Nick Pelios
Freediver, Creator
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Nick Pelios
Freediver, Creator
Some guys are lucky, plain lucky. Creator extraordinaire Daan Verhoeven, recently had the chance of filming a blue shark, while freediving the coast of Cornwall, UK. How much do we actually know though about these amazing creatures? Here are 13 facts and a great video to educate yourself!
1. Blue sharks are considered to be some of the most beautiful sharks in the world, because of their slim body, long fins and cone snout.
2. They are medium-sized, with females growing up to 10 feet long, while males are up to 9 feet long. As you probably noticed, the females are larger than the males, simply because they have to be big enough to carry their pups.
3. Females also have 3 times thicker skin than the males, because the males tend to bite during the mating process - ring any bells?
4. The largest blue shark ever caught, was 12.6 feet long and weighed over 800 pounds.
5. Blue sharks are pelagic sharks which means they're found in open waters, neither near the ocean floor nor near the shore, often spotted just below the surface in deep waters.
6. They are found all over the world as far north as Norway and as far south as Chile and off the coast of every continent except Antarctica, though they prefer cooler waters below 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. Blue sharks migrate long distances in search of food, traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back again. They can migrate as long as the distance from New England to South Africa.
8. Many sharks are solitary but blue sharks live in small groups called schools. Some of these groups consist of only females and others consist of only males. Within each group there is a certain order with the largest member often being the leader of the group.
9. They travel in these groups for protection as long journeys can be dangerous.
10. Blue sharks are known to have large litters. The larger the female the more pups she's likely to have.
11. Blue sharks prefer to eat squid and often travel to the squid breeding grounds in order to hunt. When squid is not available they eat cuttlefish, octopus, lobster, crab, shrimp and smaller sharks.
12. Apart from being hunters, they're also scavengers, consuming dead whales and dolphins.
13. Currently the blue shark is not classified as an endangered species, rather its status is near threatened. What this means is that its population has been going down, though it's not at an alarming rate. Every year millions of blue sharks are killed by hunting or accidentally being caught in nets.