The Dwarf Lanternshark

  The dwarf lantern shark is the smallest known species of shark. It grows to roughly twelve centimetres long - about the length of a ballpoint pen. These reclusive micro-sharks at depths of four hundred and forty metres, meaning that they are not often encountered by humans.
  Wether this shark is endangered or of least concern, no one knows. Their range is small - nearly as small as they are! - and fisheries in the areas where they live have repoted netting them as bycatch. They have been classed as data deficient by SHARKDEFENSE.
  These deep-sea-nipprs rise to the Sunlight Zone by night to hunt in schools of several hundred specimens, catching solitary fish and sometimes small sharks, like dogfish.

The minute range of the dwarf lantern shark.

A dwarf lantern shark spotted in the Twilight zone by
a very lucky diver.

The frilled Shark

  Perhaps the queerest looking of all the sharks, the frilled shark is very rarely encountered by humans and is one of the prehistoric sharks.
  Prehistoric sharks posses six or seven gill slits, rather than the five which can be found on all normal sharks. The three known specimens with more than the usual number of gill slits are the sharpnose sevengill shark, the bluntnose sixgill shark and the frilled shark. None of these sharks is often seen by divers. One of the most recent frilled shark encounters resulted in several angry outbursts from marine welfare activists when the people who had seen it hauled it onto their boat and put it in a freshwater tank. The shark tragically died within twenty minutes.
  The diet of a frilled shark consists of squid, large fish and smaller sharks. Their large,  gawping mouth enables them to swallow prey up to half its length. However, frilled shark feeding has never been witnessed as it takes place in the ocean's unexplored depths. Their diet is only known through the stomach contents of two or three individual specimens.
  Frilled sharks grow up to two metres in length, but is not a danger to humans. Frilled sharks are not overly threatened by extinction seeing as their fins are not valued by illegal finners.

A frilled shark drifting peacefully along a reef.

This picture depicts the range of the frilled shark.

Blog Views

Several people have asked me which country has viewed the blog most. Well, here is your answer:

United States

891

United Kingdom

859

Latvia

263

France

160

Germany

137

Russia

83

Australia

67

Canada

50

Thailand

25

Indonesia

23

If your country isn't on the top ten, view more!!
Daniel Bailey
www.danielsharkfacts.blogspot.com

The Blog Poll

  From now on, there will be a monthly poll for you to vote in on the blog. We have done a trial run for it, and so far, four people have voted on "Which of these sharks would you most like to swim with?"
  To vote, just click on the box next to the shark you chose and the click vote. Once you have done that, reload the page and your vote will be registered.

Daniel Bailey
www.danielsharkfacts.blogspot.com

Dangers to Sharks Part II

This is the second of the dangers to sharks posts.
  We have previously viewed the dangers to great white sharks. Now, we turn to the opposite end of the scale with the small, but no less remarkable, swell shark.
  As explained in the previous post, swell sharks have a very good defence mechanism. However, they still have very persistent foes who pose great threats to it throughout its life.
  Unlike the great white shark, the swell shark is not often threatened by humans. Hunters see it as an unremarkable prize. Although I would beg to differ, as I find it a wonderful creature, their lack of interest in hunting it is appreciated.
  Primarily, swell shark eggs are often swept onto the shore by the tides. Although not a technical predator, the waves can be a fatal foe for the unborn swell sharks. Once they have hatched, swell sharks face an immediate threat from lobsters and crabs, with which they share the reefs of the Indian and Pacific oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. These clawed crustaceans will trap a newly-hatched swell shark pup and devour it. Thankfully, shark pups immediately know how to swim and hunt when they leave their eggs, so this does not happen often.
  As adolescents and adults, swell sharks are no longer likely to fall prey to lobsters and crabs, however, their new predator is even more deadly than the last: black tip reef sharks.
  Black tip reef sharks are not generally viewed as the best hunters, but come sundown, they congregate  into schools of up to fifty or sixty and stalk the reefs for unfortunate prey. They might not be big but neither are the swell sharks, which are dwarfed by the night-stalking hunters; one bite from those 'giants' would end a swell shark's life.

Black tip reef sharks gathering at a reef to hunt come nightfall.

The Swell Shark

  The swell shark is a thoroughly interesting species of shark. It dwells in crevices in tropical reefs by day and merges to hunt come nightfall. They are small sharks that are generally shy around divers. As they grow only to an estimated one hundred centimetres long, they have reason to hide away for fear of discovery by larger reef sharks which may have an intent to kill it.
  The diet of a swell shark consists of small fish and crustaceans. Amazingly, these opportunistic creatures have been known to enter lobster pots to find an easy meal. In turn, these sharks are the prey of many other marine specimens. However, swell sharks do have a stunning defensive technique: as it says in their name, a swell shark will jam itself between two rocks and inhale water to make itself impossible to extract from its position. When the predator has left the vicinity, the shark exhales and swims away. Simple, yet remarkable.
  Swell sharks are found on reefs in the East Pacific, along the West coast of North and South America and throughout the tropical waters of Hawaii. Although they are not generally dangerous to humans, they have been known to act threateningly and even aggressively if a diver comes to near or appears to be a predator. They have also occasionally been known to bite a diver's limb as a warning, but with no fatalities.

A swell shark off the shore of Western North America.

A swell shark jammed between two rocks in defence.

Golf-Loving Sharks!!

  This is a novelty post for any golf-loving shark fans out there. The world renowned Shark Lake Challenge at Carbrook golf course near Brisbane in Western Australia is given its name for just that: a lake full of sharks!!
  Of course, this course's water hazard (what a coincidental name for it!!) is a fresh water lake, so there are only a handful of species that could live there; after several species of fresh water shark were ruled out because of climate preferences, three sharks were left in the frame: the Borneo River shark, the Ganges River shark and the notorious bull shark. Quite naturally, bad luck befell the golfers: their missing golf-balls were in the clutches of the world's most dangerous shark.
  It all started when the nearby Logan River broke its banks and flooded much of the surrounding land. When the tidal waters receded, everything proceeded as normal. Not a disturbance could be seen in the water feature, except for the occasional, hollow ker-plunk of a mishit golf ball penetrating its surface. However, one golfer soon spotted a dark grey fin on the lake. He reported it to the staff, who discarded it as a fantasy. Their reasoning was that their members tended to indulge in the occasional beer on the course and this wild flight of fancy was just a little bit of alcohol fuelled imagination.
  Despite this, more golfers soon reported the same thing. It was only when the staff were given some blurry, slightly off focus video footage of an unmistakable grey fin gliding across the water's surface.
  The staff called in marine biologists and several shark experts. After some careful examination of the sharks' behaviour, they deduced that not only were the sharks living in the water feature and feeding off the bream and carp that resided there, but that they were mating and breeding there too.
  Since the shocking discovery, the Shark Lake Challenge golf course was created and the sharks remain as much a part of the local wildlife as the birds, mice and insects which live around the fairways. Regular members sometimes throw pieces of chicken into the lake and watch euphorically and enthusiastically as young sharks devour the meat.