Shark Chronicles 028 - Bitey

The SAMPLA team set out on another tracking adventure on Thursday. The morning chumming team was able to successfully tag a 3.5 m female with a big wound on her side, possibly from being bitten by another shark - and therefore named “Bitey”. She was previously sighted in Grootbrak in February 2008.

Stef’s team was off to a bit of a rough start that afternoon when the shark managed to elude the trackers around 5 pm, but Enrico’s team picked up the signal again that evening around 9 pm and soon thereafter recommenced the tracking effort.

Huddled together for warmth against the biting cold wind, all of the interns worked diligently throughout the night and the following day to stay on the shark despite her somewhat erratic movements leaving the interns chasing after her around the bay. Unfortunately, Friday evening brought high winds and large swells as the night progressed, forcing Enrico, Tricia, Alessandro and Simone to abandon their post and forgo tracking for the time being.

However, judging from her previously observed resting behavior at Grootbrak and continued presence throughout the 24 hour tracking session within Mossel Bay, we have high hopes that once we resume tracking again, we will be able to find our shark again.

Stay tuned to see if the SAMPLA team is successful in re-locating our shark!

Simone (SAMPLA intern)