Mapping the White Shark Cafe...Again

"Strongly directional swimming" is my new  favorite "scientific" term.  Apparently sharks are heading in a direction while they swim and that was worth publishing another paper about the White Shark Cafe.  Or maybe this is an example of "publish or perish" or an attempt to justify the use of SPOT tags.  I know Bonfil has made strong contributions to white shark research over the years, but I'm not too impressed by this paper analyzing someone else's data.  The first image is the map provided in Bonfil's paper and a link to the paper.  Make your own conclusions of the significance of the new map to the old SAT tag maps.  Next do a Google search for any conservation measures that have been put in place thanks to SPOT tags on white sharks.  Leave your conclusions in the comments.

Link to full paper

This is an image of the map provided by Bonfil's analysis of one SPOT tagged white shark.

Below are articles, papers, and maps of the White Shark Cafe for white sharks traveling from the Farallones and from Guadalupe out to Hawaii and back without the use of SPOT tags.

link to article - Stanford Report, 2008, Jorgensen data

This graphic shows the route of a single tagged white shark as it swam from the Farallon Islands, off the central coast of California, to the mid-oceanic area known as the “White Shark Café” and then back.

Courtesy of TOPP

This shows very directional movement, yet no SPOT tags were required, just patience.

link to article - Mercury News, 2009, Jorgensen data

This graphic shows the routes of 6 specific white sharks.  One appears to have bypassed the cafe and gone straight to Hawaii while all the others went to the Cafe
Courtesy of Stanford University

This article was particularly interesting because the acoustic tags revealed that white sharks actually do enter the San Francisco Bay, past the Golden Gate Bridge, for short times.

Again, no SPOT tags required.  

link to article - Telegraph.UK, 2008, TOPP data

Now that's a very detailed map...that didn't requite SPOT tags.

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Site fidelity of white sharks tagged along the central California coast during 2000–2007 revealed by PAT records. (A, B, C, D, E, and F) Fidelity is demonstrated by six individual tracks (yellow lines; based on five-point moving average of geolocations). Triangles indicate tag deployment locations and red circles indicate satellite tag popup endpoints (ARGOS transmissions) for white sharks returning back to central California shelf waters after offshore migrations. (G) Site fidelity of all satellite tagged white sharks (n = 68) to three core areas in the Northeast Pacific including the North American continental shelf waters, the waters surrounding the Hawaiian Island Archipelago, and the white shark “Cafe” in the eastern Pacific halfway between North America and Hawaii. Yellow circles represent position estimates from light- and SST-based geolocations (Teo et al. 2004a, 2004b), and red circles indicate satellite tag endpoint positions (ARGOS transmissions), respectively. From Jorgensen et al. ( 2010).

Link to full paper
Movement patterns for two out of 20 white sharks tracked from 1999 to 2005. Sharks 17-U (small circle) moved from the tagging location in California (arrow) to the offshore focal area and back to California where the tag popped up (large circle); white shark 18-F (small triangle) moved from California to Hawaii, where the tag stopped recording data (large triangle). Colors denote month. Pie diagram shows days of the year spent in four phases by shark 17-U

Link to full paper

Here are the tracks of 4 individual white sharks from Guadalupe Island to the White Shark Cafe and to Hawaii between 2000 and 2008.

Of particular interest is the fact that this data is based on pop-off SAT tags in a paper by Michael Domeier.  I mention this because Domeier is an advocate of SPOT tagging despite his own evidence that it is unnecessary.

Domeier is best known for giving birth to OCEARCH by providing them with their first permit to go big game fishing for a protected species while getting big pay checks for being on a TV show.  The world of white shark tagging has been in a downward spiral of garbage and ratings ever since.  Thank you so much for your contribution, doc