sharks - fact or fiction

• Sharks have been around for over 400 million years
• Sharks live in every ocean of the world from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
• The average life span of a shark is around 25 years, but some have been known to live to 100
• The biggest shark is the Whale Shark, it can be up to 50 feet (15 m) in length. It is what is called a filter feeder, it sieves plankton in huge amounts to eat through its gills as it swims along
• The dwarf lantern shark is the smallest shark at a size of around 15cm
• The Shortfin Mako shark is probably the fastest fish in the ocean
• The Whale Sharks has approximately 300 rows of teeth, each with hundreds of tiny teeth
• The Whale Shark has the biggest mouth of all the sharks
• The Great White Shark can grow to to 21 feet (6.4m) long. It is the largest meat eating member of the shark family
• Probably the most dangerous sharks in the world include the Great White, Tiger shark, Bull shark and the oceanic whitetip shark.
• The Great White Sharks can go for up to three months without eating
• Sharks have very sensitive hearing. A shark can identify much lower sounds than the human ear can. Sharks can hear sounds up to 700 feet away
• There are over some 330 species of sharks
• Sharks have an extremely acute sense of smell. Some sharks are thought to be able to track their prey by smell from over a mile away
• Sharks do not have bones their skeleton is made up of cartilage
• Sharks attack fewer than 100 people annually. More people are killed by dogs, pigs and deer each year than by sharks
• Fishermen kill an estimated 30 million to 100 million sharks every year
• A Shark has around six and a half tons per square inch of biting force
• The Dogfish shark is so called because of it's tendency to attack it's prey like a pack of wild dogs
• Fishermen are estimated to kill around 30 million to 100 million sharks each year
• Sharks don't chew - they use their teeth to bite and tear food
• Some people believe a shark will often mistake a surfer in the water for a seal or sea lion, both of which are among it's favourite snacks
• The White Shark is at the very top of the food chain
• About 35 species of shark are known to attack man
• Apparently bees, wasps and snakes kill more people each year than sharks
• To put it all into perspective in the USA alone you are 30 times more likely to get kill by lightening than from a shark.