British
Marine Life Study Society
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BY POPULAR DEMAND FOR
THE YOUNGER READER
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There are about 350 species of sharks that live in all of the oceans
of planet Earth.
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Sharks vary in size from the massive Whale Shark, that grows to a length
of 13 metres or more and weighs up to 15 tonnes, to the small Dwarf
Shark that only reaches 25 cm in length.
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Only a few sharks are dangerous enough to be a threat to humans. These
include the Great White Shark, the Tiger Shark and the Hammerhead Sharks
of tropical seas.
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Most sharks are smaller and eat small fish and crabs.
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The huge Whale Sharks and Basking Sharks eat
massive quantities of very small animals called copepods. They swim slowly
along a gulp up huge quantities of seawater that contains these small animals.
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Some small sharks called Dogfish and Spurdog and are caught for food
which is called Huss in the fish and chip shops of Britain.
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The skeleton of sharks consists mainly of cartilage and not true bone
which is found in humans and most fishes.
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Sharks have lived in the oceans for millions of years, first appearing
150 million years ago (when dinosaurs ruled the world).
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Sharks have an electrical sense system for detecting prey.
At least 21
species of sharks have been recorded in British coastal waters. In
addition at least 12 species of Skates and Rays, one species of Stingray
and 2 species of Electric Rays also live in the shallow seas surrounding
Britain. Other species occur in deeper water.
About
the British Marine Life Study Society
British
Marine Life Study Society Page for the younger Reader
Index
to British Marine Fish (External) (contains information on Sharks)
Latest
News (British Isles)
Public
Aquaria DataBase (UK)
Rockpooling
Page
Seashore
Quiz
Teacher's
Page
Torpedo
News Bulletin
Shark Discovery CD-ROM is available.
EMail
for the BMLSS
Fish Page
International Marine News
It is not the policy
of the British Marine Life Study Society to publish information that is
easily available elsewhere. However, the information on this page has been
included because of public demand by the younger fish watchers.
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