Marine Life & Conservation Blogs
Creature Feature: Swell Sharks
In this series, the Shark Trust will be sharing amazing facts about different species of sharks and what you can do to help protect them.
This month we’re taking a look at some truly swell sharks, the Swell Sharks!
Swell Sharks are a group of catsharks belonging to the family Scyliorhinidae. Their most unique feature is probably their threat response: they are able to expand their bodies to twice their normal size by swallowing water! This wedges them into their hiding spot, making it more difficult for predators to bite them from inside.
There are 18 different species of swell shark. In this article, we will focus on two of them, the Swell Shark (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum) and the Australian Swell Shark (Cephaloscyllium laticeps).
The Swell Shark (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum)
Biofluorescence
In 2019, scientists discovered the molecules responsible for a special ability of the swell shark – their biofluorescence. In the dark, special amino acids in their skin reflect the moonlight, appearing bright green in the darkness. This has been found to be species specific, and sex specific, and therefore this unique adaptation may function to help sharks species recognise each other or even potential mates. It may also play a role in camouflage.
Australian Swellshark, Cephaloscyllium laticeps
The Australian Swellshark is also sometimes known as the Draughtboard Shark due to its colouration: It has 11 brown ‘saddles’ that alternate with blotches on its flanks, forming a pattern resembling that of a checkerboard.
Oviparity
Like many other species of Swell Shark, the Australian Swellshark is oviparous. This means that the adult swell shark lays an eggcase with the embryo inside. Depending on the species, the shark may lay two at a time. These eggcases contain a developing embryo and a yolk. Before hatching, the embryo can feed on this yolk for sustenance as it grows. Once fully developed, the embryo hatches out as a fully formed miniature version of the adult shark.
Australian Swell Sharks have a particularly interesting eggcase: cream-coloured and flask shaped, this eggcase has 19-27 transverse ridges (lined horizontally across the eggcase). As with most catsharks, there are long curly tendrils on either end too.
Status
Although the Swell Shark is listed as Least Concern globally on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, some species of are listed as Critically Endangered. Take, for instance, the Whitefin Swellshark, endemic to southeastern Australia. Much of its habitat overlaps with areas of intensive fishing effort – as such, although not a target species, they were and still are frequently caught as bycatch. According to the IUCN, populations have reduced by >80% over the past three generations,
Scientific Name: Cephaloscyllium ventriosum
Family: Scyliorhinidae
Maximum Size: 110cm
Diet: Small crustaceans, cephalopods and fish
Distribution: Eastern Pacific, most commonly found at 5m to 40m depth.
Habitat: Usually found in rocky areas of kelp beds.
Conservation Status: They’re not typically targeted for food as their meat is generally considered to be of poor quality. They are however, often caught as bycatch in gillnets and trawls.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern
For more great shark information and conservation visit the Shark Trust Website
Image Credits:
biofluorescence (Sparks, J. S.; Schelly, R. C.; Smith, W. L.; Davis, M. P.; Tchernov, D.; Pieribone, V. A.; Gruber, D. F., CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
laticeps (Mark Norman / Museum Victoria, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
Eggcase 1 ‘Cephaolscyllium ventriosum’ (vagabondvince310, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
Eggcase 2 ‘Cephaloscyllium laticeps eggcase’ (Museum Victoria, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
Marine Life & Conservation Blogs
Creature Feature: Dusky Shark
In this series, the Shark Trust will be sharing amazing facts about different species of sharks and what you can do to help protect them.
This month we’re taking a look at the Dusky Shark, a highly migratory species with a particularly slow growth rate and late age at maturity.
Dusky sharks are one of the largest species within the Carcharhinus genus, generally measuring 3 metres total length but able to reach up to 4.2 metres. They are grey to grey-brown on their dorsal side and their fins usually have dusky margins, with the darkest tips on the caudal fin.
Dusky Sharks can often be confused with other species of the Carcharhinus genus, particularly the Galapagos Shark (Carcharhinus galapagensis). They have very similar external morphology, so it can be easier to ID to species level by taking location into account as the two species occupy very different ecological niches – Galapagos Sharks prefer offshore seamounts and islets, whilst duskies prefer continental margins.
Hybridisation:
A 2019 study found that Dusky Sharks are hybridising with Galapagos Sharks on the Eastern Tropical Pacific (Pazmiño et al., 2019). Hybridisation is when an animal breeds with an individual of another species to produce offspring (a hybrid). Hybrids are often infertile, but this study found that the hybrids were able to produce second generation hybrids!
Long distance swimmers:
Dusky sharks are highly mobile species, undertaking long migrations to stay in warm waters throughout the winter. In the Northern Hemisphere, they head towards the poles in the summer and return southwards towards the equator in winter. The longest distance recorded was 2000 nautical miles!
Very slow to mature and reproduce:
The Dusky Shark are both targeted and caught as bycatch globally. We already know that elasmobranchs are inherently slow reproducers which means that they are heavily impacted by overfishing; it takes them so long to recover that they cannot keep up with the rate at which they are being fished. Dusky Sharks are particularly slow to reproduce – females are only ready to start breeding at roughly 20 years old, their gestation periods can last up to 22 months, and they only give birth every two to three years. This makes duskies one of the most vulnerable of all shark species.
The Dusky Shark is now listed on Appendix II of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), but further action is required to protect this important species.
Scientific Name: Carcharhinus obscurus
Family: Carcharhinidae
Maximum Size: 420cm (Total Length)
Diet: Bony fishes, cephalopods, can also eat crustaceans, and small sharks, skates and rays
Distribution: Patchy distribution in tropical and warm temperate seas; Atlantic, Indo-Pacific and Mediterranean.
Habitat: Ranges from inshore waters out to the edge of the continental shelf.
Conservation status: Endangered.
For more great shark information and conservation visit the Shark Trust Website
Images: Andy Murch
Diana A. Pazmiño, Lynne van Herderden, Colin A. Simpfendorfer, Claudia Junge, Stephen C. Donnellan, E. Mauricio Hoyos-Padilla, Clinton A.J. Duffy, Charlie Huveneers, Bronwyn M. Gillanders, Paul A. Butcher, Gregory E. Maes. (2019). Introgressive hybridisation between two widespread sharks in the east Pacific region, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 136(119-127), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2019.04.013.
Marine Life & Conservation Blogs
Creature Feature: Undulate Ray
In this series, the Shark Trust will be sharing amazing facts about different species of sharks and what you can do to help protect them.
This month we’re looking at the Undulate Ray. Easily identified by its beautiful, ornate pattern, the Undulate Ray gets its name from the undulating patterns of lines and spots on its dorsal side.
This skate is usually found on sandy or muddy sea floors, down to about 200 m deep, although it is more commonly found shallower. They can grow up to 90 cm total length. Depending on the size of the individual, their diet can range from shrimps to crabs.
Although sometimes called the Undulate Ray, this is actually a species of skate, meaning that, as all true skates do, they lay eggs. The eggs are contained in keratin eggcases – the same material that our hair and nails are made up of! These eggcases are also commonly called mermaid’s purses and can be found washed up on beaches all around the UK. If you find one, be sure to take a picture and upload your find to the Great Eggcase Hunt – the Shark Trust’s flagship citizen science project.
It is worth noting that on the south coasts, these eggcases can be confused with those of the Spotted Ray, especially as they look very similar and the ranges overlap, so we sometimes informally refer to them as ‘Spundulates’.
Scientific Name: Raja undulata
Family: Rajidae
Maximum Size: 90cm (total length)
Diet: shrimps and crabs
Distribution: found around the eastern Atlantic and in the Mediterranean Sea.
Habitat: shelf waters down to 200m deep.
Conservation Status : As a commercially exploited species, the Undulate Ray is a recovering species in some areas. The good thing is that they have some of the most comprehensive management measures of almost any elasmobranch species, with both minimum and maximum landing sizes as well as a closed season. Additionally, targeting is entirely prohibited in some areas. They are also often caught as bycatch in various fisheries – in some areas they can be landed whilst in others they must be discarded.
IUCN Red List Status: Endangered
For more great shark information and conservation visit the Shark Trust Website
Image Credits: Banner – Sheila Openshaw; Illustration – Marc Dando
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