Much to see inside their ship, the Falkor (Google Street View)

https://schmidtocean.org/virtual-tour.html?cbll=37.80253,-12...

https://schmidtocean.org/virtual-tour.html?cbll=37.802447,-1...

https://schmidtocean.org/virtual-tour.html?cbll=37.802618,-1...

Well, there goes my day.

Interesting. Schmidt Ocean was founded by Wendy and Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO) in 2009. This appears to be their only research vehicle at the moment. The boat was originally built in 1981 and was converted for research from 2009-2012.

How would we know that the difference between this being a place that the sharks have always migrated to versus this is just one place that has happened to escape large scale commercial fishing?

If there is one thing that nuclear testing sites, meltdowns, and DMZ thats mined all show is that animals tend to reclaim territory quite fast. Unless nearby areas are still heavily fished I doubt this place is the result of learned behavior.

In order to explain it I would instead look at reason why this place has stayed strong while other places has not. At that depth the ocean might not have been effected as much by changing temperatures, and there might be a better sustained eco balance.

Don’t understand why you are being downvoted. Chernobyl is a good example what happens when humans leave.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/23/wildlife-returns-...

Exactly what I thinking of. There is also a interesting episode from Discovery Channel Shark Week 2016’s “Nuclear Sharks", which describe the massive number of sharks at Bikini Atoll. To quote "Its nicely how things can recover so quickly. I think this is the last eden.".

This got a mention a week back at the start of the "Richard Jenkins has made oceangoing robots" article https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17112298

I see one of his saildrones appears in the npr video.

Let’s hope the photos they submitted don’t have their metadata or the location will be revealed :)

Doesn't look like the org is set up to keep location secret:

https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/FALKOR-IMO-7928677-MMSI...

https://www.vesselfinder.com/historical-ais-data

NPR can't seem to see the elephant in the room here. It's as if their writers have never heard of deep-trawling or factory fleets. All we read is this:

>... build a case for why the White Shark Cafe should be officially protected by the U.N. cultural agency. UNESCO is considering recognizing and protecting it by making it a World Heritage Site.

So, UNESCO is going to go mano-a-mano against the PRC's "Coast Guard"?

Perhaps if you delete or edit this comment right now it will keep them off for at least days/weeks/months?

Jesus, so from Europe it's either "plain text site", or agree to tracking.

Why (BTW, I would love to use the plain text version but it's very badly done and I just clicked "back").

Gnatophausia ingens, we meet again... :-)

>They've even given them names. Like Eugene, Tilden and Leona.

So good.

Let's hope the shark fishing boats don't find this spot. There's still a sizeable market for shark fins in China, even after Yao Ming's brilliant campaign there.

Link to the plain text version:

https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=613394086

The redirect goes to the main page if the "disagree" to tracking link is clicked.

> The redirect goes to the main page if the "disagree" to tracking link is clicked.

Interesting, are you in the EU? I was never shown a dialog about tracking or an agree/disagree link (either with or without javascript disabled).

The IP they see is located in the EU. Here's what I'm getting: https://i.imgur.com/lyztBl4.png

I'm browsing with scripts and cookies disabled, if that matters, although I wouldn't expect this to make a difference.

"Decline tracking, go to a site that loads 10 times faster and doesn't have any crap".

It's too long for a button, but I think it might work.

The link goes to the text version of npr.org main page, not the article. It's clearly designed to be the worse alternative.

> The link goes to the text version of npr.org main page, not the article.

For me the link @rhn_mk1 posted goes directly to a text version of the article on sharks.

Yes, the link posted on hacker news goes there. The poster went through the work to find the page again as text only version.

The "text version" link in the article goes to the front page (text version).

I am, and I got that. Looks like they clearly want to punish visitors who don't want to be tracked, as they could have at least put some CSS on there. Still, Firefox reader mode for the win.

text.npr.org was launched in 2005 (and intended to be used by early HTML capable cellphones with weak data links and such), they're just reusing it.

Oh, I didn't know that, thanks.

Interesting handling of the GDPR that the user gets a barebones page if he does not agree to tracking. The user gets the content, but the GDPR does not say he has to get the same pretty formatting. B)

Click on the "readability mode" or whatever you have in your browser (at least Firefox and Chrome have it) and you get a page that's even better formatted than whatever NPR would give you.

Firefox Reader Mode has some heuristic where it will not be available on certain pages. One way to improve readability in Firefox for all websites by default is to use the Language and Appearance section in Preferences to display all web pages using your chosen fonts and colors: Click on Advanced, select the fonts and font sizes you want, and unclick "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of your selections above." Then click on "Colors," select the colors you want, and under "Override the colors specified by the page with your selections above" choose "Always."

What I do with this is to set everything to inverse video (white-on-black) and small monospace fonts. Basically makes Firefox look like w3m.

Okay, but most people don't know about that, so it's an effective punishment for them if they don't agree to tracking.

Some say punishment, but this is perfect for me. I'm very pleased to see a simple, plain text site.

Just the content, no flash. It's tiny, quick, readable, and easily adjusted in the browser.

Mods, can all npr links be automatically changed to the text-only version? It's far superior.

> they observed creatures using a remotely operated underwater vehicle

For a second, I thought the sharks were using a vehicle.

So, these two sharks are in a tank...

With your username, I bet you've had that one ready for years.

Sounds like it would make a great TV show!

> Satellite images suggested the area was an ocean desert, a place with very little life.

so... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUKsi3ouUc4 ? I'll get (admittedly justly) down-voted to transparency, but I won't find a better post on HN to stick that video to.

I enjoyed that. If you had said "the title reminded me of this story in japanese about a shark in a cafe" I dont think you would have been down voted.

Great white sharks had a secret cafe and scientists led fishermen right to it. What a symbiosis..