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Shark meat is a seafood consisting of the flesh of sharks. Several sharks are fished for human consumption, such as porbeagles, shortfin mako shark, requiem shark, and thresher shark, among others. [1] Shark meat is popular in Asia, where it is often consumed dried, smoked, or salted. [2]
Greenland sharks have also been found with remains of moose, polar bear, horse, and reindeer (in one case an entire reindeer body) in their stomachs. [26] [27] [28] The Greenland shark is known to be a scavenger and is attracted by the smell of rotting meat in the water. The sharks have frequently been observed gathering around fishing boats. [26]
Their daily activity cycles are controlled by environmental light levels. Adult sharks prey mainly on hard-shelled molluscs, echinoderms, and crustaceans, which they crush between powerful jaws and molar-like teeth, while also feeding opportunistically on a wide variety of other invertebrates and small bony fishes.
While shark nets and drum lines share the same purpose, drum lines are more effective at targeting the three sharks that are considered most dangerous to swimmers: the bull shark, tiger shark and great white shark. [79] SMART drumlines can also be used to move sharks, which greatly reduces mortality of sharks and bycatch to less than 2%. [80]
Smaller sharks eat proportionately more cephalopods and crustaceans, switching to fish as they grow older. [10] [16] Many predators feed on the milk shark, including larger sharks such as the blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) and Australian blacktip shark (Carcharhinus tilstoni), and possibly also marine mammals. [15]
Sharks typically targeted for their liver oil include the school and gulper shark, and the basking shark (pictured). [1] All three of these species are either endangered [2] [3] or critically endangered [4] due to overfishing according to the IUCN, although a legal targeted fishery for basking sharks no longer exists.
Sharks and other cartilaginous fish (skates and rays) have skeletons made of cartilage and connective tissue. Cartilage is flexible and durable, yet is about half the normal density of bone. This reduces the skeleton's weight, saving energy. [29] Because sharks do not have rib cages, they can easily be crushed under their own weight on land. [30]
Basking sharks do not hibernate and are active year-round. [7] In winter, basking sharks often move to deeper depths, even down to 900 m (3,000 ft) and have been tracked making vertical movements consistent with feeding on overwintering zooplankton. [27]