Sharks make friendships that last for years and go out for a bite together, say scientists

SHARKS form communities with stable social bonds that can last for years, scientists have discovered.

The study used acoustic tracking tags and cameras to observe 41 reef sharks around the Palmyra Atoll, south of Hawaii, for four years. It found the sharks spent mornings together in large groups before dispersing and reconvening later.

Some pairs stayed together for the length of the four-year study, which was published in the Proceedings of the

Royal Society journal. Yannis Papastamatiou, the marine scientist who led the research, believes being in a group helps the sharks share information about where to find food.

David Jacoby of the Zoological Society of London helped interpret the data collated by researchers at UC Santa Barbara, the University of Hawaii and the University of Exeter.

“For some time now, we have known that sharks are capable of having distinct social preferences for other group mates,” Mr Jacoby said. “We had no idea, though, that these social bonds could last for multiple years or that such communities might function as areas to exchange information.”

Mr Papastamatiou said that although the sharks had an entire atoll to use, certain groups spent most of their time in smaller regions together. “Using one part of the reef helps you find your friends, so to speak,” he said. “It can be hard to maintain social bonds in the ocean, but if sharks all routinely return to the same spot then that will help them maintain their group structure.”

Sharks have friends, as has been confirmed by a new study which found that reef sharks form communities with social bonds that can last for years. It is somewhat reminiscent of the old East End gangsters who dispensed untold violence but were always said to be good to their mothers. Selachimorphaphiles would say that this is an unfair comparison. The shark’s reputation for violence is dubious and the number of attacks on humans relatively insignificant. Steven Spielberg and, perhaps even more so, John Williams – who composed that chilling score for Jaws – have an awful lot to answer for. Nevertheless, the upsides to embarking on a friendship with a reef shark seem slim. They do not call to each other, show affection or raise their own young. Even a hardened gangster might call that standoffish.