Celebrated 8-foot shark followed by fans via satellite tag is missing. Was it eaten?
Foul play is now suspected in the mysterious disappearance of Zuza, a satellite-tagged tiger shark that was lauded just weeks ago for boldly traveling from Australia to Papua New Guinea.
The 8-foot predator vanished near the Coral Sea not long after, leading some to speculate Zuza was “finned,” a reference to the killing of sharks for Papua New Guinea’s lucrative shark fin trade.
Researchers with the nonprofit Biopixel Oceans Foundation are investigating and have not offered a theory.
“We now believe that Zuza the Tiger shark has been caught and killed after she traveled into (Papua New Guinea) waters,” the foundation posted Jan. 23 on Facebook.
“Tagged in October 2018 at Batt Reef off Cairns (Australia) by Biopixel Oceans Foundation researchers, this week her journey has come to an untimely end.”
A satellite tracking site called Reef Tracks allowed fans of Zuza to track her movements, along with 29 other marine creatures in the Great Barrier Reef.
The irony is that researchers initially celebrated her journey to Papua New Guinea, noting it was the farthest one of their tagged sharks had traveled, reported The Cairns Post.
It appeared Zuza was captured by “a boat of jetty” in shallow water near Port Moresby, Biopixel officials told the Post.
The nonprofit OCEARCH, based in the Northeastern United States, was first to report Zuza’s disappearance in a Jan. 21 Facebook post. “We get a message once the SPOT tag has been dry for a certain period of time,” OCEARCH explained. “This can only happen when the animal has been captured.”
Like the Biopixel foundation, OCEARCH uses satellite tags to track sharks for research purposes, giving it access to the same marine data.
Zuza was being tracked in a partnership between at Biopixel and the Oceans Foundation.
Data showed her to be a “regular” in the waters off Cairns, Austraila, before she vanished, Biopixel said in a Facebook post.
“Tiger sharks ... are not a protected species — they are only safe while inside the no fishing zones of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park,” the foundation wrote. “Unfortunately, when they venture outside of these zones and Marine Parks they are susceptible to capture.”
On Jan. 12, Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef noted Zuza’s “truly epic journey” of 2,500 miles was generating “vital data to researchers about tiger shark behavior.”
The same post celebrated the fact that she “crossed the border from Australia to Papua New Guinea.”
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 1:06 PM with the headline "Celebrated 8-foot shark followed by fans via satellite tag is missing. Was it eaten?."