Scientists are using the same basic devices that make your Wii work to study sharks while mating.

Mote Marine Laboratory scientists attached motion detectors to the fins of nurse sharks, and the devices then tracked the sharks' movementsThe detectors picked up every tail twitch and flick, details researchers did not know about before the two-week study.

Scientists have monitored shark movements for years with satellite trackers and hydrophones, but that research revealed only where they traveled.

"We've gotten very good in the past 10 to 20 years figuring out where sharks goWe don't know much about what they do," said Nick Whitney, a scientist at Mote's Center for Shark Research and lead author of the study published in the Endangered Species Research journal.

The project tracked four female nurse sharks during the summer mating season in 2008.

"It's part of a long, ongoing project in the Dry Tortugas for the past 17 years studying mating behavior, but just through direct observationOnce this device became available, it seemed like a natural extension," Whitney said.

This was the first time the devices, called accelerometers, were used on animals in the wild, not captiveThe $14,000 study was paid in part by the National Geographic Society.

The $1,300 tags were attached to the sharks' dorsal fins for one to more than four days, then recovered to download the stored data.

The study found most mating took place during the day, though scientists had thought sharks mate at night when they usually are more activeThe research also found some mating activity lasted longer than normally seen through observations, lasting up to 30 minutes.

The main benefit of the study was showing the potential uses for the devices in future research, Whitney said.

"This first study was more to see if we could do it," he said.

Future studies could focus on other kinds of sharks.

"We think this study is the beginning of ways to use this tool to look at other shark behavior where we can't see what they're doing," he said"For many species, we don't know what their mating behavior is or what they do."

Learning about mating is necessary to help the recovery of declining shark populations around the world.

"To properly manage those populations, we need to know as much as possible about reproduction, including reproductive behaviorIf we know sharks are going into a particular area, we can get an understanding about what they're using this particular area for," Whitney said.