Originally the tag had been allocated to Umberto (UT05-067), who had been seen in Seychelles several times since 2005, but since having the tag prepared for him Umberto seems to have become very elusive… can’t think why!
After having had the tag on stand-by in the boat for a week David decided to deploy it on the next shark of a greater length than five meters and who should appear to say hi but Chunky, who at over 7.5 meters was more than big enough for the tag! In fact Chunky has now been measured with the lasers by Gareth at 7.8 metres.
Chunky being tagged by David with the MK10 PAT tag, Photo Ciara McCartenActually David was a bit concerned with tagging Chunky as big sharks tend to have very tough skin, as biopsying several big sharks last week had shown… so a double band sling was loaded to make sure that the anchor plate would penetrate Chunky’s thick skin.
No sooner said than done and David quickly fired up the tag and had it safely attached to the base on the right side of Chunky’s dorsal fin. Chunky wasn’t overly impressed at all the attention and was already heading for deeper water when David tagged him.
Chunky was not impressed and headed off to deeper water, Photo Ciara McCartenThis tag is set to release in four months time and so we hope to find out more about where the larger sharks that visit Seychelles go to when they leave this area…
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