Our selection of top shark stories, highlighting the latest news and discoveries from around the world...

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Loopholes Fuel Shark Fin Trade in Ecuador

3rd August

While the country prohibits the deliberate fishing of sharks, hundreds of thousands are harvested each year as bycatch. Ecuador’s laws place no limit on such “incidental catch,” and the valuable fins can be legally sold and exported.

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The World’s Largest Shark Is Also The World’s Largest Omnivore

9th August

The whale shark has dethroned Kodiak bears (Ursus arctos middendorffi) to now claim the title as the ‘largest omnivorous animal.’  Scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), CSIRO and University of Tasmania, recently analysed biopsy samples from these star-covered visitors and discovered they are eating a lot – not just plankton and krill, but plant material, too!

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Ancient megalodon shark could eat a whale in a few bites

17th August

Study used fossil evidence to create a 3D model of the 50ft-long shark and estimated it could have eaten a killer whale in five bites. At around 50ft (16 metres) from nose to tail, the megalodon was longer than a bus, according to the study in the journal Science Advances. That’s about two to three times the size of today’s great white shark.

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Scientists reveal how sharks use the oceans

19th August

By using sophisticated electronic tags, a team of researchers led by Stanford University has assembled a large biologging dataset to better understand how elasmobranchs – a group of marine animals including sharks, rays, and skates – use the ocean depths. 

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