Study
Olfaction contributes to pelagic navigation in a coastal shark
Nosal, Andrew P.; Chao, Yi; Farrara, John D.; Chai, Fei; Hastings, Philip A.
PLoS ONE, 2016
Leopard sharks were transported nine kilometres offshore and released, half with their olfactory sense temporarily blocked, and their return paths were tracked acoustically.
- Studied in
- Triakis semifasciata
- Sample size
- 26 leopard sharks displaced offshore and tracked
Sharks with an intact sense of smell headed shoreward in a comparatively direct line; sharks with olfaction blocked took much more tortuous paths and ended significantly further from shore.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Olfactory cues contribute to navigation over kilometres in the open sea, alongside other senses.
How NatureHQ reads it
This is the study to reach for when someone says a shark can smell a drop of blood in an Olympic swimming pool from miles away. The truth is more interesting and much less lurid: smell is a *navigational* input working over kilometres in a chemically structured ocean, not a blood-detection superpower, and the sharks with the sense removed still got home — just badly.
- One coastal species over a short displacement; open-ocean sharks were not tested.
- Olfactory blocking may have side effects beyond smell.
- Which chemical gradient is being followed is not identified.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Public Library of SciencePublished in a PLOS journal under CC BY 4.0.
doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143758
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-09.