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Tag Tales

Could this be the ultimate beachcomber find?

Bob Christian and his wife Jeanne were on their regular morning walk near Pigeon Point when an object in a tide pool caught their attention: a pair of small, weather-beaten cylinders, lashed together with wire.  

And so they wondered: Could someone be missing this? Could it be important? They were right on both counts. As it turns out, they’d found the high-tech version of a message in a bottle.

Only in this case, the bottle was a computerized transmitter, and the message was from a great white shark.

Like Swallowing a Computer Chip. And then Throwing it Up.

Turns out the tag had been missing since 2012, when it was “fed” to a 14-foot great white shark off Tomales Point, in Marin County. “It looked like it had been through a war,” says Sal Jorgensen, research scientist for the Aquarium’s white shark program. Jeanne Christian initially thought “it might be a bomb.”

Normally, such tags are wrapped in something yummy—like  blubber. The shark ingests the whole thing then, well, throws it up. “Sharks are like owls,” says Sal. “They regurgitate bones and other indigestible stuff.”  Once the shark spits out the tag, it sends its location to a satellite.

Once recovered, the tag conveys all sorts of useful information. “We can measure stomach temperature five times per second, which tells us when the shark is eating. And this kind of tag has an accelerometer, like a pedometer, so you see how much energy the shark is expending.”

Unfortunately, this particular weather-beaten tag appears to be “dead” and has yet to convey useful information. But Sal was still glad to get it, and rewarded the couple with a special behind-the-scenes tour for their efforts.

Please Phone Home

When it comes to shark tags, Sal has seen it all. Some tags never phone home. Others end up as “land sharks,” and are found in shopping carts, baby strollers, or exceeding the speed limit on Interstate 5 in the trunk of someone’s car. Sal has even had to knock on doors in landlocked neighborhoods in pursuit of a tag gone rogue. Some tags, applied externally and tracked via satellite, will continue transmitting even if picked up by an unsuspecting ocean enthusiast.

However, most of the tags do exactly what they’re supposed to: provide crucial information about the secret lives of sharks.

What Shark Tags Tell Us

What have Aquarium researchers learned? For one, “white sharks are a lot like snakes,” says Sal. “They don’t eat often. And when they do, it lasts a long time. Seals and sea lions are consumed and become stored energy, in the form of oil in their enlarged livers, and are used to power transoceanic migrations to the mid-ocean “White Shark Café”, and Hawaii.

“We’ve discovered that sharks also cruise at a very relaxed pace—they rarely have bursts of energy. They swim in a climb-and-glide pattern, like a bird. It’s more efficient.”

All these discoveries are helping us learn more about the mysterious lives of sharks—so we can help save them.

And by the way—if you ever notice you’re being pursued by shark scientists after a trip to the beach, you may have inadvertently picked up a shark tag. Don’t worry. Our researchers are friendly.

“Everyone is amenable once we explain things,” says Sal. “Plus, there’s a reward!”

Learn about our white shark research

Learn how we’re using floating robots with our Stanford collaborators to help track sharks

Watch the “Great White Highway” on the Discovery Channel

At the Harold Washington Library in Chicago is an art installation called “Above and Beyond” featuring over 58,000 tags, one for each American soldier killed in the Vietnam War.

When you see the foam, you know you’re home.

Finish the sentence… 

So true !

Go OCBP! USLA nationals start tomorrow. Do you know what rip currents and shorebreak are?

This view is sure to make you as happy as a clam.

Eagles beat the Falcons!

Did you know Mexico deported 82,000 illegal immigrants last year?