This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 8:51 pm and is filed under Adventure Cruises. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Photo Courtesy pbs.com/Tom Haight
Megamouth is our feature today keeping with our countdown for Halloween. What a face! This shark is known in many oceans, although not much is known about the animal. This shark has been found in the Pacific Ocean, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines, Hawaii, and California, USA. They have been found also in waters off Brazil, Atlantic Ocean and Senegal.
Fortunately for the Megamouth they are not hunted much for food and are really of no interest to any country (so far). This slow moving fish has a strange bright white band on the snout just above the upper jaw, which researchers feel may play a very important role in attracting plankton, euphausiid shrimps, jellyfish and they may consume small mid water fish, but this band may also play an important role in recognition of individuals. COOL! These sharks are known to go to 1,000 meters (3,280 feet), but have also been seen in only 5 meters (16.4 feet)! Unlike many other types of sharks, the Megamouth’s eyes have no nictitating membrane. They are live bearers with the babies feeding on a yolk sac before emerging, but we could not find any information on how long incubation is. This specie of shark sure looks prehistoric! They are preyed upon by the parasidic cookie cutter shark, which is known to prey on all kinds of fish and even marine mammals. In future postings we will discuss the cookie cutter shark further. We have not been able to find any divers or snorkelers who have seen this elusive predator to Megamouth and others.
If you want to watch a video of Megamouth in shallow water, please click on this link, sit back, and enjoy! It appears the gentle shark is a little curious of the photographer. Very interesting, indeed!
Happy viewing and Happy Halloween everyone!
