Riley Elliott Instagram – Incredible movement patterns by SWAJ which are almost mirror images of Mananui’s migration to the West Coast’s 90mile beach. This is fascinating for several reasons. Firstly these are two totally different demographics/ages. SWAJ is a new born GW which should be residing in nursery ground areas, which in theory would have suggested she stayed within or at close proximity to Tauranga Harbour. So has she been forced out of the region due to a murky flood water harbour so dirty she can’t visually hunt, or perhaps GW nursery range is larger than theorised. Secondly, why this specific path, so similar to Mananui? We know that sharks can migrate entire oceans and therefore are able to accurately navigate, so perhaps there are key features or ‘road signs’ used by both sharks. If so, what is amazing is that the ability to read these is pure instinct as baby GWs receive no parental guidance. The other option for such paths & one I looked into to ensure it wasn’t the case, is these are human tracks and the shark and tag are on a boat! I feared this with Mananui, in seeing such direct paths and when she then went into Whangarei port area. But with both tags I receive temperature and wet/dry sensor data which show that they are not on a boat, and are in fact just doing something that’s almost unbelievable. What is a very real risk however, is several of the hotspot bays these sharks are visiting, are some of the areas where a recent NIWA fishery report showed that 53 GWs had been killed over the past decade as bycatch in commercial set nets/gill nets. Furthermore we’ve seen dozens either caught or wash up dead after recreational set nets and longlines have entangled GWs. Takami showed us first hand, the very real gauntlet that these sharks run each day. I am not against fishing at all, and fishers in general aren’t against sharks, and if they are they should know that more sharks mean healthier populations of fish they are after. So the common goal should be to identify areas of critical habitat for these endangered GWs and contrast that with human induced risk to them & us, as that can empower an informed ability to co-exist. That is the GW Projects goal