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Marine Turtle Newsletter 59:14, © 1992

Tiger Shark Consumes Young Sea Turtle

Robert Young
Vanier College (cegep), 821 Ste-Croix, St-Laurent, Quebec, H4L 3X9 Canada

On Saturday, 4 January 1992, a ten-foot (3 m) long tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvieri) was found tangled in a fishing net several hundred meters off shore at Mosquito Bay, Nevis, in the Eastern Caribbean. Local fishermen brought the shark ashore and tried to hoist it up using rope looped around a tree branch. The strength of the four or five men involved was insufficient to raise the shark, so an automobile (a "Jeep") was used. When the shark was raised off the ground, it spewed out a partially digested "dinner plate" sized (approximately 12-inch shell) hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata). The shark was immediately butchered for meat and the liver removed for oil. Photographs are available from the author.