Tiger Sharks – The Stripe that will Suprise You

Photo courtesy from Pinterest

Tiger Shark (Galeocerdo cuvier)

Max. Length: 750 centimeters
Length at 1^st Maturity: 176.5 centimeters
Weight:  800 kilograms
a value: 0.01510
b value: 3.000
Depth Range: 0 – 800 meters (0 –  2,640 feet)
Frequency: Near threatened due to high demand in shark’s fin

If there was a contest of who’s the most feared underwater creature with a striped pattern in its body, then Tiger Sharks has been holding the gold medal for more than a century, or should we say, from time immemorial.

Aside from hammerhead sharks, tiger sharks is one of the shark species that you can easily identify. If a hammer-shaped head is for hammerhead sharks, then tiger-like stripes are for Tiger sharks. On top of this, you can easily identify them through its broad and bluntly round snout (like the ones with the Great White Shark), a big mouth (not the big mouth that you know in the gossips), teeth that are shaped like a cockscomb and a grey-colored body with a grey to black bar that is patterned like a tigers pigmentation.

The Thrill of Surprise

Photo courtesy from Sharkopedia

Exploring the dive sites of Cocos Island does not guarantee you a 100% chance of encountering this huge shark, unlike other sharks where you can find them in a specific site. For example: Silverado is known to house a good population of Silvertip sharks and several sites like Bajo Alcyone, Dos Amigos and Dirty Rock are popular with hammerhead sharks and whitetip sharks.

You have to take note that Tiger sharks are highly mobile and they do not tend to stay in one reef. The usual encounter is that Tiger sharks comes out of nowhere and will definitely give you a surprise. Although it has a reputation that it eats anything since it is an Apex predator, the surprise is not in the form of a bite, an attack or any form of an aggressive behavior as what you can typically experience in a public prank. But that surprise feeling will immediately turned in to amazement where you will appreciate the gentleness of its motion despite the relative size of its body.

Do not be afraid if it comes near to a reef where you are situated as it is the usual behavior. It may even come close near to you where it can become curious to the bubbles you are expelling during your dive. And if only a tiger shark could speak, then it might probably say: “What kind of marine creature is this that it constantly blows bubble, might as well take a closer look“. Wait a minute, we are not saying that you will pause breathing whenever a tiger shark comes near. Please do not do that as you will directly violate that golden rule in diving which is “NEVER HOLD YOUR BREATH AND BREATH CONTINUOUSLY“. For trained shark handlers, what they do when a tiger shark comes very near is they push the upper jaw where the sharks instinctive reflex is to go away.

Although statistic shows that there are a thousand times more accidents in the road compared to a tiger shark attack, it is still best to interact with full caution. With this, we remind you again that the best way to observe this huge shark is to stay close to the reef and do not do anything untoward to the shark or feed anything as this can often lead to feeding frenzy. And definitely, you do not want to be menu of the day. Instead, what you want is to be the special guest of the day.

Reference

Marine Bio: www.marinebio.org

Wikipedia: www.wikipedia.org

National Geographic: www.nationalgeographic.com

Video courtesy from sataniel420

About Tristan Paylado
Tristan is a marine biologist and a CMAS 2-Star Dive Instructor
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