Shark Week discoveries

(c) nationalgeographic.com

 August 10, 2010 7:54 am

Shark Week 2010 finished, leaving to its spectators lots of knowledge about sharks, people and their interactions: sometimes full of understanding, sometimes not. The most exciting discoveries are the following:

 

Sixgill sharks know what family is.

Huge, up to 13 feet in length sharks inhabited waters of Elliot Bay and Puget Sound and the reasons for choosing these waters were the mystery for fishermen, scientists and local scuba drivers, who preserved another secret: the presence of sharks there. By constructing the huge aquarium the scientists investigated sharks’ genetics along with help from NOAA and the Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. They’ve found out that most of the sharks were brothers and sisters. They stick together after birth, because the mother shark leaves them soon.

 

The surfer saved the white shark

Two surfers in New South Wales, Australia, saved the great white shark stranded on a beach. Though sharks are called the greatest enemies of surfers, these men didn’t hesitate when deciding what to do. They’ve just had to avoid shark’s teeth. The 10-foot-long juvenile male was hard to lift, it stuck in the sand and the surfers used the wooden stick as a lever. Ruth Fahey, the photographer who captured the drama (above, and left), told The Coffs Coast Advocate: they tried first to dig the sand away beneath it to refloat it but ended up man-handling it back into the water. It was still very sluggish when they got to knee deep water so the surfer waded it out until he was waist deep.The shark slowly swam away...much slower than the surfer exited the vicinity.

But the next day the shark was found on a beach without jaws. Somebody took them away, though it is illegal to possess parts of a great white in Australia.

What if…

Here are the advice of people being bitten and suffered from great injures, who nevertheless don’t either blame or hate sharks:

- Do not let water go up your nose or in your mouth. Keep trying to get the shark off your body: kick, punch, use your body weight, etc. Fight back! Never quit
- Know that only a very small percentage of attacks are fatal, so use this as confidence that you will get out of this mess with scars and a great story to tell down at the pub
- If you’re a rescuer, don’t play tug of war with the shark trying to pull the victim out of the shark’s mouth. Close the water flow through the gills with a towel or shirt.

Source: Discovery channel

 

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By Manana

Categories: World