Thoughtful Sharks

Long
term study of the behaviour of
individual sharks has shown that they
are not just acting on instinct. Not only are they thinking and
highly intelligent—they are conscious too. So
as the Year
of the Shark in 2019 begins,
here is a review of how their actions reveal some
of their
mental states. Over
a period of fifteen years, I searched out and observed the reef
sharks on different islands in the South Pacific and for seven years
studied the population of blackfins intensively as individuals. By
recording their actions long-term, I was able to access a dimension
of their lives that had not previously been documented. My records
ultimately included 581 individuals and I could recognize 300
different sharks on sight. Shark science has studied these animals
through fishing them, dissecting them, and tagging, never through
long term underwater observation, even though this is the method,
termed “ethology” used to study wild animals on land. I
concluded that they were using cognition, ra…