Tiger shark Lampiao was tagged on July 30, 2014 off the coast of Brazil at Fernando de Noronha. The male weighed in at 273 pounds when he was examined by the OCEARCH team during Expedition Brazil. The last stop for Lampiao the tiger shark was around November 20, 2015, when his transmitter began pinging at a fishing dock in Africa. Unfortunately it appears he was caught/killed.
This is not the first time a tagged shark has been caught/killed. Last year Rizzilient the mako shark was caught and possibly finned off the coast of Portugal.
Beamer the blue shark was tagged in New York in 2013 and was caught off the coast of Costa Rica by a commercial boat that had 3,500 circle hooks and longline that ran 60 miles long.
Cate Ells, a female shark, was tagged July 13, 2014 and was caught by a commercial pelagic fisherman off the coast of New Jersey on May 30, 2015. The mako shark traveled from New York all the way to the Turks and Caicos, and then all the way back to the United States.
In 2012, Brenda a 1,310lb great white shark, died in a gill net. She was eaten and her fins were sold.
What I find shocking is that five of the 138 sharks tagged were caught/killed. What are the odds that five tagged sharks were caught in such a huge area? It’s the ocean, it covers 80% of the world, and yet 4 sharks were caught and tagged, then caught again and eaten or sold.
To make a comparison, If I hid 138 marbles in Yellow Stone National park, how many do you think would be found?
I believe this shows we need more international cooperation to save sharks. If we don’t do something soon, we may not have any left.
