Blue Shark Tagged In Scilly UK Caught Off Africa
Published by ‘scilly today’, 13. February 2012A blue shark tagged off Scilly has been identified on the African coast.
Joe Pender caught the fish on the 8th of August, 6 miles south of St Mary’s and tagged the animal before releasing it back into the water.
But on 2nd February it was reported to have been caught 250 miles west of Sierra Leone, which is 200 miles north of the equator.
It had travelled 3,300 miles from Scilly in 17 months.
In the Pacific Ocean, blue sharks have been found to travel even longer distances of up to 5,700 miles
Joe told ScillyToday that this is probably one of the furthest travelled recaptures he has heard of concerning one of his own tagged sharks. He assumes the shark is now dead, having been caught by a commercial fisherman.
Joe added, “I am awaiting further info from UK Shark Tagging regarding size and how it was caught.”
In August Alec Hicks landed a small blue shark on the Kingfisher boat, which had been tagged on the US Atlantic coast. He contacted an address in Rhode Island for verification.
Source: scillytoday.com