For the second year running DoC were invited to shadow a sport fishing competition in the Manukau and we were extremely grateful to be invited to join DoC and assist Clinton Duffy for the duration.
Last year, although we took samples from three juvenile hammerheads and several school sharks, no white sharks were caught by the tournament anglers or by us. This year was far more successful we are pleased to say with a juvenile 2.4 meter female being hooked by one of the tournament boats and passed to us for tagging.
The shark was named Marina after Marina Dmitri, a Trust member whom joined us on the day. She was tagged with both a PAT tag and a SPOT tag before being released.
Clinton Duffy fastens the SPOT Tag to Marina's Dorsal Fin
Marina Dmitri holds the dorsal fin to prevent the tag from being damaged against the side of the boat
The whole process took a little over 20 minutes.
The SPOT tag is activated whenever the wet dry sensor detects it is out of the water and the PAT tag is programmed to stay attached to the shark for a year (365 days post-release). The first signal was received from Marina’s SPOT tag on Monday 7th Feb. Although the quality of the position it gave was unreliable it was a clear indication she has survived capture and release. Several high quality locations from outside the Manukau Harbour followed later the same day.
Marina joins Kate, the first white shark we were involved with tagging (Kate was Tagged with a PAT tag off the Gisborne coast on an expedition with DoC and Surfit Charters in 2009. Unfortunately Kate’s tag failed and came off 14 days after it was deployed. We hope Marina’s two tags are working well and will give data for the next 9-12 months as they are programmed to do!
We would like to express our thanks to Clinton and DoC for asking us along again to help, and to the Counties Sport Fishing Club for inviting DoC to shadow the tournament.
