Norfolk Island attracts notably large tiger sharks, but scientists have not shown that its sharks reach the greatest lengths on Earth. A 2025 study tracked 35 sharks around the remote South Pacific island and found a median total length of 4.0 metres. The researchers described them as some of the largest tiger sharks ever monitored by satellite—not the longest ever recorded.
How large are Norfolk Island’s tiger sharks?
In a study published in Marine Environmental Research in April 2025, researchers satellite-tracked 35 tiger sharks at Norfolk Island between February 2020 and April 2023. The tagged sharks had a median total length of 4.0 metres. The authors called them “some of the largest individuals ever monitored” with satellite telemetry, a description of the tracked sample rather than a record for the species. Read the study abstract.
A median is the midpoint of the measured sample: half the sharks were shorter and half longer. It is not the largest individual’s length, and it does not establish a species-wide maximum. The study tracked adult sharks, including large adult females, and highlights the importance of Norfolk Island and other nearshore areas to them.
Are they the biggest tiger sharks in the world?
That has not been established. The 2025 study supports calling these sharks among the largest satellite-monitored tiger sharks, but it does not compare maximum lengths across all tiger shark populations or prove a global length record.
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For context, National Geographic reported in 2024 that Norfolk Island tiger sharks average about two feet longer than tiger sharks at the Great Barrier Reef and frequently reach about 15 feet. Those are figures from National Geographic’s reporting, not a direct population comparison presented in the 2025 tracking study. Read the National Geographic report.
Where do the sharks travel?
The tracked sharks ranged across a broad stretch of the South Pacific, with tracks passing near New Caledonia, the Great Barrier Reef, Papua New Guinea, the Chesterfield Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Zealand. The longest individual track covered close to 17,000 kilometres over 468 days. That is the distance recorded along one shark’s track, not a standard migration-route length. See the study’s movement findings.
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Many return to Norfolk Island seasonally
Among sharks tracked across multiple seasons, 88% returned to Norfolk Island at least once. Many came from New Caledonia. The median arrival was in December and the median departure in May, indicating a seasonal pattern in the tracked sample rather than a schedule that applies to every tiger shark. See the study’s movement findings.
Why do they gather around Norfolk Island?
The study found associations between shark movements and environmental features, but it did not establish one cause for the aggregation. Coastal use of islands was the strongest factor associated with monthly habitat-suitability models. Sea-surface temperature was associated with seasonal departures and arrivals in those models. These are modelled relationships, not proof that temperature alone triggers migration. Read the study abstract.
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Cattle offal is a proposed food source, not a proven cause
Professor Charlie Huveneers of Flinders University has suggested that offal from culling old cattle could provide a food subsidy and help explain the presence of a large population of well-fed sharks. The proposal is a hypothesis: the study does not demonstrate that offal causes the aggregation, explains the sharks’ size or accounts for their abundance. Read Flinders University’s account.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the findings do—and do not—show
- Shown: 35 tagged sharks had a median total length of 4.0 metres, and many tracked sharks used a wide South Pacific range.
- Shown: Most sharks tracked over multiple seasons returned to Norfolk Island at least once.
- Not established: That these are the longest tiger sharks on Earth, or that local food availability is why they are large.
- Still uncertain: What combination of prey, habitat and environmental conditions draws large sharks to the island.
The evidence makes Norfolk Island an important site for studying large adult tiger sharks and their movements. It does not yet explain why the sharks aggregate there or support a global maximum-length claim.
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