UNDER ATTACK

IT'S HUMANS, NOT SHARKS, WHO ARE NATURE'S MOST FEARSOME PREDATORS

I should never have looked at its teeth. For the past 15 minutes, this 6-ft. tiger shark has been hog-tied alongside our small flat-bottomed motorboat, tossing in choppy seas two miles off Waikiki Beach, in Honolulu. Carl Meyer, a graduate student at the University of Hawaii, has been busy the whole time--slipping a noose around the powerful tail, flipping the shark on its back to put it into a stupor, measuring it this way and that, then shouting the numbers to his colleagues on the larger boat that bobs in the waves nearby.

As he works, Meyer repeats under his breath,...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!