Hammerhead goes long-distance

The work was carried out by the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami.

The great hammerhead’s 62-day journey ran from the south of Florida northward into mid-Atlantic waters off New Jersey, helped by the Gulf Stream.

It was, said the team, the first satellite-tracking success for the great hammerhead, whose migratory patterns are largely unknown.

The scientists think that the shark may have been following food sources.

Its movement suggested that the species migrates “into international waters, where these sharks are vulnerable to illegal fishing”.

The great hammerhead is valued for its particularly large fins, the centrepiece of shark fin soup. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classes it as endangered in the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

Some more results about great hammerhead movements should come in, the research team having tagged a number of the creatures off Florida and the Bahamas.

In a broader project, the team has tagged some 50 sharks in the past year, including the great hammerheads, tigers and bulls.

It wants to learn more about the sharks' movements including densities of population for feeding, mating and rearing offspring.

Information gleaned can assist conservation campaigners and managers in identifying where and how species require protection.