Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Announces First Deployment of Satellite-linked Tags on Free-Swimming Sharks off Cape Cod
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC) has announced the first ever deployment of fin-mounted SPOT (Smart Position or Temperature Transmitting) tags on free-swimming white sharks in the waters off Cape Cod.
Research scientists from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), working with AWSC, successfully deployed two SPOT tags using a new device nicknamed the TADpole (Tag Attachment Device), which enables minimally-invasive tagging of free-swimming sharks. Typically, SPOT tags are manually attached by drilling a hole through the dorsal fin, which requires the capture and handling of the shark.
The TADpole was developed by a team of scientists and engineers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), with support from Dolphin Quest, Inc. and Dolphin Biology Research Institute. The tool was conceived by Randall Wells, of the Chicago Zoological Society’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, and Michael Moore, Tom Lanagan, and Jason Kapit of WHOI, to tag free-swimming dolphins. Wells said: “We are thrilled that this tagging tool has conservation applications and benefits beyond our initial ideas.” WHOI engineer Kapit added “This success is a perfect example of how technology development can expand the possibilities and reach of scientific research, even beyond the originally intended applications”.
“This collaboration presented an exciting opportunity to test an innovative tagging tool on white sharks,” said Cynthia Wigren, AWSC’s Chief Executive Officer. “The DMF's successful deployment of two SPOT tags from the AWSC vessel, using this new device, bodes well for using this technology in the future.”
SPOT tags are detectable over broad geographic areas, remotely relaying information to satellite arrays. When the shark surfaces, the SPOT tag transmits a radio signal to an overhead satellite, which estimates and relays the location of the shark back to researchers within hours.
