The Journey of the “Bird Decoy” Norfolk Island to Rainbows Beach QLD

January – April 2024 Tiger Shark Research

Late in April and interesting request was posted on the Norfolk Island Noticeboard Facebook page. This was from Don Reid in QLD who had found a “bird decoy” while walking the beach at Rainbow Beach, (near Tin Can Bay) in Queensland Australia. What was interesting about the “bird decoy”, even though the camera was waterlogged, there was still footage on the memory card, dated January 2024, which showed a park bench with “In memory of Robin Mark Smith “carved on it. There are lots of Pine trees as well.

I also shared the Facebook post onto the Norfolk Island Bird Facebook page, and it didn’t take long to learn the story of the “bird decoy”.

The “bird decoy” was part of the tiger shark research and the owner Lauren Meyer contacted Don Reid and was immensely grateful to get it back as part of the scientific research about the Norfolk Island tiger sharks. I have included information regarding the tiger shark researcher Dr Lauren Meyer later in this article.

The “bird decoy” was deployed off Puppy’s Point on January 18, 2024, to gather video footage of tiger sharks feeding on sea birds. The Flinders University research crew were unable to locate it next morning and it drifted over 1500 km to land on Inskip Point Queensland where Don Reid found it 3 months later.

Robin Mark Smith drowned fishing off Puppies Point, Norfolk Island.

The images on the camera memory card include the Puppies Point bench seat, “In memory of Robin Mark Smith “engraved. This lovely seat is made from Norfolk Pine in his memory and is at the far end of the picnic reserve. Robin Smith was a young man who drown while fishing off the rocks at Puppy’s Point, on 4 November 1989. I have a copy of the newspaper report of his accidental drowning when fishing off the rocks, which also includes a lovely photo of Robin Mark Smith. It was a very sad news article and the whole community must have been in shock when they learnt of his loss. Reading the comments on the April Facebook post also brought families and friends together as they remembered Robin Smith and the times they shared here on Norfolk Island.

The “bird decoy” is a wedge-tailed shearwater, known here on Norfolk Island as the “Ghost bird” because the call sounds like a moaning noise with the eerie call they make. The researcher project was using the “bird decoy” to check if the tiger sharks were eating the birds which float on the water before sunset before coming ashore after dark. If you look out to sea around sunset, you'll some-times see them floating on the water in huge 'rafts', waiting for the onset of semi-darkness before venturing ashore.

Shark research monitor Norfolk Island 2024. If you wish to learn more about the tiger sharks of Norfolk Island, check out these interesting links regarding the research teams and the data collected in recent years about the large number of tiger sharks which gather here on Norfolk Island and travel also to New Caledonia across to the Great Barrier Reef and other areas of the South Pacific.

The tiger sharks of Norfolk Island (arcgis.com)

Discovery of the world’s largest group of tiger sharks - Flinders University

Over several years, the Neiser Foundation has provided funding to a Flinders University shark ecology research team, leading to the discovery of the world’s largest group of adult tiger sharks off Norfolk Island.

‘We first went to Norfolk Island to examine the impact of microplastics on the tiger shark population and expected minimal effects in an untouched part of the Pacific, but we found much more,’ says Professor Huveneers.

‘The island has its own waste disposal problems, including offal from culling old cattle from its extensive livestock population, which might explain the large population of enormous, well-fed sharks, as most of the sharks we’ve tagged are over four metres in length.’

Research trips to Norfolk Island have seen the Flinders researchers apply acoustic tags and satellite tags to monitor shark movement, and collect swabs, muscle and blood samples to study the shark’s diet and microbiome.

‘Our focus on tiger sharks now informs the wider knowledge of sharks, which are highly vulnerable to the impact of people,’ says Professor Charlie Huveneers.

I also found an interesting link about the shark researcher Dr Lauren Meyer who made contact when the “bird decoy” was found. Here is information regarding her research and wealth of knowledge and advances in tiger shark research.

Understanding shark behaviour - Alumni stories (flinders.edu.au)

Shark researcher Dr Lauren Meyer. Photo credit: Screentime Australia

Currently working as a Research Associate at Flinders University, a position co-funded by the Georgia Aquarium in the US, Lauren has been diving off Norfolk Island to study tiger sharks. She has helped create a new biochemical ecology lab at Flinders and researches the diet of endangered skates in the arctic, and of sharks and rays in Japan using cutting-edge biochemical ecology techniques.

“Top predator sharks are vital parts of the world’s oceans, yet they face countless challenges from activities including fishing, climate change, habitat degradation, shifting prey abundance, human recreation, and wildlife tourism,” Lauren explains.

Her work is having international impact. In 2018, Lauren co-founded Otlet, a unique global open-access platform that allows more than 600 researchers to share and source a collection of more than 22,000 biological samples covering 322 species.

The international research community has also adopted Lauren’s new method to biopsy free-swimming sharks, and she is becoming a world-renowned expert in shark fatty acid analysis – enabling the determination of predator diets in shifting ecosystems.

Dr Lauren Meyer was awarded a 2020 Early Career Alumni Award for her significant contribution to the local, national and international STEM community through research and innovation in the field of shark trophic ecology.

I found this story fascinating, that the use of social media as a positive outcome, reuniting the researchers with the scientific data that had been collected, and learning about the tiger shark research here on Norfolk Island and the incredible work the marine scientist has learnt here on our remote South Pacific Island.

The story was also very emotional with family and friends of Robin Mark Smith recalling the sad day 4 November 1989 and the weeks that followed as they search for Robin after being washed off the rocks fishing at Puppy’s Point.

Here are images of the “bird decoy” and the memorial seat at Puppy’s Point

Betty Matthews

10 May 2024