Tiger Sharks Feeding on Manta in Palau

[afieldofblue]

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"The adult female manta (F171 Simone) seen dead in the video was first identified early December 2018. She was seen regularly around German Channel since cleaning and feeding, so it is unlikely she died from natural causes.
A Japanese liveaboard was first on the scene early morning Jan 30, and the manta was already dead in the shallows.

We do not know what killed her, only her left wing was bitten off and large bites taken out of her back at that time. It is unlikely she got tangled in one of the nearby mooring lines, since there were no visible rope/struggle marks on her.
She could have been killed by a great hammerhead or something else early that morning, or even by the two tigers that were there, since tigers have been seen hunting turtles at this site before.
By the time we got there at 10.30, several dive groups had already come and gone, but the carcass still looked almost the same.
This is because the sharks circled the area, but only came in to take a bite once in a while, as you can see on the video, there was no feeding frenzy, and they came mostly when there were no divers swimming around or snorkelers splashing on top.

This footage was taken over a period of 4 hours, with many dive groups coming and going in between. We got the best shark footage when we were alone in the water or could convince other divers to sit down on the sand and stay still.
When we left in the afternoon, half the manta was still there, and so were the sharks, but everything was gone by the next morning." - Mandy Etpison, Neco Marine Palau Project Leader, Manta Trust- www.mantaIDpalau.org

Footage from Jan.30.2019 at German Channel, dead manta eaten by Tiger sharks and lots of blacktip reef sharks. Video by Mandy Etpison and Edwin Maidesil, Neco Marine Palau

 

[Alaskan Scuba Dude]

That's what sharks do. They take out the garbage. If only I could do the same on ScubaBoard.com

 

[afieldofblue]

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[afieldofblue]

That's what sharks do. They take out the garbage. If only I could do the same on ScubaBoard.com

Especially tiger sharks, which can, like other sharks, turn their stomachs inside out and vomit up their latest meal, which is quite handy to get rid of stuff they can't digest (like turtle shells and whatnot...)

If only I could do the same with the rubbish I hear/read on a daily basis

 

[johndiver999]

Wearing pink bunny ears while watching tiger sharks feed; it all makes sense to me now.

 

[afieldofblue]

Wearing pink bunny ears while watching tiger sharks feed; it all makes sense to me now.

Stylish huh!
Quite a few people got to see the chomping action that day - including these divers from another boat - since the sharks were actually at it for hours and German Channel is one of the busiest sites in Palau.
The dive effectively turned into a Fiji-style line-up, but with a manta as natural chumming, instead of the daily buckets of chum they use down there.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Tiger sharks are powerful animals. This video demonstrates their importance as scavengers. It takes the size and power of the tiger's bite to tear apart the manta, allowing the smaller sharks and larger fish to also share in the feeding.

Thanks for sharing the video.

 

[afieldofblue]

Tiger sharks are powerful animals. This video demonstrates their importance as scavengers. It takes the size and power of the tiger's bite to gear apart the manta, allowing the smaller sharks and larger fish to also share in the feeding.

Thanks for sharing the video.

Absolutely - it's a good example the sawing action sharks use to feed, when the first female bites off the manta's cephalic lobe in the first few seconds of the clip.

Fun to see how the black tip reef sharks clear out of the area as soon as the tigers show up, pretty clear pecking order, and as you said, the bigger shark bites allowd them to grab chunks of their own.

 

[tarponchik]

Wearing pink bunny ears while watching tiger sharks feed; it all makes sense to me now.

This is the thing with Asian divers. In their groups, there always will be at least one weirdo dressed up like a bunny or a raccoon or like Hello Kitty character, etc. Unlike American divers, they are not too old for stunts like this.

 

[tarponchik]

I am surprised by the absence of small opportunists like Redtoothed Triggerfish and Bannerfish that were attracted in huge schools to shark feeding in Fiji.