Meet Brenda, the great white shark promoting travel in her community.
Ocearch’s tracking technology allows researchers to monitor shark’s movements throughout the world’s oceans, providing valuable insight into their behavior and their range.
Each shark is tagged with a tracking device that is inserted through their dorsal fin, and whenever they break the surface of the water, a signal is transmitted to a satellite. The satellite then sends back an estimated location of the shark.
Each of these ‘pings’ gives researchers an accurate, real time location of a particular shark, allowing them to collect data about each individual.
During the tagging process, tests are done on the shark which determines their species, age, sex, weight, length and stage of life. From the data collected a profile is then set up for the shark on Ocearch’s official tracking website.
This process allows researchers to glean the extent of the shark’s territory, the distance they have covered since their tagging and monitor their behavior.
This information provided educates readers, not only about the current shark population and their behaviour, but also about OCEARCH’s conservation initiative.
Each shark displays their own particular habits, which coastlines they prefer and the depth at which they like to swim. It’s interesting to follow a particular individual and see what they get up to, how much distance they cover in comparison to other sharks and whether they prefer shallow or deep waters.
Photo credit: www.ocearch.org.
Species: Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias)
Gender: Female
Weight: 594 kg
Length: 3.7 metres
Stage of Life: Immature
Total distance covered: 2966.902 miles
Tag Location: Mossel Bay
Brenda, although still a teenager, is known to be quite feisty among her peers. She has had her eye on Poseidon for a while and, although she does not want to appear desperate, she often finds herself swimming in the same direction as her crush, making her way around the South African coastline, watching to see if he is flirting with any other females.
Other than keeping a close eye on Poseidon, however, Brenda enjoys nights out with her friends, as most girls her age do, particularly with her best friend, Lesley.
Their favourite Bar is Shark Bait, and they are regulars there. Known as the ‘terrible two’ among the other sharks, Brenda and Lesley are known to get up to a lot of mischief while they are out on the town. They are often seen drinking up a storm. Their favourite drink being fish oil. Or, sometimes, when things get really wild, they engage in a kelp joint or two.
But, although Brenda can get up to a lot of mischief, there’s also nothing quite like a night in with a bowl of dried salmon skin crisps and a good movie – the perfect antidote to a busy week!
Want to meet Brenda? A shark cage diving experience to Mossel Bay provides the ideal opportunity to see her and her friends in their natural habitat.
Credit: All data found on www.ocearch.org.
