Shark Week! Christmas came early!

   

    "AHHHHH!! SHARK!!!!" This past week has been my favorite of all year.  Better than Christmas, better than Summer Vacation, it was SHARK WEEK PEOPLE!  All year I have waited ever so patiently for this 1 week to come to pass.  So many different species, and so little time.  Y'all, sharks are my favorite animal of all time.  It just saddens my heart when so many fishermen around the world take advantage of the creatures, killing them for their fins, and selling them for thousands of dollars to be made into soup.  But enough on that for now, there is so much the talk about and I just cannot contain myself any longer.  

    There have been multiple sighting this year, either in passing on a boat, while fishing, and a few were spotted on the beach.  The first sighting was in Massachusetts on June 11th off the coast of Cape Cod.  The shark left the area within an hour, and all the beach goers were allowed back into the water.  The last reported attack in that area was in 1936 when a man was attached by a Great White.  In other areas of the world there have only been about 59 different attacks.  Some were provoked, some were total accidents, but only 11 out of the 59 were fatal.  To all my USA people, there was only 1 fatality out of 25 attacks.  To all my other readers from around the world don't worry I'm not going to say how many attacks were in y'all's area.  Because if y'all really want to know that badly, you can look it up for yourselves.  I'm not about to fill up my talking time with a bunch of numbers.  Now where was I...

    This year, they found something new, something never before shown on television.  The extreme possibility that the, once thought extinct shark species known as Megalodon, has made a reappearance. For those of you who have no idea whatsoever about what I'm talking about, let me explain.
    Megalodon was a prehistoric shark that lived a long time ago, (I'm not going to say how long cause I don't want any arguing on my site, capeesh) anyway it was the most feared creature of the ocean.  It was said to have reached a length of 46 to 60 feet and over!  Do y'all realize how big that is?!  If you don't know, take yourself a tape measure and some chalk outside, draw up the measurements, and tell me what you found.  Now picture that coming at you at about 35 or 55 mph.  PEOPLE, that's a freight train with razor sharp teeth coming after you!  Bigger than the ever popular "Jaws".

    Y'all all cleared up on that now?  Ok then, this shark was thought to have been dead and gone.  But this past shark week has something different to say.  This picture on the left is a Megalodon's tooth compared with a Great White shark's tooth.  That's a huge difference!  It would have weighed around 100 tons, and had the biting force of 10.8 to 18.2 tons of crushing power.  That's enough to crack the skull of a whale!  I don't know if I wanna meet this shark at all!  The people from shark week were investigating a ship wreck off the coast of south Africa in the Cape Town area.  Colin Drake was the marine biologist they called in to investigate.  They had supposed that a whale had caused the wreck, but further inspection of the boats remains suggested that the boat was attacked from underneath.  Whales, in the few times that they have fallen on boats, never attacked from underneath.  So they looked into a well known shark nicknamed "Submarine".  Named just by the shark's natural size.  In the end they still don't have any specific proof that Megalodon exists.  Only that the shark they ended up tagging went down faster and deeper than any normal Great White shark they had seen in the area earlier.  But if it really did exist it would eat larger prey, such as whales, or giant squid.  Many paleontologists believe that because of their size, camouflage, and speed, that whales were their main supply of food.  Evidence on fossilized whale bones have proven this.  But now photographic evidence has been found recently that may support that this creature could still live.  One whale carcasses had been beached with it's entire tail missing.
    I'll let y'all watch the episode and let you be the judge of whether or not this monster lives.  As for myself, I believe that it could still live.  Scientists have only started to really explore the depths of the oceans, and we have to keep our minds open to any and all possibilities.
    Ok enough about the REALLY big sharks, lets talk smaller, but just as deadly.  My favorite shark in the ocean today, is the Tiger shark.  Even though this shark is number 3 in the top 5 most deadly species out there.  They're remarkably the most beautiful, decorated with stripes that help it to blend in with it's surroundings.  These same stripes are far more noticeable when the shark is younger.  It's teeth are uniquely designed to curve, and are serrated further down the tooth.  It preys upon sea turtles, and other various fish.  The poor thing has gotten a reputation of eating other strange objects.   Such as: tin cans, tires, and in one case parts of a suit of armor.  This species is also the shark that got the very famous surfer, Bethany Hamilton.

    I don't think I have enough time to talk about all the different sharks that are just amazing.  But I will do one more, just because it's my blog, and I can.  Now, a less aggressive, but no less deadly, the Blue Shark.  I think this one is a little self explanatory, it's skin starting at the top is a deep indigo alternating shades of blue, getting lighter the further towards the under side until you reach white.  Their teeth are a little like the tiger shark, in the fact that they are slightly curved.  Though not as dramatically curved as the Tiger shark.  It's eyes are rather large, but not the largest.  This shark is one of the fastest sharks today.  It's perfect aerodynamic body allows it to swim fast enough to keep up with most fish species.  Scientists aren't exactly sure how fast their top speed is, some say 22 mph while others say 60 mph.  In any case they are fast, and they tend to live out in the open ocean.  Fishermen have battled with this shark for years, because they feed on the same fish the fishermen wish to catch.  It's pectoral fins (that's the fins that are on it's side) are longer than it's dorsal fin (that's the fin on top).  That's a little unusual, the dorsal fin is usually the taller one, and with some species the tail fin is really long.  Like the Thresher shark.... but I'll tell y'all about that another time.  If y'all want more information about sharks then you'll just have to get off of Pinterest, and FB, and Tumblr, and all those other websites you're addicted to.  Get on Google (or Bing if you prefer) and look it up!