Caterpillar Sponsored Boat Tags Great White Shark

2,000 lb. Great White Shark Lydia successfully tagged and released off the Coast of Jacksonville, FL by OCEARCH research boat.

After enduring ten days of high winds and rough seas off the coast of Jacksonville, FL, the OCEARCH team caught and released on March 3 the first Great White Shark ever satellite tagged south of Cape Cod, MA.

“Capturing and releasing Lydia off Jacksonville, FL is a historic moment,” said Chris Fischer, OCEARCH Expedition Leader and Founding Chairman. “It's a tribute to the tenacity and determination of a group of people willing to give everything to the future of our ocean. Thanks to Caterpillar’s support, once again we have opened a window into the life of one of the earth's most mysterious creatures and have shared it with the world at no cost.

Caterpillar is sponsoring OCEARCH global expeditions for the next three years, bringing together top scientists from leading institutions in a collaborative environment focused on generating unprecedented data at a much faster rate than if each scientist and institution worked independently. The work performed on Lydia, for example, involves four different transmitter devices including a SPOT tag (real-time Satellite tag), pop-up satellite tag (data logger – temperature, depth and light levels), acoustic tag (local movement, requires receiver detection), and an accelerometry tag (3D fine scale movements/behavior). She also received an NMFS conventional tag (if shark is recaptured by others, provides contact information for reporting recapture). Lydia had seven additional studies performed during the approximately 15 minutes she was on the research platform.

Lydia was named after Lydia Moss Bradley, the founder of Bradley University, a long time friend of Caterpillar. Lydia’s travels will be documented and shared each time her fin surfaces long enough to transmit to the Global Shark Tracker satellite tracking system.