Tiger Shark Cam
Project Leader
The Tiger Shark Cam project, led by Pelagios Kakunjá with Ocean Blue Tree, uses CATS-cams to study tiger shark behavior at Cocos Island, Costa Rica. Deployed on a female shark in 2019, the cams record interactions, aiding conservation efforts.
Through the eyes of a tiger shark.
Historically shark behaviour has only been observed for a brief moment as the shark swims by SCUBA divers. Even during these brief encounters, sharks may alter their natural behaviour around people.
PROJECT LEADER
Dr. James Ketchum
Dr. James Ketchum is Director of Marine Conservation and Co-founder of Pelagios Kakunja. With a Ph.D. in Ecology from UC Davis, he has studied sharks and pelagic species since 1998. His research on hammerhead sharks helped establish MigraMar, a key network in the Eastern Tropical Pacific.
He leads the Marine Megafauna Lab at Pelagios Kakunjá and is an Adjunct Researcher at CIBNOR. Focused on shark ecology in the Gulf of California, he has over 50 publications and is a Mission Blue Hope Spot Champion, featured in documentaries like National Geographic’s Shark Superhighway.
Cutting-edge technology.
In 2019, Pelagios Kakunjá in collaboration with Fins Attached and Ocean Blue Tree, successfully deployed an acoustic tag and a CATS-cam to a 3.5 m female tiger shark at Cocos Island, Costa Rica. The CATS-cam is a point of view camera that simultaneously records depth, temperature and acceleration. After 24 – 72 hours the camera is released and retrieved using a satellite locator. The video data provides a unique opportunity to understand how these sharks interact with each other and their prey. Pelagios Kakunjá will deploy a further five CATS-cams on tiger sharks in Cocos Island.
Project Gallery
Collection of images collected on this project thanks to the help of our wonderful contributors
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