Hawaii

Fledgling seabirds in Hawaii are easy prey for tiger sharks

Published

2 weeks ago

December 26, 2025

Fledgling seabirds in Hawaii are easy prey for tiger sharks

A tiger shark lunges out of the water to grab a young albatross. A new study has revealed that fledgling seabirds attract tiger sharks during the summer at Hawaii’s French Frigate Shoals. Image via Joe Spring/ NOAA/ University of Hawaii Manoa.

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Tiger sharks gather around Hawaii’s French Frigate Shoals in summer to prey on newly fledged seabirds, a new study has revealed.
The influx of tiger sharks pushes smaller shark species to change where and how they hunt.
Seasonal seabird movements strongly influence the balance of the entire local shark ecosystem.

When seabirds fledge, northwestern Hawaii shark ecosystems are disrupted

There are several shark species that patrol the waters of the French Frigate Shoals atoll in northwestern Hawaii. In December 2025, scientists reported that the population of tiger sharks surges during the summer in some areas of the atoll. That’s because those sharks are opportunistically preying on newly fledged seabirds, primarily albatross chicks. Moreover, that high seasonal influx of tiger sharks forces smaller sharks in those waters to change the way they use their habitat.

Chloé Blandino, at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology Shark Lab, is the lead author of the paper on this study. She said in a statement:

We discovered that tiger sharks gather around small islands in summer to hunt fledgling seabirds, which, in turn, forces other smaller sharks to adjust their habitat use. It’s a clear example of how a seasonal food source can influence habitat use by an entire predator community.

The researchers published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Ecosphere on December 2, 2025.

Tiger sharks go after young seabirds

The French Frigate Shoals in northwestern Hawaii is a crescent-shaped barrier reef with small sandy islands. These tiny islands provide critical habitat for seabirds, green sea turtles, and Hawaiian monk seals. The seabirds include species like albatrosses, tropicbirds and terns.

Blue ocean with a crescent-shaped atoll and some clouds. — This image of the French Frigate Shoals in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands was captured by an astronaut in 2003. It shows the crescent shaped reef hugging a lagoon with small sandy islands. Image via NASA.

During the summer, tiger sharks converge in the atoll waters to prey on fledgling seabirds. These young birds, which hatched just months earlier, are just learning to fly. As a result, they have not yet become adept at avoiding predators.

Tracking shark behavior

The researchers targeted three species known to frequent the atoll waters: tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier), Galapagos sharks (Carcharhinus galapagensis), and gray reef sharks (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos).

They surgically inserted acoustic transmitters in the sharks, each one emitting a unique coded signal. Their work followed careful animal handling protocols that University of Hawaii researchers developed to minimize harm to the sharks.

In addition, the researchers installed underwater receivers to pick up sounds from each shark’s transmitter. These receivers were placed in habitats occupied by the sharks: near coral reefs, as well as in deep and shallow lagoon areas. As a result, when a shark swam near a receiver, the signal from its transmitter was picked up, recording a timestamped location for the animal. This allowed the scientists to track each shark’s movement.

Blue ocean with a crescent-shaped atoll. It is marked with blue, yellow, and red dots within circles and oblongs of dotted lines. — Another image of the French Frigate Shoals, marked with the locations of acoustic receivers. Yellow dots indicate the locations of receivers in the shallow lagoon area and near small sandy islands. Blue dots are for receivers at the deep parts of the lagoon. And red dots are receivers near the coral reef. The dotted boundaries are data analysis regions used by the scientists. Image via Blandino, C. A., et al./ Ecosphere (CC BY 4.0)

Extra influx of tiger sharks affects other sharks

For two years, the scientists tracked 128 sharks at the French Frigate Shoals. Their data revealed interesting information about the sharks’ movements.

They found that tiger sharks are more abundant in the shallow lagoon of the atoll in summer, around the time that albatross chicks are fledging. They were taking advantage of easy prey since the chicks were not yet adept fliers.

Moreover, the summer influx of tiger sharks also affected the dynamics of the atoll’s shark community. Grey reef sharks, which are smaller than tiger sharks, moved out of the lagoon areas occupied by tiger sharks. They retreated to waters near the reef to primarily hunt fish. Meanwhile, Galapagos sharks changed the timing of their hunts in some places. They also preyed on monk seal pups, avoiding albatross chicks.

Towards the end of summer, surviving fledgling seabirds, along with their parents, dispersed farther out to sea. With no more easy prey to take down, most tiger sharks moved out of the shallow lagoon, and the other sharks returned to their usual ecological niches.

Seabirds have a big impact on shark population

Carl Meyer, also at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology Shark Lab, is a paper co-author. He and his colleagues noted that if the birds lost their habitat to adverse weather, it would have a significant effect on the shark community, the Hawaiian monk seals, and of course, the seabirds themselves.

Two seals on a beach looking at two sharks in shallow water. — Two Hawaiian monk seal pups watching two Galapagos sharks swimming in shallow water at Trig Island in the French Frigate Shoals. Image via Carl Meyer/ University of Hawaii Manoa.

Meyer commented:

This study highlights the far-reaching impact of seabirds, showing they can shape the movements of top predators like tiger sharks, which then ripple through the entire food web. Understanding these predator-prey links is crucial for managing Hawaii’s marine ecosystems.

Bottom line: When seabirds fledge at the French Frigate Shoals atoll of northwestern Hawaii, tiger sharks move in to prey on the fledgling seabirds, disrupting shark populations in the area.

Source: Seabirds mediate intraguild and competitive interactions in a shark community

Via University of Hawaii Manoa

Read more: Teenage Greenland sharks’ hangout spot revealed in new study

Shireen Gonzaga

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About the Author:

Shireen Gonzaga is a freelance writer who enjoys writing about natural history. She is also a technical editor at an astronomical observatory where she works on documentation for astronomers.

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Hawaii

Hawaii suffers first defeat of the season against Loyola Chicago | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Published

12 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Hawaii suffers first defeat of the season against Loyola Chicago | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

The second-ranked Hawaii men’s volleyball team expected a different Loyola Chicago team to show up Friday night in the rematch of Thursday’s 94-minute sweep by UH.

They were certainly correct in that assessment.

Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said flatly the Ramblers were better after No. 7 Loyola Chicago handed Hawaii its first home loss in January in two years in a 25-23, 25-22, 24-26, 29-27 win before a season-high crowd of 5,811 at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

Aleksandar Sosa put down a match-high 19 kills and setter Ryan McElligott set the tone with four of his five aces in the first set for Loyola Chicago (1-1), which out-served and out-blocked the Rainbow Warriors.

“I thought they touched a lot of balls on the block and those first two sets, the first set, we had three or four balls back on our side to score some points and we didn’t,” Wade said. “We kind of screwed it up. We weren’t quite as crisp and efficient and against a good team, we let them hang around and they come back and make some plays late.”

Hawaii looked done for the night trailing 20-13 when it mounted a furious comeback in the third set to avoid a sweep.

Loyola Chicago had five match points in the fourth set and finally put the contest away with a double block of Ofeck Hazan to complete the upset.

“I think they served way better and we really struggled passing their serve,” said Hazan, who started in place of Trevell Jordan in the middle. “They were more creative out of system. (Thursday) they just hit into our block and today they just found the touches or just played better.”

Louis Sakanoko led Hawaii with 18 kills and set a career high with 12 digs, and Kristian Titriyski added 16 kills before sitting out the fourth set. UH hit .254 for the match and had six aces to the Ramblers’ eight. Loyola Chicago hd 15.5 blocks to Hawaii’s 10.5.

“We weren’t clicking on all cylinders and I’m not trying to use this as an excuse, but (setter) Tread (Rosenthal) didn’t practice all week. He had a back that tightened up,” Wade said. “Trevell’s back tightened up and I thought Ofeck played pretty well and he gave us a nice spark, but you’re just a little off rhythm there. Kristian was kind of grabbing his back late and obviously we made the decision to go with Kainoa (Wade) to give us a spark and he gave us that.”

Kainoa Wade and Sakanoko each served three straight points for UH in the third set after it fell behind 20-13 and Finn Kearney came off the bench to serve the final two points that ended in blocks to get UH back in the game.

Hawaii hit just .171 in the fourth and made eight service errors. It had 20 serving errors for the match and served in at less than 80%.

“Obviously it’s a work in progress. We’re in game four of the year,” Kainoa Wade said. “We got a lot of work to do, but we’ve got to trust what we know. We’ve served a lot of balls in our lives, all of us, so we know we can go on runs and make plays.”

The Ramblers gave Hawaii a taste of its own medicine in the opening set with McElligott building a strong poker hand of aces during an 8-0 run during which Charlie Wade used both timeouts.

McElligott had three aces after Jake Read’s kill put him behind the service line, and despite two Hawaii timeouts and the media timeout, he poured it on until UH caught a break with a Loyola Chicago net violation on an overpass that almost certainly would have been a Ramblers point.

Sakanoko followed with back-to-back kills, including a deep tip into the far corner over a triple block that prompted Loyola Chicago to call timeout leading 17-14.

Hawaii extended the run to 5-0 after Titriyski put down a kill following a long rally to pull UH within a point.

The Rainbow Warriors got back to even at 22-all on Kainoa Wade’s ace as a serving sub. The set was tied once more until a Rosenthal service error and a McElligott ace for his fourth of the set handed UH its first set loss of the season.

Rosenthal wasn’t able to spin serve all night due to the back injury.

Neither team separated by more than a point in the second set until Justin Todd had two aces during a 4-0 UH run to put the ‘Bows ahead 13-10.

Hawaii led 21-19 when the Ramblers scored six of the next seven points to go up two sets to none.

UH’s only point during the final 6-1 run came on a Loyola Chicago service error. The Ramblers scored three of their points on errors by UH and another on their sixth ace of the match.

The Rainbow Warriors will have four days off before playing four matches in three days next week.

Hawaii has doubleheaders against Roberts Wesleyan and Rockhurst in reverse order on Wednesday and Friday.

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Hawaii

2026 Sony Open field is announced. See who’s playing in Hawaii

Published

24 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

2026 Sony Open field is announced. See who’s playing in Hawaii

The Sony Open in Hawaii has the honors of being the kickoff event to the 2026 PGA Tour season after the cancellation of The Sentry at Kapalua this season.

Instead of Maui, the Tour debuts in Honolulu on the island of Oahu, Jan. 15-18, at the Seth Raynor-designed Waialae Country Club, where Nick Taylor prevailed in a playoff over Nico Echavarria last year.

Among the changes this season is the field size, which was reduced from 144 to 120, and, there is no longer is a Monday qualifier offering four spots. Will that help with pace of play? Stay tuned.

The field includes the following notables in addition to Taylor and Echavarria: Daniel Berger, Keegan Bradley, Michael Brennan, Corey Conners, Tony Finau, Chris Gotterup, Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Billy Horschel, Robert MacIntyre, Collin Morikawa, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth, Sahith Theegala, Gary Woodland and 62-year-old Vijay Singh.

Here’s the full field for the Sony Open, which will be live on Golf Channel all four days as well as NBC with early-round coverage on Saturday and Sunday.

This year’s Sony purse is $9.1 million and the winner also will receive 500 FedEx Cup points.

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