A silky shark breaks the world record after completing a migration journey of tens of thousands of kilometers over 546 days.
The shark, nicknamed Genie, was first spotted near Wolf Island in the northern area of the Galapagos Marine Reserve in July 2021. Researchers from the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) subsequently tracked its journey for 546 days, Mail reported on May 24. “Understanding the migration patterns of silky sharks and other threatened shark species is crucial for developing effective management strategies to prevent their global decline,” said Dr. Pelayo Salinas de León, the lead researcher.
Researchers attaching tracking tags to a silky shark. (Photo: Pelayo Salinas de León).
Scientists tagged Genie before it embarked on a journey of over 27,666 km in 546 days. This distance is equivalent to traveling from one end of the United States to the other four times. Genie’s route included two significant migrations westward, spanning 4,755 km from Wolf Island to international waters. This trip also broke the previous movement record by nearly six times the distance, according to the research team.
Silky sharks are currently listed as “vulnerable” in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and are particularly susceptible to overfishing due to their slow growth and late maturity. They are among the most frequently caught shark species in the fishing industry and are a top conservation priority for CDF and many other organizations.
“We have tracked Genie for 1.5 years, and the data reveals a consistent repeating migration pattern over long distances offshore, exceeding current protected and managed marine areas,” said Dr. Mahmood Shivji, co-author of the study. He and his colleagues described their findings in the journal Fish Biology.
