A remote island in the Pacific is attracting giant sized Tiger Sharks – why?

Norfolk Island, off the coast of Australia is attracting supersized sharks and scientists want to know why.

It’s a fascinating read and we’ll give you the top line here:

Norfolk Island often throw excess offal (from farmland) into the ocean, to avoid contamination of farmland. The scientists thought the sharks might be enjoying the ‘drive through burger joint’ as they coined it. Amazingly, the offal mainly cows, only made up about 10% of these Tiger Sharks’ diet.

So what was making the Tiger Sharks grow almost 15 feet long?

By testing the Stable isotope analysis (analyzing atoms of various elements to see what the animals were eating) it revealed a surprise: Birds were the major contributing diet.

How on earth and why?

The wedgetail shearwater sea bird flocks to Norfolk Island in the tens of thousands to nest. At dusk, these seabirds float on the surface of the water in large “rafts,” making them easy prey.

“It would be very difficult for the birds to detect a predator coming up from underneath, especially at this time of day,” says Meyer one of the key scientists.
Tiger Sharks, notoriously lazy have now found an ideal solution here, thus giving them energy to expend on growing bigger.

https://lnkd.in/dsgYT9nj

This article was condensed from National Geographic