Our tagged-sharks were successfully tracked throughout their annual migration. Wanna know where they went?

Hey everyone, 

Last year we utilized the funds from this project to tag bonnethead sharks in the Edisto River, SC. When a tagged-shark swims within a certain distance (200-400m) of an acoustic receiver, its presence is documented. These receivers are positioned down the east coast of the United States, allowing our team to track tagged-sharks during their migrations. One of our research goals was to better understand the migrations of bonnethead sharks, and I am happy to say that our research efforts were successful! We tracked multiple sharks from South Carolina to Georgia to Florida and back through those same states.  Just one example is from Shark #51. This animal was named 'Piscivorous' (meaning: feeding on fish) by an adoptee and was detected hundreds of times during the last year. 

Piscivorous, a female, was tagged in September 2015 and was the largest shark we captured, measuring over 3.5 feet. Due to her size and other observations, it is likely that she was pregnant (pictured below). 

 

After being tagged, she remained in South Carolina until early November. Piscivorous then swam to Georgia and stayed there until later that month. In January, she was detected off the coast of Cape Canaveral, FL. Two months later, in March, she swam back through Georgia on her way to South Carolina. We then detected Piscivorous this April in St. Helena Sound (south of our study site), when she was likely on her way back to the Edisto River. Check out the image below. The red arrows indicate the approximate locations in which she was detected and the direction she was traveling, with each arrow representing multiple detections. You can see when Piscivorous was in each region based upon the months listed next to the arrows. 

 

Throughout her migration, she favored spending time in estuaries, like the Edisto River, but was also detected swimming almost 10 miles offshore. The best question of all....where did she give birth? While this topic remains a mystery for now, future research will certainly help identify birthing zones. 

Stay tuned for more updates! We just tagged 7 additional sharks last week and can't wait to tell you about our adventures 

-Bryan