Rēkohu/Chatham Islands is an important feeding area for one shark species.

The regular and predictable presence of White Sharks in this area is driven by seasonal aggregations of multiple prey species. White Sharks seasonally feed on aggregations of New Zealand Fur Seals Arctocephalus forsteri and whale carcasses during austral spring and summer (Bonfil et al. 2010; Duffy et al. 2012; Francis et al. 2012). White Sharks spend most of the time around Rēkohu/Chatham Islands in waters <50 m which is consistent with the feeding behaviour around pinniped colonies observed in other sites around the globe (Hammerschlag et al. 2006; Duffy et al. 2012). White Shark aggregations have been reported regularly in the area since the 1980s (Ayling & Cox 1982; Bhana 1999; Natural History New Zealand 2000; Bonfil et al. 2010; Duffy et al. 2012; Francis et al. 2012, 2015; CAJ Duffy unpubl. data 2024). Three White Sharks measuring 320–450 cm total length (TL) were tagged in the area in April 2005 with pop-up archival tags. These individuals showed residency for 2.6–5 months in the area before departing (Bonfil et al. 2010). Between 2005–2009, ten White Sharks (seven females and three males) were tagged with pop-up archival tags (Duffy et al. 2012). These White Sharks ranged from 250–450 cm TL and all were either subadults males and females and mature males. Only one mature female was observed suggesting that the aggregations are not driven by reproductive processes. Tagged individuals showed seasonal residency to the area for three to five months before moving to tropical and subtropical waters in other jurisdictions (New Caledonia, Tonga, Vanuatu, Norfolk Island; Duffy et al. 2012). Individuals were in Rēkohu/Chatham Islands between April–September with some sharks returning to the area around December–January.

Rēkohu/Chatham Islands is a known breeding area for New Zealand Fur Seal (Baird 2011) and the seasonal presence of colonies matches the presence of White Sharks. This is consistent with the overlap in other known areas in New Zealand where White Sharks predate on pinnipeds such as Titi Islands (Duffy et al. 2012; Francis et al. 2015). In New Zealand waters, New Zealand Fur Seal pups are born from November–January and start swimming in exposed tide pools between February and March. Pups start to move offshore as they start foraging in the following months (Baylis et al. 2005). In addition, female seals make periodical trips to feed and come back to nurse the pups making them susceptible to predation by White Sharks. Further, Rēkohu/Chatham Islands are a hotspot for mass strandings of Long-finned Pilot Whale Globicephala melas edwardii (Betty et al. 2020) and False Killer Whales Pseudorca crassidens (Tezanos-Pinto et al. 2024). Anecdotally, White Sharks have been observed patrolling beaches at stranding sites, as well as feeding on whale carcasses at sea (Hill 2016; iTraveller 2020; CAJD unpub. data 2024). Whale strandings peak between October–February which matches the presence of White Sharks in the area and with the months where some of the sharks return to Rēkohu/Chatham Islands from their oceanic migrations (Duffy et al. 2012). Commercial fishers have also regularly encountered White Sharks in this area for the past 30 years, (CAJ Duffy unpubl. data 2024). Recent observations by commercial fishers since 2016 confirm the contemporary presence of aggregation in Rēkohu/Chatham Islands (Hill 2016; iTraveller 2020; Rova 2024; CAJ Duffy unpubl. data 2024).