Amazing Sharks!!

Sharks are pretty amazing creatures! Let's take a look at 4 of some pretty cool marine sharks!

Click here to watch a cool video on Great White Sharks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2FInaOCqoo

The Great White Shark - The Great White Shark's scientific name is Carcharodon carcharias. Their average length is 15-20 ft and their average weight is a 2 1/2 tons, or 5000 lbs! They live in cool, coastal waters all around the world, but mostly Northeastern U.S., California, South Africa, and Japan. They eat other sharks, crustaceans, mollusks, seabirds, seals, sea lions, and small tooth whales, like orcas. They have up to 300 serrated, triangular teeth, up to 6.6 inches in height. They have a dark grey dorsal side to help them blend in from the top, and a white ventral side to blend in from the bottom. Some interesting facts are that their tail can propel them up to 15 mph, they can smell a colony of seal from a mile away, and that their pups consume their own teeth in the womb to absorb nutrients.

The Lemon Sharks - Negaprion brevirostris, more commonly know as the Lemon shark, are olive color sharks. They grow up to 10 ft, 550 lbs. They live in the coastal inshore waters from New Jersey to Southern Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, along Sengal, and off the Ivory Coast of Africa. They eat just about anything, including catfish, mullet, jacks, croakers, porcupine fish, cow fish, guitar fish, stingrays, eagle rays, crabs, crayfish, sea birds, and other smaller sharks. They have 3-5 rows of teeth about an inch tall. They are found at depth of 300 ft, and they tend to hunt in groups.

Mako Sharks - Mako sharks scientific name is Isurus. They can get up to 12 ft in length, and 1200 lbs in weight. They live in tropical to temperate latitudes of all oceans, and feed on squids, bony fish, other sharks, porpoises, and sea turtles. Their many rows of teeth can get up to 2 inches in length. They are warm blooded, have striking coloring with deep purple to indigo dorsal surfaces, silvery sides, and white ventral surfaces. They are the fastest sharks, getting up to 31 mph, can jump 30 mph, and have the largest brain to body ratio.

Whale Sharks - Rhincodon typus is the scientific name for Whale sharks. Although their name is confusing, Whale sharks are fish, not whales. They can get up to 31 ft in length, and 41,000 lbs in weight. They live in tropical waters all over the world. They are filter feeders, so they just open their mouth and eat what is in their way, and don't use their teeth. Their jumbo mouth can get up to 5 ft in width. Its back and sides are gray to brown with white spots among pale vertical and horizontal stripes, and its belly is white. The female sharks give birth to about 300 babies, but most of the don't mature to adults.

Here is a video on Whale Sharks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9tpPWK7sag

Sharks possible uses in Medicine

  • Sharks have really fast healing ability, and scientists are studying that to see if they can use shark genomes to see if they can figure out what gene allows them to do so.

  • Research on sharks' cancer-related immunity gene is also helping scientists discover new ways to combat human cancer.

Sharks Endangerment

  • Great White Sharks are considered vulnerable due to illegal fishing, over fishing, and accidental catching.

  • Lemon Sharks are considered near threatened because they are targeted by commercial and recreational fishers.

  • Mako Sharks are considered globally endangered due to their slow growth, late maturity, and lengthy gestation period, which has put them at high risk for over fishing.

  • Whale Sharks are considered endangered and consistently decreasing due to fisheries, by catch losses, and vessel strikes, along with long lifespans and late maturity.

What We Can Do To Help?

  • The U.S. signed the Shark Conservation Act of 2010 which makes it illegal to remove any of the fins or the tail at sea, be in possession of a shark fin that is not attached to the rest of the body, and to receive or transfer fins to other vesicles at sea

  • Actively boycotting shark products, including foods and cosmetic, is a great way to stop companies from producing those products

  • I believe an international ban on finning at sea, and a limitation on fishing will help repopulate the shark population. Keeping yourself educated and actively staying away from shark based products will help stop the production of those products.

Reflection

I enjoyed this assignment because of how much I learned. I have always almost feared sharks, but learning more about them really shows me how cool they really are, how rare human shark attacks are, and how important they are to the ecosystem. I think I did a good job including the important information, and made sure my research paper and website looked clean and organized.

One thing I could have worked on is looking ahead at my assignment in terms of how long I think they are going to take. This assignment took me a lot longer to complete than other assignments we have had in this class, and I didn't start it until last minute. In the future, in need to make sure that I have enough time to do the assignments on time, and do better on not waiting last minute to do them.