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assessment before they decide what to do. Even when they feed, it is not mindless aggression; it is precision. Their teeth are designed to cut through tough material like turtle shells, and instead of chewing, they use powerful head movements to tear through food. Their diet reflects just how adaptable they are. They will eat almost anything available—fish, rays, smaller sharks, squid, seabirds, and turtles. But that does not make them indiscriminate. It makes them opportunistic. In the wild, that flexibility is what allows them to survive across such a wide range of environments, from shallow coastal water to deep offshore zones. Another thing that became obvious once I spent time around them is how exaggerated the idea of danger really is. Most encounters between humans and Tiger Sharks end with nothing happening at all. In many cases, the shark simply passes by, uninterested. The rare incidents that do occur are often tied to specific triggers, such as the presence of struggling fish, blood in the water, or erratic human behaviour. Without those signals, we are not part of their natural food chain, and they generally treat us as something unfamiliar rather than something to hunt.

What is often overlooked is the role they play in keeping the ocean healthy. Tiger Sharks are not just predators; they are regulators. They remove weak and sick animals, control populations, and prevent entire ecosystems from becoming unbalanced. Without them, the effects ripple quickly. Prey species can overpopulate, habitats like seagrass beds get destroyed, and the whole system starts to degrade. The real imbalance, however, is not between sharks and humans; it is the other way around. Millions of sharks are killed every year through fishing, finning, and bycatch, while fatal shark incidents involving humans remain rare. Yet public perception has not caught up with reality. Sharks are still widely seen as a threat, when in fact they are far more vulnerable to us than we are to them. The more time I spent in the water with Tiger Sharks, the clearer it became: they are not the monsters they are made out to be. They are intelligent, cautious, and essential to the ocean. When I approached them with respect and understanding, what I experienced was not fear, but one of the most controlled and humbling interactions I have ever had in the wild.

Poor “Clara”. But these kinds of battle scars heal very quickly on Tiger Sharks

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DIVE LOG Australasia #418 JUNE ‘26

www.divelog.net.au