The other theme which is likely to recur on my blog is sharks. I like sharks a lot. I’m not entirely sure why. I think it started when I was very small and saw Jaws. I was very frightened. What I like to do when I am frightened of things is to find out about them, so then I know. I am also frightened of capital punishment and so I have found out about that too. I am glad that amnesty international are trying to get it abolished. Interestingly, the trend is to get it abolished although a lot of people (most people?) think it should be reintroduced. It doesn’t help that the media make us really hate paedophiles and terrorists (rather than just hating them a bit). I think the best methods are probably hanging and the guillotine (I don’t think this gets used any more).

Anyway, back to sharks. After I found out all about them I discovered that

1. They’re not keen on eating people

2. They are really amazing and a very good at what they do

3. They are really beautiful and it must be fantastic to see a big one in real life.

So, I am going to go and see some real ones in real life. Me and Ben are going to South Africa on the 19th May to go and see the great white sharks. We are going to the place they filmed the Planet Earth documentary bit on sharks, where they breach (leap right out of the water).

I can’t quite believe it’s happening but I am very excited about it. I hope I come back with all our limbs.

Thought it was about time I did another shark update. I have just discovered that you can get google to give you updates everytime there is a shark attack. I would STRONGLY recommend this – it’s great. You get to heaer about every attack straightaway.

The Basking Shark – chosen for this update as you have quite a good chance of seeing one over the summer, especially off Devon, Cornwall and Scotland. We are going to Cornwall in less than 2 weeks and I will be looking out all the time.

The Basking Shark is the best British Shark. It is very big and often gets mistaken for the Great White.

You can see why here – this one is dead:

Basking Sharks are in fact filter feeders so they don’t have any proper teeth.

Basking sharks, scientific name Cetorhinus maximus, are the second biggest fish in the world, the largest being the tropical whale shark. These harmless plankton-eaters are said to grow up to 13.72 m in length with their enormous dorsal fins rising up to 2 m above the surface of the water.
They can weigh up to 7 tonnes, a similar weight to two elephants. Experts have estimated that a single basking shark can filter the planktonic shrimp out of enough seawater to fill a 50m swimming pool every hour. On the Isle of Man you might see them feeding with their enormous mouths agape, witness their courting behaviour, or, very rarely, you might see one breach, leaping out of the water like an enormous salmon. This is a sight you are unlikely to forget in a hurry!

I think this is probably the worst shark. It just doesn’t look very nice. It is the only gay shark. There are no recorded incidents of gay activity in sharks but this a shark to be suspicious of.

The problem with this shark is it’s very smooth skin and roundy shaped mouth.

The blue shark is a open ocean shark and is maybe England’s main shark. But hopefully the great white might frequent our sea more.
They do sometimes attack people, usually divers who are trying to make them bite them. It is a deep sea shark so it doesn’t tend to get surfers. It can swim quite fast, but not as fast as the mako shark.

Blue sharks have big eyes because they often swim deep in the sea where it’s dark.

The blue shark is described as a prolific breeder.

The Mako Shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) is a really good shark. It is in the same family as the Great White (which is also one of the best ones) but it can swim really fast. It is the fastest shark and has been recorded swimming 46 miles per hour. So the answer to Gareth’s question is almost certainly, no. It also leaps out of the water, particularly if someone is trying to catch it. Unfortunately that makes it all the more fun to catch so there are a lot of shark derbys where they try to catch makos.

Here is a picture of a mako shark looking quite cross:

Mako sharks do not tend to eat people very often because they are mainly open ocean sharks. Or the attacks don’t get reported. In the film Deep Blue Sea they made mako sharks really big and clever and then they hunted the humans in packs and ate most of them. So if we make them big and clever maybe attacks on humans will go up.

The average length of a mako is 7 feet.
They eat lots of different things and particularly like eating blue sharks which I think is quite impressive. They also eat squid which I wouldn’t like to eat so much.
They can be eaten by other large predators, including great whites and orcas and people. Mostly people.

I have not done a shark update for a very long time as I have been very busy being a wife and earning Ben some money. But due to popular demand here is a shark update. I hope you enjoy it. It is about the shark with the most amusing name: The wobbegong shark. They don’t tend to eat people, which makes them a lot less interesting.

They are quite funny looking though:

And they will bite you if you stand on one. Which is understandable. Yesterday I saw a lady who had lost her teeth but was looking forward to getting them back so she could bite people yum yum yum.

Some information about wobbegong sharks (orectolobus ornatus)

Size – 10 feet long

Diet – The wobbegong has wormlike projections around its mouth that it uses to suck prey into razor teeth. Umm, that might hurt quite a bit.

Habitat – indigenous to Australia and the coastal reefs of the Pacific, on the ocean floor waiting for fish to approach.

Reproduction – the female hatches about 20 pups within her body, then gives birth to them. Not so different from humans then.

Here is some more information:The bull shark has a short snout that is wider than it is long (hence its name). Its belly is off-white, its top surface is grey, and the eyes are small. The first dorsal fin is much longer and more pointed than the second dorsal fin. A pup’s fins have black tips, but these markings fade in the adults. The females are larger than the males as is often the case with sharks. The bull shark is also know as the cub, Ganges, Nicaragua, river, Swan River Whaler, Zambezi, shovelnose, slipway grey, square-nose, and Van Rooyen’s shark.

Below is a picture of a Bull Shark considering eating a man.  After tasting him, I think he decided he was a bit tough.  Younger humans are more tender.

This has been a really good few days for shark programmes – one yesterday and sunday;  the one yesterday was all about shark bites and showed film of real attacks.  bits of skin hanging off and blood and everything.

the first programme was about tiger sharks so this is a tiger shark update.  they are stripey and eat anything.  no-one knows where they give birth.  they have the most dangerous bite of any shark as it shears straight through anything.  in 1945 a boat sank in world war 2 and 940 men were thrown into the sea.  they were there 4 days until they were rescued but only 300 survived the shark attacks.  they think the sharks were tiger sharks as so many of the men lost limbs or even the whole of their bottom half.  the army had told them the best way to defend themselves from sharks was to kick and scream, but they were wrong.  this is a good way to attrack them as they think you are hurt and are prey.  so lots of people got eaten.

This update is rebekah’s first shark update. Here are some great white shark pictures from the internet. One day I am going to go diving with great white sharks and then I can put photos on that I have taken. Only Ben’s camera doesn’t work underwater. Have to work on that.

This shark is jumping. This will be like me diving.

They are surprisingly good at it actually.