“Andy” is one tough tiger shark.
Tagged in Bermuda by scientists from the Nova Southeastern University’s Guy Harvey Research Institute in 2014, the tiger shark has traveled approximately 37,565 miles off the Atlantic coast of the United States and around Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos. Andy is now the longest-tracked tiger shark on record — and shows no signs of slowing down, as he’s been trekking for more than 1,240 days.
The timeline of his path includes run-ins with freezing temperatures and four hurricanes — Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria.
“We are delighted with how long Andy has reported data, which has tremendous value for us as researchers,” said Mahmood Shivji, the director of the Guy Harvey Research Institute and a professor in the Nova Southeastern University’s Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography. “This amazing, nearly three-and-a half-year track is revealing clear repeated patterns in the shark’s migrations between summer and winter.”
More than 150 sharks, including tigers, makos and oceanic whitetips, have been tagged by the Guy Harvey Research Institute in the last decade. The data collected is used to study their migration patterns. Andy and many other GHRI tagged sharks can be followed online in near real-time at www.GHRItracking.org.
“Tracking the migration patterns of sharks, like Andy, for extended periods of time allow us to better understand their behavior and habitat utilization, resulting in better knowledge on how to manage the species,” said Guy Harvey, the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation chairman.
