They say it is the most skilled shark on the entire planet. Although there is a great variety of sharks in all the seas and oceans of the world, this shark in question is the most skilled. Its about thresher shark. It is also known by other names such as spectacled fox, bigeye fox and tail fox. Its scientific name is Alopias superciliosus. It is one of the species that belongs to the Alopias genus and to the Alopiidae family.
In this article we are going to reveal all the secrets of the thresher shark and its main characteristics.
Key features
It is one of the sharks with the highest commercial demand worldwide. This is because its meat has an incomparable freshness. In addition, its skin is used to make leather garments.
Because of this continuous fishing by humans, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has cataloged the species in a vulnerable state. This hunting and trapping is thought to be wiping out most of the shark populations around the world.
Naked eye, what stands out the most about this shark are its huge eyes. These eyes are used to easily identify and classify them. Thanks to the large eyes they can see in the depths of the sea, even if it has little light. As we know, as we decrease in depth, we find less amount of solar radiation that arrives and, therefore, there are different adaptations that have to be taken into account to be able to live in the depths. For example, there are fish whose skin is softer to be able to adapt to the great pressures that are under water.
Description
The thresher shark has a length of between 3 and 4 meters, sometimes reaching 5 meters. Normally it reaches a weight of between 160 kg and 360 kg. What stands out the most apart from the large eyes is the large size of the tail fin. Only the size of this fin is capable of becoming half the size of its entire body.
The pectoral fins, however, are rather broad than long. As for its color, we can see that in the belly area it has a white color and its entire surface has a dark brown color. This color can be easily confused with a grayish almost black color. Its muzzle is short with a small jaw. It has extremely sharp and small teeth. The part of the upper jaw can be made up of about 19 to 24 teeth. Secondly, the lower one can be composed between 20 to 24.
This type of shark is a good swimmer and is capable of sprinting at high speeds. It has quite small dermal denticles. This animal is not intended to be offensive. On the contrary, for the human being it is harmless.
Thresher shark habitat and range
As we have mentioned before, these animals are found at depths of between 30 and 150 meters. Sometimes it can be seen at depths of 500 meters. We can find them living in tropical and temperate waters. This makes its area of distribution encompass almost the entire world.
If we locate it in geographical areas, we can find it in: United States, on the coasts of New York to California, and in other areas such as Hawaii, Cuba, South Africa, Japan and New Zealand.
Food
Now let's see what the thresher shark feeds on. Being a fairly skilled shark, we are dealing with quite a hunter. It has a different hunting method than other sharks. This is because it uses its tail to hunt down its victims. In this sense, it is capable of using the glue in various ways. The first is to hit the surface with the fin, causing the fish to begin to group. Then they spin with a loud bang that hits the group de peces and that way he can attack them when they are harmless.
This way of hunting is making him become a whole species with great skill. The diet is based mainly on tuna, crustaceans, octopus, crabs, squid and some seabirds that it manages to hunt. These birds dive to hunt some fish. Sharks are able to hunt them without any problem.
Thresher shark reproduction
We are going to see everything there is about the reproduction of the thresher shark. The reproduction of these animals does not depend on the season of the year in which we are or on the months of the year to be able to reproduce. Therefore, they can do it at any time of the year. This gives them a great reproductive advantage and, thanks to this reproduction model, it may not be in a worse state of conservation than it is today.
Before performing the act of mating, they must have reached sexual maturity. This age varies depending on whether it is male or female. Some of them can reach it by 3 years of age, while others may have reached it by 9 years. It all depends on the body of each individual and their personal development.
Like many species of sharks, its reproduction is of the ovoviviparous type. This means that the young develop inside the female but inside an egg in a period of 9 months. One fact that is quite curious is that these sharks, being indoors, usually feed on eggs that have not been fertilized. Females can have between 2 and 4 young in each reproductive period.
Being among the species most demanded by humans, both for its meat and its skin, it is threatened. Thresher shark fin soup is in high demand among many gastronomic riches. It is estimated that in the last 15 years almost 80% of the entire world population of thresher sharks have been eliminated.
It is totally harmless to divers as it is quite shy. It is quite difficult to get close to them and they are not aggressive at all with other animals larger than themselves.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about the thresher shark.