Posted on: Friday, October 1, 2004
You're seldom alone
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer
Sharks can be found in waters throughout the Islands, but unless you know where to look, you might never see one.
These animals tend to remain near shore in bays like Kane'ohe and Hanalei when they're young, to be safe from bigger sharks like the Galapagos and tigers, said Waikiki Aquarium curator Jerry Crow.
But you seldom see them.
"They tend to be down near the bottom and in murky water during the day. We think they're dispersing and feeding more actively at night," Crow said, which is when they'll get caught in nets and on baited hooks.
Andy Woerner, a manager and dive instructor at Jack's Diving Locker in Kailua, Kona, said dive tours there regularly see whitetip sharks dozing on the floors of caves and lava tubes.
"Divers can get pretty close to them, just a few feet away. They don't bother you," Woerner said.
"The Shark Watcher's Handbook," by Mark Carwardine and Ken Watterson, a 2002 book, recommends checking with a company that specializes in diving or glass-bottomed marine life viewing.
The book suggests that the Kona Coast of the Big Island is a good place, and veteran divers can point out lava tubes and caves where whitetips are found. Galapagos sharks are often found at midday in about 200 feet of water off Honokohau Harbor. Oceanic whitetips are found in deeper water, and scalloped hammerheads in schools in a number of locations, generally in winter and spring.
Woerner said that in deep water at specific locations, sandbar sharks will sometimes rise out of the depths. And if a boat can locate a school of pilot whales, there will often be an oceanic whitetip swimming nearby.
Another preferred shark-viewing location is Molokini Crater off Maui, where divers regularly see grey reef and whitetip reef sharks, and occasionally whale sharks, Carwardine and Watterson wrote.
At Hale'iwa on O'ahu, North Shore Shark Adventures takes divers three miles out to sea, lets them climb into a cage and then chums the water. Galapagos and sandbar sharks are the most common varieties seen there.
Off Kaua'i, whitetips are commonly seen off the south side of the island in 80 to 90 feet of water, said Derek Erickson, a dive instructor with Sea Sport Divers.
"We see some gray reefs and Galapagos sharks in our dives off Ni'ihau," he said.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
Among the most common sharks in nearshore waters, night shoreline anglers will tell you, are small hammerheads.
