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Out of all the species walking, flying, slithering or swimming, there aren't many who have been around as long, survived as well, or come in so many shapes and kinds as the shark. The earliest evidences of sharks are isolated spines, teeth and scales that appeared about 430 million years ago in the Silurian Period, known as the "Age of Fishes". Sharks have a sleek, streamlined design which helps them swim without using up a lot of energy.They certainly need to conserve their energy because they never really sleep and most of them never stop swimming.
Some sharks are fierce predators, and would be happy to eat you if they encountered you. Almost any shark six feet or longer is a potential danger, but three species have been identified repeatedly in attacks: the Great White Shark, the Tiger Shark and the Bull Shark . All three live world wide, reach large sizes and eat large prey such as marine mammals or sea turtles. But most sharks never grow longer than five feet and never even see anyone with legs and arms anyway. People kill thousands more sharks every year than sharks kill people.
Sharks take about as long to mature as we do. Some of them become adults in their teens. A mother shark carries her babies inside her body while they develop, sometimes for more than a year. Even so, some sharks are born inside an egg which they have to crack open. They spend early portions of their lives in nursery grounds. Some of the advantages sharks have over people is that they keep growing new teeth, they don't have breakable bones, and they are not prone to get cancer. Sometimes sharks are referred to as swimming computers because of the six senses which they possess: vision, hearing, vibration, smell, taste and electro-perception.
SHARK LINKS
New
England Aquarium http://www.neaq.org/
IUCN
Shark Specialist Group
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/organizations/ssg/ssg.htm
Mote
Marine Laboratory: The Center for Shark Research http://www.mote.org/~rhueter/shark_research.phtml
The
Pelagic Shark Research Foundation http://www.pelagic.org/
Shark
Myths http://www.marinelab.sarasota.fl.us/~rhueter/sharks/myths.phtml
Costa
Rica! http://www.costarica.com/
The
Undersea Hunter http://www.underseahunter.com/
The
Cocos Island Research Center http://www.istmo.com/cocos/index.html
Secrets of the Ocean Realm http://www.pbs.org/oceanrealm
Cocos
Island | Sharkmasters
| World of
Sharks | Dispatches
The Shark Research Institute Web Site
The Shark Research Institute (SRI), a multi-disciplinary non-profit 501(c)(3) scientific research organization, was created to sponsor and conduct research on sharks and promote the conservation of sharks. Founded in 1991 at Princeton, New Jersey, USA, SRI has field offices in Canada, the Galapagos Islands, Honduras, Mexico, South Africa and the Seychelles. A new data collecting site has been established in Australia.
SRI works with the scientific community, individuals and organizations concerned about the health of our marine ecosystem, and marine resource users: subsistence fishermen, sport divers, and the dive tourism industry. SRI works to correct misperceptions about sharks and stop the slaughter of 100 million sharks annually. A primary goal is creating value for sharks as sustainable natural resources for the dive tourism industry, particularly in developing countries. By so doing, a steady revenue stream is also generated for local fishers that might otherwise slaughter the sharks for immediate gain. Current programs involve visual and satellite tracking, behavioral and DNA studies of sharks, environmental advocacy, publications and public education.
Corporate sponsors helping the SRI
Island of the Sharks Site Map
Scientific
Classification
Anatomy
and Physiology
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