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One month and a half after the
Monterey Bay Aquarium released a young specimen of great white shark into the
ocean, they reported its current location south of Baja, and said it is now heading towards waters off the Mexican coast.
The thing that took them by surprise
was the fact that the male shark managed to travel an impressive distance in
the 44 days since it’s been released into the ocean. The shark’s journey has
been tracked ever since its release with the help of a Smart Position-Only Tag
(SPOT) that send information on its location, while a pop-up tag sent
information on the water temperature and depths the shark prefers.
The great white shark got
accidentally caught by a fisherman and was taken afterwards into custody by the
aquarium, where it spent a total of 162 days before being released. It is the
third time the aquarium releases a shark back into the ocean since 2004, but in
this case in particular, the shark was the fastest to travel such long
distances.
“It’s remarkable,” said Randy
Hamilton, vice president of husbandry for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. “The shark
made it to Cabo in one-third the time it took the second animal to get there.
To travel that far, that fast was totally unexpected. It’s another reminder of
just how little we know about what these animals do in the wild.”
The pop-up tag will continue to
send information three more months from now, until it was programmed to pop
free (July 2), while SPOT will continue its monitoring months after that.
“Where will this shark end up?”
Hamilton continued. “Will it turn north into the Gulf of California? It’s
anybody’s guess. What we’re learning adds tremendously to what little is known
about the lives of young white sharks.”
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