Photo Credit: © Jürgen Freund ? www.freundfactory.com Check out more of Juergen's awesome photography.

Pelagic Sharks and Rays of New Zealand


Summer "06-'07 Update

We've had great interest in the bigfish project this season, and we've been delighted by the response to the posters, ID guides and sighting forms. A number of people took the time and effort to send us sighting forms - thank you, that's exellent. We're currently waiting for the last few outstanding sighting forms that we know of, so we can collate a summary of the season's sightings.

We haven't had any photos taken in the water this season, so next season we're very keen to collect more visual data for photo ID's of these amazing creatures.

And look what is coming to New Zealand, either later this year or early in 2008. The awesome new film 'Sharkwater'. Check out their web site for more details, and a movie trailer. And check out the stack of awards!

"Driven by passion from a lifelong fascination with sharks, filmmaker Rob Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters. Filmed in visually stunning, high definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world's shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Stewart discovers these magnificent creatures have gone from predator to prey, and how despite surviving the earth's history of mass extinctions, they could easily be wiped out within a few years due to human greed."

           Thumbnail image of bigfish whale shark poster         Thumbnail image of bigfish manta ray poster


   Thumbnail image of bigfish basking shark poster        Thumbnail image of bigfish white pointer poster



What the?
The aim of bigfish is to record local sightings of whale sharks, basking sharks, white pointers (great white sharks) and mobulid rays (devil and manta). 

Over time, we should be able to find out where these animals spend most of their time in New Zealand, where they come from, whether the same animals are visiting each year, and when we can find some moolah, hopefully we can get some satellite tags and find out where they're going to when they leave New Zealand waters. more >>

We'll also happily accept donations to bigfish, which will of course, only be spent on bigfish activities.

How the? 
If you are lucky enough to see one of these amazing animals, could you please fill in a sighting form, and send it to bigfish, by downloading the sighting form, and snail-mailing it to us (we'll have an online form available soon). All sightings are valuable. more >>