A hammerhead shark tagged in a shark monitoring project in Galapagos has been tracked to the Cocos Islands in Costa Rica and Malpelo in Colombia.
Scientists from the Galapagos National Park, the Charles Darwin Foundation, the World Wildlife Fund and International Conservation, who have been conducting the study, say that this important result indicates a biological corridor route between the points of a golden triangle.
The study, which has involved the ultrasound and satellite tagging of 100 hammerhead and Galapagos sharks, confirms that the sharks prefer certain sites or hot spots where researchers found the highest concentration of the species.
'We are delighted that the money Galapagos Conservation Trust has raised through our Shark Campaign for this vital monitoring work has had such a resounding result,' says GCT Chief Executive Toni Darton.
'The sharks are the Galapagos Marine Reserve's top predator and top of the food chain, so the health of the whole archipelago hinges on our understanding their wellbeing and survival. This study is providing crucially important information for their management and conservation. If sharks are moving in and out of the Marine Reserve it also reinforces the need to ban illegal shark finning more widely' she said.
