Young Boaters Save a Sea Turtle From the Jaws of a Tiger Shark

There are many threats to sea turtles, but most of them come from humans. Dangers may range from getting entangled in fishing gear to losing their habitats from beach erosion and human development. Thanks to their large size and hard shells, sea turtles don’t have many natural predators. However, one species of predatory shark has perfectly evolved to hunt and eat sea turtles. What would you do if you were out on the ocean and saw a sea turtle fleeing for its life with a tiger shark close behind? Would you save its life or let nature take its course?

A Tiger Shark Hunts a Sea Turtle

In a video posted to YouTube by @DeepBlueDiscovery, we can witness just how fast and furious the chase is between a tiger shark and a sea turtle. In its description, Deep Blue Discovery states that it is “the YouTube channel designed to highlight all the amazing wildlife the Earth’s oceans have to offer.”

In the video, a boat full of friends who were planning to spend the day fishing off the coast of Abaco, Bahamas, caught the scene on camera. The sea turtle makes it to the back of the boat and tries to climb up the diving platform with the large shark in close pursuit. The men on the boat couldn’t stand to see the sea turtle eaten by the shark, so one of them lifted the lucky turtle out of the sea to escape the tiger shark’s jaws, placing it safely down on the other side.

Tiger Sharks Have Evolved to Eat Sea Turtles

The comments in the video are mainly positive for the rescue. However, a few commenters point out that the shark needs to eat too. Tiger sharks are one of the few natural predators of sea turtles. The largest species of sea turtles can grow up to seven feet long. But tiger sharks are even larger and may grow to around 14 feet in length.

Both are fast swimmers and can cruise around 20 miles per hour or more. (However, you’ll likely only see a sea turtle swimming that fast when it’s in danger.) The advantage of the tiger shark comes with its sharp teeth. Sea turtles have tough shells made of keratin. This keeps most predators away. However, tiger sharks have broad heads and serrated teeth. When a tiger shark shakes its head, its teeth, which are curved, can cut in both directions. It’s through this method that the tiger shark can cut through a thick sea turtle shell, which is made of tough keratin. Also, tiger sharks’ jaws are reinforced with calcium and fused in the middle. This helps them to withstand the pressure it takes to bite and cut into the turtle’s shell.

Drone Footage Provides Scientists With New Information on How Tiger Sharks Hunt Sea Turtles

Some incredible drone footage from off the coast of Brazil has given scientists new insights into how tiger sharks may learn to successfully hunt sea turtles. It’s not an easy task, and it appears juvenile tiger sharks need a lot of practice.

By watching the shark behavior filmed by the drones, scientists developed a hypothesis. They think juvenile tiger sharks may be swimming in the shallow bay to hone their sea turtle hunting skills. The drone picked up numerous attempts by the young sharks to catch the sea turtles. Yet the turtles always managed to slip away.

The video also revealed that the turtle’s best defense against tiger sharks isn’t their tough shell, but their maneuverability in the water. Researchers have learned that adult tiger sharks ambush sea turtles from below, giving them no chance to swim away. By watching the juvenile tiger sharks make a lot of mistakes, scientists can hypothesize that the sharks learn over time to grab their prey quickly before it has the chance to wriggle away.

Tiger Sharks Are a Keystone Predator

Tiger sharks are what are known as keystone predators. This means that without them, their ocean ecosystem would be altered, and the food web would collapse. Emotionally, we may want the sea turtle to safely escape while we watch the video. In reality, if all sea turtles were saved from tiger sharks, they would overpopulate the area and cause a big change to their ecosystem.

Sea turtles eat seagrass, keeping it in check. If too many sea turtles eat too much seagrass, all the other sea creatures that depend on it for eating and hiding would die out. When shark populations decrease, sea turtle populations tend to increase. This can lead to overgrazing in one area, which causes the ecosystem to change.

Unfortunately, both tiger sharks and sea turtles are in need of conservation efforts. Tiger sharks are listed as “Near Threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN). And two species of sea turtles are classified as critically endangered, with a third species listed as endangered.