Lemon Shark in black and white

Sharks

Blacktip reef shark

Reef sharks travel far to give birth

Near sanctuary zones at Mangrove Bay and Coral Bay, marine biologists tagged 83 reef sharks. They then tracked the sharks' movements in order to find out how much protection the marine park provides the sharks. Over a two-year period, the movements of blacktip reef sharks, grey reef sharks and sicklefin lemon sharks at Ningaloo Reef were examined.

Shark Week Begins Again

Yet, since 1987, Discovery Channel, owned by Discovery Communications, has presented 'Shark Week' each summer, deliberately using these important marine animals to create a horror show. Through special effects that dramatically present charging sharks, blood, and teeth, Shark Week falsely presents these varied and often very beautiful animals, as man-eating monsters.

Sawfish able to clone itself in the wild

The smalltooth sawfish is the first documented examples of viable parthenogens living in a normally sexually reproducing wild vertebrate.

The researchers analysed telltale markers called microsatellites in 190 sawfish that reveal how related their parents are. In seven fish, the markers suggested their parents were identical to them. The analysis revealed that the seven fish came from three different mothers.

(File photo) Mako shark

Mako shark tracked for 14,800 km ended up in Baltimore

The shark travelled from the chilly waters off Nova Scotia to the warm, inviting ocean near Venezuela to the clear waters of Puerto Rico and then north again to the waters where he was first caught.

NSU’s Guy Harvey Research Institute (GHRI) began tagging mako sharks in 2009 to study their migratory patterns and now undertakes expeditions worldwide to study them. The school’s marine experts have tagged mako sharks as far away as Mexico and New Zealand. In addition to makos, they have also tracked tiger, oceanic white tip and sand tiger sharks, as well as blue marlin.

Great White Shark can swim twice the speed other species

According to study leader Dr Yuuki Watanabe of the National Institute of Polar Research, Japan, "The physiological mechanism of keeping heat in the body is well understood. But, more a fundamental question is, why this unique evolution occurred in the first place. In other words, what kind of advantages does the fish gain from being warm-bodied?"

Some sharks are smart cookies

Researching the intelligence of the grey bamboo shark a team of researchers at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Bonn, Germany showed that sharks could be trained to recognise and remember shapes for an extended period of time.

First juvenile sharks were subjected to three different cognition experiments, one at a time, and then tested to see how long the sharks could remember their training.

Most shark bites are equivalent of dog bites, says George Burgess

ISAF 2014 Worldwide Shark Attack Summary released

Florida again led the United States in shark attacks last year, with 28 incidents and no fatalities. The vast majority of the Florida incidents were minor ones in which a shark quickly bites an arm or leg in poor visibility water, releasing it as soon as the shark realizes its prey isn't a fish.

"Most of them are better called bites than attacks," said George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File. "They're the equivalent of dog bites."

Dwarf sawfish, Pristis clavata

Australian government seeks to opt out of shark protection

The five types of shark were among 21 species of shark and ray, including sawfish, granted new protection status at a convention summit in November.

Although Australia did not object to the listings in November, it is now seeking to opt out of the commitment to cooperate with other countries to ensure the five migratory shark species do not become extinct. The expanded list is due to come into effect on 8 February.

(Filephoto) Great White Shark off Guadaloupe Island

Great Whites takes decades to reach maturity

Counting "band pairs," which are series of rings that alternate between translucent and opaque within the sharks' vertebrae scientists looked at band-pair data from 77 sharks that were captured between 1963 and 2010.

Using this method, the researchers found that great white sharks were considerably older than previously thought, with the oldest individual animal in the study reaching 73 years of age.

They also found that the great white sharks — at least in the Atlantic Ocean — matured more slowly than previously thought, thus making them even more vulnerable to threats.