New study suggests coastal and deep ocean sharks have different feeding patterns

(University of Massachusetts at Amherst) A research team studying globally declining shark populations report that they used carbon isotopes as biochemical markers in shark muscle tissue to identify where in the oceans the mobile predators feed. They hope that such analyses provide a useful tool for conservation. Michelle Staudinger, an expert in large pelagic foraging ecology at UMass Amherst, worked with lead author Christopher Bird at the University of Southampton, U.K. on the study.