This morning, the PAT tag that Katia has been towing around the Atlantic Ocean has relayed data to indicate that it has been floating at the surface for three days without diving. The tags has now gone “premature release” mode and will now attempt to send all of the data collected since June via satellite.
While we do not yet know the reason for the premature release, we do know that the small corrosive pin that attached the tag to Katia was intact – meaning that it was still attached to the tether. Over the next few days the tag will hopefully reveal Katia’s full trip and the cause of the release. Stay tuned!
In the map below, you can see where the tag began floating and is now drifting in the current.
The long term tracking of leatherbacks is a collaborative project with the National Marine Fisheries Service. If you wish to access these data for a school research project or wish to collaborate with us, please do not hesitate to contact us. We share and license data using a Creative Commons license 