Mako Shark Satellite Telemetry Data from Atlantic Canada, 2011-2013

37 Pop-up Satellite Archival Tags deployed on mako sharks from 2011 to 2013 collected depth, temperature, and light-level data. Sharks ranged from 80 cm to 229 cm Fork Length, with tags reporting for up to 185 days at liberty. Fisheries and Oceans Canada processed the raw transmissions to provide maximum likelihood position estimates and depth-temperature profiles.

Use Cases

• Modeling mako shark vertical habitat use based on depth and temperature profiles.
• Estimating daily geolocation tracks based on ambient light-level data.
• Analyzing sex-specific movement patterns based on metadata for 13 female and 17 male sharks.
• Studying tag performance and retention rates based on reported durations from 0 to 185 days.

Strengths

• Data from 37 individual sharks provides a sample for behavioral analysis.
• Includes detailed metadata on shark size (80-229 cm Fork Length) and sex.
• Position estimates were processed using established environmental reference datasets (NOAA OI SST V2, ETOPO1).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• 28 of 37 tags reported, indicating some data loss from non-reporting tags.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Collection Method

Pop-up Satellite Archival Tags (PSAT) deployed on commercial vessels, with data processed through Wildlife Computers software (GPE3).

Time Range

2011 to 2013

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-24 08:38:43.331905; freshness should be verified

Geography

Atlantic Canadian waters