Greenpeace ship Esperanza finds longliner catching sharks
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Sharks have been growing larger and reaching “insane” sizes, as these predators feast on extra prey in zones designated as “no fishing areas”. A new documentary has found that in the South Pacific tiger sharks have grown to be about a third longer than usual, while great white sharks are reaching 20ft long. The researchers have attributed this boom in sizes to countries handing greater protections to fish populations against the fishing industry.
As the declining food sources recover inside protected zones and return to original sizes, tiger sharks and great whites have enjoyed an abundance of prey.
Another contributing factor is the creation of sanctuaries which protect the terrifying aquatic predators from being hunted into extinction.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, as many as 100 million sharks could be killed annually, often for their fins.
Tiger sharks, which are often nicknamed the “dustbin of the sea” because of their unending appetite and willingness to eat anything, are normally around 12 feet long.
However, Kori Burkhardt, marine biologist and professional shark diver, said that she spotted a 16-foot-long tiger shark in French Polynesia, which is an area which has one of the world’s largest shark sanctuaries, created about a decade ago.
She told National Geographic: “I’ve been diving with tiger sharks in multiple countries and she’s by far the biggest I’ve ever seen.
“It’s not just her length but her width as well.
“She can be five metres long but she’s three metres wide, including her fins. That’s insane.”
In the National Geographic documentary Great White v Tiger Shark, Ms Burkhardt encountered “two of the largest white sharks ever recorded in Hawaii”.
Typically, female great white sharks are about 15-16 feet long, while males are significantly smaller at 11-13 feet.
However in Hawaii, where shark fishing is banned, researchers spotted 20 feet long female “mega sharks”.
They believe that shark cooperation may be another reason why these creatures are growing larger, as sharks now hunt larger prey in coordinated packs.
Dr Chris Lowe, a professor in marine biology and director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach, noted it was unusual to see three 20 feet long Great Whites eating a whale carcass together.
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He said: “Finding one white shark and a whale, sure. Getting three large female white sharks on a whale, that’s different.
“That means those sharks must have been close enough in the vicinity to detect the odour of that whale, and then also it might mean that these sharks are travelling together.
“It’s something we’ve never really been able to study or understand.”
While Hawaii has banned the intentional capturing, entangling or killing sharks New York’s governor yesterday ordered a ramping up of surveillance off Long Island beaches after a spree of five non-fatal shark attacks that have occurred this month.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said: “We are taking action to expand patrols for sharks and protect beachgoers from potentially dangerous situations.”
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