So I asked leading shark ethologist and behaviourist, Professor Samuel 'doc' Gruber to elaborate. After pointing out how much pain women feel when they give birth, making the point that suffering has no effect on reproduction, he reminded me that sharks evolved their mating behaviours and the physical structures involved, separately from other animals.
What we see is that sharks are being targeted by international factory fleets around the world who trail millions upon millions of baited hooks through their realm, trawl the sea floors for rays, skates and other bottom dwellers to 4,000 metres, and slaughter them by the millions. Sharks are the only profitable prey remaining, now that ninety percent of the original (fish) fisheries are fished out.
For the study, an international team led by researchers at KAUST's Red Sea Research Center collected a total of 88 mucus samples from the back and gill skins with lesions as well as from healthy skins of 44 wild-caught blacktip reef sharks caught in the wild around the Seychelles Islands.
Researchers sequenced the samples to identify the bacteria present in them, then compared the samples from the different sharks and tested them to detect changes in response to injuries.
The shortfin mako shark fishery of the north Atlantic is one of those that fisheries scientists have claimed to be potentially sustainable. It has been used to promote the idea that all shark fisheries can become sustainable, with the United States in the lead.
But in the meantime, the species has become globally endangered, and now, when other countries are urgently fighting for protection for the shortfin mako shark, the United States and the European Union have blocked it at the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
Standing on the swim step, trying to time my entry with a gap in the dozen or more lemon sharks circling directly below me was a bit daunting the first go around. Of course, the sharks knew this routine well and skillfully avoided my clumsy splash into the water. The reward waiting beneath the surface was an assemblage of sharks that cannot be collectively encountered anywhere else in the world.
Tiger Beach in the Bahamas is firmly established as one of those global dive destinations of which almost everybody has heard. Its fame is largely derived from the many published images of its most celebrated visitor—Galeocerdo cuvier, the tiger shark.
“You’re crazy; I don’t get in the water with bitey things!” The announcement of my impending great white shark trip drew a variety of such responses from horrified friends. The undisputed bad boys of the shark world, great whites are the largest of all predatory sharks, reaching lengths of up to 6m and weighing in at over 2,000kg.
So as the Year of the Shark in 2019 begins, here is a review of how their actions reveal some of their mental states.
We instantly became friends. Wolfgang was mild-mannered, pleasant and very knowledgeable. At the time his body was already quite ravaged by several bouts of cancer but not his spirit or positive outlook.
Wolfgang's purist b/w photography of sharks, shot on film with his trusty and battered Nikonos V, was one of the few that truly inspired me to take my own photography a tad further. There was always such a raw but at the same time elegant aesthetic over his imagery which always appealed to me, and still does to this day.
After studying 611 fishes from different sites in Rowley Shoals and Scott Reefs in northwest Australia, scientists discovered that having fewer sharks around caused the fishes in the vicinity to develop smaller eyes and tails.
The waters off the coast of the US state of North Carolina are treacherous. Bad weather, rough seas, heavy current and inlets that are difficult to navigate are common. So why do underwater explorers consider this area to be a world-class dive destination? Because when you do get offshore, it is extraordinary.
