LIHUE — Tiger Shark 132069 is just over 10 feet long and was tagged by University of Hawaii scientists off the northern coast of Kaho’olawe in February.
The female is being tracked by Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System and was last seen far off the southern coast of Lanai June 22.
Her movements are being mapped through the use of satellite tags attacked to the shark’s dorsal fin that send a signal every time she surfaces — that’s been 48 times so far.
A project of the University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology, the tiger sharks tracking program has two goals, according to scientists, first to gain insight about shark behavior and habitat selection.
“Second, the project is testing two new technologies; a new type of satellite tag and a new way of detecting transmissions from those tags,” SOEST scientists say.
HIMB researchers Carl Meyer and Kim Holland are heading up the project, and both are interested in interactions between human activity and sharks, particularly in the uptick in Maui shark bites. Most recorded bites are from tiger sharks.
From 2007 to 2017 there were 69 people attacked by sharks in Hawaii, with the latest incident on Kauai in April at Shipwreck’s Beach.
“We don’t really understand what drives the rare circumstances when sharks actually do end up biting somebody,” Meyer said in a SOEST news release about the tracking.
These shark experts say tiger sharks are cautious and timid, and attacks could be a case of mistaken identity.
In 2016 the system tracked female Tiger Shark 160378’s movements from Oahu to Kauai. The 14-foot shark was tagged in August 2016 off Oahu’s eastern shores and circumvented island before striking out west, where she finished out the year off the west coast of Kauai.
“The research findings will help officials from the State of Hawaii to raise public awareness of the natural presence of large sharks in Hawaii coastal waters,” SOEST scientists say.
And now, people can track 45 of the Hawaiian sharks’ Atlantic brothers online as well, through a newly launched interactive map by Oceana, an international advocacy organization dedicated to ocean conservation.
It’s called the Global Fishing Watch, and the movements of those 48 sharks are compared in relation to commercial fishing activity in the area. Species tagged are tiger sharks, blue sharks, shortfin mako, great hammerhead, porbeagle sharks and dusky sharks.
The launch was timed with Discovery Channel’s Shark Week programming.
“Many species of large sharks remain highly vulnerable throughout our oceans,” said project leader Austin Gallagher from the organization Beneath the Waves.
He continued: “While tracking sharks remains a very exciting way to get people interested in their conservation, I hope this tool opens people’s eyes to the challenges facing their populations every day.”
The Atlantic sharks were tagged between 2012 and 2018 and in that time the sharks’ combined travel distance was 150,000 miles.
“Highly mobile sharks, such as those reflected in this interactive map, often navigate through a gauntlet of fishing vessels with potential interactions,” said Neil Hammerschlag, Research Associate Professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
Hammerschlag continued: “Many fishing gear types can put these sharks at risk, as both target and bycatch.”
In Hawaii waters, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is partnering with Pacific Islands Regional Observer Program is researching incidental capture of sharks by the commercial fishing industry.
The goal is to identify “underlying behaviors and environmental conditions that lend species vulnerable to fisheries capture by using telemetry,” according to NOAA scientists.
That, paired with projects like the HIMB tiger shark tracking, can help the industry avoid catching the wrong prey in their nets.
A recent study in the Journal of Applied Ecology, for instance, found fishing was the greatest cause of death for juvenile great white sharks in the waters off the western coasts of Southern California and Mexico.
That study looked at 37 tagged great white sharks from 2002 to 2016. The study showed only two of the sharks observed died of natural causes and most deaths were the result of tangling with gillnets, which are banned throughout much of Hawaii.
Some fishermen on Oahu blame these kinds of nets for the deaths of 100 hammerhead shark pups that were found on Oahu in June, though an investigation is ongoing.
Whale sharks, which can travel massive distances as well, also risk being caught in nets and derelict fishing gear, like the shark that was seen twice in early July on Maui.
That whale shark is a juvenile with heavy gauge line wrapped around its midsection and authorities are still asking people to keep an eye out for the shark.
Hawaii Uncharted Research Collective is the organization that’s keeping tabs on whale sharks in the area, and is working on a photo identification project to create a database of individual sightings in Hawaii.
Satellite tagging is on the horizon for Hawaii Uncharted as well, and the organization is working on funding to get the project up and running.
•••
Jessica Else, environment reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or at jelse@thegardenisland.com
you say the shark “circumvented” the island
you probably mean it “circumambulated” the island