Shark

Zebra shark

Stegostoma fasciatum

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

A large, slender shark with a large broad tail as long as its body. Its body has very distinct ridges and spots.

COLOR

The young are yellowish below, dark brown above with vertical yellow stripes and spots separating dark saddles. These saddles break up into spots in sharks 20 to 35 inches [50 to 90 cm] in length, and are more uniformly distributed on large sharks.

SIZE

The shark is approximately 8 to 14 inches [20 cm to 36 cm] when hatched. Males mature between 4.7 to 6 ft [147 to 183 cm], while females mature around 5.5 to 5.75 ft [169 to 171 cm]. Most of these sharks average slightly more than 8 ft [2.5 m], and maximum size is thought to be just over 11 ft [3.5 m].

HABITAT

Coral reefs and offshore sediments. Intertidal to 203 ft [62 m]. Adults and juveniles rest in coral reef lagoons and channels, but the striped young are rarely seen and may be in deeper water (>50 m).

DISTRIBUTION

Indo-west Pacific; tropical and continental and insular shelves, eastern Africa to Japan, New Caledonia and Palau.

BIOLOGY

Prey – Mollusks, crustaceans and small bony fishes.
Reproduction – Oviparous. Lays large dark brown to purple-black egg cases anchored to the bottom with tufts of fibers.

BEHAVIOR

Often seen resting, propped up on their pectoral fins, mouth open, facing the current. Tend to be sluggish by day and more active at night.

STATUS

Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. They are taken in many fisheries and their coral reef habitat is threatened. They are kept in aquaria.

Comments

Research

SEA TURTLE MIGRATION STUDY 💦 Figure-9.13. PIT tagging on juvenile hawksbill turtle at Sonadia Island: turtle scanning with BioMark PIT tag scanner, (left) and PIT microchips, Scanner and PIT Tag applicator. 9.6. SATELLITE TRACKING Figure-8.7. Satellite tracking system illustrations (top); map showing satellite tagging locations along Cox’s Bazar coast (above); two types of satellite tag used in program SPLASH10-309A and SPOT-293A (below). Satellite tracking conducted to study migration and foraging habitat of sea turtle nest along Bangladesh coast. Satellite tracking involves attaching on the sea turtle shell a Platform Terminal Transmitter (PTT) and getting the transmission data from ARGOS satellite. The PTT send message to satellite each time the turtle comes to the surface to breathe and the analyzed location data of the tracked turtle then sent to MLA researcher via ARGOS satellite. In...

Plankton

What is plankton? Plankton are marine drifters — organisms carried along by tides and currents Phytoplankton blooms in the Barents Sea, shown in natural color from NASA's Aqua satellite on July 10, 2014. The solid white area in the top right corner is cloud cover. Credit: NASA's Earth Observatory The word “plankton” comes from the Greek for “drifter” or “wanderer.” An organism is considered plankton if it is carried by tides and currents, and cannot swim well enough to move against these forces. Some plankton drift this way for their entire life cycle. Others are only classified as plankton when they are young, but they eventually grow large enough to swim against the currents. Plankton are usually microscopic, often less than one inch in length, but they also include larger species like some crustaceans and jellyfish. Scientists classify plankton in several ways, including by size, type, and how long they spend drifting. But t...

Shark Finning

The Massacre of the World's Sharks for Soup BY EDWARD DORSON The world's sharks are quickly vanishing and it's primarily driven by the demand for shark fins as an ingredient of a status symbol soup devoured throughout Asia at weddings and banquets. Approximately 73 to 100 million sharks are killed annually worldwide just for their fins. Some shark populations are already functionally extinct, having declined by as much as 99%. The outcome of further inaction will soon create a vast jellyfish soup, formally known as the ocean. Sharks targeted by finners aren't taken whole; their valuable fins (up to $700 a kilo, at the time of this writing) are sliced off and the living mutilated shark is tossed back into the sea to sink and slowly die. It is despicably inhumane. The obliteration of 400 million years of evolution for some perceived social status with serving shark fin soup isn't just idiotic and cruel - it's tragic. A healthy ocean depends on sharks. Scientific...

Marinelife Alliance

Search This Blog