BOSTON, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — New England waters are home to a wide variety of marine life, including sharks and rays.
At least 17 different species of sharks are known to reside in our local waters.
At New England Aquarium (NEA), with Shark Week approaching (July 20-26), July 14 was Shark and Ray Awareness Day, featuring the NEA shark research team sharing its wealth of knowledge and experience with the public.
Emily Jones is the NEA Scientific Program Officer with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life. "We're really proud of the shark work that we do and we want to be able to share that with the people in the building," she said.
Jones said one of the activities at NEA for both adults and kids is the immersive adventure experienced through a virtual reality headset that takes people on a boat with a team of shark researchers. "All of the virtual reality experiences are actually field projects that we've done where we've taken the cameras out with us and left them running so that the guests can see exactly what we see when we're out in the field," she said.
"It's just a way for us to bring our research into the main building without anybody having to get wet or get on a boat."
Jones said that the first shark tagging of the season was happening this week.
Researchers tag sharks, then set them free, enabling the sharks to be tracked, providing valuable insights into the mysterious lives they lead.
WBZ NewsRadio's Emma Friedman (@EmmaFriedmanWBZ) reports.