As soon as a shark is tagged, the data is sent straight to the Oceanographic Research Institute (ORI), where it’s added to their national database for scientists and fishermen to access. When a shark is recaptured and reported to ORI, both our team and the person who recaptured it receive an email with all the details — always an exciting moment!

For the cumulative data, we need at least three years of comparable records before government bodies and other tracking organisations can update their population statistics for sharks in Gansbaai. They use this three-year window to compare our findings with data from organisations along the coast, helping build reliable, comparable insights into habitat use, population trends, endangerment levels, and other key factors.

Ultimately, our goal is to update official lists in South Africa, such as ORI’s records and the WWF-SASSI green list, which guides responsible fishing, along with contributing to the educational and research databases of institutions like the Two Oceans Aquarium. Before we can do that, we need to back up our findings with at least three years of solid, consistent data to prove their reliability and value.

The way forward? Keep doing exactly what we’re doing: collecting, tagging, tracking, and building the long-term dataset that will make all the difference.