SHARK
ATTACK
Statistics
Versus Myths
Total
Numbers
354 species of shark have been listed by the FAO,
ranging from 15 centimeters (squaliolus laticauda
to 15 meters (the harmless whale shark)
35 species known to have attacked man at least once,
and a dozen habitually do so.
The biggest Great White ever caught was a female of
6.4 meters, which was caught off Cuba in 1945. It
weighed 3312 kilos and its girth reached 4.5 meters;
several lorries were needed to tow and transport it.
A 10 meter specimen is also said to have been captured,
but neither photo nor expert account exists, only
subjective statements. The record specimen are always
female, since in the sharks, females have larger measurements
than males.
The power of the shark's jaw is phenomenal; the highest
recorded with a specially designed apparatus was 3.75
tonnes per Cm for a shark of 3 meters. That of a 6
meter Great White Shark much be more spectacular,
but it has never been possible to accurately measure
it.
The fastest shark is the Mako, which can reach 50
km/hr (the fastest of all fish is the sail fish. at
113 km /h, followed by the swordfish at 95 km/h).
Man's speed in the water is farcical, even compared
with the slowest-swimming fish.
The growth rate of sharks varies according to species,
age, and maturity: from 33 millimeters per year to
30 centimeters: generally speaking, it is always slow.
The record for attacks in a single place is at Durban
(South Africa), in 1957, with 7 attacks(5 in which
resulted in death) within 107 days.
In august of 1960, when a boat capsized at the mouth
of the Komati, on the coast of Mozambique, a school
of sharks caused carnage among the survivors, mutilating
46 out of the 49 people.
The speed of a tooth replacement in the flesh eating
shark is of the order of 7-8 days for the smallest
species and from 6 to 12 months for the largest ones,
but their replacement is immediate at the time of
an attack.
The shark can smell in dilutions of the order of 1
part to 500 million parts of water, and extracts of
flesh of the grouper fish of the order of 1 part to
10,000 million.
In the case of certain large sharks, each seminal
vesicle contain 20 to 25 liters of seminal fluid,
or 40-50 liters of sperm for a large male.
The interval between insemination and the emergence
of the young shark is 10 to 22 months( one of the
longest gestation periods in the animal world).
All the sharks are capable of going at least 6 weeks
without eating; the record observed in an aquarium
is 15 months (by one of the species known as the "swell
sharks").
men's most feard predator non the less constitutes
on his food sources;306,125 tonnes, or 10,000 Semi-Trailers,
was the tonnage of sharks caught for food purposes
in 1984.
Fishing is one of the means of studying sharks, and
a means of tagging them on the dorsal fin. In this
way in California, 60,000 sharks (of 47 different
species) were captured and tagged in a 23 year period.
Nineteen hundred were found again, including one 6,500
kilometers from California and another 19 years later.
The biggest fish ever caught on a sport- fishing line
was a Great White Shark of 1221 kilos, off the Australian
coast., on a 60-kilo line. The biggest ones broke
the lines.
The oldest ancestor of the shark was discovered as
a fossil, the "cladoelache", 350 million
years old-this is 100 million years before the dinosaurs
appeared; man first appeared 3.5 million years ago.
PRECONCEIVED IDEAS
Certain falsehoods concerning Sharks
Sharks attack in order to feed. The image of the insatiable
shark that swallows everything it encounters in order
to assuage a hunger that is never satisfied is one
of the most false. Over 1500 cases of shark attacks
on on men ,50-75% of these attacks have nothing to
do with nutrition.
Hunger does not exist in sharks. This is untrue. The
shark is capable of very long periods of fasting,
and it seems that it may have periodicity in its eating
habits. During these "eating phases" it
is evident that we can talk of "hunger",
and attacks then will be different in their determination
and development.
The shark is a primitive animal. The shark is far
more sophisticated than believed it to be 20 years
ago. Besides sense organs that are outstanding and
unique in the animal world, the size of its brain
is closer to that of birds (proportionately speaking)
or of certain primitive mammals than to that of any
other fish. The exceedingly sensitive character of
the olfactory organs in the shark, reflected at brain
by highly developed olfactory lobes. Such a creature
would not have come through 350 million years without
appreciable evolution.
The shark have a very poor eyesight. Not only can
a shark see contrasts well, but it has good night
vision thanks to a histological structure peculiar
to nocturnal animals. It can even see colors.
The sharks pupil is at all times widely dilated ,adding
to its terrifying appearance. This is false: the iris
has an ovular shape and the pupil can be dilated and
constricted very rapidly. Some species possess a third
eyelid which closes at the moment of the attack.
The shark does not eat dead bodies. In 1950, Mr warne,
an Australian fisherman, found the barley digested
right hand of a human being in a stomach of a 1.5
meter Tiger Shark. The police identified it as belonging
to Peter Szot, who's body minus the right hand had
been recovered on the beach eight days earlier, with
a bullet in the head. Mr. Szot had not committed suicide
after having lost his hand but before.
These shark attacks include any type of injury caused
by sharks. Some of these are only skin grazes caused
by contact with the sharks rough skin. Some are by
small usually non-aggressive sharks that have been
provoked such as Wobbegongs, Angels etc.
Still others are by small sharks such as White-Tipped
Reef sharks, Black-Tipped Reef sharks etc. In most
of these cases there is very little damage done.
Many of these attacks are on reefs ect. in very shallow
water. Usually less than being bitten by a small
dog or other domestic animal. A lot of the attacks
are provoked. It is really surprising to know how
many stupid people try to grab sharks by the tail.
See what happens when you try to pet a wild American
Nurse Shark.
The serious attacks are mainly by four species.
The Bull shark. the Tiger, the Great White and the
Oceanic Whitetip shark. The Grey Nurse (Sand Tiger)
and the Bronze Whaler have for many years been blamed
for many attacks but it seems nearly all were mistaken
identity. The Grey Nurse is now protected in most
States in Australia.
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