Here is the entire course of the drifting white shark tag after it released from the animal and floated to the surface. It started with the incredibly straight, 20-mile-per-day beeline towards Mazatlan. We decided to fly down and go for the recovery on the 20th; we hoped to intercept it closer to land…or just wait for it at the beach!

On the 21st the tag was at its closest point as it arced south in a smooth turn. By the time we arrived in Mazatlan on the afternoon on the 22nd, the turn had become a “U-turn”. We were itching to go, but our boat would have to leave early in the morning to make the long trip and still have enough daylight for searching. So our hands were tied ‘til morning.

By morning we had received a message from the team back home that tag was now drifting offshore faster than ever. It turned out that every hour the tag was drifting another mile further away. We double-checked the weather forecast, topped off with extra fuel, and the chase was on!

Five hours later, as we approached the last known coordinates, we placed a satellite phone call to Glenn “base command” Strout (TOPP database manager) who had just received a new hit at around 3:30 pm. We followed along to the new position then kept moving further in the direction of the drift. A mile or so later we began to pick up the signal on our radio directional finder (RDF).

Then we slowed the boat down and homed in on the signal direction. All hands were on deck looking out into the choppy water as we inched along and listened for each new pulse on the RDF. A few minutes later we had guided the bow right onto the tag! Our perseverance was rewarded when we finally scooped the tag up 77 miles offshore from Mazatlan.

Here is one of our Mexican collaborators, Fernando Marquez, from the Instituto Nacional de Pesca (Mexico’s equivalent of our National Marine Fisheries) getting a shot of Scott Reid (Monterey Bay Aquarium) with the triumphant scoop.

Throughout our travels, we met people who had heard of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s white shark, and they were very excited about our expedition. Here is our porter bringing the tracking gear from the airplane to the terminal at the Mazatlan airport.

We have downloaded the data from the tag now. Records of depth, light level, and temperature every 5 seconds document the shark’s incredible journey from Monterey Bay down to Cabo San Lucas. We will be looking at some of the data over the coming days and will keep posting so that you can see it, too.