If you consider yourself a bit of a jetsetter, you might be inspired by this 7,000-kilometre odyssey around the Australian coastline.

A tiger shark that was tagged with satellite technology at Coral Bay, about 1,200km north of Perth, has travelled to Darwin, back to Perth and is now en route to Adelaide.

It is the first time a tiger shark has been tracked this far south but scientists do not know why the predator has travelled so far.

"These big sharks, they are full of surprises and this journey certainly surprised us," Australian Institute of Marine Science researcher Mark Meekan told Joseph Dunstan on ABC Local Radio.

"When you think of tiger sharks you think of tropical oceans, warm water, coral reefs … you do not think of the coasts somewhere off the Great Australian Bight."

The tagging took place on a specialised platform that was raised to immobilise the animal and then lowered back into the water to release it. The tagging and sampling (genetics, tissues and blood) process took about 10 minutes. ( Supplied: OCEARCH/R.Snow )

Dr Meekan said if the shark, named Catalina, had been travelling in a straight line it would have just swum to Japan.

Catalina was tagged about a year ago and is currently off the coast of Coorabie, on South Australia's west coast.

"We put a satellite tag on the dorsal fin and she swam immediately north … she hung around there a little bit and then made her way past the Kimberley and was almost directly off the shore of Darwin, she did not stay there long, she turned around and made her way back around the corner.

"October last year she was around Perth and remarkably since about April she rounded the corner of the south west and she has been heading east ever since."

Scientists hope to receive satellite pings from Catalina for another couple of years. ( Supplied: OCEARCH/R.Snow )

Dr Meekan said the shark would likely turn around when the current weakens within the next few months.

"She is in waters where you would think of white pointer sharks being the top order predator and yet here we have a tiger shark all the way from Ningaloo heading out in those waters," he said.

"We think she is following the Leeuwin Current.

"This time of year the Leeuwin Current is quite strong and it is a warm-water current that flows right down the west coast, loops around the bottom of Australia and heads along the edge of the shelf there past Adelaide and even gets as far as Tasmania.

"It may be when the current slows down a bit she will head back again up to Ningaloo."

"Hopefully that tag will last for another couple of years and if she keeps pinging away contacting us we will be in for a real treat.

"I assume she is not going for a lap of Australia."