The first few fishing attempts were not successful and all we caught was an eel. We asked the locals what would be the best time for fishing for sharks in the river (low tide, high tide, night, day etc.) and slowly improved our techniques. Switching from rod and reel to a small longline finally resulted in catching two bull sharks a few days ago. The site where we caught the two sharks is still relatively close to the mouth of the river. We were able to take tissue samples for Mahmood and release the sharks in good condition.

Thanks to Eroni and Victor! We will continue our fishing efforts in the coming weeks and work our way slowly upriver.

A more promising approach to locate shark nursery grounds in Fiji is using local people’s knowledge. Back in 2004 I interviewed a local fisherman living in a village situated on Fiji’s largest river and he told me that he catches sharks in the river in November and December each year. He did not know what species this could be but described his catch as “sharks with a rounded snout and being greyish/brownish in colour”. Most of the sharks he catches are small but he also mentioned that he catches large individuals. When he cuts them open he sometimes finds baby sharks! Pregnant females in Fijian rivers! Well, this was certainly something we wanted to know more about. This summer, we set out to collect more information about the occurrence of sharks in Fijian rivers. We visited a good number of villages situated along the major rivers on Viti Levu and Vanua Levu (the two main Fijian islands) and interviewed the locals. What they told us is way more than what we expected. All interviewees confirmed that they regularly see and catch sharks in the rivers as far up as 30 km inland! Closer to the river mouths they reported to catch small hammerhead sharks and unknown species further up river. We also learned a lot about how they use and regard sharks. All very interesting and exciting! There will definitely be future posts here that report the results from these visits. Stay tuned!