Following the fatal attack by a tiger shark on a swimmer in December 2020 in Orient Bay and the bite of another woman in St Kitts thirty days later, a team of scientists carried out investigations to understand the causes of the attack.
For them, the hypothesis was that the animal responsible for the accident had adopted a deviant behavior, and could thus bite humans without reason.
Doctor Eric Clua, veterinarian by training and director of studies, had convinced his colleagues to take DNA from the shark on the bodies of the swimmers. A totally innovative initiative which aims to be able to identify the animal.
After several months of analysis, the results matched. "The probability rate that the shark that bit in Orient Bay is the one that bit in Nevis is 95%," says Eric Clua.
Now the latter begins a new phase of work, that of locating the said shark in order to capture it. “We know that the tiger shark always comes back where it has been. We are therefore going to organize non-lethal fishing in order to be able to locate the animal that we know is potentially dangerous,” he explains.
The first series will begin this month in Saint-Martin, others are also planned in St Kitts and Nevis, where the authorities have just given their agreement to the director of studies.
The fishermen who will be entitled to participate will have to take DNA from the animals and mark them at the level of the dorsal so that the animals can be identified easier.
These actions are part of a much broader shark research and monitoring programme.
A public interest group has been created and is installed in the prefecture.
480 euros have been released to finance this work, which should also make it possible to identify the population of sharks in the West Indies and improve knowledge of this animal species.
The prefect would like Saint-Martin to become a center of excellence for sharks in the Caribbean. (soualigapost.com)
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