Sharks Info, attacks and stats

Not only we are very ignorante about information about sharks, but we ignore many things abour them. One o them is how important sharks are for humans future.

Here is a very interesting article that I read today:

“THEY are the predators of the ocean, but their blood may hold a key to saving human lives.

Victorian scientists have discovered a way to collect disease-fighting proteins from shark blood that they believe could help in the fight against cancer, malaria and arthritis.

“Sharks can be our friends,” said La Trobe University associate professor Mick Foley.

“I still probably wouldn’t go and feed them and pat them, but evolution has given them something we might exploit.”

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There is a big panic around a potential shark attack frenzy in the south coast of Mexico.

This is the article we found today

“Tiburón!” a little boy cried out, jumping up and down in the sand with his finger outstretched toward the ocean. Everyone around followed the youngster’s panicky gaze out past the waves and into the Pacific, where they spotted not a shark’s fin but a buoy.

“Everybody’s seeing sharks these days,” said the security man at one of the giant resort hotels that has flown a black flag over its lifeguard tower in recent days, warning swimmers to beware.

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Can the shark attacks increase in Australia? Sure they can. We all know that bulls sharks love shallow water and the  areas where the rivers join the sea. well this news gives us some more info about the options  in the potential increase of shark attacks in Australia .

Queensland Shark Control Program manager Tony Ham says bull sharks and whalers can be active in muddy river mouths and beaches after heavy rain.

He is warning surfers and swimmers to be careful until the water clears.

“There’s a distinct link between murky water, heavy rainfall and the movement of bull sharks in and out of rivers and creeks,” he said.

“Basically what we’d be advising people is to think about whether there is a need for them to swim or where abouts they’re going to swim over the next few days just so that they’re aware that there is the possibility of some increased shark movement.”

Source: http://www.abc.net.au

Mako Sharks can reach a speed of 45 mph when they attack a prey from below, by doing that the Mako Shark crushes its prey. It is the big tail and the slim body that gives it the great power, but also the shark’s metabolism that makes the temperature inside the body of the shark warmer than the surrounding water and makes it so fast. Mako sharks have a 2-year reproductive cycle, and a gestation period of approximately 12 months. Litter sizes range from 12 to 20 pups (although only a handful of litters have been examined). Mako sharks were highly respected as powerful and dominant predators, qualities admired in Maori society. Both genuine and imitation mako shark teeth were highly prized as forms of personal adornment.

Mako shark fishing and mako fishing tournaments is becoming popular big game fishing and deep sea fishing. Mako sharks are known for great big game fighting including air born jumps. Mako sharks have five large gill slits, Well developed eyes (slightly larger in the long-fin) and pronounced knife like, non-serrated teeth. An extremely fast and active shark it was propelled to ” big-game fishing ” fame by author Zane Gray who was taken by the animals menacing appearance and volatility during the early part of this century. Mako sharks occur worldwide in warm-temperate and tropical waters. The high abundance of juveniles in the California Bight indicates its importance as a nursery ground for this species.

Zebra sharks provide a perfect subject for underwater photographers. Closely related to epaulette sharks, nurse sharks and whale sharks, people often confuse them with the leopard shark, a smaller, cold-water shark. Zebra sharks range from about 2.5 m to 3.0 m in length. The largest zebra shark captured wasabout 3.5 m in length. Zebra Sharks eat small shell fishes, crustaceans and fishes. Shrimp Gobies eat tiny bits of matter in the water.

Zebra sharks do well in captivity, and a number of aquariums around the world have them on display. They are fished commercially on a small scale. Zebra sharks’ have average sized pectoral fins and low, long dorsal fins. Zebra sharks will lay about four eggs at a time.

Zebra Sharks are oviparous (they lay eggs outside of the body). It lays eggs that are 17cm in length. Zebra sharks often rest on the ocean floor and prop themselves up on their front two fins. The mouth points downward, helping the shark feed off of the ocean floor. Zebra Shark Jaw - While the young zebra shark is dark brown with whitish stripes, the mature shark is tan with brown spots, which lends to its alternative name, the leopard shark. Ridges run along each side of this long, sleek shark from the head to the caudal fin, the length of which is nearly that of the rest of the body.

Zebra shark, the common name of these slow-swimming, non-aggressive, bottom-dwelling sharks, is derived from the coloration of the juveniles that have narrow bars reminiscent of a zebra’s stripes. The bars are lost in adults, becoming spots.

This is simply a great shot. I love the way the mako shark is mving all around. Very funny. A perfect shark video, where the main character, a mako shark eats a man . Shark eats man: the pure truth !

There is some sort of beauty behind a close up shark attack . This footage is simply perfect. You can see how this great white shark performs his magnificents moves . This footage is from a BBC documentary, very well know by now. Planet Earth.

Once you see this footae you will understand how sharks simply have the right to be there.

It seems that some ideos of Sharks are never less than amazing. Well, this one is one of the top amazing shark videos .

This is pretty interesting, it seems like a question of a kindergarden student: Who will win between a shark vs Octopus. Well this is the answer in the crazy shark video. Enjoy shark fanatics !

Male sharks have a pair of claspers that are formed from the inner pelvic fins. I will get into further detail on shark reproduction later. Males provide parental care for the young. While the young are in the pouch, males give oxygen through a capillary network, transfer nutrients, and change the atmosphere in the pouch. Male sharks have modified pelvic fins called claspers. They also have two muscular sacs (siphon sacs) in their abdominal wall, which they fill with seawater.

Males transfer sperm into the females cloaca through a set of clasepers that are formed from the inner edge of their pelvic fins. Males hold on to the female by biteing onto her pectoral fin and swiming beside her.

Gestation is thought to span over a year (but perhaps much longer), with a small and unknown number of young born fully developed at 1.5-2 metres (5-6.5 feet) in length. Mating is thought to occur in early summer and birthing in late summer, following the female’s movement into shallow coastal waters. Gestation periods vary among species and between individuals within a species. Since sharks and batoids are ectothermic (”cold-blooded”), there is no precise gestation time. Gestation times are unknown but doubtless long - close to a year, perhaps. It is possible that any one female only reproduces biennially, mating soon after giving birth, but this remains to be confirmed.

Gestation is believed to take approximately one year. A pregnant female with biting scars and wounds on the sides of her body, taken off the coast of north-northeastern Brazil, carried four near-term embryos.

Lemon sharks are a popular choice for study by scientists as they survive well in captivity, unlike many other species such as the great white shark , which dies in captivity because of food refusal. The species is the best known of all sharks in terms of behaviour and ecology , mainly thanks to the enormous effort of Dr.[1] Lemon sharks were present but nervously swimming at approx 1.5m ft off the bottom in a large circle from the sand bottom 20 m to the ridge of live rock to the west that makes up Cap?n Kurel reef. I observed 20-30 different individuals but kept some distance so as not to disturb Walt?s camera work by disturbing the lemons with my bubbles. Lemon sharks are timid and will often swim away when approached by humans. They’re know to form small groups based on a size and sex based hierarchy.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lemon_shark

Lemon sharks are also sold for their meat. Populations in the western north Atlantic and eastern Pacific Ocean are declining due to overfishing . Lemon shark females reach sexual maturity by the time they’re about 2.45 metres in length. The females give birth once every couple of years to a litter of 60-65 centimetre pups . Lemon sharks can be found in oceanic water during migration but tend to stay along the continental and insular shelves. The lemon shark is also known to form loose aggregations based on size and sex and have been seen congregating near docks and fishing piers during the night, returning to deep water during the day.

Lemon sharks have between 3 and 5 ridges, or rows, of teeth on both the upper and lower jaw. Their long thin sharp teeth are designed to catch slippery fish, the mainstay of the shark? Lemon sharks are one of the larger species of sharks, commonly obtaining lengths between 95-120 inches (240-300 cm). The maximum length that can be reached by this species is between 125-135 inches (318-343 cm).