Scientists who satellite-tagged a tuna followed it up the M5 - after it was picked up by a tourist. <br /><br />Researchers at the University of Exeter had tagged the Atlantic bluefin tuna off Plymouth in Devon a few weeks ago as part of a research project.<br /><br />But the tag safely detatched itself from the giant fish - and later signaled researchers that it had washed up on Whitsand Bay in Cornwall.<br /><br />But when the PhD students sent to collect it proved unable to find the tag for over two days, they checked its GPS location beacon.<br /><br />They found it was on its way to Birmingham up the M5 and the uni team quickly launched an appeal to recover it.<br /><br />After making three radio appeals the device was eventually recovered thanks to the help of two BBC local radio stations.<br /><br />Brian Shuttleworth had been on holiday in Cornwall and had spotted the tag among some seaweed while walking on the beach - and taken it home to Lancashire.<br /><br />Dr Lucy Hawkes, one of the leaders of the tuna-tagging project, said: “These tags collect very detailed information, but they only transmit their location – to get the rest of the data, we have to recover the tags.<br /><br />“They are designed to fall off the tuna after about six days, and obviously we can’t control where the tuna go, so the tags can be hard to recover.<br /><br />“We have deployed 20 to 30 tags over five years and recovered eight so far. The tags are incredibly useful for our work, so I wasn’t ready to give up on this one.<br /><br />''We assumed someone had picked the tag off the beach and driven home from their holiday.''<br /><br />After initially making her appeal for the tag to be returned via a call in to BBC Radio West Midlands, the tag started moving again - this time heading to the village of Ribby, Lancashire.<br /><br />Refusing to give up, Dr Lucy then secured two interviews on BBC Radio Lancashire where she again asked for the tag to be returned - prompting the station to offer to send a reporter to the village the next day.<br /><br />Lucy added: “On Sunday night, the tag moved again. <br /><br />''We received high-quality tracking information that made me quite sure it was in a tiny village called Ribby, just south of Wesham.<br /><br />“BBC Radio Lancashire called to see if we’d found the tag yet, and had me on again that evening.”<br /><br />At that point, Lancashire resident Brian Shuttleworth called in after his wife heard the end of the BBC Radio Lancashire evening segment on the missing tag.<br /><br />Brian had been on holiday in Cornwall and had spotted the tag among some seaweed while walking on the beach.<br /><br />After attempting to call the phone number listed on the device, which failed due to his poor mobile phone signal, he decided to take it home with him to Lancashire.<br /><br />Brian said: "We were holidaying in Cornwall, and we'd gone down onto the beach and were just having a walk along the beach.<br /><br />"The tide had started to come in, and I saw it in amongst a load of seaweed. <br /><br />''I recognised what it looked like, detangled it and put it in my pocket with every intention to ring the phone number in tiny writing on it.<br /><br />"Unfortunately, the mobile signal down there is not very good. So I thought 'when I get home I'll ring it up and organise for sending it back'."<br /><br />After completing their long drive home, Brian was distracted from calling the number after he discovered that his house had been infested with mice.<br /><br />As a result, the researchers had even tracked Brian on his way to his mother's house for the night, and his shopping trip the next morning.<br /><br />He added: "When we eventually got home from my mum's on Monday, we caught the tail end of the story about the tracker on the BBC and it just escalated from there."<br /><br />The device has since been returned to Plymouth via mail - with researchers tracking it's journey home the whole way.<br /><br />Dr Hawkes said: “This just goes to show the dual power of animal tracking for conservation mixed with local radio!"
