Sharks

NIWA has undertake a number of projetcts looking at shark habitats, movements, nursery grounds and vulnerability to human impacts

  • Tagging sharks in Fiordland 2

    Tagging Fiordland sharks to monitor climate change

    Media release
    Tracking changes in broadnose sevengill sharks' behaviour in a warming climate.
  • Ageing white sharks

    White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)
  • Chasing deepsea shadows

    Feature story
    Mia Blyth catches up with a marine biologist hunting for ocean ghosts.
  • Oceanic shark numbers decline amid research gaps

    Media release
    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.
  • Scientist spots shark sperm storage strategy

    Feature story
    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.
  • Dr Jade Maggs talks about reef sharks

    A global survey involving 123 scientists from 58 nations raises concerns about the global status of reef sharks.
  • Extremely rare albino shark discovered in Auckland

    Media release
    A deep dive into the collection of an Auckland War Memorial Museum has revealed an extremely rare albino shark.
  • Giant squid and glow-in-the-dark sharks surprise scientists

    Media release
    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.
  • Treasure found on Northland beach

    Media release
    A chance find by a woman walking on a Northland beach is now helping scientists learn more about mako sharks.
  • Shark survival tale

    Feature story
    As part of a Pacific-wide study, NIWA is measuring the survival rate of sharks returned to the sea by commercial tuna fishers.
  • Pelagic shark risk assessments

    Research Project
    NIWA has developed a new method for spatially-explicit, quantitative, sustainability risk assessment of pelagic shark population.
  • Shortfin mako sharks

    Research Project
    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.