Nicole's Odyssey Across the
Indian Ocean 
GIS Demonstration
Application
The present application recreates the first known transoceanic trip for any shark species, as reported by Bonfil et al. (2005) in the October 7 issue of Science.
‘Nicole’, a ca. 3.8 m female great
white shark (named in honor of actress and white shark enthusiast Nicole Kidman)
was fitted with a pop-up archival tag in
The study, which was a collaboration between the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the South African Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism, the White Shark Trust, the University of Pretoria and the University of Cape Town, provided essential information to enhance the management and conservation status of threatened white shark populations in the regions via an improved understanding of species distribution patterns (for more details see: http://wcs.org/greatwhitesharks).
The interactive application you are about to see has been developed using advanced GIS mapping software called EASy developed by System Science Applications (SSA) with collaborators at the University of Southern California. This application shows the movement of Nicole as reported in the Science article (see original article and supplemental online material in paper for details on how the track was estimated) together with an alternative estimated track calculated by FishTracker. Fishtracker is a module of EASy developed by SSA in partnership with the Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research that uses complementary satellite sea surface temperature imagery data to derive improved positional estimates from archival tags widely used in marine tracking studies. The two tracks are shown against a background of satellite data on sea temperature for each day as well as other environmental information. To run the application online and view Nicole’s migration via your browser simply click on the “Launch EASy” button below. Basic instructions are also provided together with contact information if there are any questions, comments or requests for further information.
Basic Instructions :
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We recommend review of the "Technical Notes" section below for system compatibility and browser settings. |
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Click the "Launch EASy" button below to start the application. |
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Once the page has loaded, (this may take several seconds depending on your Internet connection) click the “Play” button to start. |
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After a while, two colored fish will appear and will start moving on the screen, their tracks shown in black. The light blue-colored fish labeled “Bonfil et al.” represents the estimated track reported in Science, while the magenta-colored fish labeled “Fishtracker” is the alternative track resulting from the FishTracker algorithm. |
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As the simulation steps through time, you will be able to follow the daily movements of Nicole (plotted 7 days at a time). The simulation also displays daily sea temperature (SST) data for the Indian Ocean, which are represented by the different colors on the background as shown by the legend scale. |
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Pause the simulation at any time by pressing the "Stop" button. |
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You can use the zoom buttons to the right of the map to "Zoom In" and examine the tracks in greater detail, "Zoom Out" further, "Recenter" the view, or "Zoom Home" to the original view. |
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Once the simulation is paused, double click centrally on any of the fish symbols to see a photo of Nicole with the PAT tag on its back (Note: you will need to deactivate pop-up blocking for this to work; also zooming in increases clicking accuracy if the pop-up window does not appear) |
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Click the "Play" button to resume the simulation or click the "Reset" button to clear the map and initiate a new run. |
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Finally, one can choose to overlay the tracks over different types of NASA satellite data: daily SST imagery from the MODIS sensor (Default selection), weekly AVHRR-SST imagery, and Quickscat sensor data on surface winds. To do so, pause the simulation, click on an image type of interest from the list under the "Images" tab, and then press the "Apply" button below. |
Note: |
after clicking a button, always wait until the hour-glass cursor and "loading" message clear before performing a new operation. |
