HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARK NEWS

  Tomorrow will be the first birthday of SHARK NEWS, and there is only one way to celebrate it: A SHARK CELEBRATION!!
  Over the next week, I will be bringing you some stunning pictures of sharks, plenty of awesome facts and maybe even a few mystical shark videos.
  So check back every day, this week is SHARKFEST, and it will come round every year from September 23rd to September 30th.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARK NEWS!!

Gulf of Greenland?

  Roughly two days ago, scientists on board the boat RV Apalachee found a Greenland shark in the Gulf of Mexico. Greenland sharks only live in the Arctic circle and, until now, that was common knowledge. They are the only type of shark that can live underneath the polar ice caps. The specimen was twelve foot (just under four metres) long.
  The biologists and scientists on board the vessel were studying the effects of a three-year-old oil spill on marine life and found as many as forty-four species of shark on their journey-all alive- throughout the Gulf of Mexico.
  Chip Cotton, a Florida State University researcher and part of the expedition, said, quote: "No way is this the only Greenland shark in the Gulf." Which is a good sign for the shark species.

Greenland sharks were never found away from Greenland...
Until now.

The Sand Tiger Shark

  The sand tiger shark can be found all over the world. They tend not to stray far from shore though so are unlikely to be seen in the open ocean. They live near to the shore in Eastern China and parts of Japan, several Mediterranean countries such as Spain, France, Italy and Northern Africa, the Atlantic sides of Brazil and the United States of America, around South Africa, throughout the Red Sea and surrounding Australia. They are also one of the most common sharks to be found in aquariums as they do not migrate very far, are not very aggressive and do not need to be fed constantly.
  Just as with the great white shark, the sand tiger shark comes under many different names: the ragged tooth shark and the grey nurse being the most common. The latter is of course slightly inaccurate as nurse sharks are extremely gentle and un-energetic whereas the sand tiger is seventh on the list of most recorded attacks on humans. Its scientific name, Carcharias taurus, can also be misleading. Taurus means bull in Latin meaning that this shark is... Erm... The bull shark 2. In truth the sand tiger shark is its own species, not just a misnamed bull shark. The French name for it as well can be confusing: requin taurus. Requin means shark in French and taurus was mentioned above. I was befuddled by this name when I was in the Mare Nostrum aquarium in the Oddeseyum, Montpellier, in the South of France. As I'm sure you have guessed, it follows on from the Latin.
  The sand tiger has some of the most daunting and yet fascinating teeth in the world of sharks. I have several myself amongst a collection of teeth from many sharks (horn sharks, shortfin mako sharks et cetera, et cetera). They have so many hat they are apparently unable to close their mouths completely (either that or they just like to show off).

Just look at those teeth!! One glance at the mouth of that shark is enough to have even the slowest, ungainliest diver swimming in the opposite direction faster than Michael Phelps. (Of course, if the diver did swim away, they obviously hadn't read this blog and thought that sharks were the terrifying killers they are cut out to be.) And so that brings us round to what teeth do best: eating.
  Sand tigers tend to feed on crabs, lobsters, squid and large fish. This is where the curved teeth really help: crushing the shells of crabs and lobsters (just as we might crush the shell of an egg or even the outside of a cake with a fork. Can you see the similarities between the teeth of the shark and the prongs of the fork?) and holding slippery squid and fish in place, just like the short fin mako shark (which has very similar teeth). As with most sharks, sand tigers only attack humans when they are provoked or feeling uneasy.

A sand tiger shark, clearly depicting its teeth.

  Another interesting shark, more fascinating facts. It may not seem that much, but just knowing about their teeth, or their name can give us an insight into their world.

A sand tiger shark drifting peacefully across the seabed.

Shark Proof Bathing Suits? Think Again...

Recently, an Australian clothes making firm based in Sydney created what they advertised as 'Shark Proof Bathing Suits'. With financial backing from local universities, the firm created two types of these bathing suits. So what are these bathing suits with the ability to repel sharks? What abnormal powers do they possess? To be honest, they are but regular bathing suits but with what the creators see as a touch of genius: different colours. That is all. So what do these colours do to make them different from your bog-standard, common or garden (or is that lake or ocean?) bathing suit? Well, the first is dark blue which supposedly makes the person donning the swimming costume invisible to sharks. Nice try, but with one tiny problem: sharks don't just use their sense of sight, but they sense movements in the water around them and smell what they think might be prey. So has the second got anything better than the first? Well, the answer is it is even worse. The second has black and white stripes which are to make the person wearing it look similar to a belcher sea snake (a poisonous marine creature). This takes advantage of the shark's bad eyesight, as they won't realise that the person is much larger than a sea snake. Again, there is a slight problem: sharks love to eat belcher sea snakes.
  So there you have it; don't trust the bathing suits. And to the makers, I say "Back to the drawing board, bonkers boffins!!"

The Longfin Mako Shark

Almost as rare as the megamouth, the longfin mako shark is found in the deep sea, near to six hundred metres below the surface, in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. Sadly, they do not tend to stray as far as Britain. Despite being very rarely seen and one of the most little known about sharks still in existence, they are nonetheless truly fascinating creatur
  There have been no recorded attacks on humans by longfins, as they hardly ever mix with the creatures of the Sunlight Zone. Their diet consists of small fish, diamond squid and deep sea jellyfish, this mix of food leaves them smaller than other sharks, but a sustainable meal in the Twilight Zone and Dark Zone where they live is very hard to come by. However, this lack of food may just give them the edge over the sharks of the Sunlight Zone when it comes to hunting. Their senses are sharpened by hunger and when they have to find their food, they rarely fail.
  So we have covered the prey of the longfin, but now we turn to the predators. With the absence of killer whales and omnivorous, cannibalistic sharks such as tigers, great whites and bulls, the longfin mako shark has only two predators: deep sea fishermen and the majestic and mysterious giant squid, terroriser of the deep sea and ruler of the dark water. They kill with silence and without mercy. As with most of the creatures from the Dark Zone, they are not fussy and eats whatever it finds. Longfins are no exception. Their powerful petorcal fins (which give them their name) and sharp teeth are no match for the giant squid's tentacles, suckers, unimaginable strength and sheer size. As was mentioned above, deep sea creatures are not fussy. This makes them easy prey for fishermen who only have to drop their lines baited with rich, Sunlight Zone fish such as tuna and chum for many unsuspecting, malnourished fish (and evidently sharks) to come knocking.

Silvertip Shark

  The silvertip shark is a magestic and sometimes scary member of the shark family. Commonly found in Northern Australia, Eastern Africa and Madagascar, the Carribean and Central American coasts, Saudi Arabia and China, it can be very territoreial and will fight to the death to keep other sharks and large, imposing sea creatures away from its territory. When it comes to hunting, however, the silvertip will not eat fish that are in its territory, but will venture from the coral reefs where they live into the open ocean which supplies them with larger, more substantial food. Silvertips are opertunistic and will take fish from fishing lines or drag them out of deep sea trawler nets by their tails.
  Although fatal shark attacks are rare, a silvertip mother will attack a human visciously if she feels they are threatening her litter, which will stay in their mother's territory until they are half-a-year old, or herself. If a human approaches a lone silvertip too quickly, the shark will become stressed and may attack. As of 2008, four provoked, and none unprovoked, silvertip attacks on humans have been confirmed-none of which were fatal-each was registered by the International Shark Attack File.
  A silvertip shark can be recognised by its distinctive silver dorsal fin tip. It is important for divers to register this when diving near one of these sharks-all but one of the attacks mentioned above were caused by the diver approaching a small silvertip under the impression it was a sluggish, harmless whitetip reef shark- the tail tips also have the silver markings.

A silvertip shark, warily guarding its territory from
competitors.

The Megamouth Shark

  The megamouth shark is the most recently discovered shark. It was first found in 1976, when some fishermen hauled up their nets to find a dead creature in them!! It was 5.5m long and weighed 1215kg!!
That is a lot of shark!! The megamouth has a very cunning way of luring fish and krill into its mouth: it has luminous lips!! That may not sound amazing or helpful, but small sea creatures are attracted to light so they swim towards it and get eaten by the shark. If that doesn't amaze you I don't know what will.
As they are so rare, we know very little about these sharks. As of 2012, only 55 have been seen in a wide range as they have been found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.

This is the most famous photo of a megamouth shark.
This was the first one ever o be seen by man.