A new study aims to provide people a clear view on how sharks could make an impact underwater, on where healthy shark populations are, where they are struggling and how they fare in the underwater food chain.

Researchers said on Tuesday that they are taking the first step in attempting to count the world's sharks using a bait attached to underwater cameras at 400 reefs around the world.

Like Us on Facebook

According to The Guardian, the first ever worldwide survey of sharks using underwater cameras will start in August. The program called Global FinPrint survey will use a technology called baited remote underwater water (BRUV) to take capture marine life in underwater footage.

BRUVs, which are not harmful to marine life, will consist of fish bait and one or two GoPro cameras; they will be placed underwater at depths of 10-100m in 400 locations across three key geographic regions like Indo-Pacific, tropical western Atlantic, and southern and eastern Africa and Indian Ocean islands.

The study will run for three years, and group of researchers from different international universities and institutions will combine to launch the largest and most in depth survey of sharks worldwide.

According to The Christian Science Monitor, the Global FinPrint project is being supported and will be getting four million dollars from the Microsoft cofounder Paul G. Allen's Vulcan Inc., which gives support to a number of other scientific programs involving ocean health, space flight and understanding how the human brain works.

One of the leading scientists on the project, Marine Biologist Mike Heithaus, a leading shark researcher from Florida International University, said that people may be unaware that we need sharks in order to give natural balance underwater because sharks play an important role in the food chain and without them, everything underwater will be in chaos, Gulfnews reports.

Heithaus is quite depressed knowing that sharks are in big trouble because almost 100 million sharks are being harvested from the ocean every year because of their fins and meat. He added that this project might not give an absolute number but it will give people a relative idea on how many sharks are in need of attention, which places have healthy populations of sharks and the number of sharks in different areas.

TagsShark Selfies, survey, Study, Science