Marine biologist Dr Riley Elliott is utilizing 4 of the tags to trace sharks as a part of a analysis mission that goals to reply three questions – the place have the sharks come from, why are they right here, and the way do their actions overlap with individuals’s?
He mentioned current floods and unhealthy climate resulted in particles within the ocean and had prompted a few of the tags to drag off.
Daisy’s had first washed up on the seaside, roughly within the space of Pāpāmoa Beach Surf Club.
He’d acquired the opposite two again, however satellite tv for pc monitoring confirmed Daisy’s tag had been picked up and brought into central Gate Pa.
It was signalling from Cameron Road in Gate Pa – close to a demolition firm, cycle retailer, glass splashback business and residential homes.
However, the tag was solely correct to a couple hundred metres.
“If you know anyone who works or lives here can you please ask around,” Elliott mentioned.
He mentioned the particular person probably did not know what it was and took it house or to work, however little did they realize it was an costly piece of apparatus, solely helpful to shark scientists, and sponsored by members of the general public.
There was a $100 reward for the tag.
Elliott mentioned three days in the past they’d acquired a sign from Daisy off Matakana Island, after no sign for months.
The location sign solely pinged when a shark’s dorsal fin, and the satellite tv for pc tag, broke the floor of the ocean and linked to satellites in orbit.
“Which isn’t unusual because she has to come to the surface to get a location, and they aren’t dolphins, they don’t need to breathe air.”
He mentioned it was thrilling to see her, as she’s fairly well-known and beloved in Bay of Plenty.
But then when he noticed the trail of the tag he was anxious “a shark scientist’s worst nightmare” had occurred, and it’d fallen off.
That proved to be the case.
There’d been heaps of assist on social media to hunt for the tag, Elliott mentioned. But it appeared the one who discovered it wasn’t a type of individuals who’d seen his Facebook publish.
The Great White App and web site function a map the place individuals may entry the satellite tv for pc tag data and see the situation of the sharks.
It was public donations that allowed Elliott to buy the tags – which value $3200 every, and required satellite tv for pc time that value $800 a yr.
Daisy, a four-year-old and a couple of.75-metre-long nice white shark, was the primary to be tagged on December 3 in 2022.
Source: www.9news.com.au