Countershading Swimming to Keep Water Passing Over Their Gills and Photo: © Gary Hannon Gary © Photo: Thus Breathe

Aquatic Life

Sharks f you are searching for an animal Other features of the shark that make to know is that humans kill thousands I that has been on the planet for a it different from other fish are that of sharks every year for their meat, fins, long time look no further that the they usually have five gill slits (some skin, cartilage and livers and that this is shark. Sharks have been around for have six and even seven!) and these having a very bad effect on shark nearly 400 million years that means can be seen behind their head. Like populations so that many shark species they were about before the dinosaurs! other fish sharks use their gills to take are now endangered. Killing sharks for Sharks, which belong to a group of in oxygen and breathe. Sharks eat all their fins to make shark fin soup is one animals known as Elasmobranchs, are a types of food, some eat other fish and of the main reasons for such high really successful group of animals that sea mammals but the largest of sharks numbers of sharks being killed. come in all sizes and shapes and differ are not carnivores. The Whale shark, By Emmet Jackson, from other fish in several ways. the basking shark and Megamouth Irish Elasmobranch Group shark all eat plankton which are tiny Email: [email protected] Sharks do not have any bones; their shrimp-like animals found in the skeleton is made up of cartilage, like ocean. the cartilage found in your ears and nose! This gives them a lot more So, the question that is on all flexibility in the water and also helps your lips, are sharks Sharky Facts! them stay buoyant. They also lack dangerous? Well, there is scales and instead have teeth like no doubt that certain ♦ There are an estimated 375 structures called denticles that species like the Great species of shark. cover their body; these help to White, Tiger, and Bull ♦ The biggest fish in the world is protect the sharks. If you shark are highly adapted the Whale shark that can grow were ever to rub a shark predators and can look scary up to 18m! from its tail to its but attacks on humans ♦ head you would normally result from the The smallest shark is the dwarf feel these denticles shark mistaking people for sea lantern shark at just 15cm. that make the shark mammals. What ♦ The fastest shark is the feel like sandpaper. people tend not shortfin Mako that can swim at speeds of 20mph ♦ Some sharks need to keep Countershading swimming to keep water passing over their gills and Photo: © Gary Hannon Gary © Photo: thus breathe. ♦ Sharks have an excellent sense of hearing and taste and can even sense electric Some sharks have different colouring on their top and bottom sides and is called countershading. You can clearly see this in the Great White Shark pictured here.The underside fields. of the shark is light in colour so it blends well with the lighter water near the surface when viewed from below. Countershading makes it difficult for predators and prey to see sharks.