{"id":3884,"date":"2026-10-21T23:24:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T22:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/a-study-debunks-a-persistent-myth-about-sharks\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T23:24:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T22:24:38","slug":"a-study-debunks-a-persistent-myth-about-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/a-study-debunks-a-persistent-myth-about-sharks\/","title":{"rendered":"A Study Debunks a Persistent Myth About Sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>If in space no one can hear you scream, new research reveals a very different situation in the waters of the globe where the well-known predators\u2014sharks\u2014swim.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Sharks less tough on paper than expected<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Led by researchers from Florida Atlantic University, these studies involved the controlled diffusion of sounds and drone monitoring to assess the auditory abilities of <strong>sandbar sharks<\/strong> (<em>Carcharhinus limbatus<\/em>), inhabiting the clear, shallow waters of the southeast coast of Florida.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">The kingfisher takes to open waters as winter arrives, and its beak has even redesigned a high-speed train<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Unlike humans, who possess large external ears, the ears of sharks are reduced to modest openings connected to their internal auditory structure. At first glance, they might seem of limited usefulness in an aquatic environment, but it turns out that sounds propagate through water faster and farther than through air.<\/p>\n<p>Consequently, the sharks can construct a genuine acoustic landscape of their surroundings, which helps them identify prey or dangers (predators, boats\u2026). However, until now, it remained unknown precisely how far they could perceive such waves.<\/p>\n<p>The experiment involved broadcasting sounds of varying frequencies using an underwater speaker. From the air, drones filmed the responses of <em>C. limbatus<\/em> swimming in the surrounding waters. It turned out that they perceived the different sound frequencies broadcast, with the exception of the reference one, at distances of up to 74 meters, the length of the Bayeux Tapestry.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">In 1994, the Irwins planted 44,000 eucalyptus trees for koalas, a bet that became a vast network of Australian reserves<\/span><\/section>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"cssc-content-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Research Video of Shark Hearing\" width=\"680\" height=\"510\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/ZyIl72pDMyg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A Surprise<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>As explained by Stephen Kajiura, the lead author of the new study, published in the journal <em>Integrative Organismal Biology<\/em>, the real surprise was the sharks\u2019 ability to perceive sounds located beyond the near acoustic field, with markedly different wave patterns.<\/p>\n<p>The next step will notably be to determine the sensory mechanisms that underlie it. At a time when noise pollution affects many marine species, such findings could contribute to improving their conservation.<\/p>\n<p>To reassure those who imagine themselves frolicking in the water and attracting the attention of a great white, when they perceived these unusual sounds, the sharks quickly moved away in the opposite direction, making a <em>Jaws<\/em> outcome unlikely.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">A scientist saves a young parrot threatened by a boa<\/span><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2539,1566,2430,227,228],"class_list":["post-3884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-debunks","tag-myth","tag-persistent","tag-sharks","tag-study","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3886,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884\/revisions\/3886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}