Bhubaneswar : A total of 15,713 rape cases have been registered between 2019 and 2022 in Odisha, informed Minister of State (MoS) for Home Tusharkanti Behera in the Odisha Legislative Assembly.Of the total cases registered, in 10,129 cases women were the victims while 5584 cases are sexual assaults against minors.Replying to a question asked by Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja, Behera said in 2019, a total of 2950 rape cases were registered including 1635 minor rape cases.Similarly in 2020, as many as 2984 rape cases were registered of which 1646 were minor rape cases and of the total 3327 rape cases registered in 2021, 1871 were minor rape cases.In 2022, 868 rape cases have been registered of which 432 cases are sexual assaults against minors.

A total of 15,713 rape cases have been registered between 2019 and 2022 in Odisha, informed Minister of State (MoS) for Home Tusharkanti Behera in the Odisha Legislative Assembly.

Over 15,000 rape cases registered in last 3 years in Odisha: Home Minister

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu police have arrested three persons including a Chennai-based financier for allegedly abducting a businessman who had failed to repay a loan of Rs 1 crore taken from the financier.
The arrested accused have been identified as Arockia Raj, the financier, Afrose, and Aravind his accomplices.
Saravanan, the real estate businessman, was abducted on Saturday evening by a gang allegedly led by a local financier Arockia Raj.
Saravanan had taken Rs 1 crore from Arockia Raj a few months ago but was unable to return the money.
According to the police, Saravanan received a call from Arockia Raj on Saturday about a new deal. The financier along with a few of his henchmen reached Saravanan's home, took the keys of two of his luxury cars, a watch and gold jewellery from there. Later they bundled Saravanan into a car and took off.
However, the family of Saravanan lodged a complaint with the police, which immediately swung into action.
The police team of T. Nagar police station searched the CCTV cameras through the road and intercepted the car on ECR. A special police team rescued Saravanan and recovered his two luxury cars.
Police told IANS that a manhunt is on for nine other people who were involved in the abduction.&nbsp;
—IANS

The Tamil Nadu police have arrested three persons including a Chennai-based financier for allegedly abducting a businessman who had failed to repay a loan of Rs 1 crore taken from the financier.

 Loan shark among three held for abducting businessman in Chennai

Stanford (California): Scientists have compiled a sizable biologging dataset using sophisticated electronic tags to gain comparative insights into how "elasmobranchs," such as sharks, rays, and skates, use the ocean's depths.
Others dive hundreds of metres or more of the slope waters into the twilight zone, beyond where sunlight can penetrate, while some species spend their entire lives in shallow waters close to our shores on the continental shelf. The ability to examine the threats that these animals face and direct future management and conservation plans will be provided by this new understanding of how elasmobranchs use the ocean.
The largest global investigation of where and when a diverse group of elasmobranchs move vertically was conducted in a study led by Stanford University and ZSL (Zoological Society of London) researchers and published on August 19 in Science Advances. Two decades of data from satellite and archival tags that remotely tracked the movements and behaviours of 38 species in oceans around the world were compiled by a team of 171 researchers from 135 institutions in 25 countries.
Samantha Andrzejaczek, the co-lead author of the study and postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station, said, "For the first time, we have a standardised, global database that we used to fill important knowledge gaps about the diving behaviours of sharks and rays. This will make it possible to better understand how fisheries interact with elasmobranchs and how to manage many of these incredibly long-lived creatures.
Movement in three dimensions
Numerous marine species that live in the coastal ocean's near-surface regions have already been extensively studied by scientists for their movement patterns. To survey marine communities and populations, for instance, drones, scuba divers, and other techniques are used to a depth of about 50 metres. However, little is known about animal movement in three dimensions, particularly in the deeper, vertical spaces of the ocean.
Rays and sharks are well-known but endangered ocean species. Understanding their fundamental ecology is essential to their efficient management, according to David Curnick, co-author of the study and director of ZSL's Ocean Predator Lab. But for many species, our understanding of their basic behaviour is limited, and what we do know frequently only encompasses what can be seen in surface waters.
A variety of electronic tags that can be used to tag various elasmobranch species have developed over the past 20 years. Stanford researchers have been at the forefront of developing biologging tags and using these techniques on sharks and rays.
Elasmobranchs frequently move vertically, and this movement seems to correspond to the ocean's diel (twice daily) vertical migration. Small fish and invertebrates migrate from the light, topmost ocean layer to the relatively safe depths of deeper, darker water at dawn, followed by the animals that feed on them. They come back to the surface at night to eat.
According to Andrzejaczek, "we believe that during their diurnal migrations, sharks and rays follow food resources up and down the water column."
According to the study, about one-third of species frequently descend to cold, oxygen-poor depths that have little visibility because of biological activity related to productivity. White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) have been observed to dive to depths of more than 1200 metres, while whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) have been observed to dive to depths of up to 1896 metres, which is close to the pressure limit of 2000 metres for current sensors.
Deep divers may be avoiding hunters as potential prey or searching for food in deeper water, according to Andrzejaczek. "Some of the biggest sharks and rays will feed on smaller sharks and rays. We discovered that 13 species have members who can dive more than 1000 metres, which is an incredibly deep depth. Some people might need to cool off while diving. "Large sharks may need to dive to cool off when they spend too much time in the warm surface waters, a form of behavioural thermoregulation," she continued.
The researchers also discovered species overlap in similar vertical spaces. Despite having very different evolutionary histories, the vertical distributions of whale sharks, tiger sharks, and oceanic manta rays were remarkably similar. Relationships between predators and prey probably cause this closeness. According to Andrzejaczek, plankton is a food source for both whale sharks and oceanic manta rays, and the tiger shark has been known to prey on both of those species.
A foundation for future management
The area of the ocean that receives sunlight, known as the photic zone or epipelagic, extends from the surface to a depth of about 200 metres and may be hazardous for elasmobranchs. They are most likely to come into contact with fishing gear there, either as bycatch or as a target species. Researchers discovered that 26 of the 38 species they examined spent more than 95% of their time in the top 250 metres of the water column.
According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, more than one-third of all sharks and rays face extinction.
According to Barbara Block, the Prothro Professor of Marine Sciences at Stanford, whose tagging programmes like TOPP contributed 25% of the data set, "These data provide the foundation for future management of global elasmobranch resources. It has taken a team of scientists thousands of hours tagging and tracking the sharks with global satellite and biologging systems to make this possibility happen."
Elasmobranchs play important ecological roles in the ocean today and in the future, and their vulnerability to various threats depends on our understanding of how they use vertical habitats. The distribution of species may be affected by changes in ocean temperature and oxygen levels, which may also result in the creation of new conditions and threats, according to science.
Andrzejaczek stated that "human beings are unaccustomed to thinking of habitat in the vertical dimension. "We hope that this study will help people realise the importance of management plans that take into account this underappreciated aspect of elasmobranch behaviour. We could use these data, for instance, to learn more about the interactions between sharks and human fisheries.
Data from increasingly sophisticated and precise tags with sensitive sensors that can function in deep water and withstand the rigours of the environment were combined in this three-year study, along with data from improved analytical tools to incorporate various types of movement data. The tags were also mounted on a shark or ray. The international collaboration between biologging researchers has been a key component. Large-scale scientific investigations like this one require enormous levels of cooperation, according to Curnick. "We combine the expertise and knowledge of researchers from all over the world. The outcome is much greater than any one researcher or organisation could accomplish independently. —ANI

Scientists have compiled a sizable biologging dataset using sophisticated electronic tags to gain comparative insights into how "elasmobranchs," such as sharks, rays, and skates, use the ocean's depths.

Want To Know How Sharks Use The Ocean? Read Here

Washington: For sharks living in the open ocean, longline fishing is the number-one threat, with an estimated 20 million pelagic sharks caught annually by fishers looking for tuna and other desired species. Now, a new study reported in Current Biology on November 21 shows that a new technology, known as "SharkGuard," could allow longline fishing to continue while reversing the dramatic decline of endangered sharks around the world.
"The main implication is that commercial longline fishing may continue, but it won't always necessarily result in the mass bycatch of sharks and rays," said Robert Enever of Fishtek Marine, Dartington, Devon, United Kingdom. "This is important in balancing the needs of the fishers with the needs of the environment and contributes to national and international biodiversity commitments for long-term sustainability."
Enever and his colleagues saw the tremendous need to slow or even reverse the decline in global shark populations based on evidence that more than 100 million sharks, skates, and rays are caught each year by the world's commercial fisheries. A quarter of sharks and rays also are now classified as threatened. They thought that shark deterrents that showed promise for protecting scuba divers and surfers from sharks would also have application in tuna fisheries to protect sharks from bycatch.
How does it work? SharkGuard emits a small, localized, pulsing electric field. When attached to the fishing line, it creates an electric field around a baited hook. The goal is to discourage sharks and rays, which detect the electric signals via their electroreceptors, from biting without getting in the way of hooking other fish. To find out how well it worked, the researchers ran sea trials in July and August 2021 in southern France. Two fishing vessels fished 22 longlines on 11 separate trips, deploying a total of more than 18,000 hooks. Their findings showed that SharkGuard hooks significantly reduced the number of blue sharks and pelagic stingrays caught in comparison to standard control hooks. The catch rate of these species per unit effort dropped by 91% and 71% for sharks and rays, respectively. Catch rates of bluefin tuna were not significantly influenced by the presence of SharkGuard on the hook.
"The sharks do not take the bait and do not get (by)caught on the hooks," Enever said.
The researchers note that, in comparison to catching and releasing bycaught species including sharks, SharkGuard offers a more comprehensive solution. If its use were scaled up to the level of whole fisheries, it would mean much reduced interaction between sharks and fishing gear.
For now, however, the device does have limitations, including the need for frequent battery changes. They're now working to overcome this barrier, so fishers could "fit and forget" it, while still protecting sharks and other bycatch species. It's expected that a full set of induction-charged SharkGuard devices for 2,000 hooks would cost around $20,000 and would last 3 to 5 years (~$4-7K per annum), which they note is a modest annual cost for most commercial tuna fishing operations.
They now encourage fishers who experience high shark and ray bycatch, as well as retail corporates who are intent on improving the sustainability of their supply chain, to seek contact with Fishtek Marine early as sea trials and engineering developments are planned for commercialization. "There is hope!" Enever said. "Against the relentless backdrop of stories of dramatic declines occurring across all species, it is important to remember that there are people working hard to find solutions. SharkGuard is an example of where, given the appropriate backing, it would be possible to roll the solution out on a sufficient scale to reverse the current decline in global shark populations." —ANI

For sharks living in the open ocean, longline fishing is the number-one threat, with an estimated 20 million pelagic sharks caught annually by fishers looking for tuna and other desired species.

Sea Trial Shows 'SharkGuard' Reduces Bycatch Of Endangered Sharks

Washington: Sharks are known as "super smellers," as they employ olfaction to detect smells associated with finding prey and mates, communicating with their own species, and avoiding predators. Unlike humans, their olfactory system is independent of their respiratory system. Sharks and other fish use gills to help them absorb oxygen, while two nares or nostrils on the shark's head absorb scents from their surroundings.
The research was published in the Journal of Morphology.
Despite general similarities among elasmobranch species' (sharks, rays and skates) olfactory systems, the morphology or structure of their olfactory organ, or "rosette," differs substantially. Located in their snouts, the multi-lamellar (layered tissue) rosette is covered with both non-sensory and sensory tissue that responds to distinct odor molecules in an aquatic environment. The number, size and arrangement of lamellae differ among elasmobranch species, but the functional consequences for these differences are not fully understood.
Researchers have not yet been able to correlate organ size and complexity to odor sensitivity in teleosts (ray-finned fishes) nor elasmobranchs. Differences in sharks' olfactory systems are of particular interest not only because of their reputation for having an incredible sense of smell but also because these remarkable animals have been around since before the dinosaurs. They somehow managed to thrive in every known marine habitat for millions of years - their sense of smell may have been key to their success.
Researchers from Florida Atlantic University are the first to quantify olfactory organ morphology by examining rosette shape and other internal structures among a diverse set of shark species using dissections, phylogenetic comparisons, and a fairly new technique, called diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced computed tomography (diceCT) imaging.
Results, published in the Journal of Morphology, reveal that the organs did not change in shape or number of lamellae throughout the life stages, suggesting that olfaction is a key sensory modality throughout the life of elasmobranch fishes.
Overall, researchers found more lamellae in rosettes with an elongated shape than in organs with a short and wide shape. Phylogenetic analyses showed that 2D shape and lamellar count are critical to understanding rosette variations in unrelated species.
Researchers also used in situ values of rosette volume and 2D shape from diceCT to assess the impacts of dissection on morphological measurements. Rosette measurements from dissected organs did not differ significantly compared to those from CT scans, supporting the validity of both methods.
"From our CT scans, we used raw data files that have 2D x-ray images. We then created 3D reconstructions to visualize the data. As such, we were able to examine the internal morphology from the top of the head to the tip of the snout from different angles," said Aubrey Clark, corresponding author and a doctoral student in FAU's Biomechanics Lab within the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. "Think of this method as taking a stack of sticky notes and removing them one at a time to see the sticky note underneath. It is incredibly useful to help us understand the internal morphology in situ or as it exists naturally inside the shark because dissections can alter structures."
Among the species studied included the bonnethead sharks (S. tiburo) with rosettes that are narrow and elongated; the common thresher sharks (A. vulpinus) and shortfin mako sharks (I. oxyrinchus), which share similarities in their rosettes: a shape that is almost as wide as it is long, a thicker raphe, fewer lamellae and wider interlamellar distances; and blacktip sharks (C. limbatus) and Atlantic sharpnose sharks (R. terraenovae) with rosettes that are intermediate to the two aforementioned groups. Other members of the hammerhead shark family have long, thin olfactory organs, similar to the bonnethead shark.
"The shape and internal structure should be considered when characterizing olfactory rosettes in sharks in future studies because fineness ratio (2D shape) and lamellar number were the largest contributors to our phylogenetic analyses," said Marianne E. Porter, Ph.D., senior author and an associate professor, Department of Biological Sciences, FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. "Data from our study also should be used to further investigate rosette variation among elasmobranch species by examining the hydrodynamics of the olfactory system with 3D models and quantifying the physiological impacts of flow on odorant binding." —ANI

Sharks are known as "super smellers," as they employ olfaction to detect smells associated with finding prey and mates, communicating with their own species, and avoiding predators. 

Study Examines Connection Between Shark Nose Shape, Size, Smell Sensitivity

Washington: Researchers have found that Megalodon, or megatooth shark, was a warm-blooded creature. The latest findings on the Megalodon, which lived in the world's oceans from 23 million to 3.6 million years ago and measured about 50 feet in length, have been published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study used fossil teeth to determine that the Megalodon's body temperature was much higher than previously thought, according to Michael Griffiths and Martin Becker, both professors of environmental science at William Paterson University. Kenshu Shimada, a paleobiologist at DePaul University in Chicago, Robert Eagle at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Sora Kim at the University of California, Merced, were also involved in the study. Researchers from Florida Gulf Coast University, Princeton University in New Jersey, and Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany are also coauthors on the paper. Previous studies have suggested that the Megalodon (formally called Otodus megalodon) was likely warm-blooded, or more precisely regionally endothermic, just like some modern-day sharks. However, those findings were based on pure inference, the researchers say. Their study provides the first empirical evidence of warm-bloodedness in the extinct shark. The research team used a novel geochemical technique, involving clumped isotope thermometry and phosphate oxygen isotope thermometry, to test the "Megalodon Endothermy Hypothesis." "Studies using these methods have shown them to be particularly useful in inferring the thermo-physiologies of fossil vertebrates of 'unknown' metabolic origins by comparing their body temperature with that of co-occurring fossils of 'known' metabolisms," explained Griffiths, of William Paterson University, the lead author of the study. Clumped isotope thermometry is based on the thermodynamic preference for two or more 'heavier' isotopes of a particular element (due to extra neutrons in the nucleus), such as carbon-13 and oxygen-18, to form bonds in a mineral lattice based on the mineralization temperatures. The degree to which these isotopes bond or 'clump' together can then reveal the temperature at which the mineral formed. Phosphate oxygen isotope thermometry is based on the principle that the ratio of the stable oxygen isotopes, oxygen-18 and oxygen-16, in phosphate minerals depends on the temperature of the body water from which they formed. The new study found that Megalodon had body temperatures significantly higher than sharks considered cold-blooded or ectothermic, consistent with the fossil shark having a degree of internal heat production as modern warm-blooded animals do. Among the modern-day sharks with regional endothermy is a group that includes mako and great white sharks with the previously reported average body temperature ranging from 22.0 to 26.6@C, which may be 10 to 21@C higher than ambient ocean temperature. The new study suggests Megalodon had an overall average body temperature of about 27@C. Otodus megalodon has a rich fossil record, but its biology remains poorly understood, like most other extinct sharks, because no complete skeleton of the cartilaginous fish is known in the fossil record. Luckily, its abundant teeth remain and can serve as a door to the past. "Otodus megalodon was one of the largest carnivores that ever existed and deciphering the biology of the prehistoric shark offers crucial clues about the ecological and evolutionary roles large carnivores have played on marine ecosystems through geologic time," said Shimada. The ability of Otodus megalodon to regulate body temperature is evolutionarily profound because the evolution of warm-bloodedness is thought to have also acted as a key driver for its gigantism. Previous geochemical investigations by Griffiths, Becker, and their colleagues have suggested that Otodus megalodon was a significant apex predator, residing at the very top of the marine food chain. The high metabolic needs associated with maintaining warm-bloodedness may have contributed to the species' extinction, the researchers say. "Because megalodon went extinct around the time of extreme changes in climate and sea-level, which impacted the distribution of and the type of prey, our new study sheds light on the vulnerability of large marine apex predators, such as the great white shark, to stressors such as climate change," said Griffiths, highlighting the need for conservation efforts to protect modern shark species. —ANI

Researchers have found that Megalodon, or megatooth shark, was a warm-blooded creature

Megalodon Shark Was Warm-Blooded, Finds Study

Washington: Loss of habitat and human activities like fishing and shipping represent serious threats to species, but diseases caused by the smallest organisms in the water are a lesser-known aspect of marine conservation. These diverse and abundant microbiome communities perform complex processes on skin and tissue of marine wildlife – and Flinders University scientists are breaking ground by understanding their role in an endangered shark species and to describe new marine microbes for the first time.  In a new journal article, scientists from around the world have collaborated to sample microbes on the skin surface of the world’s largest fish – the whale shark (Rhincodon typus) – at five of the most famous diving sites around the world, including Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, Oslob in the Philippines, Mafia Island in Tanzania and La Paz and Cancún in Mexico.  With these docile filter-feeding sharks, the scientists from 12 international institutions collected microbial samples and then used cutting-edge genomic sequencing technology to describe the types of microbes on the skin surface of the whale sharks.  The study is the most extensive microbiome study to date of a wild marine animal of this physical size, involving 74 whale sharks in the three major ocean basins, and will form a baseline for future analysis and highlight how microbial species differ around the world, says Dr Michael Doane, a researcher from the Flinders Accelerator for Microbiome Exploration (FAME) group in South Australia.  “While microbial species differ across the world, they work together to form a balanced network that contributes to the health of the sharks.  “It is important to measure and analyse the distinct and diverse epidermal microbiome of the global whale shark populations to work towards understanding how the microbes affect the wellbeing and survival of this amazing animal.  “The characteristics of a balanced microbial community are not well described for any species, but especially for sharks, which form a vital link in ocean foodchains and ecosystems.   “The microbes form a complex network pattern on the skin surface, which is consistent across sharks from each location, revealing characteristics of what comprises a balanced or unbalanced microbiome.”  Mathematical modelling was used to investigate how the microbes interacted with one another to form a community or network.  In addition to revealing the emergent structure of the shark skin microbiome, the study also described 34 new species of microbes.  The whale sharks from Ningaloo had the highest number of novel microbial species, “suggesting we have lots to learn about the microbial organisms inhabiting animals in Australian waters,” adds Flinders University Professor Elizabeth Dinsdale, co-author of the new study in Scientific Reports.  Professor Dinsdale says the right balance of microbes are critical to the well-being and survival of the host with which they live.  “In humans, for example, skin microbes are always present, and when these communities are ‘healthy’, they go unnoticed; however, when they are unbalanced, they cause skin conditions such as dermatitis, or skin infections,” she says.  “As microbes are too small to see, it is important to gain an understanding of how these complex network patterns fit together for a healthy microbiome balance. Unbalanced interactions can lead to a loss of benefits for the host and can result in disease.  “We now have a baseline for the healthy microbiome of whale sharks, which can be used to monitor the health of the whale shark and we also developed a non-invasive method to identify the effectiveness of conservation strategies.”  Microscopic organisms conduct important processes including nitrogen and oxygen production in oceans, consuming organic matter and metabolising carbohydrates. (ANI)

Loss of habitat and human activities like fishing and shipping represent serious threats to species

The Hawk

Tag : Shark

Over 15,000 rape cases registered in last 3 years in Odisha: Home Minister

demo

Tag : Shark

Over 15,000 rape cases registered in last 3 years in Odisha: Home Minister

demo

More about Shark