Whale shark satellite tags were unexpectedly found during beach cleaning in Penghu, and the Hainan University research team was surprised to find valuable data.

When the O2Lab sea drifting laboratory was cleaning the beach, the unknown item found was actually a whale shark pop-up satellite tag. (Provided by O2Lab Sea Drift Laboratory)

There are all kinds of beach cleaning items in Penghu! After O2Lab found the Taiping Gate sign in Taichung and embarked on a journey to find its roots, it had another special experience this year. When a Singaporean friend came to Penghu to clean the beach in July, he picked up an object that looked like a positioning buoy or something like that. Since he had never seen it before, he curiously researched it and found a small sticker on it with a phone number and e-mail written on it. After contacting him, he got a surprising answer.

It turns out that this item is a pop-up satellite tag. It was installed on a whale shark released in the wild in Hualien on April 3 this year by Yu Jiru, a postdoctoral researcher at Ocean University. It measures water depth, water temperature and lighting data. Because it is designed to automatically jump out of the fish, the tag will surface and transmit data. It was transmitted in Pingtung waters in May, but then disappeared. Unexpectedly, it appeared in Penghu, and was notified of being found. It was an unexpected surprise.

Ocean University's tagging project is sponsored by Junyi International Co., Ltd. and the Georgia Aquarium in the United States. Professor Zhuang Shouzheng is doing research on whale shark movement. Five whale sharks have been installed in Taiwan. Each pop-up satellite tag costs 240,000 yuan. Price is second. Picking up this one is already very rare. The information recorded in it is even more priceless for researchers.

The pop-up satellite tag is made in the United States. The transparent plastic end of the fuselage logo under the black fuselage is printed with the original anti-counterfeiting and identification text. "24P0732" marked on the fuselage is the unique serial number of the tracker. Scientists use this number to identify which released fish this tracker belongs to. Since the label was somewhat damaged due to being soaked in sea water, the original manufacturer agreed to send it back to retrieve the data and offer a discount for the old one.

You Jiru, a postdoctoral researcher at Hainan University, made a special trip to Peng to retrieve the whale shark's pop-up satellite tag. (Provided by O2Lab Sea Drift Laboratory)