by Andrea Mustain, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
Whither do the great animals of the ocean wander? And when? Thanks to high-tech gadgetry and a decade of work, an answer has begun to emerge — one that has revealed two vast “grasslands” of the Pacific Ocean that rival the Serengeti in the riotous diversity of species that converge there, scientists say.
In the largest study of its kind ever attempted, scientists affixed tracking tags to 23 of the ocean’s top predators and spied on their whereabouts — sometimes within a few meters accuracy and in real time — over the course of 10 years.
The Tagging of Pacific Predators Project (TOPP) kicked off in 2000, and published its findings this week in the journal Nature. The project is part of the Census of Marine Life, an ambitious 10-year, multinational effort to assess the state of the planet’s oceans, which contain more than 90 percent of …