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Professor John Montgomery

Sharks

DATE: 17 September 2004
TIME: 9.30am

Talk with shark expert Professor John Montgomery. University of Auckland Chair in Marine Science, Professor John Montgomery has been studying the unique non-visual senses of sharks and rays for the past 30 years.

One of only a small number of shark sensory systems specialists in the world, Professor Montgomery says there is still much to learn about sharks and fish in general about how they perceive and interact with their world.

Sharks are exceptional predators. Their remarkable arsenal of senses makes them able to:

  • smell blood at a concentration equivalent to one drop in a swimming pool
  • detect the electric fields equivalent to the 1.5 v of an AA battery over the length of NZ
  • feel the vibrations of a human in the water long before we know there is a shark anywhere nearby.

This video conference is of particular relevance to the year 13 curriculum. Students will have the opportunity to discuss:

  • Patterns of evolution
  • Shark behaviour in relation to environment
    • Sensory systems
    • Orientation responses – taxes
    • Timing responses
    • Interspecific relationships – attack tactics
  • How sharks use their senses to hunt prey
  • Which sharks are swimming in the waters around NZ
  • Developments in the science of shark attack prevention
  • How humans pose more of a threat to sharks than the other way around.

The Professor will also bring video tape with excerpts from a recent lecture which can be found on the School of Biological Sciences website, select Sharks: Taxa, taxes and attack tactics (public lecture by Prof. John Montgomery. 1440k PDF), from the top right hand list of bullet points.

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About Professor Montgomery

Professor Montgomery graduated from Otago University with a BSc (Hons) before winning a Commonwealth Scholarship to study at the Plymouth Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association. Here he obtained his PhD and joined Auckland University 1978. His research has taken him to the Antarctic, coral reefs, and top Marine Science laboratories such as Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego.

Professor Montgomery has published in leading international science journals Nature and Science, and has received international and local awards, including an International Brain Research Organisation Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship and the NZ Physiology Society Gold Medal. In 1989 he was elected to the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Useful Weblinks

TO REGISTER FOR THIS VIDEO-CONFERENCE CONTACT jane@cwa.co.nz Telephone: (04) 802 3478.

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