We have been playing on the oceans since 1982 and we enthusiastically support conservation, scientific research, filmmaking and educational efforts around Guadalupe Island, The Channel Islands, and beyond. Since 2000 at Guadalupe Island we have worked with a number of groups and Government agencies that deserve recognition.
Guadalupe White Shark Research
Dr Mauricio Hoyos has been conducting research on Guadalupe’s shark population since 2004 when we first introduced him to the island on his first shark expedition with CICIMAR and UC Davis. Since 2004 and on most shark seasons he is stationed at Guadalupe conducting shark research with visiting shark researchers, film crews and others. Periodically, Dr Hoyos will join shark cage diving vessels at Isla Guadalupe to give research presentations to guests on board. Without a doubt no one has more understanding and first hand knowledge of white shark behavior at Guadalupe than Dr Hoyos. Supporting Dr Hoyos is biologist Edgar Becerril. Together their work also includes tagging, biopsy taking, photo identification supporting these important organizations:
Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas
National Commission of Natural Protected Areas
The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources
Reserva de la Biosfera Isla Guadalupe
Great White Shark Tagging Guadalupe
Pop up satellite tags are one type of tag used to study white sharks at Guadalupe Island. Pop up satellite tags are inserted at the base of the dorsal fin as the sharks are lured close to research vessels. After a set period of time the tags detach from the shark, float to the surface and transmit collected data of light, temperature and depth. These tags have remained on the sharks for up to 1 year and have given research teams invaluable information on the behavior and movement of white sharks including swimming depths, temperatures encountered, daily diving patterns, and long-range migratory movements. Since 2005 this technology has shown that Guadalupe white sharks can dive as deep at 1000m and that they spend as much as half the year away from land out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Sharks tagged at Guadalupe Island spend autumn and winter at the island, begin an offshore migration in late winter to early spring, spend spring and summer offshore between Baja California, Mexico and Hawaii, and then return to Guadalupe Island in late summer. We know that they travel out to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but what draws them out there is still a mystery.
Marine CSI Database
The ID database of Guadalupe great white sharks was started in 2001 by Nicole Nasby Lucas of the Marine Conservation Science Institute. Her commitment to the project has now enabled us to recognize over 200 individual animals and keep records of their sightings here each year. By contributing photos of the sharks during our expeditions to the Island, SDX has created a successful partnership with this project. Additionally to the ID database, MCSI has been involved with multiple tagging expeditions and by combining these two forms of research have created the most comprehensive study of white shark migrations along the Pacific coast.
