 Tiger Shark (Galeocerdo cuvier)
The Tiger has been recorded up to 6 metres in length but 5.5 metres is a more normal maximum.
Brian with a Tiger shark.
The Tiger is often called 'the dustbin' or 'the Hyaena' of the seas as it will eat anything. Dissections at the Natal Sharks Board of sharks killed in the bathing beach protection nets, often show bizarre stomach contents such as tin cans and other refuse. Like the Zambezi, they are often found in the turbid water at the mouths of large rivers. Much is made of the very occaisional finds of human remains in Tigers dissected at the Natal Sharks Board. That these 'finds' happen is quite true but indications are that these are remains of people drowned in the large rivers or people attacked, killed and partially devoured by crocodiles. Whilst Tiger sharks show absolutely no interest in scuba divers as a food source, our crocodiles see humans just as much 'MacDonalds on legs' as they see antelope and cattle as a normal food source.
Tiger sharks show distinct stripes on the body which give the species it's name. It is often stated that Tigers loose these stripes as they become mature but we have seen no indication of this happening even with 'our' 5 metre sharks.
The Tigers we see on these dives are normally accompanied by numerous Blacktip sharks (Charcharhinus limbatus). These beautiful sharks- smoothly aerodynamic, light stripe down their flank, incredibly fast swimmers and highly manoevrable are fascinating to watch with the Tigers. There is a very obvious 'protocol' involved in their interaction. A large Tiger will quite happily attack and eat a Blacktip. Whilst the Tigers cruise around the divers at a relatively slow speed looking like a World War One Battleship, the Blcktips swerve speedily past and around the Tigers like protecting Destroyers- though their speed is probably to keep clear of the Tiger's teeth. When we have large numbers of Blacktips and relatively small Tigers (around 3.5 metres) the protocol changes and we have Blacktips centre stage with the Tigers swimming around the outside of the group.
Smaller Tiger sharks- up to 3.0 metres- have a lower jaw which (when extracted) can be easily twisted by hand. At this stage, we note that the Tigers eat ordinary fish species and smaller sharks. When a Tiger gets to 4 metres, the jaw is many times thicker and totally solid. At this stage, the Tiger can crunch through it's favorite food- a turtle- as cleanly as you or I can bite through that MacDonald's burger.
Tigers do not show the 'aggresive' behaviour of the 'Zambie' but their size and obvious controlled power are impressive enough.
 ..Stephane Harge's Tiger shark video
Where to see them
Ponta do Ouro October - May on Pinnacles. Not nearly as frequent a sighting as Zambies but fairly common.
Aliwal Shoal Virtually 100% of the South African Tiger Shark video footage you have seen on National Geographic, Discovery Channel or Blue Planet and most professional still images you see were taken with the assistance of specialist guide Mark Addison. For 15 years Mark has been researching the marine life of our southern African coastline with an emphasis on Tiger Sharks.
For suitably experienced divers, Discovering Africa Safaris are proud to be able to offer you a full days' diving with Mark and his 'babies'. These excursions begin around 09h30 and continue normally to about 14h30. We have normally a 7 - 40 minutes wait for the sharks to appear. Mark has acheived a 99% sighting record over the past 3 years with groups of between 3 and 12 Tigers.
See a video of our Tiger dive.
These are drift dives at only 5 -8 metres, perfect lighting for video and still photographers. When the mild current carries us out of the Tigers' territory, we hop back in the boat and rejoin them upstream. The diveboats are designed for 10 divers but we generally take about 6 to allow comfortable surface rest time if required on this very full daylong trip and it offers ample space for changing film, replacing Mini DV cassettes and batteries.
Visibility is normally good averaging 20-30 metres but we do reserve the right to cancel planned outings on the rare occasion that visibility reduces below 10 metres. This is not because of any risk of attack, sight is but one of the Tiger Shark's incredibly advanced senses and they have no problem in identifying us underwater in the poorest visibility, but rather that in very restricted visibility the dive would become stressful and not allow good viewing anyway.
From January - June, larger mature sharks are the norm. These sharks, mostly 4 metres plus, are more cautious than the younger specimens but with a calm group of divers, they often come in very close approaching to within a metre or so of divers. June-December offers smaller animals-around 3 metres- but in much greater numbers of up to 12 at a time.
This experience replaces two conventional dives at a surcharge of Euro 85 per person with a group of six divers.
 
Left-See Claude Handshin's other shark photos..right-Jean Pierre and Helene (12 years old) with Tiger. |
