Information

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Researcher Mark Meekan diving with a Whale Shark

the data from nuclear bomb tests, which helped during the Cold War , scientists the exact Age Of the largest fish in The World .

Whale sharks are large, slow-moving and docile creatures, mainly in tropical waters.

they are durable, but scientists have struggled to pinpoint the exact Age Of these fascinating creatures.

But with The World the radioactive heritage they now have a viable method that can help the survival of species.

Whale sharks are both the largest fish and the largest sharks in existence.

Grows up to 18m long and weigh an average of about 20 tons, and their characteristic white-spotted coloring makes it easily recognizable.

A Whale -shark-food for plankton

These filter feeders live on plankton and travel long distances to find food.

they are particularly popular with tourists in many places, to swim often so that the diver next to you.

there is, However, classified the species now listed as endangered because of over fishing in places like Thailand and the Philippines.

Much about the species remains a mystery, especially as you age properly.

researchers say this is of fundamental importance to the understanding of their growth - Information that is crucial to the rescue of the species in the long term.

Whale sharks are a major attraction for tourists and, in General, hardly a threat

To date, represent scientists have tried to count, clean lines in the vertebrae of the dead Whale Shark . These act as rings in a tree trunk, how The Animal is older.

But The Scientists are uncertain about it can form, how often those rings, and the reasons behind them.

Now researchers say they have a much more accurate way of determining The Whale -sharks " true age.

By the late 1940s, several Nations, including the United States, the Soviet Union , Great Britain , France and China carried out nuclear bomb tests in various places.

- A child plays with a dead Whale , shark, caught by fishermen from Indonesia

A Side Effect of all of these explosions, the doubling of an atom has a type, or isotope, called carbon 14 in the atmosphere.

in the course of time, every living thing on The Planet absorbed this additional carbon-14 that is still has.

But as a scientist, the rate at which the isotope decays, it is a very useful marker in the determination of age.

the older of The creature, to find the less carbon-14 that you would expect.

"So every animal that was alive, then installed that the increase of carbon-14 in their hard parts," said author Dr. Mark Meekan from the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Perth.

"That is to say, we have a time marker in the spine, this means that we can work, from the periodicity, the decay of these isotopes. "

One of the difficulties with ageing these sharks in the access to samples of vertebrae.

A cross-section of a Whale Shark vertebra showing growth bands

This team made it, the two long-dead samples stored in Pakistan and Taiwan.

The study found that these creatures actually live an incredibly long time.

"The absolute longevity of these animals could be very, very old, perhaps as much as 100-150 years old," Dr Meekan.

"This has a huge impact on the species. It suggests that these things are intensely prone to "over-harvesting". "

The Scientists say that their findings explain why Whale Shark numbers have reduced in places such as Thailand and Taiwan, where it has been fishing.

"they are simply not built to benefit the people," said Dr. Meekan.

While the type has been recently updated, threatened, endangered on the Red list of the IUCN, The Scientists believe that their work helps the efforts on conservation.

By you will be able to accurately estimate the Age Of The Whale sharks, The Scientists will be able to more detailed Information , does how well a population, and whether fishing can be allowed.

In many tropical regions, Whale Shark tourism is a great attraction now. The researchers say that the promotion of the cooperation between the different countries along the extensive routes, The Whale sharks to follow, is the key to survival.

"Whale sharks are a fantastic Ambassador for the Navy, and has lifted so many people out of poverty," added Dr. Meekan.

"This is Good News and it shows, there is a Silver Lining to the mushroom cloud, After All ," he laughed.

in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

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biodiversity, sharks, extinction, climate change

Source of news: bbc.com