This episode of DNews is brought to you by Pacifico Beer.
Ahhhhhh!
It’s Shark Week! Get on board.
Happy Shark Week everyone, I'm Trace thanks for tuning in to DNews. When you think of
shark week, you think of this, but what is happening when a shark does this?
The Great White Shark is one of the most spectacular specimens around. They can grow up to 26 ft
long (8m) and weigh as much as 7,300 pounds (3,300 kg); that's more than 2 and a half
Honda Civics, by the way. Shark breaching looks incredible, but they don't jump out
of the water just to please the camera. Sharks are an ancient animal, even older than dinosaurs.
Their evolution has slowly molded them into these amazing, heavily muscled carnivorous
fish. They eat seals, rays, squid, bony fish, dolphins, whales and even smaller sharks,
and some of their prey is extremely quick and agile. Seals can "sprint" as fast as 27
miles per hour (44 kph), and though the great white can sprint up to 35, they don't have
the zippy agility of a smaller, seal.
Great white sharks have fantastic eyesight, their rod-to-cone ratio is similar to humans,
but they have a reflective layer in the back of their eyeball. This means they can see
in color, and in bright or low light. They use that, plus their SUPER strong muscley
body to sneak up on seals swimming near the surface. They come up underneath them and
// same clip of breach
Yeah, it's pretty cray. A 2011 study in Marine Biology Research looked at the physics of
this behavior by studying 121 breaching strikes. The shark uses their incredible eyes (among
other senses like electrolocation) to pinpoint a fur seal, and plan an attack. Coming up
from underneath hides their approach from the seal, especially if the seal's head is
above water. The great white will use its muscular tail to accelerate, launching itself
jaws first at the unsuspecting prey on an arc. The researchers measured an escape trajectory
for one shark of about 45º so they're coming at a pretty strong angle. Their research found
the sharks could achieve almost 4 seconds of hang time, again, remember, these things
are HUGE… This whole process takes only a few seconds, which is why it's so difficult
to capture on film.
According to the researchers, the breaching behavior incapacitates the seal, and delivers
a catastrophic blow, but that's not all. They also discovered, males breach more often than
females, but since females are actually LARGER than males this might serve to antagonize
and intimidate other males, too.
Okay, one more. *ernie laugh*
What's YOUR favorite thing about sharks? Wade into the shallows of the comments because,
hey. We read them, and make sure you come follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more
stories all day every day! We're at-DNews and I'm at-TraceDominguez.
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