540+ days and still transmitting!

It been more than 18 months since she was released, and Carol is still transmitting data to MCSS via the Argos Satellite system.

Carol’s journey from Seychelles to Madagascar, vie Coetivy island, courtesy www.seaturtle.org

This is definitely the longest recorded satellite track, in terms of duration, for an animal tagged in Seychelles (the longest whale shark attachment so far has been 123 days for a PAT tagged shark) and is possibly a world record for a GPS-satellite tagged turtle.

Longest distance a whale shark has been tracked from Seychelles (3383 km); orange track is after the tag detached and was drifting free. From the MCSS Whale Shark Monitoring Programme, courtesy of David Rowat

Carol arrived in Madagascar in April 2008 after a journey of some 2644 kms and has been very active. Since her arrival North West of the Mitsio islands she has generally stayed within a fairly restricted area around one of the offshore reef systems making over numerous dives each day to depths of around 50 to 60 metres but occasionally making deeper dives to depths of around 100 metres.

By comparison her movement away from the reef system or around the islands has been very limited with only one excursion towards mainland Madagascar in late January, early February of this year.

Carols movements have been limited apart from one excursion in January 2009, courtesy www.seaturtle.org

So carol and her tag seem to be quite happy off Mitsio, we wonder if she will return to Seychelles to nest this season?