How do sharks and tuna react to being caught by hook-and-line and then released? Well, they swim twice as fast as their normal cruising speed, according tot researchers at The Royal Society. Sharks and tuna normally swim at elevated speeds relative to cruising speeds only during strenuous activity, such asContinue Reading
GENEVA (Switzerland)- Tracking silky sharks has revealed them to be swift swimmers. But they’re also one of the most heavily fished sharks globally. Will expanded marine protection in the Tropical Eastern Pacific go far enough to protect these long-distance swimmers? Smooth, slender and swift. Enter the silky shark, one ofContinue Reading
GENEVA (Switzerland)- The Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) has joined the Shark Conservation Fund (SCF) as one of its members. Dr James Lea, the SOSF’s chief executive officer, has joined the advisory board and says of the partnership, ‘I am delighted that we are joining the Shark Conservation Fund. Combined withContinue Reading
GRAHAMSTOWN (South Africa)- When great white sharks disappeared from two well-known congregation areas on South Africa’s coast recently, the possible reasons were hotly debated. The appearance of a pair of shark-eating killer whales in the area was one. Another was the decline in numbers of smaller shark species that greatContinue Reading
ADELAIDE (Australia)- If all Australians that go into the ocean were to use electronic deterrents, over a thousand people could avoid being bitten by a shark across Australia in the next 45 years. Research funded by the Flinders University Marine and Coastal Research Consortium has used data of the AustralianContinue Reading
VIENNA (Austria)- Modern tiger sharks are older than previously thought and in the past several tiger shark species existed compared to the single species living today. That’s what an international team of researchers, led by Julia Türtscher from the University of Vienna, found out by examining the fossil record ofContinue Reading
WASHINGTON DC (USA)- The giant prehistoric Carcharocles megalodon (or Otodus megalodon for some researchers) was the largest predatory shark to ever swim in Earth’s seas. Scientific evidence points to megalodon having lived between 16 million and 2.6 million years ago, going extinct at the end of the Pliocene Epoch whenContinue Reading