"Even as scientists rush to identify the migratory paths of some endangered shark species to help better protect them, climate change and other threats shift this behavior, adding urgency to the research."
"In April 2025 researchers tagged a 7-foot male scalloped hammerhead shark they dubbed Webbkinfield off Port Aransas, Texas. Over the next four months, the scientists watched, fascinated, as Webbkinfield pinballed around just off the continental shelf. He didn’t wander far on the map but swam almost 2,000 miles.
Less of a homebody, a male shortfin mako named Pico was tagged in March 2018 off the Texas coast and traveled more than 21,000 miles by August 2020. His journeys took him up to Massachusetts and back. Twice.
Scientists are learning that some sharks get around more — a lot more — than others. A silky shark tagged June 18, 2021, in the Galápagos Marine Reserve had swum more than 1,000 miles west into the open ocean by Sept. 20; another tagged that February traveled more than 8,000 miles into the big blue and back. Others milled around the reserve, with a few making short forays to the Central or South American coast."
Melissa Gaskill reports for The Revelator September 29, 2025.
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