Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
During the last half of May, we played a part in an ongoing research project conducted by the Guy Harvey Research Institute, Nova Southeast University and the University of Rhode Island that involves putting satellite SPOT tags on mako sharks that will be tracked around the ocean for the next year or so. In nine days of fishing we managed to catch and tag eight makos, all of which are now transmitting signals that are received by satellites every time one of the sharks comes to the surface. From those signals the exact location of each shark can be determined, and over time their travel routes can studied.
For me, the entire process of catching and installing the tags was not only challenging and fun, but also very interesting since each day we had a couple top-notch researchers aboard who were an absolute wealth of knowledge about sharks and have traveled the world to study and work with just about every shark species one can imagine.
Last year we worked with the same group and put the satellite transmitters in five makos. We tagged the sharks about 30-miles off Ocean City and after being released, each one immediately headed east - well beyond the Continental Shelf before turning north and working their way up into the north Atlantic around the Grand Banks area where they ended up spending most of the summer. By the end of the summer, two of the sharks swimming days were over when they were caught by commercial long-line fishermen; one out of Nova Scotia and the other from Newfoundland. A third shark kept transmitting until it’s battery went dead on February 3rd, and in that time it traveled from the Grand Banks all the way past Bermuda and almost to the islands of the Turks and Caicos before turning north and swimming all the way up to North Carolina and then out to somewhere in the middle of the ocean. Another left the Grand Banks and made it south, almost to the equator before heading north again, and currently is still transmitting a few hundred miles off Nova Scotia.
Overall, the meanderings of the five 2013 sharks took us all by surprise. Granted, the first month all five generally worked their way offshore and then up to the Grand Banks area, but after that they just pretty much did their own thing without following any similar travel routs. But before anyone concludes that’s proof that makos generally make a beeline north in the spring and early summer consider this – all eight of the makos we tagged this May left our boat and headed south to the waters off Virginia and North Carolina. After hanging out in those lower latitudes for a while, they eventually started to work their way north along the edge of the Continental Shelf. As of this writing, they’re scattered off the mid-Atlantic coast from Virginia to Long Island, but all are hugging close to the shelf, not hundreds of miles offshore like the sharks did last year.
That’s a short synopsis of where the sharks have been. I’m not going to speculate why they went where they did or what they were doing when they got there - that’s for the smart guys with the PhD’s to figure out as they follow the tracks of this new batch of makos over the upcoming months and years. I do know that it’s going to be really interesting to follow those fish around the map on the computer over the next year or so. I also know that the researchers are hoping to tag even more makos next year in an effort to get an ongoing data set from these sharks so that they can really get an accurate handle on their annual movements. We’re already in the planning stages for those trips and once again the public will be invited to join us as helpers/anglers in the process. Information about the 2015 mako SPOT tagging trips will eventually be posted on our BigSharks.com website and Fish Finder Adventures Facebook page. A number of videos from this year’s trips can be seen on the Facebook site.
Anyone who wishes to follow the daily tracks of our makos can find a link to the tracking site on my BigSharks.com website. From the right side of my homepage click on the “Shark Tracking” tab then click “Go to the tracking site >> here” which will take you to the “Choose a Project Page” where you should select option #3, “W.North Atlantic.” Then select any of the sharks on the right side of the screen to follow. Their sponsor name or number is listed below along with a few details about each shark. You will also see the map in issues of the Coastal Fisherman.
While on that site you can also follow the tracks of other mako sharks tagged by the Guy Harvey team off Mexico and New Zealand, sand tiger sharks from the Delaware Bay, as well as tigers, oceanic whitetips and even blue marlin from the Cayman Islands.
Ocean City Mako Sharks tagged in 2013
GHOF1 - Tagged May 28, 2013, swam past Bermuda and almost to the islands of the Turks and Caicos, last transmission March April 30, 2014
GHOF2 - Tagged May 28, 2013, caught in late August 2013 by a long-liner out of Newfoundland.
GHOF3 - Tagged May 27, 2013, caught in early September 2013 by a long-liner out of Nova Scotia.
GHOF4 - Tagged May 28, 2013, last transmission February 3, 2014.
I-NSU - Tagged May 31, 2013, traveled from Grand Banks almost to equator and back, still transmitting as of June 17, 2014
Ocean City Mako Sharks tagged in 2014
JiffyLube 1 - 85 lb. Male, tagged May 19, 2014
JiffyLube 2 – 150 lb. Female, tagged May 20, 2014
OC8 – 190 lb. Female, tagged May 22, 2014
SOSF1 – 170 lb. Female, tagged May 20, 2014
SOSF2 – 150 lb. Male, tagged May 20, 2014
SOSF3 – 80 lb Male, tagged May 20, 2014
SOSF4 – 170 lb. Male, tagged May 21, 2014
St.Marys – 85 lb. Female, tagged May 17, 2014
Captain Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat “Fish Finder”.
