HIMB Tiger shark tagging update in the news - Males vs Females

Tiger shark     Photo - HIMB

I would like to draw your attention this week to an update in Hawaii News Now and the newspaper on the progress of the tiger shark tagging and tracking work off of Maui.

You may  have noticed several interesting trends on the HIMB PaCIOOS website (where you can pick an animal and follow its movements) :
1. All of the animals are females.
It turns out that male tiger sharks are harder to find as they wander through the islands. During mating season, there is an increased chance of catching males as they come into coastal waters to find the females, most of which have mating scars and marks during this time.  They actually now have two males tagged, but they are not up on the PaCIOOS site yet. The fact that they now have a couple of males tagged is great.

2. Currently, most of the tracks stay near Maui at first, but start to wander later.
It will be interesting to see what the tracks look like after a full year. And, as they continue to tag, both off of Maui, and here in Kane'ohe Bay and hopefully soon off of Waikiki as well, it will be possible to look for any patterns or differences in animal movements between the islands.

I suggest you check out this link and video for the update recently in the news. See:
Researchers tag more tiger sharks off Maui
Posted: Feb 05, 2014 4:29 PM HSTUpdated: Feb 05, 2014 11:29 PM HST
 By Mileka Lincoln


Aloha,

Mark