Tiger Shark

The stripes, and why they fade

Young tiger sharks carry dark vertical bars down their flanks, the stripes that give the species its name. As the shark grows the bars fade, and a big adult can look almost plain grey. Tiger sharks are among the largest sharks: adults commonly reach 10 to 14 feet, large females about 16 feet, and the heaviest over 1,400 pounds.

What tiger sharks eat

Almost everything. Sea turtles, which their broad, notched, serrated teeth can crack through; stingrays and other sharks; seabirds taken at the surface; dolphins; fish; dead whales. Stomach contents have included license plates and tires, which earned the species its nickname as the ocean's garbage can.

That diet makes tiger sharks important. By eating turtles and seabirds they shape where those animals feed, and by cleaning up carcasses they recycle what the ocean would otherwise lose.

Where tiger sharks live

Tropical and warm temperate seas worldwide: Hawaii, the Bahamas and the Caribbean, Florida, Australia, the Indian Ocean. They are rare off Southern California, where the water is too cold, though occasional visitors appear in warm years. Our team's tiger shark dives have been in warmer water, freediving with a camera at close range.

Diving with tiger sharks in the Bahamas

The Bahamas is one of the best places on earth to see tiger sharks, and one of the reasons is a law. In 2011 the country closed its waters to commercial shark fishing and became a shark sanctuary. A 2017 study estimated that shark and ray diving brings the Bahamas about $114 million a year, which makes a living tiger shark worth far more to the islands than a dead one.

Most tiger shark dives there, at sites such as Tiger Beach off Grand Bahama, are baited: operators place a crate of fish on the sand to bring the sharks in, and divers kneel and watch. Scientists still debate how much that feeding changes where the sharks go. What is not in doubt is that these dives turned tiger sharks from a feared animal into a protected one, and that well-run operators keep divers low, still and out of the way.

Status

The IUCN lists the tiger shark as Near Threatened. They are taken for fins, skin, liver oil and meat, and as bycatch, and they are targeted in shark-control programs off some beaches. Their relatively fast growth and large litters, often 30 to 50 pups, give them more resilience than makos or whites.