Tag Innovation? Mike has the Scoop

Mike aka Da Shark has been leading the bandwagon for innovation with SPOT Tags and this week it looks like there's been a breakthrough.

You'll note these well known research tags are drilled into the dorsal fins of sharks and researchers do not know what the long term effect will have on the animals - just yet.

Satellite tags are detectable over broad geographic areas and remotely relay information to satellite arrays. These tags utilize radio transmissions, requiring the tag to have contact with air to send data (hence satellite tags must be externally attached). External attachment makes satellite tags prone to damage and premature shedding. For studies of shark movements, Smart Position or Temperature Transmitting Tag (SPOT tags) are commonly attached to the dorsal fin. SPOT tags transmit a signal to the Argos satellite array whenever the dorsal fin breaks the surface of the water. These transmissions resulted in geo-location estimates with location accuracies that range from a few hundred meters to ‘somewhere on planet Earth’.

More on tags.

Congatulations Dr. Frank Schwartz on 1000!

Dr. Frank Schwartz? Never heard of him? There's few within shark shark research community who have as many shark tags out or have spent as much time at sea in the company of our toothy friends.

This week we all say thanks Dr.Schwartz for the effort, the data, and the deep understanding of the east coasts shark populations.

Check out some of his work:

This data report presents information derived from the multi-year longline shark
sampling survey conducted since 1972 by Frank J. Schwartz of the UNC Institute of
Marine Sciences.