Entering the Elevator
Going up? During a 2008 expedition, a great white shark swims into position for its first elevator ride in a scene from the new National Geographic Channel documentary series Expedition Great White, premiering Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Able to lift 37 tons, the hydraulic lift had never been used on a marine animal before the great white studies—conducted aboard the research vessel Ocean—began in 2007.
Originally used to lift a power yacht on and off the 126-foot (38-meter) ship, the elevator was retrofitted with substantial railings to haul SUV-size great whites from waters off Mexico's Guadalupe Island (map) for study.
Data from satellite tracking tags fitted to the sharks during the expedition suggest the adult female great whites found around the island spend much of their lives in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
(The National Geographic Channel is part-owned by the National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)
—James Owen
Pictures: "Shark Elevator" Lifts Great Whites From Sea
See a giant, ship-mounted hydraulic lift hoist live great white sharks out of the ocean, offering unprecedented research opportunities.
