Fricassonce’s Tag is Found!

I am delighted to report that Fricassonce’s satellite tag has been found near Ravenglass by Emma Jackson. Her mother Gill said “It gave her a real buzz to find it, the tag was found on our caravan park because we live next to the Irish Sea and we had a big storm on the 3rd of January 2014 which flooded our caravan park. My husband John was clearing the large piles of seaweed that had washed onto our site when he found the tag.”

Luckily Emma realized that it was something special, saw the address on the tag and contacted Wildlife Computers in America. They told her that it was a Manx Basking Shark Watch tag. Emma will receive a £50 reward and we will send the tag back to America in the hope that it can be refurbished in time for us to track another basking shark this summer. Emma found the tag on her 22nd birthday so that will be an extra birthday present for her.

As you may know, basking sharks are being satellite tagged in Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man. This information is invaluable as it is helping scientists to piece together how basking sharks migrate seasonally between several important feeding zones around Britain. You can follow some of them by registering to do so at http://www.wildlifetracking.org/?species=Basking Shark

Fricassonce, a 7m long basking shark, was tagged off the Isle of Man’s west coast on June 9th he surface-fed there for several days before moving off. If you look at http://www.wildlifetracking.org/index.shtml?tag_id=129184&dyn=1389636431 you will see that we tracked him travelling up to NW Scotland. His tag came off on November 16th and we have been tracking it, hoping to retrieve it so we are VERY pleased. Thank you Emma!