Article Summary:

In August 2007, graduate student Aaron Carlisle SPOT tagged three salmon shark in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Salmon sharks “are big: they can grow to 10 feet long and weigh 900 pounds…and they can swim 50 mph.” After collecting data for six months, the tag popped off in Yakutat Bay and a $1,000 reward was offered to each of the six charter captains in the area. One captain, Geoff Widdows, searched for and found the tag after only four days.

Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) has the full story, including photos of the tagging, the search, and the shark’s path recorded by the GPS beacon. Also, check out the TOPP poster (1.6mb PDF) advertising the shark tags.