Tiger Sharks Tagged: Why Researchers Are Putting Satellite Tags On Tiger Sharks In Australia

Tiger sharks are being tagged by a team of researchers that have tracking devices with advanced technology. Within the past week, scientists have attached satellite tags on the Tiger sharks and taken blood samples from them. So far, 12 sharks have had the process done in the waters of Ningaloo in Australia.

Australia’s ABC Online news source reports that this team of researchers aboard the MV Ocearch goes around the world examining different sharks. They want to better understand the migration patterns of this species.

Australian Institute of Marine Science’s principal research scientist, Mark Meekan, is one of the researchers involved in the tagging of Tiger sharks. This species is top of the food chain and he says a lot is known about White sharks, but not Tiger sharks. Tagged Tiger sharks will be tracked so experts can gain better knowledge of them. The expedition will be focused up and down the Western Australia coast. Scientists hope to learn what the sharks are up to and where they’re going. Captured and tagged Tiger sharks are being tracked online at ocearch.org.

Meekam explains what information researchers are able to gather as a result of the species.

“What we find is not just where the shark goes but through the use of isotopes, what it’s been eating; through the use of genetics, who it’s related to around the Ningaloo area and even further afield; and with the satellite tag of course, you can see exactly where that shark is going.”

The research will also help determine how people can “modify or adjust” their behaviors so that the “risk of interactions” is minimized, Meekam said.

“What we hope to do is that the information that we provide will provide the best possible scientific evidence that people can use to make decisions about bather safety and the like,” he said.

The research team plans to also travel to the Abrolhos Islands, Geraldton, and Jurien Bay to tag more Tiger sharks.

As a 2013 report in Hawaii News Now reports, researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa captured and tagged 15 sharks that were found between Kihei and Makena.

Carl Meyer of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology said at the time that tagging the Tiger sharks would inform them as to what they could do to best avoid shark attacks.

“When we have a more robust understanding of what the sharks around Maui are doing, then we’ll be better able to determine how much human activity is playing into those shark bite figures.”

[Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons]