Da-Dum…Da-Dum…Da-Dum…Da-Dum-Da-Dum-Da-Dum
The soundtrack from the 1975 film Jaws instilled fear in a generation and continues to do so today.
How many people have asked you about seeing sharks in the water?
Peter Benchley who wrote Jaws in 1973 never imagined the impact his book would have on the world pysche.
In a National Gepgraphic article (2000) he states “considering the knowledge accumulated about sharks in the last 25 years, I couldn’t possibly write Jaws today … not in good conscience anyway. Back then, it was generally accepted that great whites were anthrophagous (they ate people) by choice. Now we know that almost every attack on a human is an accident: The shark mistakes the human for its normal prey.”
One of the scientists studying these amazing animals is Dr Malcolm Francis. Along with colleagues from NIWA, DOC and the world he has been tagging Great Whites in the Chatham & Stewart Islands since 2005.
Last night Malcolm delivered a presentation on his latest research at the Petone Working Men’s Club to over a 100 people from the Dive Adjunct, the Upper Hutt Cosmopolitan Club Fishing Adjunct, Kapiti Underwater Club, The Lazy Seals Free Diving Club and of course our divers from Dive & Ski HQ.
Using a variety of pop-up, acoustic and dorsal fin tags Malcolm and his colleagues have been monitoring the travels of our Great White populations.
Did you know…?
That Great Whites enjoy tropical hoidays as much as we do:
Acoustic tagging suggests that sharks in Stewart Island start heading north late June or early July
Pop-up & dorsal fin tags show they visit Australia, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji & Tonga
Great Whites can travel over 100km a day in open water and dive down over 600m. The deepest recorded dive was over 1200m. Why? Scientists are not sure but believe it is for food.
Although we have populations of sharks in small areas (usually associated with tasty seal colonies) there is no indication that Great White Sharks are social – they do not travel together on holiday!
Sharks can be identified from photos by their unique grey and white patterns near the pectoral and caudal (tail) fins as well as notches on their dorsal fin caused by parasite damage.
The good news for divers and other water aficionados is that we are not on the menu for Great Whites – the bad news is that sub-adults (teenagers) are not that good at hunting yet and sometimes make mistakes!