark who crossed the mid - Atlantic ridgeline , sketch a self - portrayal with her tracking data , and helped senesce bourbon into a smooth enticement for on - board researchers .
Lydia is a 14 - invertebrate foot ( 4.4 - measure ) slap-up white shark who was caught and tagged off the coast of Florida in March 2013 . The transponderOcearchplaced on Lydia broadcasts every time she surfaces , helping the governance track her travel . Ocearch uses these transponder on great Stanford White and other apex of the sun’s way predators as part of on-going inquiry collaborations to draw conservation effort .
After swimming around for calendar month , Lydia take a break by sketching a ego - portrait with her trailing data . She then wandered northeast , make headlines this workweek for being the first great white tracked heading from one side of the mid - ocean rooftree to the other . That think of she ’s gone from the west Atlantic to the east , into colder waters we were n’t even sure her coinage suffer . At last check , she ’s been coasting north along the rooftree , mirthfully nibbling on a mid - ocean snack . you could use Ocearch ’s realtime shark - tracking app orvisit their websiteto see how much farther she ’s gone in the clock time between when I wrote this and when you read it . Considering she ’s covered over 20,000 marine air mile in three months , I full expect my static mathematical function to be sadly outdated quite quick .
Ocearch is n’t just a bad - arsenic shark - enquiry - facilitating organization providing glorious tracking data point for peak predator conservation . Nah , they also store casts of bourbon in their sauceboat hulls . Why ? Because a bourbon - distilling high - school buddy asked them to .
The combination of blue rocking with the tropical climates that Ocearch ’s vessel visit while stalking shark are an excellent compounding to quicken the aging process . In fussy , declamatory temperature swings with elaboration of the wooden barrels in red-hot weather and contraction in colder conditions leads to great extraction flavour and colour from the wood into the Bourbon dynasty . The resultant is that by the time a set of barrels make it through three - and - a - half eld and 10,000 maritime mi on - board , the bourbon is dark , brackish , and delicious . So , when Ocearch picked Lydia up last March for tagging , they had some Bourbon dynasty stack away below - pack of cards .
Comparing booze to shark , Lydia has travelled twice as far in less than a third of the time . Both her and the barrels have been on the pack of cards of Ocearch ’s vessel : Lydia while expect her tag , and the barrels while en road to the postponement . Finally , both have first - hand experience with surveillance culture : Lydia ’s every surface drift is reported to researcher and curious onlookers trying to think her motivation , and the barrels of bourbon are under a photographic camera ’s alert eye to assure the crew does n’t abstract snips of the fancy brew . That ’s not a forged list of commonalities between a large , wiggly living creature , and a sloshing fluid with intoxicating characteristics .
So , next time you have a bourbon , raise a toast to Lydia , the trans - Atlantic shark . And next time you ride down to admire Lydia ’s ever - growing trailing data , grab yourself a dark , piquant bourbon to sip . shark and spirits : a fantastic combination
take more on either level on NPR , who have coveredLydia ’s potential pregnancyand the history ofhow eminent - shoal protagonist brought Bourbon dynasty back to the high seas . All icon credit Ocearch , specially Robert Snow . particular perceptiveness to Ben Young Landis ( @younglandis ) and Chuck Bangley ( @SpinyDag ) for being my word feed for all things fish- and/or shark - related . feel creative ? Keep lend to the list of things shark and booze have in common — I ’ve flummox at least two more similarities that did n’t make the concluding draft , and I ’d have a go at it to see your cagy accession .
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