Mako shark makes a 5,000-mile sprint to South Florida in just 142 days

Miami Herald ^ | 24 Feb 2017 | JENNY STALETOVICH

[DUMBGRUNT]

Nothing about the team that bolted the transmitter to the fin of the shark? Torque wrench? Loctite? Underwater battery drill?

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Wow! Incredible! Why, that’s nearly 35 miles a day. A garbage scow could go faster.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

142 days = 1308 hours. 5000 miles in 1308 hours is ~ 1.5 mph. Even if it swam for only 8 hrs per day, that is only 4.4 mph.

[rktman]

Guess sharky didn’t get the memo that the Easter Surfing Festival at Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach got cancelled this year. Shark DOH!

[DUMBGRUNT]

“that is only 4.4 mph.”
That’s why a fish needs a bicycle!

[JimRed]

That’s only about 35 miles a day. Sharks never stop swimming and at less than 1.5 MPH he’s hardly sprinting.

[mountn man]

142 days
x 24 hours
___
3408 hours

5000 miles
/ 3408 hours
___
1.46713615023 mph

Mako’s could do this in their sleep...

[sit-rep]

cool stuff...

[onedoug]

From Wiki: The shortfin mako shark is the fastest species of shark.[9] Its speed has been recorded at 40 km/h (25 mph) with bursts of up to 74 km/h (46 mph)

60 mph just seemed too fast. Though even 46 is incredibly fast through water.

[mountn man]

[rodguy911]

The reason these fish are close to shore is that they follow an annual bait migration that is controlled by water temperatures.
In the fall they head south from as far North as Canada and head to the keys.In another month or so depending on how fast the water temps rise they will all head back up north.
these sharks not only Makos but bulls and others,feed on millions of mullet,white bait such as pilchards and menhaden, ballyhoo,and other species of bait that migrate in huge schools.
sharks,jacks,tarpon snook,many game fish all feed on these schools as they migrate back and forth along the East coast.
A similar migrations occurs on the Gulf coast as well.

[JoeProBono]

[rodguy911]

From the link: Unfortunately, about 22 percent of the makos that are tagged are caught or killed by commercial or recreation fishermen,” Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation executive director Greg Jacoski said in a statement.

Technically, the Herald is correct. That on a worldwide basis shark populations are in decline. That's due to longlinging which needs to be outlawed worldwide.There is not a species in the world that can exist long term when they are targeted by longlines. They are too effective.

But like most Miami Herald stories they always leave out a lot of stuff since they don't budget much of anything for fishing writers. Why should they? It's only a multi billion dollar industry down here.!!Duhhhhh!!!

What they left out is that over-protection of sharks has created a huge problem in Fla. Bay and the Keys.the shark is now even more of an apex predator than it was before.

They kill gamefish like mad almost at will.

Bonefish, tarpons sailfish you name the species sharks tear them up on a regular basis.

Especially snook in the Western Fla. Bay area. The regulations on bag and size limits for snook are 72 pages long and are needed.Problem is sharks don't give a dam.They kill them all the time.

But then the Herald would actually have to employ someone who actually knows something about fishing to cover that. They are dying a slow death being a DBM loser paper so they don't hire anyone.

[LibWhacker]

Don’t sharks have to swim continuously in order for their gills to extract oxygen from the water? If so, this shark was just doing what it always does, what it must do: swim.

Other sharks have to do that, too, but maybe Makos just aren’t stay-at-home sharks.

[Tallguy]

Another overhyped & breathless example of what passes for science reporting in today’s media. They count on the fact that you won’t check their math. This shark was averaging only 1.5 MPH. Hardly fast for even a small dogfish.

[MUDDOG]

cheetah of the sea

Chunk light.

[Capt. Tom]

For fellow Freepers who actually want to learn about Mako sharks visit my web-page at:

http://www.newenglandsharks.com/page5mako.html

Being a shark fisherman I have regular encounters with them.
Lately the Makos seem to be faster , jump higher and are more of a hassle than usual- as I get older, slower and less responsive. -Tom

[Sapwolf]

Was the shark trying to make it to a Trump rally in time or something?

[Carthego delenda est]

[Sequoyah101]

Waste of time. No details, no map, not much information just a fluff piece that could have been a lot better and a lot more.

Crap news. Sorry journalists.