‘Sereia’ crosses Indian Ocean, swims 6500km from Mozambique to Indonesia in the longest ever recorded journey by a shark

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‘Sereia’ crosses Indian Ocean, swims 6500km from Mozambique to Indonesia in the longest ever recorded journey by a shark

2:39 CAT | 09 May 2020

Diver releases tagged tiger shark. [Photo; Ryan Daly]

The 3.15m mature female, named Sereia, was tagged on the African coast in Mozambique in November 2018 and was detected via satellite in April 2020, about 500km off the Indonesian coast.

The over 4,000 mile journey is the longest on record

The tags for Sereia and other tiger sharks in the project were deployed in the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve

A tiger shark tagged by BioPixelTV scientists made the longest ever recorded swim across the Indian Ocean of over 4,000 miles. The tiger shark has been named Sereia, and BioPixelTV’s shark research partners OCEARCH tweeted out about the record breaking journey.

Check out this groundbreaking journey from tiger shark Sereia! Her more than 4,000-mile journey confirms tiger sharks can cross the Indian Ocean. This is incredible! She was tagged by collaborating scientists from @BiopixelTV Oceans Foundation and @saambr pic.twitter.com/ZmsNNzrK68

— OCEARCH (@OCEARCH) May 5, 2020

Sereia is an adult female tiger shark weighing 478 lbs. She is 10 feet, 4 inches. BioPixel TV tagged her November 19th, 2018 in Pinnacles, Mozambique.

Sereia’s first ping was a few days later on November 29th, 2018 at 11:47p.m. She then traveled hundreds of miles north along the eastern coastline of Africa, past Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, and about half way past the coastline of Somalia. At this point Sereia did a 180 degree turn and swam back south along the coastline until she reached just offshore of the Tanzania/Mozambique border, where she turned east and began her record breaking journey across the Indian Ocean on September 10th, 2019.

Sereia’s next ping came 7 months later on April 10th, 2020 over 4,000 miles east of her previous position, on the east side of the Indian Ocean.

Her most recent ping was April 30th, 2020 which shows her swimming zig zag patterns well offshore of Singapore, up and down the NinetyEast ocean ridge, which is the longest and straightest ocean ridge in the world.

“We had no idea a shark from Mozambique would end up off the coast of Indonesia,” said Dr Ryan Daly (Salt Rock) of the Oceanographic Research Institute in Durban South Africa.

Dr Daly is also a research associate at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity.

“This is incredibly important because it confirms that tiger sharks are roaming throughout the Indian Ocean and we need to take this into account when thinking about improving conservation for them in the region,” he adds.

Sereia is one of 21 sharks tagged by the Biopixel Oceans Foundation and the Oceanographic Research Institute in Mozambique as part of a project to lay down a baseline understanding of tiger shark movements and habitat use in the west Indian ocean.

Prior to starting the project, very little was known about the residency patterns and migration dynamics of tiger sharks in this region.

The tags for Sereia and other tiger sharks in the project were deployed in the Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve which neighbours South Africa.

The 3.15m mature female, named Sereia, was tagged on the African coast in Mozambique in November 2018 and was detected via satellite in April 2020, about 500km off the Indonesian coast.

This equates to a transoceanic journey of more than 6500km. Sereia now has the longest confirmed migration for the species on record.

Seria, tagged by collaborating scientists at Biopixel Oceans Foundation and the Oceanographic Research Institute, has confirmed that the species is capable of crossing the Indian Ocean.

Source: South Coast Herald / News4Jax