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Tiger sharks helped discover the world’s largest seagrass prairie

Scientists equipped sharks with cameras to map a carbon reservoir half the size of Florida

An underwater photo of a tiger shark with an orange camera on its side

Tiger sharks equipped with cameras (one pictured here) helped researchers map the world’s largest seagrass ecosystem.

Diego Camejo for Beneath The Waves

By Nikk Ogasa

Scientists have teamed up with tiger sharks to uncover the largest expanse of seagrasses on Earth.  

A massive survey of the Bahamas Banks — a cluster of underwater plateaus surrounding the Bahama archipelago — reveals 92,000 square kilometers of seagrasses, marine biologist Oliver Shipley and colleagues report November 1 in Nature Communications.