Tiger sharks in troubled waters as Queensland population plummets
- molly510
- Sep 11, 2019
- 1 min read
The study’s lead author, Dr Chris Brown of the Australian Rivers Institute, said tiger sharks were one of the hardiest shark species, and the large decline was worrying.
“For a large animal, tiger sharks are quite successful in breeding, they can have up to 70 pups every two to three years,” Dr Brown said.
“Because they’re so large and so resilient, if they’re doing badly it’s sort of an indicator that other animals are probably doing even worse.”
Tiger sharks are a large species known to attack humans and so are targeted by Queensland’s shark control program, along with other large sharks such as great whites and bull sharks.
Ironically, the Griffith study got its numbers from records of tigers sharks caught by the control program, which reports catching 9547 tiger sharks since 1984.
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