Record Bull Shark Tracked
from Alison Towner of Marine Dynamics
Alison Towner, a good friend of Dive Aqaba, now works with Marine Dynamics in South Africa helping out with Great White shark safari's introducing their guest to these incredible species. Recently she joined a team of scientists on an expedition to study bull shark habits in fresh water where they wre not believed in the past to inhabit! Here is her story in her own words...
" I've just got back from a 7 day research expedition with a team of scientists here in SA. We landed tagged and tracked the worlds biggest bull shark in the Breede river- a fresh body of water in the cape west that bull sharks were never known to inhabit. as you can imagine I'm very excited about it. The world record size for a bull shark was previously 3.4m. This one was 4m and pregnant we think! We tracked her for 43 hours continously using a VR100 reciever and a directional hydrophone.
It was so amusing to see her migrations up and down river- where there is 0 viz. Her preference was to travel between fishing boats to investigate their catches and most of the guys fishing have no idea she is there as they cannot see her! So different to great whites."
Alison Towner completed an internship programme with us in 2006 successfully completing her PADI Instructor Course with us and suucessfully completing her exam in Sharm. The " approach and quick reverse " which was one of the exam subjects seems wholly appropriate to her current employment! As, after returning to the UK, she found a dream job in South Africa working with great white sharks with Marine Dynamics.
On the left you can see pictiures of the bull shark being tagged and then tracked with a directional hydrophone.
Photos courtesy of Alison Towner
Marine Dynamics
See more of Alisons adventures with great white sharks
