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The Great Fiji Shark Count will work with the Fijian Ministry of Fisheries to ascertain how 50 baby hammerhead sharks were found dead along the Nukulau beachfront over the weekend, local media reported Monday.
Nanise Ledua, a member of the Great Fiji Shark Count, was quoted as saying by the Fiji Times that they will send a team to Nukulau Island to gather samples of the dead baby sharks and determine the cause of their deaths.
Ledua said the toxic spill theory was not possible as other species of fish and other marine lives were not affected and the other possibility of the cause of their deaths was the change in water temperature, but this could not be confirmed.
"It's all assumptions we are assuming that maybe because baby sharks were always in shallow waters, they could have suffocated due to the change in water temperature."
It was shocking and sad to lose such a large number of baby sharks at one time, she said, adding they assumed that it was not a failed attempt at shark fishing as the hammerhead sharks still had their dorsal fins.
"There are a lot of questions that we are asking and we can only determine the answers to these questions when we get samples of it," Ledua said.
In November, shark advocate Manoa Rasigatale said Fiji needed to take their cue from the American Samoa's Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources that had promulgated new regulations protecting large coral reef fish and all shark species.
