A tope shark
Galeorhinus galeus is a hound shark of the family Triakidae, the only member of the genus Galeorhinus. Common names include school shark, tope shark, soupfin shark and snapper shark (you can find more info on the tope shark here: http://www.dutchsharksociety.org/tope-shark/)
A male tope shark was originally tagged in Luce Bay, Ireland, on the 5th of July 2006 by Onyer Marks. It was recaptured in gill nets and released on the 22nd March 2013. The recapture location is marked on the map below the right which was approximately 256 nautical miles, 460 kms, from the original tag location. However, it will have certainly travelled a good deal further given that this shark has been at liberty for and amazing 2, 452 days in total. That is almost seven years!
The locations of the capture and recapture of the tagged tope.
This shark was tagged by anglers for The Scottish Shark Tagging Programme (SSTP), a project run by the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (www.ssacn.org,) an organisation that aims to collect data about the shark, skate and ray species found within Scottish coastal waters and to increase the awareness and need for shark protection. They also highlight the citizen science work of sea anglers and their conservation efforts.
A similar project is the Dutch Shark- A-Tag Project (http://www.dutchsharksociety.org/research-made-visible-sharkatag-photo-report/). In three years, around 1400 sharks, including 17 tope sharks were caught, tagged and released. We hope to hear from Dutch traveling tope sharks soon!
The tope shark has a wide distribution, and the wonderful video clip below was made in La Jolla, California.
