Sharks

White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)

Mia Blyth catches up with a marine biologist hunting for ocean ghosts.

A lack of information about New Zealand oceanic shark populations is making it difficult to assess how well they are doing, says a NIWA researcher.

A NIWA researcher has found the first evidence that female deep sea sharks store sperm as a strategy to preserve the species and possibly avoid aggressive mating encounters.

A global survey involving 123 scientists from 58 nations raises concerns about the global status of reef sharks.

A deep dive into the collection of an Auckland War Memorial Museum has revealed an extremely rare albino shark.

A giant squid and several glow-in-the-dark sharks were surprise finds for NIWA scientists last month on the Chatham Rise during a voyage to survey hoki, New Zealand’s most valuable commercial fish species.

A chance find by a woman walking on a Northland beach is now helping scientists learn more about mako sharks.

As part of a Pacific-wide study, NIWA is measuring the survival rate of sharks returned to the sea by commercial tuna fishers.

NIWA has developed a new method for spatially-explicit, quantitative, sustainability risk assessment of pelagic shark population.

Sharks are vulnerable to overfishing because of their low reproductive rates and often low growth rates. Most pelagic sharks fall near the middle of the shark productivity scale, and there is concern that catching too many of them could lead to population depletion. In New Zealand waters, mako sharks are the second most commonly caught shark species (after blue sharks) on tuna longlines.

Warrick Lyon is heading to the Marshall Islands to teach fisheries observers how to tag sharks.