A mako shark caught by commercial fishermen off North Carolina traveled more than 8,500 miles

Shark's 8,500-mile odyssey ends on a NC fisherman's hook

December 8, 2016 by Bruce Henderson, The Charlotte Observer

A mako shark caught by commercial fishermen off North Carolina traveled more than 8,500 miles after a tracking device was attached 18 months earlier, an ocean research group says.

http://cnso.nova.edu/sharktracking/  Click on Charlotte, I'm assuming she's the one that was caught.

Researchers studying shark migrations for the Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., attached the device to the female shark's dorsal fin in mid-2015 near Ocean City, Md.


A donation to the institute by Heather Finke sponsored the tag in honor of Charlotte Latin School.
A commercial long-line fishing boat caught the shark near Manns Harbor last month. The last of the tag's 265 data transmissions from the sea to an orbiting satellite was recorded on Nov. 24.
Data show the shark swimming up and down the East Coast between North Carolina and Rhode Island, making one big loop into the Atlantic north of Bermuda last spring. It traveled an average of 15 miles a day over 557 days.
"We're happy to have recovered the satellite tag, but disappointed about the loss of the mako," said executive director Greg Jacoski of the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, which supplies the tags. "It's important for us to recover tags because of the value they have for our research efforts."
Mako sharks are the fastest of the shark species, able to swim 45 miles per hour while chasing prey fish. The North Atlantic shortfin mako is found in Atlantic waters from the Carolinas to southern New England.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-12-shark-mile-odyssey-nc-fisherman.html#jCp

The shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus), also known as the blue pointer or bonito shark, is a large mackerel shark. It is commonly referred to as the mako shark, as is the longfin mako shark (Isurus paucus)


The shortfin mako inhabits offshore temperate and tropical seas worldwide. The closely related longfin mako shark is found in the Gulf Stream or warmer offshore waters.

It is a pelagic species that can be found from the surface to depths of 150 m (490 ft), normally far from land, though occasionally closer to shore, around islands or inlets.

The shortfin mako shark feeds mainly upon cephalopods and bony fish including mackerels, tunas, bonitos, and swordfish, but it may also eat other sharks, porpoises, sea turtles, and seabirds. They hunt by lunging vertically up and tearing off chunks of their preys' flanks and fins. Makos swim below their prey, so they can see what is above and have a high probability of reaching prey before it notices. In Ganzirri and Isola Lipari, Sicily, shortfin makos have been found with amputated swordfish bills impaled into their head and gills, suggesting swordfish seriously injure and likely kill them. In addition, this location, and the late spring and early summer timing, corresponding to the swordfish's spawning cycle, suggests they hunt while the swordfish are most vulnerable, typical of many predators.

Maximum age of 29 years in males (260 cm fork length (FL))
Maximum age of 32 years in females (335 cm FL)