A rare species of shark swims past the Florida Keys, Cuba and the Bahamas as it journeys between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, a new study has found.
The study was conducted by American and Cuban scientists working together and provides a rare glimpse at the behavior of the longfin mako shark.
Two sharks were tagged with satellite trackers, one in 2012 and one in 2015.
"The sharks' movements shed light on the life of a rare species while demonstrating an important point: The U.S., Cuba, Mexico and the Bahamas are fundamentally connecting an important point," a press release from Mote Marine Laboratory states.
The first shark was tagged in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. It traveled southeast, then cruised the Straits of Florida into the Bahamas and the open Atlantic. The tag popped off the shark after 90 days, and came to the surface off the Cheseapeake Bay.
The second shark was tagged offshore from Cojimar, Cuba. It went into the Gulf Stream then back to the Gulf of Mexico before heading north as far as off the coast of New Jersey. Its tag also surfaced off the Chesapeake after five months.
The tags show where the sharks traveled, as well as how deep they swam. The second shark made some "extreme dives," including one more than a mile deep, according the press release.
The results of the study were published jointly in Fishery Bulletin by scientists from Mote Marine and the University of Havana and will appear in the January edition of the journal, according to Mote spokeswoman Kaitlyn Fusco.
