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Tortugas carey en el Pacifico Mexicano.
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ID#6 YL1689 137169
 

Satellite Tracking

Why did animal X stop transmitting?

Background

Maggie is a female whale shark with an estimated total length of 8 m. She was tagged with a SPOT5 tag that was attached to her first dorsal fin with a rare earth magnet apparatus (an experimental design). Hence the given name of Maggie.


Surface view of Maggie's SPOT tag mounted to her 1st dorsal fin.

Maggie's SPOT tag transmitted nicely for the first couple days and let us know that she remained in the general area where we tagged her. After a few more days the transmissions received from Maggie's tag became less regular leading us to believe that there may have been a problem with her tag or its attachment. We know that she remained in that same area off Isla Mujeres until at least September 18th. One final signal was received from her on October 4 at a position north-northeast of the Yucatan Peninsula, about 300 km from her tagging site.

A view of Maggie as Nick Whitney of Mote Marine Lab dives to photograph her.

However, Maggie's story does not end there. She was also tagged with a pop-up archival transmitting tag (PAT). This type of tag archives depth, light, and temperature data and then transmits this information in summary form after the tag detaches from the shark and floats to the surface on a pre-determined date. Fortunately for us, the PAT tag did pop-up and began transmitting its stored data on December 6th, 2009. Subsequent analyses revealed that Maggie dove down to at least 1,392 m on a journey that took her into the Straits of Florida to Cuba’s north-central coast before migrating back west and having her PAT pop-up at a position northwest of Cuba, about 272 km from her tagging site.

  • The presentation of data here does not constitute publication. All data remain copyright of the project partners. Maps or data on this website may not be used or referenced without the explicit written consent of the data owners.
  • For more information please visit the project website.
  • This map connects positions generated by the ARGOS system designated as location class (lc) '3', '2', '1', '0', 'A'. Locations that have been "filtered" are displayed as small red dots.
  • This maps also shows locations of class '4', 'B', 'Z', 'X' as small black dots which are not connected by a route line.
  • Bathymetry layers are derived from the GEBCO One Minute Grid.
  • Sea surface temperature and chlorophyll are derived from NASA's Ocean Color data.
  • Ocean currents and sea surface heights are derived from AVISO's Ssalto/Duacs Gridded Absolute Dynamic Topography & absolute geostrophic velocities data.

SEATURTLE.ORG collaborates with Argos to help scientists and conservationists manage and analyse their valuable animal tracking data.

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