24
Apr

Greetings!

News from our scientist Brent in San Diego - another of this year’s tags has popped up. Tag 80172 appeared a few days ago just south of the Kenya-Somalia border and has drifted steadily NE along the coastline. It is now near Ras Komboni, Somalia (a reported Al Quaida training area so Brent advises not to go chasing this particular tag just now). The tag appeared offshore jus a little north of Lamu and near Pate island. This tag was scheduled to come off in November (9 months after tagging on 22 February off Diani beach. We don’t know yet why it has popped off. It could have been taken off or the dart tip came off or the line was bitten through - the shark was at relatively the same depth for a while and sometimes this can trigger the early default release as well. We might get some clues when the data is all in and can be analysed properly. In any event, we will have 2  months worth of data on where this shark has been which is great news! Very positive :)
Last known coordinates are 1Deg 37.87′S, 41Deg 39.43′E so for those of you who can help us retrieve this tag, do feel free!

Will keep you posted with any other developments.

Have a nice day :)



Comments:
3 Comments posted on "POP POP!!"
POP POP!! | Pop Now on April 24th, 2008 at 6:10 am

[…] Seth Werkheiser wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptGreetings! News from our scientist Brent in San Diego - another of this year’s tags has popped up. Tag 80172 appeared a few days ago just south of the Kenya-Somalia border and has drifted steadily NE along the coastline. … […]


Theresa Siskind St Petersburg FL on April 24th, 2008 at 8:03 pm

Wow, more clues here. But it begs this question. Why don’t more tags pop off, if it can happen when they remain at the same depth for a period of time (ie resting state)?


whalesharks on May 5th, 2008 at 10:27 am

Good question but we don’t know the answer to that yet Theresa - as soon as I have more info from Brent I will post it!


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