FLOWRIDER: His second trip to Moroccan waters!

EXCITING NEWS! FLOWRIDER: THE FIRST SATELLITE-TAGGED BASKING SHARK TO REPEATEDLY MIGRATE FROM BRITISH TO MOROCCAN WATERS! This huge male basking shark was well over 8m long but as big sharks do he had also ‘bulked up”. He was in a large group of at least 20 basking sharks that visited Manx waters for a single day on 7th August 2015. The Manx Basking Shark Watch research team tagged 3 of them. In January 2016 Flowrider became the first basking shark satellite tagged in Manx waters to travel to waters off Morocco. That was exciting enough but the team could hardly contain their delight when he returned there on 15th November 2016. FLOWRIDER has shown a very interesting migratory pattern, travelling from Manx waters, popping up off the Moroccan coast in January 2016. We didn’t hear from his tag again until 31st of March 2016 when it signalled as being up off the French coast. He must have found a good surface plankton bloom to feed from offshore of La Rochelle as he kept on coming to the surface there for 2 weeks. He then popped up for a day near Brest, France. In May 2016 he had been surface feeding off the southern Irish coast for a week when James McCarthy took great drone video footage of Flowrider’s school! He then travelled to the north of Ireland and we didn’t hear from his tag again until he popped up off Morocco for the second time! When we add the results of all basking shark researchers together we start to see an overall pattern of seasonal migrations between British, French, Spanish and Moroccan waters that will enable Marine planners to make informed Marine Management decisions. See more about satellite tagged basking sharks at www.wildlifetracking.org. As you will see, Dr Matt Witt of Exeter University has tagged some basking sharks in NW Scotland that have gone to Moroccan waters. MANY thanks to SEALIFE BLACKPOOL for raising enough money to enable us to recycle this tag and re-use it and for nick-naming this shark Flowrider. The Manx Lottery Trust has very kindly sponsored some satellite time on this project known as “There’s a basking shark on my phone”. Register to follow Flowrider and the other satellite-tagged basking sharks on wildlife tracking.org see Flowrider’s spectacular journey at http://www.wildlifetracking.org/index.shtml?tag_id=138610 and all the SPOT_tagged basking sharks at