Discover the largest tiger shark ever recorded!

The tiger shark, whose dark striped patterns on the sides of its body are very similar to its namesake, prowls for food in the tropical and temperate oceanic ecosystems of the world, from shallow coastal shelves to dangerous depths of up to 1,150 feet. The tiger shark is a member of the requiem shark family, which also includes the blue shark, bull shark, copper shark and many other species. This family is distinguished by migratory behavior and the ability to bear young growth.

Tiger shark: more than meets the eye

Tiger sharks usually grow from 11 to 14 feet in length and 800 to 1400 pounds in weight. While male tiger sharks are quite large, females of this species are even larger, perhaps because being overweight helps them give birth to so many live cubs at a time. Litter size can easily vary from 10 to 80 puppies, each 20 to 30 inches long at birth.

Due to their size, aggressive behavior and widespread distribution, tiger sharks are considered the second most deadly shark in the world, second only to the great white shark in the number of attacks on humans per year. However, the tiger shark is inferior in size to several other species, including the whale shark (which reaches 48 feet), the giant shark (up to 36 feet), and great white sharks (up to 22 or 23 feet). , Greenland sharks, giant sharks and possibly some hammerhead sharks. It is also dwarfed by the extinct megalodon, which reaches 67 feet in length and is the largest shark ever to exist.

Tiger shark: top predator

In its natural habitat, the tiger shark is considered the top predator; it feeds on almost anything it can find, including fish, crustaceans, sea snakes, seabirds, seals, dolphins and even smaller sharks. But this does not mean that they themselves are protected from predators. In 2014, underwater photographers captured several killer whales hunting tiger sharks. Pushing the shark to the surface, the killer whales turned their prey onto their backs to completely immobilize it. The footage then shows the killer whale squeezing the shark in its mouth and dragging it back under the water to devour it.

So perhaps the tiger shark may not necessarily be the largest predator in the ocean, but there is actually a long and fascinating history of finding the largest tiger shark ever found. Most world record sharks are only recorded after being caught and sometimes killed by fishermen (although many fishermen release them back into the water after being measured). This is because it is quite difficult to measure a shark right in the water. Scientists usually have to estimate their size from photographs and videos, which is imprecise and difficult.

Tiger shark: setting world records

One of the most important incidents in the long history of world records occurred on June 13, 1964, when a local angler named Walter Maxwell stood at Cherry Grove Pier in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, battling the largest of them for hours. tiger shark, registered at that time. When the shark was almost within reach of the dock, the 130-pound line suddenly broke, causing it to lose prey. Despite the setback, Maxwell later that night set out with his friends in a small boat in search of a huge fish. Using live skates as bait, he waited until the next morning before getting a bite on the line. He reportedly cranked the handle over 2,000 times while friends poured water on the reel to prevent it from overheating.

After a grueling five-hour battle, he caught the largest tiger shark on record: a 1,780-kilogram monster measuring about 13 feet and 10.5 inches in length. He broke the previous world record by about £ 300. Maxwell’s world record was held for another 40 years when another tiger shark, weighing only 6 pounds more, was caught off the coast of Ulladullah, Australia in 2004 by a fisherman named Kevin J. Clapson.

This record is considered the largest tiger shark ever caught, but is it the largest tiger shark ever documented? The answer to this question is probably no. Larger sharks were seen and photographed, although no direct measurements were taken. In November 2018, marine biologist Cory Garza was diving into a shark sanctuary near the waters of French Polynesia (about halfway between Australia and America) when she encountered a massive tiger shark she named Kamakai.

The shark behaved calmly and non-aggressively with the diver, showing very little territorial behavior. It was estimated to have been between 16 and 18 feet in length, breaking a previously known record and likely reaching the upper limit for this species. The shark was so large that it could not close its mouth completely and had trouble moving its fins. Since it was illegal to catch or tag sharks in the reserve, biologists had to let the sharks continue on their way.

Later, Corey Garza, along with cameraman Andy Casagrande, went in search of a shark for the filming of the documentary “The World’s Biggest Tiger Shark?” which originally aired during the National Geographic Sharkfest season. Although it was not possible to directly trace the shark, marine biologists hoped to identify it again by comparing anatomical data. Individual sharks can be distinguished by their appearance, including the stripe pattern, color and shape of their dorsal fins (many females have unique scars from male bites during mating).

Although they never found Kamakai again, Cory Garza argues that the South Pacific near Tahiti and French Polynesia is an underestimated hotspot for tiger shark activity; It may be just as interesting as Tiger Beach and the rest of the Bahamas, where most of the tiger shark footage is usually filmed.

She also argues that tiger sharks in the South Pacific seem to be getting larger than usual, possibly as a result of a healthier marine ecosystem in general. This could mean that somewhere in the depths of the ocean there may be a larger shark than Kamakai, awaiting discovery.

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