Mako sharks are probably among the fastest swimming fish in the ocean, they have been clocked at up to 60 miles per hour and are even able to leap out of the water. They are considered very dangerous. They have long gills and a conical nose. They have a dark blue-gray top and a white belly. They average 5-8 feet in length but have been known to grow as long as 13 feet long weighing around 1000 pounds.
Shark teeth grow in rows that rotate into place to renew the teeth when they are lost, broken, or even worn down. The teeth of a Mako are long, thin, and very sharp which enable it to catch the more slippery fish. Makos eat just about anything they can catch including swordfish, porpoise, mackerel, tuna, and herring. It is considered pelagic, meaning it spends most of its time in the open sea, but occasionally ranges inshore as well.¹
Mako Shark
Timothy the remote control shark
Great White Shark
The great white shark is a streamlined swimmer and a ferocious predator with 3,000 teeth at any one time. This much-feared fish has a torpedo-shaped body, a pointed snout, a crescent-shaped tail, 5 gill slits, no fin spines, an anal fin, and 3 main fins: the dorsal fin and 2 pectoral fins. When the shark is near the surface, the dorsal fin and part of the tail are visible above the water.
Great whites average 12-16 feet long long, weighing about 5,000 pounds. The biggest great white shark on record was 23 feet long, weighing about 7,000 pounds Young great white sharks eat fish, rays, and other sharks. Adults eat larger prey, including pinnipeds (sea lions and seals), small toothed whales (like belugas), otters, sea turtles and carrion.¹
Tutorial | Great White Shark
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Student Work Sample
C. Sierra, Great White
Caribbean Reef Shark
The common reef shark has distinctive black markings on the ends of its fins and a blunt snout. It also has a white streak on its side. (It is NOT the same as the blacktip shark.) It can grow to be about 6′ long. The largest weigh up to 30 lb. The blacktip reef shark is widely displayed in aquariums, as it is one of the few sharks that does well in captivity. The blacktip reef shark mostly eats reef fish. It hunts in small groups during the day. It commonly preys upon sturgeon fishes and mullet. The black tip reef shark is generally a solitary eater, but has been observed hunting in small groups. The blacktip reef shark is not very aggressive but can be slightly dangerous to divers and waders.¹
Tiger Shark
The tiger shark has tiger-like markings on a d ark back with an off-white underbelly. Pups have spotted markings that grow together to form stripes that fade with maturity. It has a large, thick-body with a blunt snout. Tiger sharks have a special gill slit (a spiracle) behind the eyes that provides oxygen flow directly to the eyes and brain. It also has a very good sense of smell, electroreceptors sensitive to electric currents in the water, and keen eyesight. Tiger sharks grow up to 20 feet (6 m). On average they are about 10 feet (3 m) long. Tiger sharks will eat fish, turtles, crabs, clams, mammals, sea birds, reptiles, other sharks, and just about anything else that they can catch alive. It does occasionally attack people and is greatly feared, but people are not sought out by sharks. They swim in tropical waters worldwide and in some temperate seas.¹
Under Water Tutorial
Use the following link to learn how to create an underwater scene for the sharks you created. Using Photoshop this tutorial will guide you through the various effects used to create the feeling of light penetrating the depths of a dark sea.
Creating Content Copy
Use the source material about sharks to compose 5 lines of copy for a graphic design of a shark information page. The page should show your shark illustration the shark’s title name, and 5 bulleted lines of copy.
Most great white attacks are not fatal. Great whites account for about 1/2 to 1/3 of all 100 annual reported shark attacks. Of these 30-50 great white attacks, only 10-15 people die.
From 100 annual reported shark attacks, Great Whites only account for about half to a third of them.
With less than 20 fatalities a year, most Great White attacks are not fatal.
Great whites are usually solitary animals but are occasionally spotted travelling in pairs.
Great white sharks are found near shore along most of the temperate (not very hot and not very cold) coastlines around the world.
Links
Ichthyology is the study of fish and is a branch of zoology. Find out interesting faces about sharks by visiting Florida Museum of Natural History. http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/education/questions/Basics.html#elasmobranch
Study the different kinds of sharks, their habits, and interesting faces, visit Enchanted Learning http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/sharks/allabout/alphasharks.shtml
Sharks are fun to draw and really pretty easy, follow this link to the Easy Drawings and Sketches web page. How to draw sharks http://www.easy-drawings-and-sketches.com/draw-shark.html
