Types of sharks. Description, names and features of sharks
Everything you wanted to know about shark meat
Is it possible to eat shark?
Not every shark causes fear and horror, except in a school of herring or young seals.
Some species of sharks are valuable table fish, and dishes made from them can satisfy the taste of any gourmet.
The shark belongs to the species of oceanic cartilaginous fish - this means that its skeleton, like the sturgeon, consists of cartilage and has no bones.
Almost all types of sharks, and there are more than 550 species, are suitable for consumption and differ only in the different taste of their meat.
Salted, fried and smoked shark meat is amazingly tasty.
True, when fresh, shark meat has an unpleasant odor, since it contains a lot of urea. But this can be eliminated by soaking it for several hours in cold water with the addition of vinegar or milk.
Shark meat is more tender and spoils faster than the meat of other fish. However, knowing how to prepare it, this can be avoided.
The low popularity of shark meat in the diet of most people is mainly due to the fact that the shark is considered a man-eater.
One can cite a similar prejudice among the population of our country regarding burbots, which supposedly feed on carrion and even human corpses, therefore some part of the Russian population is disdainful of eating burbots.
However, it should be noted that most fish, and many animals that people eat, can also feed on corpses (for example, pigs), but they are eaten without disgust.
Of course, these are ridiculous superstitions, but they often keep shark meat off the dinner table.
For example, a booklet issued in 1977 by the University of Hawaii as part of its Oceanographic Advisory Program characterizes sharks not as a "sailor's nightmare" but as a "chef's dream":
Thanks to the subtle flavor, their meat will appeal to most people, especially when using sauces, spices and seasonings. After heat treatment, shark fillets acquire a wonderful white color, and the fish itself cooks quickly and easily.
Popularity of shark meat
Today, shark meat is eaten in South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, and less commonly in the United States and Canada, although consumption there is growing rapidly as pan-fried and grilled fish become more popular and supplies of tuna and swordfish dwindle. .
The most popular varieties that have high taste are herring, soup shark, mako (blue-gray shark), blacktip, blue, katran, as well as fox shark.
Residents of Korea, China and Japan have been eating shark meat since time immemorial. Perhaps nowhere in the world are sharks consumed in such quantities as in China and Japan - the annual catch of sharks there amounts to millions of tons, which has put them at risk of extinction.
In Japan, lower quality shark meat is used to make a fish snack called kamaboko.
In addition, shark meat is sold fresh and canned. One of the most common canned foods is smoked shark meat in soy sauce.
And of course, dishes made from shark meat are frequent guests on the tables of the peoples inhabiting Oceania, where shark meat is treated with much less prejudice than on our continents.
For example, many generations of Australians hated sharks due to .
However, when it was discovered that some species of sharks had tasty and nutritious meat, Australians began to eat them.
Australian mothers have discovered another benefit of shark meat: it is boneless and can be safely given to young children.
In Russia, shark meat has long since moved from the category of unprecedented and very expensive wonders to the category of quite affordable food that can be bought in most large supermarkets.
The prejudice that shark meat is inedible is long and irrevocably outdated. There are hundreds of recipes on the Internet from ordinary Russian housewives telling how to cook shark along with common seasonings and ingredients.
Nutritional value of shark meat and its benefits
Shark meat is a storehouse of minerals, vitamins and amino acids that are beneficial to humans. Like other fish, it is just as well and easily absorbed by the human body. Valued for its high nutritional properties, low calorie content and very low cholesterol content.
An excellent source of Omega-3 fatty acids, 100 g of fillet contains approximately 2 g of these vital fats.
This makes shark meat a wonderful dietary product, which experts actively include in some modern diets.
The composition of shark meat contains an almost complete complex of B vitamins, potassium, calcium, large amounts of phosphorus, zinc, iron and even selenium, copper and manganese.
But vitamin C and carotene are practically absent in shark meat, which must be taken into account when preparing therapeutic diets using this product.
The maximum concentrations of nutrients are concentrated in the meat, which is located in the fins. That is why dishes prepared from shark fins have advantages over other seafood delicacies.
Energy value of shark meat per 100 g
Sharkfish scam
In the USA and Europe, pieces of herring shark, hammerhead shark and soup shark are often presented as cut swordfish, tuna or sea sturgeon, since buyers have a biased attitude towards these formidable predators.
Passing off a shark as another fish is an old commercial scam.
Turkish fish traders have long sold shark balyk from katran in Russia, passing them off as sturgeon.
Soup shark steaks treated with dyes can be sold as salmon meat, and fox shark can be sold as croaker or halibut meat.
Fish sticks are also made from shark meat, and with the help of food coloring, shark meat is turned into salmon; shark meat is called “gray fish”, “sea eel”, “Fulkestone beef”.
Knowing about the prejudiced attitude of Russian buyers towards shark meat, steaks can be disguised under the names “stone fish”, “sea sturgeon”, “white fish”, etc.
However, lately there has been no particular need for such deception: shark meat dishes are becoming increasingly popular among our compatriots and it is possible that soon the assortment of fish stores will be replenished with various varieties of sharks.
In supermarkets you can find packaged steaks called “shark meat” or “shark steaks” - despite the fact that there are more than 550 species of sharks, in this case we are talking about.
Typically, shark is sold in portioned pieces, either as round steaks with or without skin, or as fully cleaned fillets.
It is quite difficult to distinguish shark meat from other commercial fish; you need to navigate by the absence of bones and large cartilage in the middle.
If the meat is chilled, the specific smell of ammonia will help to “identify” the shark.
Never buy red shark meat that is found on the sides of the fish - it does not have a particularly pleasant taste.
Rules for processing meat
The meat of many species of sharks is quite tasty and tender, but when raw it has an unpleasant odor of ammonia and a bitter-sour taste, so it requires special preliminary preparation - soaking in cold water with acidulants (vinegar, citric acid).
You can soak shark meat in milk.
However, fillets of such species as mako, herring, soup, katran, etc. do not require special pre-treatment.
Shark meat spoils faster than other fish meat. To make it tasty and aromatic, it is very important to properly process this fish.
Caught sharks are immediately gutted (no later than 7 hours after catch), skinned, removing dark meat along the lateral lines, washed and immediately cooled in ice.
When salting and canning, you should not use iodized salt, since as a result of the high content of microelements in shark meat, it will either turn black or quickly deteriorate.
Clay dishes for salting must be glazed, otherwise the process of leaching of the ceramics will begin and the meat will disappear.
You should also know that smoking will not help preserve shark meat, but will only enhance the specific smell.
Sharks are rarely sold whole - most shark meat products come processed and frozen. More often these are large round pieces with cartilage in the middle.
A shark can be identified even in pieces by the absence of costal bones and visible individual vertebrae in the cartilaginous spine.
The younger the shark, the more tender and tastier its meat.
Video - Skinning and preparing shark fillet for frying:
Shark in cooking - what dishes are prepared from sharks?
The fashion for exotic foods is pushing an increasing number of housewives to reconsider the traditional menu, and shark meat is increasingly occupying a place among high-calorie and affordable food products.
To prepare a shark dish, you don’t have to be rich or look for rare spices. There is a dish that is financially accessible to almost every Russian, and the ingredients for it can be bought not only in the supermarket, but also in many large markets, because the basis is katran shark, of which there are many.
In the skillful hands of chefs, many types of sharks become culinary masterpieces. In the East, mako shark dishes can compete with red tuna in price and popularity, and the Italians prepare herring shark.
In the United States, especially on the Atlantic coast, grilled sirloin is served as often as steak.
The Japanese gave pride of place on their table to the blue shark, which is fried in batter and made into broths based on the fillet.
Shark meat is good for more than just steaks, although they turn out amazing. In the kitchen you can handle it in the same way as pork or beef, that is, if you have a certain amount of imagination, you can prepare almost any meat dish without any hassle.
In France, stories about edible and inedible sharks circulated in the 18th century, and in the Pacific Islands - in even more distant times.
In Saipan, for example, there is a taboo against the blacktip shark, but in Guam, where there is no such taboo, they eat it. Meat in California is used as food, and in Germany it is used as a laxative.
Ancient tribes living on some Pacific islands believed that whoever eats a shark shares a meal with the devil.
Attitudes towards shark meat in America
You can look at these ridiculous superstitions with a condescending smile, but the prejudices that keep shark meat off the dinner table, for example, of Americans, are no more reasonable.
All attempts to force Americans to eat shark meat have failed. Such a campaign, under the slogan “Sharks are good for you,” began to be prepared by the US Fisheries Administration in 1916.
And then something famous to the whole world happened. Is it any wonder that after four people were killed by sharks and one was seriously injured, no one wanted to put shark on their menu.
When America entered the First World War, a new campaign was launched. At the request of the Ministry of Food Industry and Commercial Fisheries, the famous Gorton fish canning factory in Gloucester began producing canned fish from katran.
The canned product was of quite good quality in taste and appearance, but when the cans were opened, the fish emitted a pungent odor of ammonia. Therefore, everything we sent came back to us. Naturally, we stopped the production of canned shark,” said F.M. Bundy, the company's president.
US President Theodore Roosevelt believed that shark meat tasted great and stated this publicly to encourage people to eat sharks.
During the First World War, Roosevelt turned for support to his friend Russell Coles, who had already been studying in the Caroline Islands for many years. Coles boasted that he had tried at least 10 different species of shark.
At Roosevelt's request, the question "What does shark taste like?" Coles gave the following enthusiastic response:
It has quite a decent taste, although its meat is somewhat tougher than that of other species; smooth - one of the most delicious fish in the world; The meat has a rather strong smell, but if you cook it properly, it is quite suitable for food; - decoration for any dinner; The brown shark leaves nothing to be desired.
But the joint efforts of Coles and Roosevelt - and even the patriotism of the Americans - could not force them to eat sharks.
It took something as big as a war to get Americans to even think about it.
During the Second World War, the Marine Fisheries Authority again appealed to the population to make up for the lack of meat, which was in limited quantities on the market, by eating more fish, including sharks.
Here's what Captain Young said:
I received orders to send half a ton of fresh shark meat to a New York wholesale fish company. I went to Bilohi in the Gulf of Mexico, where dusky and black-and-white sharks are found, and caught them on spinning rods from shrimp boats.
When fishermen inspect the nets, they only select shrimp and throw the small fish back into the sea. So there were more than enough sharks.
Having caught a shark, I immediately cut off its tail and released the blood. This made her meat whiter.
As soon as we got to shore, I shipped the sharks to New York in boxes of dry ice. They arrived in excellent condition and, as I was told later, most buyers had no complaints.
Knowing that people were prejudiced against the word "shark", the company decided to market it under the name "greyfish". But the government offered to sell the sharks under their own name, and that was the end of the whole business...
This trick - disguising a shark as another fish - was and is still used in many countries.
Sharks on English tables
The British have been eating sharks for centuries, often under an assumed name. An unknown poet of the Elizabethan era, who captured in his poems the fish that were eaten in those days, mentions, in addition to herring, cod, halibut and whiting, the fox shark.
Shakespeare also mentions sharks, but in a context that hardly serves as a good recommendation for them: the potion brewed by the three witches in Macbeth contains shark mouth among its other ingredients.
During the Elizabethan era, shark meat was very popular and when fish exports to the continent inflated prices on the English fish market, fish lovers in England were very unhappy.
In 1578, they drew up a petition in which this situation was disapprovingly analyzed.
The methods of preparing some sharks in the British Isles in the old days would horrify the modern gourmet. In the Shetland Islands, for example, fish were buried in the ground to preserve them and it was believed that this gave them a special flavor.
They removed the skin from the katran so that it could not be recognized as a shark, then they gutted it, dried it in the sun and sold it for salmon.
Perhaps it was precisely because of these manipulations and fake salmon that sharks little by little ceased to be popular in England.
In 1904, during the economic depression, shark meat began to be eaten again in England. Small shopkeepers, looking for fish that they could sell cheaply to the poor and still make some profit from, found that they could buy a shilling for 30 kilos.
They called the meat of the spiny shark "mountain salmon" and sold it along with fried potatoes for one and a half pence per portion - nowhere cheaper (12 pence in a shilling).
In 1922, the British began importing katran fish from Norway, even though their own waters were literally infested with these sharks. Norwegian spiny shark, well packaged and always perfectly fresh, has again found a market among English fish and chip merchants.
Now in England more than 8 tons of katran are caught annually; Much of this catch goes to Billingsgate Market, a huge fish market that has supplied the English with fish for centuries.
Shark meat in Europe
For many years, Italy has been importing the herring shark from the Scandinavian countries. When Benito Mussolini came to power, he banned the import of sharks, not wanting Italians to be despised for eating sharks.
Despite this ban, Norwegian and Danish sharks were smuggled into Italy.
Italy is now once again importing sharks from Scandinavia, although at least 60 species of sharks live in Italian waters. A huge share of the herring shark catch in Norway and Denmark - about 500 tons per year - is frozen and sent to Italy.
Norway, which has solved the problem of preserving fresh shark meat, has a huge number of buyers and sells millions of kilograms of shark meat.
For example, in six months - from January to June 1961 - Norwegian fish exports included about 2 million kilograms of spiny shark meat exported to England and Northern Ireland, and about 1 million kilograms of meat going to Sweden, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, France , Italy and West Germany.
Over the same period, another 2.5 million kilograms of frozen spiny shark meat were sold to these same countries, plus East Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.
In Norway, a unique method of long-term storage of fresh shark meat has been developed for this purpose.
The sharks are gutted, the carcass is cut off, then they are placed in boxes of jelly and placed in refrigeration units at minus 15 degrees for a period of 24 to 36 hours.
The fish freezes firmly, but the jelly does not; it forms a protective layer under which the fish is preserved, essentially, forever. When selling, fish are removed from the packaging one by one.
Shark meat scam in USA
Compared to other fish, sharks are not very popular among American housewives. For example, in 1959, about 3 million kilograms of shark meat, worth $162,000, were sold on the United States fish market.
This figure immediately ceases to be impressive if you compare it, say, with the figures for profits from the sale of cod. Also in 1959, about 30 million kilograms of cod were sold, worth more than $4 million.
Many sharks eaten in the United States appear on plates under a different name. When offered to a fishmonger, he may be tempted to present his customers with a shark in disguise.
To do this, you just need to cut off its head, fins and tail, and cut it into pieces. In this form, its meat can easily pass for the meat of a more expensive swordfish, and few people will feel the difference.
In some American fish markets it is sold under the name "greyfish". and some other species of sharks are sold under the label "swordfish".
One day in the summer of 1944, a restaurant patron in Long Beach, California, looked disapprovingly at the fish served as white sea bass, California halibut, barracuda and salmon.
The salmon looked especially suspicious, but the visitor knew that all the other fish were nothing more than sliced. This visitor was William Ellis Ripley of the California Department of Marine Fisheries.
The owner of the establishment was forced to admit that the meat of the fish, which he passed off as salmon, had undergone special processing to give it a pink color.
And in many other cities in the state, shark meat is sold under someone else's name. Even in a fishing port like Santa Barbara, sea fox and soup shark passed for halibut, cod, etc.
For many years, the US shark meat trade was driven entirely by Italian and Chinese immigrants and their descendants.
Every year at New York's Fulton Fish Market, the largest wholesale fish market on the Atlantic coast of the United States, 30 to 40 thousand kilograms of katran are sold and almost all of the buyers are Italian-Americans.
On both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, immigrants from China supply the demand for shark fins for their favorite soup.
Culinary reviews of shark meat
When searching for information about shark meat and its use in the kitchen on the Internet, you can come across many conflicting reviews.
However, the most important thing that needs to be taken into account when deciding to prepare a meat dish from shark is the availability of a high-quality starting product and the type of shark (must be indicated on the package).
Otherwise, no culinary secrets or tricks will help correct the spoiled taste of the finished dish.
Here are the most interesting reviews:
1. To taste the taste, I decided not to take recipes with a lot of spices or adding vegetables, but simply fried the steaks in a frying pan. I liked the taste of shark meat, tender, lean, and no bones.
I read that some people compare its taste to chicken, but I didn’t notice any similarity with chicken.
2. Prepared shark fillet. Defrosted quickly in cold water. As indicated in the recipe, I cut off the skin and cartilage, a lot of water comes out, the meat is dense. I squeezed out the water several times.
I marinated it in lemon juice as usual, squeezed out a large slice, and did not put the pieces on top. I marinated for 1 hour (recipe calls for 2 hours). I didn’t add any salt at all. Fried in batter. It turned out delicious, unlike any fish.
3. Once upon a time I saw a Black Sea shark on sale, called katran, there was an impulse in my heart to buy and cook, but before doing this, I went home and Googled it.
As it turned out, shark meat must be soaked before cooking, because it stinks of urine. This prompted me to abandon the purchase.
So this question gnaws at me - maybe I should have given up the opportunity to catch a shark in vain?
4. Cool fish, I took it to METRO. A faint specific smell, then disappears. Simply fried in batter and lightly marinated in soy sauce. Delicious meat!
5. I didn't like it. The guests were delighted. But the taste and color...
For me, the meat is a little dry, not as flavorful as, for example, salmon or even herring with capelin (I like food to have a pronounced taste).
6. ...Well, there were no ammonia smells there! It just smelled like fish and sea!
7. I read in the comments to recipes that many people cook shark meat without soaking, and there is no smell. Since I didn’t notice any unusual smells last time, I decided to try not bothering with soaking, but frying it right away. Moreover, I again did not detect any unpleasant odors in raw steaks.
I rolled the fish in flour and placed it in the frying pan. And literally after a couple of minutes of frying, the shark showed itself in all its glory. A rather strong ammonia smell began to emanate from the steaks.
8. Residents of the Asia-Pacific region consider blue shark steak to be a powerful aphrodisiac. And they regularly eat this shark dish. However, shark meat is constantly criticized, perhaps with good reason.
9. Most sharks smell like ammonia (urine). This has been tested in practice when preparing freshly caught herring sharks in the Sea of Okhotsk.
The blue shark is supplied from Malaysia and, most likely, from Turkey, where they breed it. Therefore, cultured shark has a less pronounced odor, especially after the shark steak has been frozen for a long time in supermarket freezers.
Therefore, even frozen pork and beef do not smell like meat.
10. We squeezed a lot of water out of the blue shark steak. She absorbs it like a blotter. There is a suspicion that commercial intermediaries deliberately pump the shark with water to increase the weight, and, accordingly, the cost of such steaks.
15. I tried shark fin in a Chinese restaurant. The meat is really very tender, but the taste was no different from a good fatty carp.
16. Having read about the specific smell, I sniffed the steaks, but didn’t notice any unusual smells.
17. I foolishly bought shark steaks one day. Despite all the soaking, the stench remained. Neither lemon, nor herbs, nor spices helped. The family refused to eat it and had to throw it away.
18. Only very old sharks and some large species are not eaten - they don’t taste very good. And they don’t sell steaks from them. And if the steaks are not large, you can first stew them and then fry them like regular fish in a frying pan.
The shark is very tasty, although the fried one tastes completely ordinary, like carp for example (for my taste), but the shark ear is wow (the head and fins are involved).
19. I just sincerely don’t understand why spend money on shark steaks if they taste “like ordinary fish.”
20. We also recently tried grilled shark meat. I don’t know how to cook it correctly, but I think it’s just like that, nothing. The natives of that area prepared it for us, in the same place where we caught it.
I think they knew what they were doing. There were a lot of spices and seasonings, it turned out very tasty. But a fish is a fish, and, in my opinion, a little dry.
At the same time, I think you need to try everything so that later you can casually say: “Yes, I ate your shark. Bullshit...”
So don't be upset that you didn't taste anything unique. Here, the name of the meat alone is worth something to make you envious.
21. Very satisfying and tasty, it’s especially interesting that the raw skin is very tough, but the fried skin is tender and sort of sticky, and the bones all become like cartilage, only the vertebra itself remains hard. In terms of taste, I would compare it to pangassius, probably, or pollock, in any case, much tastier than sole.
22. Either I just don’t understand something about this product, or it’s completely unattractive, has some sort of watery taste...
The only thing of interest is the shark skin. It cannot be cut by anything - neither a knife nor scissors. I managed to cut it just a little with a razor, but only with difficulty. But it’s hardly worth shelling out that kind of money for a funny toy.
23. I wanted to feel the taste of the fish itself, so for the first time I decided to simply fry it in flour and eggs. But I’ll say right away - nothing great. I will not buy this fish again. Maybe it should have been made with sauce or with vegetables or mushrooms. But then the taste of fish was not felt. In short, expectations were not met. I like trout better.
24. Yesterday my husband bought this meat in a magnet. The shark is not expensive, although I used to think the opposite. One kg of meat costs 200 rubles. We had almost kg in the package.
When I opened the package, the smell of urine in the kitchen became simply unbearable, please forgive me. This is of course complete horror. But I was ready for this, since they immediately warn about it on the Internet.
Then, in general, you need to wash it, cut off the skin, because it is like sand, like sandpaper. I marinated it with lemon, it marinated for two hours. Then I marinated it in soy sauce for two hours.
Then fry for 5 minutes on each side. No one liked the taste of the fish. Of course there was no such terrible smell. But the taste is very unique. The meat is soft. I didn't like it at all overall.
They threw everything away. And by the way, in the end, from one kg we got probably 500 grams of finished meat.
25. At sea, fishermen treated us to fresh shark meat. They told us how to cook it, no soaking required, no breading, fry on both sides and then simmer in soy sauce. Well, it didn’t smell like anything.
26. Yes, you must have been lucky with the shark! But when I prepared it, there was a decent, persistent smell of ammonia. Despite soaking and further removal of the pit and skin. It continued to smell like that. The garlic and cream sauce saved the situation a little.
27. When frying steaks, soaking the meat in milk to soften it is not at all necessary, especially if you are going to fry them breaded. In this case, when frying, the breading cannot be preserved on the steaks.
28. In some ways it resembles mushrooms growing in Kazakhstan. Which need to be soaked in salt water for a week, then boiled for three days, constantly draining the water, and only then can be pickled. Thus, I think an old shoe can be made edible. What for?!
In general, I don’t recommend it. Especially if you have fresh river fish nearby.
29. On the island of Hainan, I personally used one shark: first they bring it alive in a bucket and show it, they say, will you be like this? About 15 minutes later they brought it to me, fried. There was no nasty smell. The consistency was reminiscent of sterlet (without bones!), but less fragrant.
30. As a result, the shark meat was still a little bitter - this spoiled the entire pleasant impression of the shark, since it is quite convenient to eat - it is not bony at all.
Then I found information that the shark should be soaked for 10 hours in acidified water, then this unpleasant taste will completely disappear. But the shark didn’t excite me, and I won’t buy it anymore or do anything with it.
Another unpleasant moment is the terrible skin of the shark, not only is it super oily, but it’s also like sand. After tasting the skin, I started spitting. In general, I don’t recommend it, as the fish is too confusing and ambiguous.
Yes, it is indeed tougher than, for example, halibut or pollock, but it is still a shark. There are several bundles of strong muscles running along her body, and between them there is absolutely no fat - only protein.
35. Despite the unflattering reviews, I took the risk of cooking. I soaked the shark in water with lemon for 8 hours (well, that’s what happened because I went to nature). Then I dried the fillet with a napkin. Rolled in flour with pepper. Fried it.
The promised nasty smell was not there. It turned out delicious!
Conclusion
Today you can buy shark meat in any form - frozen, dried, pickled, canned, smoked. Dishes using this product turn out to be very unusual and pleasant to the taste.
Sharks have a bad reputation due to misinformation. However, you will come to appreciate these fish once you learn the basic facts about shark life.
Approximately 465 known shark species live in the oceans today
It is difficult to estimate the population size of each shark species individually because each species' range covers such a large geographic area. But the total number of sharks in the wild is constantly declining.
While many of us are afraid of sharks, we need to know that Man is the largest predator on the planet. People are scarier than sharks. In fact, humans kill more than 73 million sharks every year.
On average, 30 to 50 shark attacks are reported annually, only 5 to 10 of these attacks are fatal to humans. The chances of dying from a shark attack are much lower than the chances of dying from a hornet, wasp, bee or dog attack. You may think of sharks as terrifying, man-eating predators, but in reality, only 3% of sharks—a small minority—are dangerous to humans.
Sharks are the predecessors of dinosaurs. They are 200 million years older than dinosaurs. Moreover, over 450 million years (the geological age of sharks), these ancient representatives of the fauna have not changed at all.
Sharks are the top of the food chain - they are the top predators of the sea and regulate the populations of all species.
Recent studies have shown that there is a massive depletion of sharks. This has cascading consequences for changes in the entire ocean ecosystem.
Sharks are fish
Sharks belong to the family of cartilaginous fish. The difference between cartilaginous fish and bony fish is that the cartilage skeleton is lighter and more flexible.
Sharks breathe through a series of gill slits, with 5-7 gill slits located on either side of their body.
All sharks have several rows of teeth. They lose teeth on a regular basis, but new teeth continue to grow and replace the lost ones.
When a shark dies, the salt of the seawater completely dissolves its skeleton, leaving only its teeth.
"Shark Skin" consists of a series of scales that act as an outer frame for easy movement in the water. The top side of the shark is usually dark to blend in with the water and is not visible from above. And their lower part is white, in harmony with the lighter surface of the sea below. This helps sharks camouflage themselves.
Sharks have a very keen sense of smell, capable of detecting blood in the water from several miles away.
Sharks' eyes have a surprisingly wide field of view, covering almost 360 degrees. Their panoramic view of the underwater world is hindered only by two blind spots, one in front of the snout and the other directly behind the head.
Sharks are adapted to life in a wide range of different aquatic temperatures.
Some species live in shallow, coastal areas, other species live in deep waters on the ocean floor, and others live on the surface in the open ocean.
The goblin shark lives along outer continental shelves and underwater ridges. Their dwellings are too deep for people, so we know almost nothing about them.
Some species, such as the bull shark, are able to live in both salt and fresh water.
Most sharks are active in the evening and at night - this is their hunting time.
Sharks are capable of migrating long distances—on a scale that can cross entire ocean basins.
There are solitary species of sharks, and there are social ones - preferring to live in groups.
How do sharks feed and what do they eat?
- Some shark species, such as the great white shark, attack from below. As a rule, their prey is seals and sea lions.
- Species of sharks that live on the ocean floor have developed the ability to collect bottom food.
- There are species of sharks that attack schooling fish.
- Large and basking sharks feed like whales, filtering ocean water through their wide-open mouths. During filtration, large quantities of plankton and krill are ingested.
Shark Facts You Should Know
Sharks mature slowly, reaching reproductive age at 12 to 15 years. And a whale shark can reproduce its first offspring only after reaching the age of 30 years. This, combined with the fact that many species only give birth to one or two young, means that sharks have great difficulty recovering. That's why their population has declined so much.
The gestation period of a shark lasts from 5 months to 2 years, depending on the type of shark. Some female sharks use sperm from multiple males to create a single litter.
Soon after birth, the baby sharks, while still puppies, swim away from their mother. They are able to stand up for themselves from birth. Baby sharks are born with a full set of teeth and are able to feed and live independently.
All sharks are characterized by cannibalism. At the same time, not only adults are cannibals; prenatal cannibalism is exhibited by baby sharks, feeding on the eggs of fellow sharks, which the female produces during pregnancy. That’s why out of a litter of 80 eggs, only 1-2 baby sharks are born.
Sharks that eat the eggs of their siblings in the womb are not vicious. They are simply looking for nutrients to support themselves as they grow.
A baby shark is a miniature copy of its parents. The photo shows tiger sharks.
The largest known extinct shark species, Megalodon, reached a maximum length of 20 meters (67 ft).
Of the living creatures, the largest is the gigantic whale shark. It can reach a body length of 15 meters.
TOP smallest sharks:
- Dwarf spiny shark (Squaliolus laticaudus) - the usual body length is 15-20 cm, and the maximum is 24 cm.
- The dwarf glow shark (Euprotomicrus bispinatus) is a fish 20-25 cm long.
- Longnose shark (Heteroscymnoides marleyi) is a small fish, 12.5-30 cm long.
- Lighttail shark (Euprotomicroides zantedexchia) - maximum length 20 cm.
- Cuban marten shark (Triakidae barbouri) - maximum 35-40 cm.
Glowing shark - record holder of minimalism 
Some known shark species drown if they stop moving. They do not have a swim bladder, so they must swim all the time - they expend a lot of energy in movement. Compare. A great white shark needs 11 tons of food every year! And a human being eats half a ton of food a year.
The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), Mako (blacktip, mackerel, blue-gray) shark and Salmon sharks (Lamna ditropis) of the herring family - do not have muscles, they pump water through the mouth and gills. They keep their mouths open the entire time they swim, this keeps them alive.
Sharks have large livers. Shark livers contain a lot of oil. This makes the liver a relatively buoyant organ, helping sharks maintain balance in the water.
Poking a shark in the nose or eyes to fend off their attack does not help. It’s better to hit them in the gills (these are large slits along the snout) - this tactic works much more effectively against sharks. Most sharks swim away when their target is difficult to reach for their food. You are more likely to die from drowning than from a shark attack. This is true.
Tiger sharks, great white sharks and bull sharks (blunt-nosed bull sharks) generally attack people from behind. Their prey is anything human-sized. They are strong enough to attack and deliver a fatal bite.
In the extremely rare event that a shark bites you, it most likely will not attempt a second bite. When attacking people, sharks usually hold them for a few seconds and then release them once they realize that what they have tasted is not a sea creature.
20-30 percent of sharks are critically endangered. The main culprit is industrial fishing, where sharks are accidentally caught on hooks and nets. And due to the excessive popularity of shark fins (commercial demand), the populations of some shark species have declined by approximately 90%.
The blue shark (Prionace glauca) is considered the rarest shark species.
Another rare species is the frilled shark Chlamydoselachus anguineus. They are often called living fossil sharks. They live at great ocean depths of 1000-1500 meters.
Shark eggs are very different in appearance from those eggs laid by birds, lizards or crocodiles. They are often protected by capsules or leathery pouches. In the case of the horn shark, they are called "mermaid purses."
Contrary to popular belief, sharks are not colorblind; they are good at distinguishing colors. Divers claim that sharks are attracted to certain colors - yellow, the color of some wetsuits, is a "yummy" color for them. While shark color preferences have not been proven, scientists do know that sharks living in a well-lit aquarium exhibit color discrimination, which humans use as cues.
Angel sharks, also known as sand devils (Squatina), burrow into piles of sand. From there they lie in wait, waiting for unsuspecting fish.
Scientists have discovered a sleeping species of shark near Mexico (from among the reef sharks), which are able to lie motionless.
Sharks come in different shapes, some of which are quite bizarre. For example, this is what a Hammerhead Shark looks like.
Shark. One word is enough to imagine a huge ugly mouth with jagged teeth that are about to close, carrying the next victim into the abyss of the sea. The exhibition “World of Sharks” opened in St. Petersburg. Deep Dive” radically changes the understanding of these amazing animals.
The main source of knowledge about sharks for most people is the film Jaws by Steven Spielberg. Among those who wanted to know more about these kings of the seas, the book “Shadows in the Sea” is popular, from which you can glean information about the biology of sharks, commercial significance, paleontological research, but still most of the book is devoted to the history of shark attacks on humans. The exhibition, which opened in 2009 in Sydney and reached St. Petersburg this fall, poses a strange question to visitors: “Shark: predator or prey?” and offers a look at sharks from a different perspective.
The sharks are presented at the exhibition in the form of life-size models, this is a portrait of a great white.
Two exhibits are presented in the form of frozen carcasses - a tuna and a shark hunting for it. The fish are exhibited in a special freezer. (photo http://planetshark.org).
The teeth of extinct sharks are, as a rule, all that remains of extinct cartilaginous fish. Some of them are many millions of years old.
A surfboard that was caught in the mouth of a shark off the coast of Australia.
And this is what the mechanical sharks that play in the movies look like.
Harvesting shark fins, which supposedly help against cancer (http://www.theguardian.com).
Sharks appeared approximately 450 million years ago. Some of them were similar to modern ones, others had a rather bizarre appearance. Both millions of years ago and now, one thing remains the same - these are predators that are very well adapted to hunting fish and marine mammals. Looking at the teeth presented at the exhibition - fossil sharks that went extinct about one and a half million years ago and reached more than 20 meters in length, you try to imagine this possible ancestor of the great white (paleontologists are still arguing about their relationship), which is larger than its descendant in 2-3 times (great white reaches 7 meters). Sharks often attack their own smaller relatives, so megalodon could from time to time dine on a great white, one of the largest predators of our time.
It must be said that a person ends up in the diet of sharks extremely rarely and by mistake: it happens that a person becomes an unwitting victim, somehow provoking an attack, or a predator mistakes him for his usual prey - a large fish or a marine mammal. It’s not without reason that surfers often suffer from shark teeth, because from under the water the silhouette of a surfer resembles a seal. Every year, about 100 cases of shark attacks are recorded worldwide, about 10 of which are fatal. The risk of being attacked by a shark is 1 in 11.5 million, and the risk of dying from such an attack is 1 in 264.1 million. For comparison, in Russia alone in 2012, 27,991 people died in road accidents. At the same time, for the sake of shark fins, which are used as food and used in traditional Chinese medicine, people kill 100 million sharks every year (according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization). Think about these numbers.
However, there is no reliable evidence that shark fins actually help fight cancer. Fining is done in a barbaric manner - the fins of living sharks are cut off, and the fish are thrown back into the sea, where they inevitably die.
What should we do if, as a result of climate warming, changes in the direction of ocean currents and fish migration routes, sharks begin to appear regularly in Russian coastal waters? In the summer of 2011, the entire Primorye region was stirred up by a report of a shark attack on a person, presumably it was a mako. Last summer, sharks were again spotted near the coast, where they probably came for their usual prey - seals. And when going on vacation to warmer climates, you need to remember that the sea is fraught with a lot of surprises.
Robert Kirk, curator of the exhibition, recommended following basic precautions. They, of course, do not guarantee 100% salvation if a shark does attack, but they reduce the risk of meeting a predator: do not swim at night; do not go into the water, where there could theoretically be sharks, while bleeding; in water, even in shallow water, stay in groups; Do not slap the water too actively with your hands and feet. Robert himself said that he saw sharks from the boat, and he was more interested than scared. According to him, the exhibition is gradually changing the attitude towards sharks in people’s minds, they stop being afraid and begin to be interested in these fish.
Experts have differing opinions about which sharks should be feared. Many believe that the real danger is posed by the so-called big five - tiger, great white, bull, mako and hammerhead sharks. Others believe that all sharks exceeding 120 centimeters in length can be potentially dangerous.
In fact, is there 100% protection against sharks? There is a whole section dedicated to this at the exhibition - there are various suits and cages for divers that are designed for protection. At one time, great hopes were placed on an anti-shark repellent - a mixture of copper acetate and nigrosin. In laboratory conditions, it proved to be effective, but when they made a suit with plastic pockets filled with powder, which was supposed to get into the water if the shark did attack, there were no people willing to try it.
If you've been impressed by the figure of 100 million sharks caught each year for their fins, you've probably wondered what the total population of these fish is. It is unlikely that it will be possible to count all sharks, since scientists are still discovering more and more new ones. Walking through the exhibition, you will learn a lot of interesting and unexpected things. At times you even feel uneasy, but not from a sudden attack of selachophobia, but from the fact that we seem to know no more about the ocean and its inhabitants than about distant space. Jacques-Yves Cousteau called sharks creatures beyond human understanding. But maybe it’s time to stop just being afraid and try to get to know them at least a little?
Anyone who still thinks that the biggest fish on the planet is blue is deeply mistaken. Whales are classified as mammals, and among them he is truly the very best. And here whale shark is the most largest living fish.
Description and features of the whale shark
This gigantic species was hidden from the eyes of ichthyologists for a long time and was discovered and described relatively recently - in 1928. Of course, even in ancient times there were rumors about a monster of unprecedented size living in the depths of the sea; many fishermen saw its outline through the thickness of the water.
But for the first time, a scientist from England, Andrew Smith, was lucky enough to see it with his own eyes; it was he who explained in detail to zoologists about its appearance and structure. A 4.5 meter long fish caught off the coast of Cape Town was named Rhincodon typus ( whale shark).
Most likely, the naturalist came across a teenager, since the average length of this underwater inhabitant ranges from 10-12 meters, whale shark weight– 12-14 tons. The most big whale shark, discovered at the end of the last century, weighed 34 tons and reached a length of 20 meters.
It received its name not for its impressive size, but for the structure of its jaw: its mouth is located strictly in the middle of the head, like in real whales, and not at all in the lower part, like in most of its shark relatives.
The whale shark is so different from its fellows that it is classified into a separate family, consisting of one genus and one species - Rhincodon typus. The massive body of the whale shark is covered with special protective scales, each such plate is hidden under the skin, and on the surface you can only notice razor-sharp tips, reminiscent of teeth in shape.
The scales are covered with an enamel-like substance called vitrodentin and are as strong as shark teeth. Such armor is called placoid and is present in all species. The skin of a whale shark can reach 14 cm in thickness. Subcutaneous fat layer – all 20 cm.
The length of a whale shark can exceed 10 meters
From the back, the whale shark is painted dark gray with bluish and brown streaks. Light whitish round spots are scattered across the dark main background. On the head, fins and tail they are smaller and chaotic, while on the back they are arranged in a beautiful geometric pattern of regular transverse stripes. Each shark has a unique pattern, similar to a human fingerprint. The gigantic shark belly is off-white or slightly yellowish in color.
The head has a flattened shape, especially towards the end of the snout. During feeding, the mouth opens wide, forming something like an oval. Whale shark teeth Many will be disappointed: the jaws are equipped with small teeth (up to 6 mm), but the number will surprise you - there are about 15 thousand of them!
On the sides of the mouth there are deep-set small eyes; in particularly large individuals the eyeballs do not exceed the size of a golf ball. Sharks do not know how to blink, however, if any large object approaches the eye, the fish pulls the eye inward and covers it with a special fold of skin.
Fun Fact: Whale Shark, like other representatives of the shark tribe, when there is a lack of oxygen in the water, it is capable of turning off part of its brain and hibernating to conserve energy and vitality. It is also curious that sharks do not feel pain: their body produces a special substance that blocks unpleasant sensations.
Whale shark lifestyle and habitat
Whale shark, dimensions which is due to the absence of natural enemies, slowly plows the expanses of the world's oceans at a speed of no more than 5 km/h. This majestic creature, like a submarine, slowly glides through the water, periodically opening its mouth to swallow food.
The pattern of spots on a whale shark is as unique as a human fingerprint.
Whale sharks are slow and apathetic creatures that show neither aggression nor interest. You can often find whale shark photo almost in an embrace with the diver: indeed, this species does not pose a danger to humans and allows you to swim close to itself, touch the body, or even ride while holding the dorsal fin.
The only thing that can happen is a blow from a powerful shark tail, which can, if not kill, then greatly injure. According to scientific research, whale sharks live in small groups, less often alone, but sometimes, in places where schooling fish gather seasonally, their number can reach up to hundreds.
So, off the coast of Yucatan in 2009, ichthyologists counted more than 400 individuals; such a cluster was caused by the abundance of freshly spawned eggs, which sharks feasted on.
Including whales, they must constantly be in motion, since they do not have a swim bladder. The muscles of the fins help the fish's heart pump blood and maintain sufficient blood flow for life. They never sleep and can only sink to the bottom or hide in underwater caves to rest.
What helps sharks stay afloat is their huge liver, which is 60% fatty tissue. But this is not enough for the whale shark; it has to float to the surface and swallow air so as not to go to the bottom. The whale shark is a pelagic species, that is, living in the upper layers of the world's oceans. It usually does not go below a depth of 70 m, although it can dive to 700 m.
Because of this feature, whale sharks often collide with large sea vessels, are maimed or even die. Sharks cannot stop or suddenly slow down, since in this case the flow of oxygen through the gills is minimal and the fish can suffocate.
Whale sharks are thermophilic. Surface waters in the places where they live are heated to 21-25°C. These titans will not be found north or south of the 40th parallel. This species is found in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans.
Whale sharks also have their favorite places: the east and southeast coasts, the Seychelles archipelago region, the island of Taiwan, the Gulf of Mexico, the Philippines, and the Australian coast. Scientists estimate that 20% of the world population lives off the coast of Mozambique.
Whale shark feeding
It's paradoxical, but whale shark is not considered a predator in the usual sense. Despite its colossal dimensions, the whale shark does not attack other large animals or fish, but feeds on zooplankton and small fish that fall into its vast mouth. Sardines, anchovies, mackerel, krill, some types of mackerel, small tuna, squid and the so-called “live dust” - that’s the entire diet of this giant.
It's amazing to watch this giant feed. The shark opens its huge mouth wide open, the diameter of which can reach 1.5 meters, and captures sea water along with small living creatures. Then the mouth closes, the water is filtered and exits through the gill slits, and the strained food goes straight into the stomach.
It has a whole filtering apparatus, consisting of 20 cartilaginous plates that connect the gill arches, forming a kind of lattice. Small teeth help keep food in the mouth. This way of eating is not only whale shark: giant and largemouth also eat in a similar way.
The whale shark has a very narrow esophagus (about 10 cm in diameter). In order to push a sufficient amount of food through such a small hole, this huge fish has to spend about 7-8 hours a day getting food.
Shark gills pump about 6,000 m³ of fluid per hour. The whale shark cannot be called a glutton: it eats only 100-200 kg per day, which is only 0.6-1.3% of its own weight.
Reproduction and lifespan of the whale shark
For a long time there was almost no reliable data on how the whale shark reproduces. Only recently they began to successfully keep her in captivity, in huge aquariums, where such giants have enough freedom.
Today there are only 140 of them in the world. Thanks to modern technologies that make it possible to create such grandiose structures, it has become possible to observe the life of these creatures and study their behavior.
Whale sharks are ovoviviparous cartilaginous fish. In my womb whale shark length 10-12 meters can simultaneously bear up to 300 embryos, which are enclosed in special capsules like eggs. The baby sharks hatch inside the female and are born into the world as completely independent and viable individuals. The length of a newborn whale shark is 40-60 cm.
At birth, the cubs have a fairly large supply of nutrients, which allows them to go without feeding for a long time. There is a known case when a still alive baby shark was pulled out of a harpooned shark and placed in a large aquarium: the baby survived, but began to eat only after 17 days. The gestation period of a whale shark, according to scientists, is about 2 years. During this period, the female leaves the group and wanders alone.
Ichthyologists are inclined to believe that whale sharks reach sexual maturity at a body length of 4.5 m (according to another version, from 8). The age at this point can be 30-50 years.
The lifespan of these giant sea inhabitants is about 70 years, some live 100. But individuals who have lived 150 years or more are still an exaggeration. Today, whale sharks are monitored, tagged with radio beacons and their migration routes are tracked. There are only about a thousand such “marked” individuals; it is unknown how many more are wandering in the depths.
About the whale shark, white or any other, you can talk for hours: each of them is a whole world, a small space and an immense universe. It is foolish to think that we know everything about them - their simplicity is apparent, and the accessibility of study is illusory. Having lived on Earth for millions of years, they are still full of secrets and never cease to amaze researchers.
First of all, sharks are forced to move more than any bony fish - because their buoyancy is not provided by a swim bladder. What does this mean, other than that a dead shark sinks to the bottom like a stone?
The fact that sharks do not have the opportunity to wait for food, relying on the constant presence of wounded, sick or dead prey - they need to move in order to live.
These fish have perfected their hunting techniques, studied the habits of their favorite prey, and are determined not to be left without food.
Predatory bony fishes hunt alone - from ambush or while chasing prey. Sharks hunt in a similar way, but they also use another technique, characteristic not of fish, but of mammals - these predators can, and each member of the hunting team knows his task!
Group shark hunt
The first information about group hunting of sharks was obtained more than 100 years ago - in 1915, Russell Coles, one of the first researchers of predators, informed ichthyologists about an extremely amazing hunt that he was able to observe.
At Cape Lookout, off the coast of North Carolina (USA), Coles noticed how about a hundred big-eyed sand sharks (Odontaspis noronhai) in a wide front surrounded and drove a school of large bluefish into the shallows, after which they simultaneously attacked them.
Watch video - Shark hunting together:
Never before have predatory fish hunted so coordinatedly; this method is more common among bottlenose dolphins, driving schools of mullet into the shallows. The fact is that a frightened fish in a school obeys the herd instinct and is ready to escape from the line of predators at the first opportunity.
It is difficult to hold a mass of fish and force them to retreat to the shallows. Any mistake - and they will leave, because in the three-dimensional ocean there are many directions for escape - all of them can be blocked only with an accurate understanding of the role and place of each of the attacking predators.
Hunting tricks of predators
Later, joint hunting of sharks and data about this phenomenon began to come from various sources - for example, off the coast of Seal Rocks in New South Wales (Australia), a diver observed the hunt.
A group of these predators drove young yellowtails (Seriola lalandi) onto the shallows and suppressed them with blows from their tail fins, creating a shock wave similar in strength to the consequences of a shot into the water from a large-caliber gun.
Also, sharks of the same species can - a fact established by scientists. Like a pride of lions heading out to hunt, predators coordinate their actions using non-verbal communication: certain positions of the fins and body; oscillatory waves generated by the caudal fin.
They are learning - scientists have repeatedly observed how sharks of the same species played “catch and take away”, where the role of the baton was played by a branch of algae.
Sharks also benefit from their ideally streamlined body shape - it is lighter and more mobile than the body of any other predator with a bony skeleton. This is precisely the ability of predators to move long distances with low energy costs.
Watch video - The secret of hunting a great white shark:
Shark is the perfect hunter
If other predatory fish are tied to a permanent habitat - long journeys are comparable for them to a hike through a waterless desert full of dangers, then sharks easily endure, figuratively speaking, the “hardships and hardships” of travel.
For information: ichthyologist Frank Carey (Woods Hall Institute of Oceanography) installed a sensor on a great white shark and, and movements for 4 months, came to an interesting conclusion - if a person had the metabolism of a shark, then he would only need to eat once at 1.5-2 months!
Finally, shark hunting is unique due to the shark clan - they are not something special among the marine fauna, because... some species of bony fish have similar receptors.
However, only sharks have perfected electroreception, hearing and smell, thanks to which predators easily detect the most accessible prey during the hunt, even in the pitch darkness of the depths of the sea.
All of the listed abilities of sharks give them superiority among other ocean creatures, ensuring many millions of years of existence in the past and successful fight against competing species in the present.
