Tuna tracking tag found after trip up the M5

The tag had been attached to an Atlantic bluefin tuna

A tourist who picked up a tracking tag on a beach in Cornwall has been found hundreds of miles away by a team of marine scientists who were desperate to get it back.

Brian Shuttleworth found the device tangled in seaweed at Whitsand Bay while he was on holiday with his wife in Millbrook last week.

The tag, which had been attached to an Atlantic bluefin, belonged to University of Exeter scientists who were using it to study the movements of the tuna.

Mr Shuttleworth took it home with him to Lancashire where he planned to organise its return.

The students had been scouring the beach for two days to find the tag

He said he couldn't immediately ring the number printed on the device because of a lack of mobile reception where he was staying.

Unknown to him at the time, PhD students had been scouring the beach for two days to find the tracker after it dislodged from a fish tagged off Plymouth.

The students were about to resume their search for a third day before the tag somehow made its way up the M5 to Birmingham.

A game of cat and mouse then played out between the scientists and Mr Shuttleworth.

Dr Lucy Hawkes, from the University of Exeter, took to the airwaves in the hope of getting a message to him.

"I made a live appeal on BBC Radio West Midlands on Sunday morning but, by the time I'd finished that appeal, the tag - and it turns out Brian - had moved north to Lancashire," she said.

"I could triangulate the tag to Chorley."

However, the tag - and Mr Shuttleworth - were again on the move.

Mr Shuttleworth said a mouse infestation at his home in Chorley meant he and his wife spent the night at his mother's.

He said they moved again to a holiday cottage they had booked near Kirkham, midway between Blackpool and Preston.

The device was posted back to the university

'Shot in the dark'

Dr Hawkes made another appeal on BBC Radio Lancashire.

Mr Shuttleworth was in his car when he heard the interview detailing the tag's movements.

Realising it was him they were looking for, he got in touch.

"It just escalated from there," he said.

Dr Hawkes joked: "I'm really not in the business of tracking people.

"I'm just in the business of tracking animals and I thought when this person realises I'm not only tracking them around the country but also following them from their BBC radio stations, they are going to be so creeped out but Brian's been lovely about it."

Brian Shuttleworth found the tag tangled in seaweed while walking along the beach

The tag is being returned to the university by Royal Mail.

Mr Shuttleworth said the tag's escapades had brought a smile to people's faces.

"Absolutely everyone is laughing about it at work," he said.

"They can't believe it's been happening."

Dr Hawkes added: "I can't believe it worked.

"It was a shot in the dark."

Dr Hawkes was still keeping a close eye on the tag while it was in the post.

"It's in a sorting centre," she said.