What happens when 2 species of sharks share a feast?

In 2024, skin-diving tourists ran into a bizarre shark feeding event off the coast of Hawaii. A mixed group of shark species were scavenging together peacefully. They even ignored the divers. Hear the story from a biologist who studied the event, Olivia Miller. The video drops at 12:15 p.m. CDT (17:15 UTC) on Monday, June 23. Watch in the player above, or on YouTube.

• Oceanic whitetip and tiger sharks are rarely seen together because these sharks typically don’t occupy the same habitats.
• But tourists on a boat that had left Hawaii in April 2024 watched as the sharks feasted together peacefully on a decayed carcass.
• None of the sharks showed aggression toward each other. Nor did they show aggression toward the people filming the event from the water.

Frontiers published this original article on May 29, 2025. Edits by EarthSky.

Different species of sharks come together to feast

On May 29, 2025, researchers published a new study in Frontiers in Fish Science, describing an unusual aggregation of sharks coming together to feed on a carcass that had decayed to mostly flesh and blubber.

Lead author Molly Scott, a marine researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said:

To our knowledge, this is the first study to document a feeding aggregation of tiger sharks and oceanic whitetip sharks scavenging concurrently, and peacefully, on a carcass. These species are rarely seen together in the wild because of the vastly different habitats they occupy.

The event took place in the spring of 2024 and was witnessed by a tourist boat that left port in Hawaii. Its passengers probably didn’t expect to bear witness to a rare scene among sharks. Sharks of two species that usually don’t occupy the same habitats had flocked to a heavily decayed carcass and were seen feeding peacefully for a day. The sharks didn’t exhibit any aggressive behavior toward each other nor toward the tourist boat operators and photographers who observed the event from the water. This kind of observation can help scientists better understand interspecies relations and social interactions between some of the oceans’ biggest and best-known hunters.

Many sharks, particularly those that live in the open oceans, are hunters rather than scavengers. Despite this, a small portion of their diet comes from scavenging, a behavior they may engage in when the opportunity arises.

Feast in peace

Oceanic whitetips, a threatened species growing to an average of 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length, are solitary sharks. They’re also highly migratory and spend most of their time roaming the oceans. This choice of habitat makes them difficult to study. During the spring and summer, however, they seasonally aggregate at Hawaii’s Big Island. Tiger sharks, a slightly bigger, more coastal species growing three to four meters on average, dwell there year-round. Scott said:

It is incredibly rare for these two species to overlap in space and time.

In April 2024, a tourist boat sighted a heavily decayed carcass about six miles (10 km) off the west coast of Big Island. Once in the water, the tourist operators could observe the feeding event for 8.5 hours. During this time, they spotted at least nine oceanic whitetip sharks and five tiger sharks. Scott said:

Even though up to 12 individual sharks were feeding intermittently from a very small, highly degraded carcass, we did not observe any agonistic inter- or intra-species aggression. This was surprising to me; I would assume some agonistic behaviors would exist when there are that many sharks attempting to feed around such a small carcass. But it seems all individuals knew their place in the social hierarchy.

First servings

Tiger sharks, most likely due to their larger size, were the dominant species. All tiger sharks, except one smaller female, and the two largest oceanic whitetips were most frequently feeding directly on the carcass. The smaller sharks stayed under the surface and fed on scraps drifting away. It’s possible they were attracted to the scene because of the scraps and regurgitations left behind by the larger tiger sharks, the researchers said.

There might have been other reasons for some sharks getting first servings, too. Scott explained:

Some individuals, like the female tiger shark, may have been shier or less bold, likely again due to her size. Also, with the other sharks having established the feeding hierarchy before the female tiger shark arrived, maybe she didn’t feel too welcome to get in on the action.

The study was conducted over a relatively short time span because they could not locate the carcass again the next day. Considering the size of the carcass, a lot of sharks were present. And this research could provide new insights into relationships and social interactions between sharks that don’t normally inhabit the same waters, the researchers said.

Encounter with sharks can provide a new perspective

For humans, they said, it can perhaps provide a new perspective on sharks. Scott concluded:

There were between two and three humans in the water at all times filming more than 12 sharks feeding. None of the photographers reported any scary, aggressive or harmful interactions with the sharks. I hope this provides a new perspective that sharks are not the human-eating predators they are made out to be.

Bottom line: Sharks not normally seen together peacefully feasted on a decayed carcass in the waters off Hawaii, surprising tourists and scientists.

Source: Novel observations of an oceanic whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus) and tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) scavenging event

Via Frontiers

Great white sharks in False Bay vanished. What happened?

Sharks and rays leap out of the water. But why?