Researchers from Trinity College Dublin are among a team of marine scientists that have used tiger sharks to discover the world’s largest seagrass ecosystem.

According to The Irish Times, the team attached cameras to the sharks who inhabit the enormous network of seagrass meadows in the Bahamas and help maintain its health by controlling numbers of grazing marine wildlife like turtles and manatees.

The video footage provided a never-before-seen look into an ecosystem that’s crucially important for carbon sequestration, among other things, while also helping the scientists to map the area which amounts to as much as 92,000 square kilometres.

The Bahamas have been known for an abundance of seagrass meadows but the full extent was not determined until now | Credit: Beneath the Waves

“This is an exciting and important discovery for a range of reasons,” said Nicholas Payne, assistant professor in Trinity’s School of Natural Sciences and co-author of the research published in the journal Nature Communications.

“Here in Ireland, we have a huge coastal area that likely supports significant seagrass ecosystems,” he added.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.