After attacks, Pernambuco will resume monitoring sharks

The Secretariat of Environment, Sustainability and Fernando de Noronha (Semas-PE) informed this Friday, 17th, that the Arretado Scientist Program is already underway through the Ecotuba Project - Monitoring and Prevention of Incidents with Sharks.

The Arretado Scientist Program is an initiative of the government of Pernambuco that, through the Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation (Secti-PE) and the Foundation for Support to Science and Technology of the State of Pernambuco (Facepe), connects researchers and public bodies to develop innovative solutions to state administration challenges.

The Ecotuba Project, in turn, is coordinated by the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE) and, since 2014, has been monitoring sharks on Brazilian oceanic islands.

The initiative will have an investment of around R$1 million and will last 24 months. According to Semas-PE, the team has already started purchasing equipment, organizing the logistics of field trips and hiring the vessel.

The first scientific expedition is expected to be carried out in August, to capture and mark the sharks, through the implantation of microchips.

Previous monitoring was carried out by the Shark Research and Monitoring Project in the State of Pernambuco (Protuba), between 2004 and 2014.

The resumption of the initiative comes in a year in which the State has already recorded at least four shark attacks. In January, a woman was bitten on the leg in Fernando de Noronha. At the end of the same month, a teenager died after being attacked by a shark in Olinda.

At the end of May, a child suffered a shark bite in Jaboatão dos Guararapes and had his leg amputated. The following day, another woman was bitten by a shark on Boa Viagem beach, in the south of Recife.

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