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 05 July 2008 14:46 BST

Journeys of the white shark tracked by scientists

Tuesday, 19 Feb 2008 09:31
White sharks return to the same locations near California, study finds

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Satellite tracking systems and acoustic sensors have enabled scientists to track the journeys of the world's white sharks.

Researchers involved in the Census of Marine Life project called Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) have attached more than 100 tags to white sharks along the central California coast.

They found that there are two distant destinations the sharks favour, which they visit on a regular basis each year.

Each winter the white sharks move away from the California coast, with the minority choosing to go to the Hawaiian Islands and the majority travelling to the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The latter location is about 1,300 miles from the mainland and has been dubbed the "white shark cafe" by researchers.

When the sharks return to the mainland they go to the same area each summer.

Salvador Jorgensen from Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station said the white sharks "appear again and again at very specific areas".

Although there are white shark populations off South Africa and Australia the populations do not appear to mix, instead sticking to consistent routes and destinations.

"This is really important in terms of management, so that management can focus on these population units," Dr Jorgensen said.

"And this really sets the stage for us to census the population, now that we know it is a confined population in the eastern Pacific."

More than 3,000 other creatures have been tagged by the TOPP programme, including seals, whales, tunas, turtles and albatross.
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