Tracker sharks

**Tracker sharks**, also called **Hunter sharks** or **Mutant sharks**, are large, predatory fish domesticated and utilised by various factions of Waterworld for hunting, including by both smokers and slavers. The creatures appear to fill a similar role as bloodhounds once did.

In the 1995 Waterworld film, only the dorsal fins of tracker sharks were briefly seen, although tracker sharks appear more prominently in other related merchandise.

## Description

Young tracker sharks as a pup appear short and squat, almost similar to a piranha, although with a four-finned rear tail. Adult tracker sharks in body structure resemble a more typical shark, such as lamniform. Adults have an elongated snout and jaw which strongly resembles that of a goblin shark, with sunken eyes and a unique and prominent bony skull structure.

## Appearances

### Film

Tracker sharks are included in David Twohy's script for the Waterworld film, wherein a school of them are kept in a cage beneath the slaver's bartering outpost.

The smokers under command of the Deacon kill the slavers and prepare an ambush for the Mariner's trimaran, since they seek Dryland and Enola aboard the trimaran has a map to Dryland. However, the Mariner sees through the ruse after using a crude periscope to look underwater, seeing the smokers lying in wait beneath the outpost, and escapes by turning the trimaran around and using a spinnaker sail to outrun the smokers as they give chase.

As the Mariner escapes he is shot in the ribs by the Deacon. Although the wound is not fatal, the Deacon frees the tracker sharks from the cage beneath the outpost to follow the Mariner's blood trail. The smokers then follow the tracker sharks.

After the escape, the Mariner takes Helen in a diving bell to show her the underwater ruins of Denver, leaving Enola aboard the trimaran alone. Enola sees a set of tracker shark fins encircling the trimaran. When the Mariner and Helen resurface, they discover that Enola has been captured and are attacked by smokers, and the trimaran is set on fire, but the Mariner and Helen survive by fleeing back down into the depths.

* *Steve Burg, the concept artist for the movie, created the design of the tracker sharks. However it appears as though practical models were not created. The scene featuring their release from the cage was not filmed, and only their fins are seen in the movie.*

### Other appearances

Despite being practically not present in film, tracker sharks are described in Max Allen Collin's novelisation of the film.

Artwork of the trackers sharks, taking cue from Steve Burg's concept art, are featured on the Waterworld pinball machine and board game.

A tracker shark toy - a young tracker shark pup - was included with the action figure of the Deacon in the Waterworld toy line.

Tracker sharks feature much more prominently in the Waterworld video games. The player, as the Mariner, battles them in the underwater levels of the Gameboy and Genesis/Mega Drive versions. In the Virtua Boy version, the Mariner battles tracker sharks from the surface, as he rescues drowning atollers in his trimaran.

Tracker sharks feature briefly in the *Waterworld: Children of Leviathan* comic books, where The Leviathan is seen feeding captives from The Foundation to tracker sharks.

## Galleries

### Concept art

Steve Burg's tracker shark concept artSteve Burg's tracker shark concept art
### Merchandise art

Artwork of tracker sharks on the pinball machineArtwork of tracker sharks on the board game
### Toy

The tracker shark pup toy (see toys)The tracker shark pup toy
### Video games

Tracker sharks in the Gameboy versionTracker sharks in the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive versionTracker sharks in the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive versionTracker fins in the Virtua Boy version
## Trivia

* Other species of shark still exist in Waterworld, as evidenced by the atollers on Oasis stripping meat from a dead hammerhead shark.