Sharks use the earth’s magnetic field to navigate the routes they take. They basically use this earth’s magnetic field as a GPS.
As per researchers, it also takes them to great distances across the world’s oceans. This particular behavior has also been observed in other marine animals.
Researchers’ did some marine laboratory experiments with a small species of shark. This proves that sharks use the earth‘s magnetic field for navigation.
This question has long puzzled scientists of how sharks perform long-distance migrations. As sharks undertake their journeys in the open ocean.
Therefore, scientists at Florida State University studied bonnethead sharks. These are a kind of hammerhead that lives on both American coasts and returns to the same estuaries every year.
Scientists exposed 20 bonnetheads to magnetic conditions simulating locations hundreds of kilometers (miles) away from where they were caught off Florida.
They found that the sharks began to swim the same way with the help of magnetic cues.
Researchers believe that these characteristics of using a magnetic field are also common among other species of sharks, such as great whites, that make cross-ocean journeys.
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