White Sharks In Tonga? You Bet!

Without a doubt 2008 will probably go down as one of the most exciting in terms of tracking data from a global effort with Great White sharks.

From the discovery of SOFA (Shared Offshore Feeding Area) in the Pacific to Y.O.Y migrations into the Sea of Cortez to this weeks revelations of white sharks in Tonga:

THREE Great White Sharks - each over 4 metres long and a kind rarely sighted in Tonga - have visited Tongatapu waters very recently, dropping their transmitting tags and surprising scientists who say that it is the first time they have known these creatures to come here.

They were among six Great Whites that were tagged off the Chatham Islands in April.

"All three sharks may still be in Tongan waters or they may have left," said Clinton Duffy, a scientist with the Aquatic & Threats Unit in New Zealand's Department of Conservation, who confirmed that three tags have popped up in Tongan waters in the last two months.