“The Shark Chasers”

Shark researcher Carl Meyer and his team work to reel in a tiger shark so they can tag it as part of their study exploring how these animals know to come to French Frigate Shoals each year to feed on fledgling albatross. Image courtesy of Alana Eagle/Civil Beat.

Several hundred miles northwest of Honolulu, in one of the most remote places on Earth, scientists are trying to unravel a mystery. Every summer, during a two- to three-week window, tiger sharks converge around an 11-acre atoll in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. The tiger sharks have learned that the fledgling albatross leave their nests and make their maiden flight out to sea. Some of the young chicks don’t make it far from shore before they land in the ocean. And into the mouths of the waiting tiger sharks.

In July, shark researcher Carl Meyer and his team from the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) boarded the 96-foot research ship M/V Searcher for a two-week expedition in the monument. Catching tigers sharks off the shores of East Island has proven difficult for Meyers and his team because the sharks aren’t interested in the bait when there is an endless supply of fresh baby birds to eat.

But this trip was different. On the crew’s first day out, they caught and tagged five female tiger sharks and even managed to attach a camera to a 14-foot shark, mounting it on a thick sturdy pectoral fin. Flipping sharks on their back put them in a trance-like state, making it possible to take measurements and tissue samples.

Read more about it and watch the videos in the multimedia report in the Honolulu Civil Beat. Also, read our recent news item about how East Island was swept away by Hurricane Walaka.