is just minutes by motorboat

from the shore of Oahu -

the most populated island

in the Hawaiian chain.

The facility is a good place

to observe the marine animals,

since they're native to local waters,

and some are kept

in a sheltered bay for study.

Specialist Carl Meyer does research on sharks

and tries to learn about their habits.

"When sharks are feeding

and hopefully how much they're eating.

And that's what we use these captive animals for."

Scientists also monitor the behavior of sharks at sea,

measuring the animals

and placing radio-equipped electronic tags on their fins.

The scientists fitted a sandbar shark with a camera

for a rare shark's-eye view of its daily activities.

"When we recovered the camera,

we saw that the shark had spent the day

in a large aggregation of sharks,

not just sandbar sharks

but also blacktip sharks

and many, many scalloped hammerhead sharks."

Sharks are swift and lethal,

but don't usually prey on humans.

Meyer says that rare attacks are amplified by the media

and dramatized in films

like the 1975 thriller "Jaws."

He says sharks are important top-level predators

that help maintain the balance of the marine systems.

Those systems are threatened by pollution,

climate change and commercial fishing,

both as fishermen target sharks for the Asian food market

and kill them in the process of fishing for other species.

University of Hawaii scientists

are studying endangered and vulnerable shark populations,

and also coastal coral

that is being lost

to rising ocean temperatures.

Carl Meyer says that humans are more of a risk to sharks

than sharks to humans.

"Because never before in the natural history of the world

have we seen a species become so dominant

and so able to alter the natural environment."

And he says

the results of environmental changes cannot always be predicted.