Tiger shark behavior revealed

HIMB researchers Carl Meyer, left, and Kim Holland attach a tag to the dorsal fin of a tiger shark in Hawaiian waters. Image courtesy of HIMB.

Maui waters “no ka oi.” At least it seems tiger sharks think those waters are the best. New research shows shallow waters around Maui County not only support a shark population there, but also attracts sharks from other islands.

“Tiger sharks in Hawai‘i are really focused on the insular shelf habitats. That is the area from the shoreline to a depth of about 600 ft. This is their natural habitat, which means the sharks are continually present around our coastlines,” said Dr. Carl Meyer with the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB).

“Our tracking study showed that sharks from outside of Maui, visited Maui at certain times of the year. But the ones tagged on Maui tended to stay around the insular shelf habitat throughout the year. We also learned tiger sharks are routinely using the same areas that people use for swimming, snorkeling and surfing, but most of the time those sharks are not seen by people,” added Meyer.

Hawai‘i researchers tagged nearly 100 tiger sharks and monitoring them over six years. Tiger sharks are one of the species most commonly involved with attacks on people: over the past 20 years Maui has had twice as many shark bites as O‘ahu, even though there are fewer people there.

If you would like to learn more about the tagged sharks around Hawai‘i waters, or see where they are or have been, visit the PacIOOS Hawai‘i Tiger Shark Tracking project.

Read more about it at KITV News.