Plankton can run, but can't hide from basking sharks
Basking sharks are much more canny predators than previously thought, ecologists have discovered. According to new research published online by the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology, basking sharks are able to reverse their normal pattern of diving at dawn and surfacing at dusk in order to foil the attempts of zooplankton trying to evade capture. As well as shedding new light...Triple threat: World fin trade may harvest up to 73 million sharks per year
The first real-data study of sharks harvested for their valuable fins estimates as few as 26 million and as many as 73 million sharks are killed each year worldwide--three times higher than was reported originally by the United Nations, according to a paper published as the cover story in the October 2006 edition of Ecology Letters. "The shark fin trade is notoriously secretive. But we w...Overfishing large sharks impacts entire marine ecosystem, shrinks shellfish supply
Fewer big sharks in the oceans mean that bay scallops and other shellfish may be harder to find at the market, according to an article in the March 30 issue of the journal Science, tying two unlikely links in the food web to the same fate. A team of Canadian and American ecologists, led by world-renowned fisheries biologist Ransom Myers at Dalhousie University, has found that overfishing...New research shows sharks use their noses and bodies to locate smells
Sharks are known to have a keen sense of smell, which in many species is critical for finding food. However, according to new research from Boston University marine biologists, sharks can not use just their noses to locate prey; they also need their skin – specifically a location called the lateral line. The lateral line is an organ used by all fish to detect, with exquisite sensitivity, movem...Researchers Document First Case of Virgin Birth in Sharks
Researchers have documented the first case of virgin birth in cartilaginous fish, after busting the mystery surrounding the birth of a shark in an aquarium, that had only female sharks which had no contact with a male shark for three years. The birth of the pup at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, in the US, in December 2001 led to many conclusions including a possible insemination in one...