Shark week hoo ha ha! It comes around once a year for a whole week. Seven whole days of shows talking about sharks and their life in our deep blue seas all over the world! If you are anything like me, you count down the months, the weeks and the days till shark week gets here. It's my favorite things to watch on tv (next to "Game of Thrones" of course). I could never explain to anyone why sharks are my favorite creature in the sea or why I've become so set in making my school life about saving them. Yes I did just say that shark week is one of the main reasons I went back to school to study marine biology. So in honor of shark week and my love for sharks here are some of my favorite facts about sharks.
1. Sharks have been in our oceans for over 400 million years, this means they out-lived whatever killed our dinosaurs!
2. Pups (baby sharks) are born ready to take care of themselves and try to make a fast get away before the mother eats them!
3. Not all species of sharks give birth to live pups, some lay eggs that rest on the ocean floor and then hatch later.
4. The smallest shark is known as a dwarf shark; it is only four inches long.
5. Sharks are picky eaters; they will take a bite out of something just to get a taste and if they don't like it, they will spit it out and move on.
6. A shark's skeleton is made up of rubbery cartilage, much like the tip of our noses.
7. Bull sharks can live in both salt water and fresh water. They have been found in rivers like the Mississippi.
8. The skin of a female shark is much thicker than that of a male because during mating season the males bite onto the females.
9. The first tiger shark to hatch inside the mothers womb will eat it's siblings, until there are only two pups left in the womb, one for each side.
10. About 30 people die during shark attacks a year, which means you have a greater chance being hit by lightning or being killed by a bee sting.
11. Most sharks have to keep swimming to stay alive because if they stop moving they can die.
12. A shark's ears are inside their head.
13. When sharks are hurt they can heal very quickly.
14. Sharks should fear us more than we fear them; humans are the biggest threat to the loss of these creatures.
15. Poking a shark in the eye will not scare it away.
16. Most sharks like to hunt by themselves, some breeds of hammerheads like to hunt in schools.
17. Whale sharks are the largest sharks in the ocean and also have large families. One female whale shark can have 2-12 live pups.
18. Female sharks can be pregnant from five months to two years! (yeah, no thanks!)
19. Whale sharks make great diving partners for tourists.
20. The size of a shark species relates to where they hunt: Smaller sharks tend to feed near the ocean floor, and larger sharks hunt in the middle depths and near the surface.
To some, sharks may be these scary creatures that make you not want to swim in the ocean, but to people like me these are creatures I want to know everything I can and get closer to them to help people understand them.
