Sharktoothisland

There has been some recent research by a senior scientist, Bruce Wright, who has been studying Sleeper sharks for many years.  These Arctic sharks live in Northern waters and two of the largest of this species are Pacific Sleeper sharks and Greenland sharks.

There has been documentation that Greenland sharks have traveled using the St. Lawrence Seaway, which proves that some sharks can survive in fresh water.  Our local Bull sharks here in Florida inhabit bays and rivers for nursery areas in fresh water which is warmer.

Because of this knowledge, it is believed that the Loch Ness monster and creatures in Lake Iliamna in Alaska may be sleeper sharks. They use rivers and lakes to find food and tend to be scavengers. Some of the sightings as Lake Iliamna have been called monsters and been found near shore in shallow waters.

This summer Bruce Wright will be doing some more research by tagging these sharks to follow their movements.  He is also planning a trip to Loch Ness in 2013 to try to tag sharks there as well to see what research can be found by following their habits there as well.

Bruce Wright With Sleeper Shark

These sleeper sharks have adapted over time and are becoming a dominant predator. With the arctic ice melting habitat for ice seals and polar bears is being reduced making them more vulnerable to other predators.  In an area of Norway they believe that the Greenland shark is responsible for a massive kill off of harbor seals.  They also found the jaw bone of a young polar bear in the stomach of a Greenland shark and they have found harbor seals in the stomachs of Sleeper sharks. They have found almost every species of marine life that lives in the Arctic in the stomachs of sleeper sharks which makes them a very unique predator.

Most fisherman describe these sleeper sharks as sluggish and not very predator like when they are caught, but they have been known to go after Pacific halibut and salmon. They have been found with whole salmon and even fresh whale tissue in their stomachs.

The Pacific sleeper shark (Somniosus pacificus)  averages about 14 feet in length with recorded length up to about 21 feet. They swim without making much movement in the water by gliding and making it easier to catch their prey.  They feed by suction and cutting. They swim from the surface to as deep as 6,600 feet. Their breeding habits are not well known.

The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) is closely related to the Pacific sleeper shark but is native to the North Atlantic, Greenland and Iceland and live farther north than any other shark species. It is one of the larger species of sharks comparable to the great white shark. The average length of this shark is 21 feet and 2200 pounds but can reach up to about 24 feet and 3,100 pounds.

Greenland Shark

They don’t know what the life span of this shark is, but one was caught 16 years after it was tagged. They do not deposit eggs, they carry the embryo’s in the body and give birth to live pups. Litters average about 10 pups.

When they feed they hold their prey with the upper teeth and the bottom teeth cut. The lower jaw teeth are in two halves with the teeth pitched in opposite directions.

Greenland Shark Teeth

It should be very interesting to find out what scientist Bruce Wright finds out next year in Loch Ness.  Could it be a sleeper shark or some unknown species of creature.  Sounds kind of scarey to me.  I think I will just keep hunting for teeth here on our local beaches.

Two commercial fisherman were working in the Sea of Cortez off the Northwestern Mexico coast when they were surprised by their nightly catch.  They had put their nets in the evening before and when they went back to check, it was heavier that usual and they thought they had a large catch of smaller fish.

Surprise, surprise, they had netted a huge great white shark. They were very shocked at what was in the net. The shark measured almost 20 feet, actually, 19.8 feet long and approximate the weight to be about 2000 pounds. The great white was already dead. This could be one of the largest great whites recorded.

Huge Great White Shark Caught in Mexico

They didn’t really know what to do with the shark so they had to drag it behind their boat for almost 2 miles and it took them about a hour to complete their trip back to shore. The boat they were in was only 22 feet long with a 75 horsepower outboard motor. After they got to shore it took almost 50 people to help drag the great white shark to the sand.

Great White Shark on the Beach

They don’t know what the fishermen did with the shark, but some scientist were hoping to get some samples from the shark.

Shark experts said that it is not unusual to have great whites in the area and they also believe that the Gulf of Mexico is an area where the great whites have nurseries.

As much as I hate to see a great white shark killed, this was an obvious accident. The great white was probably looking for breakfast and wound up in the net. Of course, sharks cannot live if they they can’t move forward because they breath through their gills.  So the poor shark probably suffocated.

Well, I guess you never know what you are going to get when you go out for your day of fishing. But you better watch out!

Happy Hunting!

One of our local universities has been involved in the development of an unmanned drone that will aid in stopping poachers of sharks and whales in the Galapagos Islands that are off of the coast of Ecuador.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University located in Daytona Beach, Florida has been working in conjunction with a group of students and faculty at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador which has a research center in the Galapagos and the Galapagos National Park.

The area around the Galapagos has a very rich and diverse ecosystem of marine life that is in need of protection from poachers that arrive in large numbers to kill protected sharks and whales. The area covers almost 50,000 square miles and is just too large of an area for authorities to patrol.

Galapagos Islands

Embry-Riddle is hoping to have up to 30 of these aircraft within a few years. They have been working on this project for about a year and a half already. They will begin their testing of the aircraft in the area with a team in Ecuador sometime this summer. Some of the testing on other items like the video systems and auto-plot have already been done here locally.

There have been other methods used to try to stop the poachers, but the drone seems to be a better way to try to stop the mass killing of sharks by the hundreds. They primarily catch them just for their fins, so they cut them off and throw the shark back into the ocean and the fins are sold for soup.

These new drones will have infrared sensors that will be able to detect people and boats and then stream the information to the authorities at the National Park. Then those officials would contact the Ecuadorian Navy who would then track down the poachers. They are hoping the drones will be a deterrent as well because the poachers will know they are being watched from the skies.

One of their biggest concerns is the loss of large populations of sharks because they are such a large part of the ecosystem that their loss could create losses to other species as well and cause extinction. The area and wildlife is so pristine and the water is so clean they want to keep it in that condition.

The drone only weighs 55 pounds and has a 12 foot wing span with a cost of about $5,000 to $10,000 each.  In the future Ecuador is also wanting to use the drones to check on other things like oil spills, migrations of turtles and whales and eating habits of birds in the ocean and track goats that are at the national park.

Unmanned Drone Piquero

I think this is a wonderful endeavor. Even though a lot of people don’t like sharks, they are critical to our marine ecosystem. The cruelty to kill sharks just for their fins and discard the rest is really heart breaking. Sharks are mysterious and have survived since the dinosaurs. It would be a shame to kill a species that has survived this long in our world just to make money selling fins.  I am proud of our local university for being involved in helping to making this a better planet.

I watched a very interesting video regarding an ongoing battle in Australia’s Barrier Reef in the north end at Rain Island between the green turtles that nest there by the thousands andtiger sharks.

This island is very remote and mostly inhabited by birds of all kinds. It is also a nesting area for green turtles that has been going on for over 100 million years. These green turtles can travel about 1500 miles to this nesting area every year. It can take up to a year for a female to make the trip and they are guided by a magnetic compass to mate and nest. After mating the male turtles swim back out to sea and the females stay hidden in the reef until it is time to nest.

There are other sharks that inhabit the area like Reef Sharks,  Great Hammerhead Sharks and Nurse Sharks, but they generally do not attack turtles.  The Tiger sharks make a migration to the area as well to feed and they seem to know when the nesting time is which is usually in the summer months. They can travel 50 miles a day to feed.

Local scientist have been tagging turtles and sharks to study their migrations to this area.  They have been studying the tiger shark to track it’s habits for a while. It is attracted to the area because of the large population of turtles. The largest number of turtles found nesting was a record 14,500, but the average amount of turtles nesting is about 1500. So because of this large of a number, the tiger sharks have learned this is an area with abundance of food.

Tiger Shark

The turtles have to time their swim to the island with nighttime being their primary and best bet to get to shore without being attacked. They also have to worry about the hot weather in the area which reaches temperatures over 100 degrees in the summer. The green turtles cannot tolerate the hot scorching sun for long and have to come ashore, dig their nest, lay their eggs and then get back into the sea before day break.

This can be a daunting process because they get so exhausted just trying to maneuver through the sand and rocks before they start digging.  They can be so crowded that they dig into other nests or cover other turtles in their pursuit of digging their own nest. They struggle to move because of their heavy shell and the terrain.  It can take a couple of hours just to dig the nest which can consist of between 75 and 200 eggs at a time.

As of a result of the harsh conditions on this tropical island, it has turned into a turtle grave yard over time. If a turtle gets caught in the sun, they have very little chance to survive from the heat. They can only go forward and cannot dig themselves out or back out of a problem.  Those that make it to shore have better odds, but are very exhausted from their ordeal and that is what makes them easy prey for the tiger sharks.

Once the turtles make it to the bottom of the reef they try to hide and rest. If they venture out they have a good chance of being attacked by a tiger shark waiting in the wings. If the turtle sees it’s enemy, they can actually swim up to 20 miles an hour and get out of the way of the shark.  But the tiger sharks can be very aggressive when feeding. They also feed on the turtles that make it to shore but die in the process. As they wash out to the ocean the tiger shark will feed on that as well. The reef sharks also feed on some of the dead turtles.

Tiger sharks like to check out their food to make sure it is not something dangerous before they attack and they can smell blood from injured turtles for up to a mile away. They take their time summing up their prey and are one of the few sharks that prey on turtles.

While scientists were studying these tiger sharks they caught one about 400 pounds to tag and it is really dangerous work. The shark became some what groggy after the ordeal because it is tied and cannot move well. What was amazing was watching the scientist swim along with the tiger shark to make sure it would be ok after the tagging was done. It was a large female. The next tiger shark they tagged was over 11 feet long, but they managed to get it done.

Hopefully they will some day know more about the tiger sharks migration and feeding habits. In the mean time, the green turtles still come back and nest every year and the survival rate for turtles is only about 1 in 1000 hatchlings. Mother nature keeps attracting them to the area in a fight for survival.

Now that the weather is getting warmer here in beautiful Florida, the sharks are on the move again. New Smyrna Beach, Florida is officially known as the Shark Bite Capital because of the amount of bites that occur in the area. The only good thing about this is that the bites are minor and no one has been killed here by shark bites. But it is a frequent occurrence that happens pretty regularly and yesterday two surfers were bit in the shallow surf they were in.

The area in Ponce Inlet is where the surfers are usually abundant and with spring break and bike week there are more tourist and surfers in the area. The weather has been in the low 80′s and the sharks like the warmer waters found there.

One of the victims was a 15 year old girl who was pulled off of her board two times was bitten on her ankle and was helped by others in the surf. She was taken to the hospital where she received minor surgery and they said she would be ok.

The second victim was a teenage boy who said he was bitten on the calf then the shark jumped and spun out in the air.  He was taken to the hospital by family members where he had 17 stitches but it was fairly minor.  The two attacks occurred about 5 minutes apart and the local authorities cleared the ocean area for a while to make sure it was safe for people to go back into the water.

According to both surfers, the shark was about 4 or 5 feet long, but they did not identify the type of shark that it was. Some experts said it was unlikely that it was the same shark.

Sharks and Surfers Share the Water

So, just when you thought you would be having a great beach day in our beautiful state, you get side tracked with a shark bite. Thank goodness they were minor.  It just makes you realize that we have to share with not only people, but with mother nature as well. The surfers in the area know that they have this challenge every time they go into the water and they are usually vigilant in keeping an eye out for shark fins, but sometimes they are just under the waves .

Just another day at the beach in the Sunshine State!