There was a couple of white tips hanging out at Makaha at both north (caverns) and south reefs in the caves. They were in the big cavern on the north reef and there is a small cave on the south reef where a small one was hanging out in.
Whitetips in Hawaii
- Thread starter smellzlikefish
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OP
smellzlikefish
Contributor
Fishboy-Yeah Nick was one hell of a good free-diver. I'm okay without tanks, but I remember photographing him getting a sample from a whitetip a while back. We both went down into a cave, but I had to come up and he was still in the cave. I grabbed a breath and went back down in time to get the shot, but he still had air left when I went up again. He picked up and left for Mote about two weeks ago to study nurse sharks, great hammerheads, and bulls.
Black_3000psi
Guest
as i understand it whitetips are nocturnal creatrures .and I did test this once.as far as i can tell white tips appear to be night feeders,even with a thrashing bleeding fish in front of it the sleepy shark simply cruised off to a less populated location.
Isurus9
Registered
i usually see white tips around Portlock as well. it is easier for a boat dive but it is possible to shore dive from the cliff and swim around to Spitting Caves if the currents aren't too bad.
some other boat dive sites if you can ever get out there:
Baby Barge cave to the west of wreck and sometimes cave under the wreck itsself. can even be found around the rubble pile to the south of the wreck.
Fantasy reef: cave on the Koko Head side of the site right at the mouring ball.
some other boat dive sites if you can ever get out there:
Baby Barge cave to the west of wreck and sometimes cave under the wreck itsself. can even be found around the rubble pile to the south of the wreck.
Fantasy reef: cave on the Koko Head side of the site right at the mouring ball.
Shaka Doug
Contributor
We se them a lot in the Makena Landing / Five Caves area here on Maui. I would venture to say on average, 40 - 50% of them have a hook in them or show signs of injury from fish hooks. That's a conservative estimate by the way.
Here's a clip I got of five of them not that long ago that I put up on YouTube:
Five Beautiful White Tips in the Sand Cave
Here's a clip I got of five of them not that long ago that I put up on YouTube:
Five Beautiful White Tips in the Sand Cave
Timing is everything (my SOP); just a couple hours before Doug posted his video link I snapped this pic in the Bubble Cave! There were only 2 in the Sand Cave but when we looked under the shelf in the next cave we saw this bunch of fins cozied up together;
With close scrutiny you can make out 6 adults, which is the most I have seen at one time anywhere in Hawaii. As for hooked sharks in the Makena area, I doubt there are many adults who haven't been hooked at one time in their life (see my current Makena dive thread). When I see hooks now I am glad, glad as all get out; at least these fishers are letting them go and the sharks seem to survive the ordeal.
IMHO to get relevant data on agonistic behavior (never heard of or observed it amongst Hawaii's white tip reef sharks) you would need to at least use a rebreather, but probably really use remote video with really long recording times or hard wired to a monitor with DVR'ish qualities so a few minutes after interesting activity starts you can start the recording before said activity started.
It would seem to me that anytime a diver is close enough to study our reef sharks the reef sharks change their natural behavior to include studying the diver (naturally), which then is not the natural behavior the diver hoped to study! The house sitting pretty much right above the Sand and Bubble caves is for sale, probably significantly reduced from the original $20 Mil listing!
With close scrutiny you can make out 6 adults, which is the most I have seen at one time anywhere in Hawaii. As for hooked sharks in the Makena area, I doubt there are many adults who haven't been hooked at one time in their life (see my current Makena dive thread). When I see hooks now I am glad, glad as all get out; at least these fishers are letting them go and the sharks seem to survive the ordeal.
IMHO to get relevant data on agonistic behavior (never heard of or observed it amongst Hawaii's white tip reef sharks) you would need to at least use a rebreather, but probably really use remote video with really long recording times or hard wired to a monitor with DVR'ish qualities so a few minutes after interesting activity starts you can start the recording before said activity started.
It would seem to me that anytime a diver is close enough to study our reef sharks the reef sharks change their natural behavior to include studying the diver (naturally), which then is not the natural behavior the diver hoped to study! The house sitting pretty much right above the Sand and Bubble caves is for sale, probably significantly reduced from the original $20 Mil listing!
Shaka Doug
Contributor
Let's hui up and buy that house Steve! We can rig up the cameras and get it rolling.
OP
smellzlikefish
Contributor
Hey Hale, You pretty much summed up my study. The basic premise is a remote video camera placed in a cave with whitetips while the diver swims away and the sharks calm down. After a while, the divers return to simply maintain a presence in the cave and the camera continues to record behavior. We have a few spots here on Oahu that get six sharks around from time to time. There's a spot off from Kahala beach that I've seen between 6-8 sharks (I lost count that day). There are a couple of other spots, but where is this bubbles cave? Is it near Makena by chance? I don't remember any sightings from there when working with whitetip.hawaii.edu.
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