Tigers Get Around

"Round, round, get around, I get around ..." Those Beach Boys lyrics might have been written for tiger sharks, because the tiger shark you might have glimpsed while diving in Hawaii could have come all the way from Australia.

Recent research by scientists at the University of Queensland, Australia, suggests that tiger sharks in the Indo-Pacific region do not form static populations, but roam over great distances, from the Indian Ocean off Western Australia to multiple locations in the Western Pacific, as far away as Hawaii.

The Pacific and Indian oceans account for around half the water on the Earth's surface, and the study contradicts previous claims that there is, for example, a distinct Hawaiian tiger shark population. Dr. Bonnie Holmes suggests that the tiger shark's long-haul migrations might help maintain its genetic diversity.

(Source: Royal Society Open Science/royalsociety.org)