And so to the sharks that enter the waters of the British Isles…
Whilst most spend their time well offshore and are rare or irregular visitors, it excites me that there are more than 30 shark species who live or venture into our waters. The Great British Sharks! In popular culture, worldwide, shark diversity tends to be completely over-shadowed by the now both famous and infamous great white shark which has never been positively identified in British waters to date. The closest great white record appears to be from the Bay of Biscay in the 1970s.
However, our seal populations (a tasty attraction) are doing well and, in other parts of the World, great whites are known from higher latitudes than the English Channel, and the seas are warming up. So one of these exceptionally rare and threatened beauties could turn up at any time. The Shark Trust claim over 40 species being found in British waters with 21 resident here. They are divided by scientists into families, and knowing the families and their differences can help us identify the species.
SHARK FAMILIES
Biological families may seem confusing at first, but they can help us learn about species, their traits and identification. Families always have scientific names but many also have English ones. There are about 30 families of sharks around the world amounting to about 350 species. Representatives of a staggering 21 of these families live in, or find their way into, British waters. Some are admittedly very rare or isolated cases. The last eight families listed below came as a surprise to me so I have placed brief notes beside them but have not endeavoured to go any further. If you are new to this sort of thing, I suggest not trying to remember the names, but get used to their existence (family names end with ‘idae’) and try to enjoy their sounds. Let’s meet our great British Sharks.
Meet the families
1. Requiem sharks – FAMILY CARCHARHINIDAE
2. Catsharks – FAMILY SCYLORHINIDAE
3. Smooth-hound sharks – FAMILY TRIAKIDAE
4. Mackerel sharks – FAMILY LAMNIDAE
5. Dogfish sharks – FAMILY SQUALIDAE
6. Thresher sharks – FAMILY ALOPIIDAE
7. Lantern sharks – FAMILY ETMOPTERIDAE
8. Hound sharks – FAMILY GALEORHINIDAE (Arguably! Usually placed in TRIAKIDAE (or sub-family Galeorhininae)
9. Angel sharks – FAMILY SQUATINIDAE,
10. Basking sharks – FAMILY CETORHINIDAE
11. Hammerheads – FAMILY SPHYRNIDAE
12. Sand tigers – FAMILY ODONTASPIDIDAE
13. Sleeper sharks – FAMILY SOMNIOSIDAE
14. False catsharks – FAMILY PSEUDOTRIAKIDAE— (2 Scottish records)
15. Frilled sharks – FAMILY CHLAMYDOSELACHIDAE— (deep water off Scotland & western Ireland)
16. Bramble sharks – FAMILY ECHINORHINIDAE— (rarely encountered deepwater bottom living, but widespread)
17. Sharpnose sevengill sharks – FAMILY HEPTRANCHIIDAE— (apparently recorded off western coasts)
18. Cow sharks – FAMILY HEXANCHIDAE— or blunt nose six gill shark (rare but occasionally caught by boat fishermen in the Atlantic and North Sea). Hex is in the family name. Most sharks have five gills and perhaps have some ‘pent’ up resentment for 6 and 7 gilled cousins. These are giants reaching over 6 metres in length. They feed on all sorts of prey from seals and other sharks down to crabs and squid.
19. Gulper sharks – FAMILY CENTROPHORIDAE—Endangered migratory deepwater species reaching about 1 metre long
20. Kitefin sharks – FAMILY DALATIIDAE—Deepwater species sometimes found in the North Sea. It is worth a mention as, here in British waters, at up to 1.8 metres long we have the world’s largest known luminous vertebrate! They are known to attack prey much larger than themselves (even sharks and whales). So, whilst there are no records or real likelihood of attacks on humans, I think Peter Benchley’s Jaws could have gone a step further and glowed in the dark.
21. Rough sharks – FAMILY OXYNOTIDAE—Bizarre deepwater sharks up to 1.5 metres long.
Shark spotting
If you never intend to go deep sea diving, boat fishing or doing ocean research but want to see sharks, the obvious suggestion is aquariums. But… many a fabulous beastie can be spotted arriving unwittingly at busy harbours and fish markets. Admittedly in a poor state of health, and also on beaches following stormy weather and from cliffs and harbour walls. If you are keen enough, you will find them somehow.
Of course you can share your love of sharks and show your appreciation of them by purchasing one of our shark T-shirts, So let’s meet the sharks on the shirt.
REQUIEM SHARKS – FAMILY CARCHARHINIDAE
I like that nature challenges the relentless spread and power of humanity. I’m not anti-human, we’re an evolutionary triumph and life on Earth needs a powerful carer. But, having grown up being told by parents not to show off and by teachers and preachers to be modest (and yet somehow excel). I think the whole developed world needs some lessons in humility. I think there are places we should leave in peace and others that we enter only at our own risk. For this reason, I find the name ‘requiem shark’ deliciously spine-tingling, as a requiem is a mass for a cadaver. The origin is not clear but, for me, it hints that those who saw it, were as good as dead and their mass was being heralded. That’s the power of the shark in our minds and the power of nature against destructive human development.
The blue shark is the only requiem shark likely to be seen in British waters but they are a family of some notoriety! Their number includes the bull shark, perhaps the most dangerous shark in the world and the tiger shark, another top contender as well as other aggressive and territorial species.
Birds are considered to be higher vertebrates, among their features is a third eyelid called the nictitating membrane, which quickly protects the eye whilst maintaining a degree of vision. Crocodiles, arguably more closely related to birds than they are to other reptiles and considered, at least, to be ‘higher reptiles’, also have a nictitating membrane. You’ve probably already guessed that requiem sharks have one too. Along with cat sharks, hammerheads, smooth-hounds and a few others, the nictitating eyelid is a feature that helps the shark protect its eye from its prey and helps us identify its family.
Blue shark Scientific name – Prionace glauca
Beautiful blue
Acclaimed in the Collins book of Sharks and Rays as “one of the most attractive sharks”, we’ve placed the blue at the top of our T-shirt print.
Sea wolves
Blues remind me of the wolf in the Little Red Riding Hood story as they are easily recognised by the large eyes and long snout. But the comparison falls a bit short on account of their smallish almost invisible, but not to be underestimated, teeth. And, oh… what fishy breath you have grandma. Blues have a taste for mackerel and squid whose shoals and breeding grounds they harass. Smallish for a shark, at up to 4 metres long (usually less than 3 metres), they have a fairly rounded, rather than hooked, dorsal fin and the lower half of the tail is shorter so it does not look like a crescent moon (not even a blue moon) as some shark’s tails do. So, they have nothing to howl about either.
Long distance travellers
This is a migratory species, most often it reaches our waters in summer following the gulf stream and then turns south to follow the Iberian and Africa coast before re-crossing the Atlantic to central American waters. I feel a bit envious; what a life!
Blue world
Blue sharks live mostly in offshore waters where they hunt fast moving shoals of fish and squid, but they will sometimes move into warmer coastal waters in summer.
Like most sharks, the blue gives birth to live young rather than laying eggs. This means that the fertilised eggs develop, and effectively hatch in the mother’s uterus or egg tube, and, once they have absorbed the yolk, gain nourishment from the uterus itself. Very similar to mammals, and not so primitive after all. Pups are active inside the uterus and here’s where things get a little dark and sharky!
With some sharks, inside the tender and loving mother’s womb, things happen that make Lord of the Flies look tame. The earliest pups to hatch often eat unhatched eggs and then the siblings themselves. It’s called intrauterine cannibalism or embryophagy. However, I have not found any firm evidence that it occurs in blue sharks which appear to be able to produce well over 100 pups, indicating some sibling sorority and sociability in there. The female’s skin is about 3 times thicker than the males because he bites her during mating.
They are considered dangerous to humans, but unprovoked attacks are rare. They’re known to live up to 20 years.
Classified as Near Threatened by the IUCN this is human pressure beginning to bite the shark.
Blue shark colours – Dark blue back fading to pale blue, silver and white underneath.
CATSHARKS – FAMILY SCYLORHINIDAE
The largest family of sharks, where dogs and cats unite
Here’s something to get your head round. The species most people in the British Isles have known for generations as dogfish, are placed by scientists in the Catshark family. It is now common for what I grew up knowing as the lesser spotted dogfish, to be called the lesser spotted catshark! Cats and dogs, surely this could have been worked out better? As far as I can work out, it seems to stem from, firstly, many sharks being known by some sea-doggy or sea-houndy type of name. This led to the name dogfish, for small bottom living sharks in British waters and including spur-dog and smooth-hound for more free swimming species.
The spurdog’s common name in North America became ‘spined dogfish’ and this became the species most used for dissection classes in the USA whilst a fish of a different family, known as the ‘lesser spotted dogfish’ was the one used for dissection classes in in Britain.
Two separate species in two separate families: SCYLORHINIDAE (from Greek origins meaning nose-shark) and SQUALIDAE (from Latin origins for shark or seafish) going by the same name. Some would find that untidy. I’m no expert on this but it seems that members of the family we always knew here as dogfish, were better known in other English speaking countries as catsharks due to their cat-like eyes and eventually, it has taken over at least on TV, the internet and social media. But in my textbooks and in my head, today’s lesser spotted catshark is a dogfish. Please forgive my dogma.
Mermaid’s purses
Anyway, the catsharks are bottom living sharks and include many species commonly or traditionally known here as dogfish. They differ from other sharks in being oviparous… they lay eggs which take many months to hatch. The eggs are called mermaid’s purses though with today’s fluctuating appellations, merperson’s wallets or Neptune’s fanny-pack, or cat-shark’s cash-pack may come into vogue. Please harpoon me if this does happen. Rays, related to sharks, also produce mermaid’s purses but they are usually closer to being square (rather than long rectangles) and have no twisty twiny tendrils.
Family features
These sharks are quite easy to recognise because most are prettily patterned, flattened underneath and have smallish or rounded dorsal fins set quite far back. So, although they lack the typical shark profile, they still have a shark’s face and skin texture. Another feature to help identify families is the spiracle. Our requiem shark, the blue, doesn’t have one but it appears on others, including the cat sharks, as what looks like a little ear-hole behind the eye. It is a effectively an escape-valve opening to the gills, but also seems to function as a way of getting oxygen direct to eyes and brain when locomotion and therefore oxygen acquisition is reduced.
Lesser spotted dogfish (or L.S. catshark) Scientific name – Scyliorhinus canicula
On our T-shirt,print, this pretty little shark is beneath the chinny, chin chin of the blue shark.
Know your noses
The lesser spotted dogfish’s, or cat-shark’s, nostril flaps reach as far as the mouth, distinguishing it from the nurse hound (or greater spotted catshark) described below.
They’re only little, reaching up to 75cm long but they are not the smallest shark species.
Also known as rough-hound or morgay, these are probably our commonest and most accessible sharks. They wash up on many beaches, probably after a bash on the head by a frustrated fisherman. There are great fishermen, good fishermen and monsters who don’t deserve to be called fishermen, but look more or less the same. Their mermaid’s purses, dogfish rather than rogue fish harmers, are particularly common and adult specimens can often be found in working harbours, often in a dishevelled state of decomposition. But sometimes they wash up alive, especially at night. If you are lucky enough to find one, you will experience the cat like reflectivity of the eye which shines right back at you like your own torch.
Nocturnal (like most dogfish/catsharks) y nature, they hunt a variety of bottom living prey from the low tide line down to about 400 metres deep.
They attach their mermaid’s purse eggs, usually in pairs, to seaweeds in shallow water, producing around 15 to 20 per season. The eggs need around 9 months to hatch.
One of the few shark species to be considered of Least Concern by the IUCN. Lucky dogs or cats with 9 lives?
Lesser spotted dogfish colours –
The back can be reddish brown, bronzy brown, grey or muddy yellow (ochre or gold) and arranged in faint bands fading on the sides towards a whitish belly sometimes pinkish where the skin is thin or bends. The coloured parts of the back and fins are covered in small brown spots which tend to fade out at the edges, so they’re smudges rather than spots really.
Nursehound Scientific name – Scyliorhinus stellaris
On our T-shirt picture, this handsome shark is underneath the lesser spotted dogfish.
Also called the greater spotted dogfish/catshark or bull huss. These nocturnal beauties move inshore to breed and often rest together in groups during the day.
Who nose it’s not a lesser spotted dogfish
Nursehounds have larger spots than the lesser spotted whatever it is, and fewer of them, and the nostril flaps do not reach the mouth.
Small shark, big catshark!
They can reach up to 1 metre long making them one of the world’s largest catshark species but still small by familiar shark standards.
Vulnerable to exctinction and persecution
Nursehounds are one of our most commonly found shark species, but are declining in some parts of their range. Particularly in the Mediterranean Sea. On a beach near where we live we regularly find nursehounds with a pectoral fin sliced off by fishermen who consider them a nuisance. I only know a few beaches where nursehound egg cases wash up so I consider them a localised species and one to watch in conservation terms.
It is the fishermen who are the nuisance and to do such a thing is horribly cruel like pulling wings off flies, but with a fellow vertebrate, shame on them. We hope to catch them at it so they can face criminal charges. In the past, fishermen thought nursehounds nursed other fishes, thus the name. They often gather in large congregations, seemingly sleeping on the seabed.
Living mostly in rocky habitats, where weeds with holdfasts are available to secure eggs to. They hunt in water about 20 to 60 metres deep, but enter shallower water to lay their eggs. Eggs are laid 2 at a time in batches of around 10 to 40 and are known as mermaid’s purses. They have tendrils that wrap around seaweeds and may take a year to hatch. They prey on most bottom living animals small enough to catch.
The rough skin, rubskin, was used as sandpaper for polishing.
Florence
We have a sort of affiliation with this species. We found a large specimen on the beach and made a rubber cast of it which comes with use, to markets, fairs and exhibitions. Being a Nursehound we named her Florence (after Florence Nightingale) and, as most people believe she is real, she has become a source of entertainment and conversation. As our mission is to start conversations about nature, Florence is almost a member of staff and features as another of our T-shirt designs.
Classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN.
Nursehound colours –
Similar to the lesser spotted dog fish but, with larger spots (blotches) alongside the smaller ones transforming on the sides into leopard-style rosettes.
Black-mouthed dogfish/catshark Scientific name – Galeus melastomus
Placed a little deeper than the other catsharks on our T-shirt beneath the chin of the mako shark.
Still listed as ‘dogfish in the National Biodiversity Network’s atlas and a couple of other websites (as well as all old text books, most modern media references now call this the black mouthed cat shark. It lives offshore in deeper water than the other two cat-sharks usually on muddy offshore seabeds about 180 to 900 metres deep. It has large pretty blotches and stripes and inside its mouth is as black as the name suggests.
Reaching up to 80cm long they hunt mostly bottom dwelling prey but also swim up into the water column. The eggs (mermaid purses) are different to other dogfishes (more skate-like with no twisted tendrils) but small at 6cm long. They rarely wash ashore because they are laid in deep water although over 60 may be produced by a female each season.
Classified as of Least Concern by the IUCN.
.Blackmouthed Dogfish Colours –
Very pretty sharks with a brown to yellow (ochre or gold) back and paler sides fading to whitish underneath. The back is covered with handsome darker blotches, in slightly uneven rows. Inside the mouth is black.
SMOOTH-HOUND SHARKS – FAMILY TRIAKIDAE
Our members of this family are identifiable by an almond shaped eye, a spiracle behind the eye and nasal flaps. The tail or caudal fin is quite similar to the catsharks but the dorsal fin is clearly that of a shark.
Stellate or Starry smooth hound Scientific name – Mustelus asterias
Risking a Peter Pan quip, on our T-shirt, the starry smooth hound appears, second down on the right, beneath the tail of the blue shark (and straight on to Neverland). Smooth hounds are similar to dogfish sharks, but prefer shallower water and lack the spine at the front of the two dorsal fins. The tail is more rounded than mackerel and requiem sharks and not moon shaped. You’d think the moon and stars would come together but no, sharks seem a bit stubborn like that. Starry Smooth hounds live mostly over the continental shelves from the surface, down to 200 metres, feeding mainly over sandy mud and gravel seabeds.
The females may give birth to over 10 pups in a litter. They grow up to 2 metres long.
Classified as Near Threatened by the IUCN.
Starry smooth hound colours –
Very similar to the common smooth hound but with starry white spots dotted along the back and the lateral line.
Common smooth hound Scientific name – Mustelus mustelus
So similar to the starry smooth hound, we’ve left this treasure off our T-shirt or combined them really. Ironically named common smooth hounds normally congregate in packs on sandy and muddy sea-beds at depths of 5 to over 600 metres.
Females may give birth to over 20 pups which grow up to 1.6 metres and feed mainly on crustaceans, but also most other catchable prey.
Classified as Endangered by the IUCN.
Common smooth hound colours –
Uniform silvery grey back getting paler on the sides and white underneath. There are sometimes darker spots on the upper body.
MACKEREL SHARKS – FAMILY LAMNIDAE
Look out and listen for the Jaws theme. This family includes the spectacular (in fact and fiction) great white shark. They are heavy looking with conical heads and crescent caudal fins (tails). Of the five species worldwide, two are fairly regular visitors to our waters.
Short-fin mako shark Scientific name – Isurus oxyrinchus
On our T-shirt print, the mako is the second large shark down (fifth down in total). The largest shark on the picture.
Also known as blue pointer or bonito shark, this is the World’s fastest known shark reaching speeds over 50mph. Makos have pointed noses, tall dorsal fins and easily visible teeth which quickly distinguish them from blue sharks. The lower half of the tail similar in size to the upper half creating a moon-shape. You knew the moon-shaped tail was coming didn’t you. On either side of the tail there are keels to help it swish through the water more efficiently.
Growing to about 4 metres long, Makos are not just fast, but large brained. They often feed on mackerel sized fish, but also larger prey such as swordfish.
They are potentially dangerous to humans, sometimes even attacking boats in more tropical regions, although unprovoked attacks are very rare.
A typical litter is 10 to 12 pups following a pregnancy of up to 18 months.
Classified as Endangered by the IUCN. Their once common status has had a depressing Makover. I’m sorry but I feel puns coming on like cramp and just can’t stop ‘em. Our oceans need a Makover, from neglected to protected!
Mako shark colours –
The back is reflective but normally indigo blue fading through a sky blue to the silvery white belly.
Porbeagle Scientific name – Lamna nasus
Featured below the mako shark on our T-shirt print.
Also known as blue dog, smaller than the mako and deeper bodied than any of the sharks above or below. The porbeagle has a pale or white patch on the lower rear corner of the dorsal fin and two keels on the side of the tail.
Growing to over 3 metres long, Porbeagles hunt open water fishes, especially mackerel, which they may follow into shallow water.
They tolerate colder waters than most shark species, reaching the chillycoasts of Russia, Scandinavia, Canada and Greenland.
They usually produce 3 or 4 pups following a 9-month pregnancy.
Classified as vulnerable by the IUCN… ‘poor beagles,’ SAVE OUR SHARKS!
Porbeagle colours –
Blue grey back (sometimes brownish) fading to white underneath. The trailing edge of the front dorsal fin is white or pale and helps identify this species.
DOGFISH SHARKS – FAMILY SQUALIDAE
These are the culprits who took the name ‘dogfish’ away from our ‘catsharks’, Meeeeow!! However, to know them is love them. The family is very variable but our representative has an almond shaped eye with a spiracle behind it and a spine in front of the dorsal fin. Where most sharks have two sets of fins beneath them, the Squalids have one set (admittedly a pair), “count ‘em Jim, count ‘em. That’s one pair together, side by side and not two, separate. Look at the picture, you’ll get it.
Squalus means shark in Latin but presumably is linked to squalid and squalor. As the spurdog (below) is sometimes known as the mud shark, I wonder if its muddy breeding realm earned it the name. For many years all sharks were named squalus or squalids, so the truth about who originally owned the name may be hidden in the murky, squalid depths of time.
Spurdog Scientific name – Squalus acanthias
On our T-shirt print, the spurdog is beneath the black-mouthed dogfish with its lobed tail almost touching the chin of the porbeagle. This is a dodgy situation for a shark that is often the prey of larger sharks.
Also known as picked or piked dogfish, spiny dogfish or mud shark, this species is considered to be the World’s most widespread shark. Hooray for spur dogs! I’m spurring them on. Considered to be a cold-water species, they’re small sharks that normally live near the sea bed in deep water down to about 900 metres. However, they’re not stuck in the mud because, in summer, they migrate, often long distances in large numbers in same-sex shoals (hen and stag parties at sea), into warm coastal waters to breed. They are vulnerable to freshwater diluting the seawater and move further out to sea in rainy weather. So, pretty much always off-shore then.
How do we recognise them? They have pelvic fins but no anal fin, but they don’t care! There are poison spines at the front of each dorsal fin, large eyes and a prominent spiracle. They are white beneath and grey or brown above with bright white spots or flecks.
These sharks can reach up to 1.2 metres long. Although normally peaceful and harmless to humans, spurdogs have those venomous spines for protection which can be dangerous to fishermen, who, let’s face it, are much more dangerous to the shark and know how to take precautions. Four to eight pups are usually born in shallow water after a pregnancy sometimes lasting over 22 months; one of the longest gestation periods in the animal kingdom. Hooray!
Spurdogs are classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN and subjected to intensive over-fishing, becoming rock salmon, rock eel and flake or fluke, often sold in fish and chip shops.
Spurdog colours –
Goldish brown, Silvery grey (either light or dark) on the back getting paler down the sides towards the white underparts. Young spurdogs also have pale spots along the body but they fade with age.
THRESHER SHARKS – FAMILY ALOPIIDAE,
Across all shark species around the world, many shark attack injuries are caused by fins, either as lacerations to the target victim, or to their rescuers and the injuries can be fatal. With their long caudal fin or tail, the world’s three species of thresher sharks take the weaponisation of the fin to its extreme but are not considered dangerous to humans. This is like saying that a scythe is not dangerous when stored in a tool shed. The situation is very different when someone starts swinging a scythe around in a small boat. The worst you might be imagining, has happened with a thresher shark’s tail, in a boat, but, left in peace, they are not aggressive to people. They use the tail to cut and stun their prey to great effect.
Thresher shark Scientific name – Alopius vulpinus
The thresher shark appears beneath the porbeagle and the spurdog on our shark T-shirt.
Easily identified by the long upper lobe of the tail or caudal fin, thresher sharks are the fast swimming grim reapers of the fish world, they kill their prey with a slash of this scythe-like weapon. To the artist/naturalist it is a fascinatingly magnified feature and evolutionary extreme, like the tail feathers of a peacock, the canines of a sabre-tooth cat, the tusks or trunk of an elephant or the antlers of an Irish elk. I have this to say to thresher sharks… well done, good show! No puns this time, just genuine admiration. I have to point out my humour, otherwise, how would you know?
Leapers
Living near the surface, hunting shoaling fish such as mackerel, herring and sardines, threshers can also be identified by their short snouts and relatively big eyes. As they often leap clear of the water, there is a good chance of seeing them from the land , although I have yet to be so lucky. A thresher shark is claimed as the World’s most northerly shark attack at Wick in Scotland when a fisherman was bitten by one he’d caught. Similar injuries occur to shark fishermen all over the world, but do not usually count as attacks, so I feel this one has been ‘shoe-horned’ in. About 4 pups are born following a nine-month pregnancy. They can reach up to 4 metres long but about half the length is tail!
Classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN.
Thresher shark colours –
Often looks as if it is made from polished metal with a blue sheen. Dark blue, grey or brown (sometimes blackish) on the back fading to silvery white beneath. There is often some mottling and clear ragged division of dark to light colours especially on the face and front of the body.
LANTERN SHARKS – FAMILY ETMOPTERIDAE,
You often only need to say, it’s a type of shark to make people’s ears prick up but…
Here is a shark, that glows in the dark!
They have similarities with spurdogs in having spines in front of the dorsal fins, and no anal fin beneath, but they are difficult to mistake for anything else with their dark colouration and amazing reflective green eyes.
Velvet belly Scientific name – Etmopterus spinax
Ugly, beautiful or just plain thrilling to look at, you decide. This little offshore treasure is shown beneath the tail of the thresher shark on our T-shirt design.
Also known as velvet belly lantern sharks they are one of the world’s smallest shark species, they glow in the dark and usually live in very deep water from 75 to over 2000 metres, feeding on krill, other crustaceans (krill are crustaceans), cephalopods (squid, octopus, cuttlefish) and fish.
The skin of the belly is strikingly velvety and the rear, or second, dorsal fin is larger than the first. Up to 20 luminous pups are born after a pregnancy which may last 3 years! Well, they say mothers to be are glowing; velvet bellies take it literally.
About half of the 350 species of sharks around the World grow to less than 1 metre long and at 45cm long or less, the velvet belly is a tiddler but they are one of the most abundant deep-water shark species off the British and European coast. Never the less, declining populations and overfishing have put this species in the Near Threatened category of the IUCN Red Data List.
Velvet belly colours –
Bronzy brown above and dark (black) below with a sparkling iridescent sheen usually goldish on the back and greenish underneath. The eye is very reflective, gold or green and the fins are almost see-through with a hint of blue where the light shines through.
HOUND SHARKS – FAMILY GALEORHINIDAE
(Commonly placed in TRIAKIDAE (or sub-family Galeorhininae)
Also known as soupfin, school or snapper sharks, this family tend to be hunters rather than carrion feeders. They have elongated eyes with a spiracle behind. Hound sharks bob in and out of the smooth hound family (Triakidae). We’ve kept them separate just to make the point that there are differences. Note that sub-families, like Galeorininae above, end with ‘inae’ rather than ‘idae’. It’s cos I’m in a sub-family… inae. See how much fun it is.
Tope Scientific name – Galeorhinus galeus
Tope is second to bottom on our T-shirt design, just above the angel shark.
The Tope’s eye has that special eyelid, the nictitating membrane, that the smooth hounds do not have; do they? Nope.
Reaching up to 2 metres long, tope hunt, often in small shoals, mostly on sand and gravel seabeds, from the shallows down to about 400 metres deep, eating mainly bottom living fish along with other seabed prey. They are sometimes seen at the surface but, if you have a fishy bottom, watch out for tope.
They may produce over 50 pups but 30 to 40 is more common, after a pregnancy of about 12 months. Young are born in traditional nursery areas in sheltered coastal places making them very vulnerable to targeted fishing.
Classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Do they have much chance of making it to the next century? Nope! Extinction is irreversible, SAVE OUR SHARKS!
Tope colours –
Dark grey (tarnished lead) to bronze back getting paler on the sides fading into a white belly.
ANGEL SHARKS – FAMILY SQUATINIDAE
There are about 13 species of angel shark worldwide. They look a bit like rays (or skates) but the fins meet the body behind the gills and are not attached to the head. The pectoral and pelvic fins are quite clearly separate (unlike rays) and look a bit like the traditional robes of a monk. This earned them the alternative name, monkfish, but the same nickname is now used for angler fish, especially in restaurants. Once you know this, it becomes pretty annoying.
Angel shark Scientific name – Squatina Squatina
The least shark-like of our sharks, and a seabed dweller, the angel shark features at the bottom of our shark design T-shirt. It is critically endangered and our waters, particularly Cardigan Bay, are among its last strongholds. Camouflaged and flattened to live on, and in, sandy or gravelly sea-beds, angel sharks are bottom living ambush hunters. Like most sharks, and in contrast with rays, they do not lay eggs. They feed on a variety of bottom living prey. Females give birth to up to 25 live young after a pregnancy of 8 months or more. They can reach up to 2 metres long.
Classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. It’s not funny anymore is it?
Angel shark colours –
White underneath. The back has a grey, brown or greenish base colour with darker speckles and spots but also some pale speckles and lines to mimic sand and gravel and the patterns of light from the sea surface.
Time to change T-shirts!
BASKING SHARKS – FAMILY CETORHINIDAE
There’s only one species in this family.
Basking shark Scientific name – Cetorhinus maximus
Basking sharks are world’s second largest fish species. Being so huge, we’ve put this species on a T-shirt of its own which roughly matches the scale of our other shark T-shirt!
With a mouth large enough to enclose the heftiest of our other species, the basking shark is a gentle giant and would not want to swallow us. Well, gentle is as relative term; planktonic crustaceans have feelings too.
Basking shark sometimes grow up to 15 metres long. They feed on tiny animals (mainly copepod crustaceans) which they filter from the plankton using specially adapted gills. In sunny weather their fascinating prey grazes on planktonic algae at the surface and so the great white mouth basking sharks skim along just beneath the surface, mouth agape harvesting the feast with their huge dorsal fins, and often tail fins too, protruding through the surface.
Much is unknown… Pregnancy may last as long as 3 years, and at least 6 pps are possible.
Classified as Endangered by the IUCN.
Basking shark colours –
White underneath with uneven but often sharp change to brown or grey on the upper parts (almost like a coastline on a map). If you are really keen, there is often subtle mottling and even banding within the darker areas if you look closely. Inside the mouth is white.
INTRODUCING A NEW SHARK T-SHIRT
Just when you thought one shark T-shirt was enough.. we’d love to introduce you to our new Jaws T-shirt. Featuring even more sharks.
HAMMERHEAD SHARKS – FAMILY SPHYRNIDAE
Probably the most easily recognised family of sharks because of their bizarre head shape. Apart from the head, they are very similar to requiem sharks (Carcharinidae).
Common hammerhead Scientific name – Sphyrna zygaena
Also known as smooth hammerhead, common hammerheads are very rare in British waters, but one record was as far north as the Scottish North Sea coast. The second largest of the hammerheads, this species prefers cooler water to the other hammerhead species.
Expert authors disagree over whether this is a shallow or deep-water species and, possibly, they prefer different depths at different water temperatures and latitudes. They are found from depths of 20 to 400 metres inshore and offshore.
They may produce over 30 pups per litter and can reach up to 4 metres long.
Classified as vulnerable by the IUCN.
Hammerhead colours –
Dark grey, greyish brown or olive green back and side getting paler towards the white or whitish belly. The pectoral fins may be darker, and all the fins tend to have darker tips and rear edges.
SAND TIGERS – FAMILY ODONTASPIDIDAE
Very rare sharks with deep bodies and savage looking hooked teeth. Their heads are cone shaped but slightly flattened and the upper half of the tail is long. Their scales have 3 keels.
Smalltooth sand tiger shark Scientific name – Odontaspis ferox
At up to 4 metres long, Smalltooth sand tiger sharks are large but very rare species here. There are 3 records of them in UK waters in 2023. Their life, biology and breeding are mostly mysteries
They are usually considered to be from the Mediterranean or further south, living mostly in deep water; usually (but not always) beyond the range of divers.
Classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN.
Small sand tiger shark colours –
Bronzy brown or sandy on the back fading to white underneath. There are slightly darker blotches on the sandy background.
SLEEPER SHARKS – FAMILY SOMNIOSIDAE
The family name comes from their normally slow movement and dozy looking behaviour. They are mostly found in cold or deep (and so also cold) waters. Most of the family members are called ‘dogfish’ rather than shark.
Greenland shark Scientific name – Somniosus microcephalus
Also known as sleeper sharks or gurry sharks, Greenland Sharks are slow growing, cold water predators and scavengers. They are the longest-lived vertebrate living for over 200 years.
At 8 metres long Greenland sharks are one of the largest fish species in the sea. They show no aggression to humans, but have been found eating seals and with whole seals and even whole reindeer in their stomachs!
They give birth to about 10 pups at a time after a very long gestation period, estimated by some to be up to 18 years long. The long life span (possibly 500 years or more) may lead to a shark producing hundreds of pups in her lifetime.
Classified as vulnerable by the IUCN.
Greenland shark colours –
Background colour ranges from pinkish through purplish brown to shades of grey with an overcoat of mostly darker mottling. They are not often paler underneath and pretty much the same all over.
The deep sea sleeper shark brings us to bedtime for this blog. I hope you have enjoyed the journey and will want to learn more about sharks and how to save the many threatened species in peril at our hands and under our watch… PLEASE SAVE OUR SHARKS.
P.S. These sharks can all be found in our sharks colouring book!
