Excited shark enthusiasts are "glued" to their phones this week watching as a great white shark called 'Daisy', tracked by a satellite, has been swimming around the waters of the Bay of Plenty.

As beachgoers at Mount Maunganui celebrated the new year, those following the Great White App could see that Daisy too was enjoying the local waters, and appears to have cruised into the Tauranga harbour.

"Daisy the Great White has made an incredible journey," says Dr Riley Elliott, who studies shark behaviour and migration.

"She was first tagged inside the northern end of Tauranga Harbour, by Bowentown and then was tracked to the eastern BOP by the East Cape where she resided for some weeks in a very refined area, likely feeding on spawning schools of fish.

"Now in a matter of days she has returned to the Tauranga Harbour this time through the southern channel beside the Mount."

The Great White App shows Daisy is now at the Tauranga harbour entrance and Takami is near Bowentown. Image: Supplied.

Dr Elliott says Daisy is presumably learning the extent of her home range which at present is determined by prey availability of fish and rays, before she matures into an adult and may eventually migrate south to seal colonies.

The Great White App project, which provides users with updates on where Daisy and another tagged great white shark named Takami are, was launched in December can be used on mobile phone, desktop computer or tablet.

To download the app go to www.sustainableoceansociety.co.nz

Dr Elliott says whether you want to know or not, in the height of summer holidays this animal is sharing the waters we play in.

"Clearly it's not a JAWs monster but rather an intergalactic part of an ocean ecosystem we play in and feed from. The more we can learn how and when and why each of our species use certain areas, the more we can ensure co-existence in our stunning marine environment."

The Sustainable Ocean Society

The Sustainable Ocean Society say that the Rena oil spill in 2011 prompted them to look at how the way humans live affects the oceans and its inhabitants.

"We saw a need for our group to come in at a grass roots level in New Zealand, working with the community, particularly youth, to improve ocean sustainability through education and involvement," says a society spokesperson.

"The result is the Sustainable Ocean Society, a non-profit organisation focused on marine conservation and ocean sustainability. We aim to operate our own research projects and campaigns as well as support sustainable research, ideas and initiatives."

How does it work?

The Great White App receives locations of sharks in real time and displays them on the map above. These locations only occur when a shark's dorsal fin, and thus the satellite tag, break the surface of the ocean and link to satellites in orbit.

How accurate are locations?

The longer the tag is above the water, the more accurate a location fix from satellites. Highly accurate locations are to within

"This is the harsh reality of trying to track marine animals which do not breathe air, and thus do not have to come to the surface," says a Sustainable Ocean Society spokesperson.

Information at your fingertips

"The long term nature of satellite tags means through time, we can gather long term, large scale information on animal movement anywhere in the world," says a Sustainable Ocean Society spokesperson.

"If you really want to 'dive deep' into these tracks, try holding the Control key on your keyboard while you drag the mouse, making the map 3D."

Tracking and tagging Great White Sharks in NZ

In February 2020, a juvenile Great White shark bit the surfboard of a surfer in Pauanui Beach. Dr Riley Elliott, specialised in shark behaviour and migration, confirmed the species and later saw evidence of another Great White shark around a fishing boat at the Bowentown end of Tauranga harbour.

These encounters at the time were rare for the NE region of the North Island of NZ. Historically the consensus was that Great Whites aggregate around Stewart Island, to hunt seals, and likely to socialise and mate. These often mature sharks, then migrate with the onset of winter, to the tropics of Polynesia. Research showed that when these mature animals return south, to Stewart Island once again at the start of summer, they likely give birth to pups on the way, in the warm, shallow and protected harbours like the Kaipara, on the W coast of the North Island.

While some Great White activity has been seen historically in the NE region of the North Island, it has been rare. Dr Elliott however hypothesised that there may be a growing population of juvenile Great Whites inhabiting this region due to three factors:

• Conservation success of protecting the Great White for several decades, which logically should result in an increasing population, albeit slowly (Great Whites have only 5 pups every 2 years and take 35 years to become sexually mature to reproduce).
• Climate change and increasing persistence of La Nina weather systems, moves warmer ocean waters, further south, spreading the juvenile Great White shark habitat range, especially from SE Australia (which is the largest juvenile nursery ground for the SW Pacific GW population) to NZ waters.
• Changes to fishing methods (like banning gill nets inshore) and reduction of land based runoff and pollution, may have improved the water quality and habitat for many coastal marine species in certain areas, like the Tauranga Harbour. Reports of booming fish life in such areas, may produce ideal nursery grounds for Great Whites and thus we have seen pupping in such regions increase.

Dr Elliott recognised that a probable increase in Great White presence, overlapping with one of NZ's largest summer holiday hotspots, requires investigation, and so he submitted for a Department of Conservation permit in Dec 2020. Tthis species is protected under the Wildlife Act and it is illegal to interact, disturb or harm a Great White in any way without a permit.

A permit was issued 18 months later, in June 2022, however Dr Elliott says during this processing time a significant increase and persistence of Great Whites has occurred in the region.

During the Summer of 2020/21, Dr Elliott photo identified 15 individual Great White sharks solely from ones caught accidentally or filmed by fishermen in the Bowentown Harbour. Further individuals were observed throughout the rest of the Tauranga Harbour and the greater Bay of Plenty coastline, and tragically a young woman was fatally bitten by a shark in January 2021, which Dr Elliott identified formally as a 2.8m sub-adult Great White shark.

During the summer of 2021/22, Great Whites were again being regularly encountered by fishermen in the Bowentown area, and along the coastline of the BOP region.

With a DOC permit having been issued in June 2022, research to answer three key questions could begin:

• Where did these sharks come from?
• Why are they here?
• and how does their movement and behaviour overlap with ours?

These questions are to be answered by deploying satellite tags on the sharks, and by taking small DNA tissue samples while tagging. Dr Elliott says this research has been permitted by DOC and has been developed and justified through consultation with local Iwi.

"In doing so, the habitat use and behaviour of these sharks can be better understood, to not only ensure we protect the Great White and the ecosystem they ensure the health of, but also so that we as people, playing in their ocean, can be best informed and make educated decisions about where we play,' says Dr Elliott.

The tagging aspect of the Great White Project is being supported by SOS, as a charitable avenue for the public to donate and sponsor a shark through.

"The ultimate goal of this project is to tag Great Whites in the Bay of Plenty region, and have their tracks displayed on the www.sustainableoceansociety.co.nz website live, for free, for all the public to view, in order to enable best possible decision making as to where people decide to play in the ocean," says Dr Elliott.

"The scientific understanding obtained by this tagging will also enable ground breaking insight for the Great White shark and its habitation of a region which has been historically rare."

Sponsor a Great White Shark

Satellite tags are not cheap ($3,200NZD each) and they also require satellite time ($800NZD per year). Anyone sponsoring a Great White Shark will thus need to make a charitable donation of $4000NZD which will be a taxable write off.

People or companies who sponsor a shark will be able to name their shark and will be provided with information and imagery about that individual, for their own interest and/or for marketing purposes. Dr Elliott will provide written blogs for each shark tracked on the website, explaining the movement and behaviour of each individual and how that is relevant to habitat and where we recreate.

The Great White App project commenced on December 1 2022. There will be only 20 tags available for naming rights, so quick support is good support. Anyone interested in sponsoring a shark please send an email to: sustainableoceansociety@gmail.com

Financial contributions to support the cost of running this project can also be made by clicking GET INVOLVED to make a donation..