Tiger shark migrations
A warm-water wanderer recorded across the tropics, with famous concentrations around the Bahamas, Hawai‘i, and Australia’s east coast.
See tiger shark dive sites · zoom in and select a glow to open that coast on the dive map
The tiger shark year, in real records
A warm-water wanderer recorded across the tropics, with famous concentrations around the Bahamas, Hawai‘i, and Australia’s east coast. The map above animates 23,186 recorded observations of Galeocerdo cuvier — CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records accessed through GBIF, binned by calendar month, peaking in May. Sightings are history, not a forecast: they show where people have actually seen this animal, which is strong planning context and never a guarantee.
Where the year peaks
The regions holding the most recorded tiger shark sightings, and the months when each one runs hottest — computed from the same dataset the map animates.
- Eastern Australiayear-round12,502 sightingsdive sites here
- Western AustraliaOct–Apr8,985 sightingsdive sites here
- Southern Africayear-round1,432 sightingsdive sites here