Researchers Discover Big Sharks Like ‘Tigers’ May Survive Hurricanes

by Michael John Scott

I love sharks and have loved them ever since 1975 when I saw Peter Benchley’s JAWS on the big screen(what about that opening sequence eh?).

After that movie, I bought or scrounged every book I could find on sharks, shark attacks, and all other things sharks.  I even read three different books on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and devoured any movies or TV shows, or videotapes (remember them) that spoke to these magnificent fish.  I was fascinated, so to read at least some of them won’t be chased out by a simple thing as a hurricane made me most happy.

Here’s the story by Newser:

Researchers have found before that smaller types of sharks flee shallow water as a hurricane approaches. But it looks like one response doesn’t fit all large sharks, a study published in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science indicates. Tiger sharks didn’t go anywhere as Hurricane Mathew neared the Bahamas in 2016, the Miami Herald reports. “I was amazed to see that big tiger sharks didn’t evacuate even as the eye of the hurricane was bearing down on them. It was as if they didn’t even flinch,” said study co-author Neil Hammerschlag of the University of Miami. When Hurricane Irma closed in on Florida’s Biscayne Bay in 2017, bull, nurse and great hammerhead sharks took off. But tiger sharks seemed to like the churning water; researchers found their numbers rose.

Hammerschlag said researchers think they were “taking advantage of all the new scavenging opportunities from dead animals that were churned up in the storm.” The Miami researchers used tracking devices to follow the activities of four species of large sharks, 32 sharks in all, near Miami and the Bahamas. They learned the number of tiger sharks in shallow water in the aftermath of the hurricane’s punch roughly doubled, per the Guardian. Tiger sharks, which can reach 18 feet long, “will eat just about anything,” Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission says. That includes other sharks. Only the white shark attacks people more often. “Major storms, like hurricanes, are predicted to increase in frequency and strength with climate change,” Hammerschlag said. So understanding their impact on sharks, as well as the rest of the environment, is of growing importance.

If we don’t wipe them all out by the end of the century, as various Asian nations are trying to do, by killing billions a year for that ‘delicacy’ known as shark fin soup, they may well survive humans, who are headed for the Sixth Extinction themselves.

About Post Author

Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.

professormike05@gmail.com

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