Talk:Shark
I read somewhere that for preschoolers, the scariest single word in the English language is "shark". How about some info on sharks attacking people? Is it common? rare? Are there precautions swimmers should take? Ed Poor
- That's on my list of things to explore. Just to reassure Ed, shark attacks are actually very rare. ;) I plan to make this article much larger since sharks are very complex critters. Oh... and just to show people how perceptions can be false, I'd bet most think of the Great White as a rather ponderous, non-maneuverable animal.. Take a look at this link (if you didn't see the Discovery documentary called "Air Jaws").
http://www.discovery.com/stories/nature/sharkweek2000/sneakpeek.html
And click on "Watch the Video".. Rgamble
D'oh! At least I gave the opportunity for punning. As a side note, I have personal experience with how fully functional young sharks are. Having participated in a survey cruise off the coast of Maine, we catch fishes, measure and check their gut contents (needless to say, they don't survive this latter procedure - fortunately in the case of the fishes like sharks and rays that survive the netting process, we only do a few of these and release the others). Any female dogfish that are checked this way are also checked for pups and I've seen one or two that had pups with yolk sacs still attached. We cut the yolk sac free and release the pups, which are already quite mobile and attempting to bite their tormentors. Rgamble
- Heh. Couldn't resist. (By the way, I owe you an email; soon.) - Who knew marine biology could be so, er, perilous an undertaking? Compared to that, surely editing Wikipedia's quite tame. :) -- April
- Nah, dogfish pups aren't bigger than 6-8 inches, and the adults have teeth designed for crushing so they're relatively harmless too (except for the glove piercing spines on the dorsal fins). I'd still rate editing Wikipedia as somewhat more wild. Rgamble
Magnus, thanks for dropping in a picture. That was on my list of to-do's for the page but that one's perfect. I'd love to put a picture of a great white pup (dead) lying next to a human for scale in the reproduction section, but not sure it's public domain (or even on the web for that matter). Rgamble
Hi Im new here and I'm the one that have done the latest edits. So if you mind flame away, Im learning.
Whale sharks is not 60 feet, there are lots of books saying that but there are no true measurement over 35-40 feet. Changed a bit on sharks killing humans. Changed some small bit here and there.
Is the whale shark really Oviparity that has been unsure I have to check it up. Do not like the definiton of a shark as a large, predator, but I guess it is quite correct? Must check the average size of a shark? :-) And I would place the sharks in the elasmobranch ???, I find the Chondrichthyes page and shark page is confusing now. Isent shakr, rays and skates part of the elasmobranches? skates is now not mentioned on the Chondrichthyes page ... well classification is not my strong side. Stefan
OK admit to 60 feet whale sharks, although they are not very common. Change Whale shark to Ovoviviparity.