Basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus; pictured above) thought to exist in discrete populations thousands of kilometres apart may in fact mix by migration, say scientists who tracked a female across the Atlantic.
Previous tagging experiments have shown apparently distinct populations of basking sharks migrating south for winter at shallow depths along the continental shelf of Europe and the east coast of North America.
But a basking shark tagged by Mauvis Gore of Marine Conservation International in Newton, UK, and her colleagues travelled 9,589 kilometres from the Isle of Man, UK, to a region east of the Newfoundland shelf. The shark's nights were generally spent at depths of 200–300 metres and her days at 400–800 metres, once reaching 1,264 metres.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zoology: Mid-ocean wanderer. Nature 453, 701 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/453701c
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/453701c
