Photo credit Laura Brind (© Laura Brind)
The DoE shark research team resumed fieldwork in July 2025 to tag Caribbean reef and blacktip sharks with satellite tags. This effort builds on last year’s data collected by satellite tags deployed on these sharks which revealed new behaviour patterns leaving the research team, led by Dr Johanna Kohler, excited by new findings.
“The satellite tag data from last year showed very interesting behavioural patterns in our reef sharks, explains Dr Kohler. We learned some new things about their long-distance movements and also about their use of our deep-water environment.” Last year the DoE research team used pop-off archival tags (PSATs) which archive temperature, depth and light level data. The collected stats were then processed by DoE researchers to generate a “most likelihood track”, a route that the shark most likely travelled during the monitoring period.
“This year we will deploy two types of satellite tags so we can more closely monitor shark movements far away from our islands. In addition to the PSAT, each shark will also get a SPOT satellite tag. The SPOT tag will give us live updates on the location of the shark every time the animal breaches the surface.” The live locations will verify the estimated track of each shark, including the likelihood tracks from sharks tagged last year.
Anne Veeder, DoE shark research assistant, shared “we have already received a number of locations from all the sharks tagged so far this year. It is incredibly fascinating to watch them move around our islands.”
The tags deployed in July will stay on the animals until end of November when they are programmed to detach from the shark. The tags will then float to the surface and start transmitting the archived data. “The SPOT tag will stay on the shark and continue to transmit live locations, explains Dr Kohler. It enables us to monitor each shark for a much longer period of time beyond the hurricane season into winter and spring. Previous DoE surveys showed that our Caribbean reef sharks change their behaviour in winter compared to summer so it will be interesting to track the animals over different seasons.”
The tagging efforts by the DoE have not gone unnoticed by observant divers. Recently, one of the tagged Caribbean reef sharks was encountered multiple times by a group SCUBA diving on the North Wall on Grand Cayman. We are grateful for any data people wish to share.
Please report sightings of tagged sharks including any photos or video via email to doe@gov.ky. These reports will help the DoE research team with the analysis to better understand the sharks’ behaviour.
DoE shark research and conservation activities are supported by the Cayman Islands Brewery through White Tip Lager.