Why are sharks attacking more people than ever in Hawai‘i?

UH shark researchers outfit tiger sharks with tracking devices. Left to right: Jeff Muir, Carl Meyer, James Anderson. Itsumi Nakamura is standing up. Image courtesy of Mark Royer / HIMB.

Shark attacks are increasing in Hawaii, especially off Maui, and scientists think they have figured out why. A report due to be released next month by University of Hawai‘i marine biologists basically concludes that a burgeoning recreation industry is butting up against shark-friendly environmental conditions to create a double whammy of sorts, at least for the human population.

“The coastal habitats around Maui are optimum habitats for tiger sharks, there’s nothing unnatural happening,” says Carl Meyer, a shark researcher at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB). “It’s just that we as people have inadvertently created these high-use, recreational ocean locations right next to these habitats that large sharks have been using for eons.”

Meyer and other biologists have been studying the issue of increasing shark attacks at the request of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. The DLNR commissioned the study after two people were killed by sharks in Maui’s waters in 2013.

Follow tagged sharks at the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS)’s Hawai‘i Tiger Shark Tracking site.

Read more about it in the Honolulu Civil Beat.