By Jane Luscombe
Scientists are gaining a greater insight into the movements of great white sharks around New Zealand, thanks to the use of new technology.
Among the findings are that some Kiwi sharks like to holiday at Bondi Beach in Australia.
A receiver which looks like something made out of an old dishwashing bottle is changing our knowledge of great white sharks. It picks up signals from acoustic tags which are attached to the creatures, NIWA principal scientist Malcolm Francis says.
“Every tag is individually coded so we know exactly which shark it is, and when it swims within about 500m of the receiver we get a record timestamp so we know when it was there.”
New Zealand's only receivers are located around Stewart Island, but there are 46 others off Sydney and seven around New Caledonia. These have started picking up signals from sharks tagged at Stewart Island.
They include one, known as Meadsy, that made it to Bondi Beach and back in 21 days.
“It was travelling about 100km a day, which is a pretty amazing rate to go,” Mr Francis says.
The information can be used to identify areas where the great whites might interact with fisheries or even humans.
“In Australia in particular they are using the same technology to give some advance warning to people when tagged sharks might turn up on their beaches,” Mr Francis says.
Results from the tagging have shown that not only do the sharks return to Stewart Island every year, but they head off to the same tropical getaway every winter.
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