Giant shark: the most harmless monster of the oceans

The sight of a swimming giant shark can cause genuine horror in anyone who is not familiar with this fish. This huge creature, up to 9 meters long, always swims with its mouth wide open and seems to be ready to swallow anyone who meets along the way. But in fact, a giant shark is not at all dangerous to people, and even fish should not be afraid of it: it eats completely different.

Where to meet them

These are fairly common, albeit small, sharks that prefer temperate waters with a positive temperature.

Large populations of sharks are known in the Atlantic and in the Pacific Ocean, living on both sides of the equator and not in contact with each other. They make seasonal migrations, following places of high concentration of food. Due to their enormous size, giant sharks can not be afraid of marine predators: there are not many brave men who can attack a 9-meter monster with an open mouth.

How are they arranged

Despite the huge number of teeth, a giant shark almost does not use such formidable weapons. The teeth of this species have a very modest size, no more than 5-6 millimeters. These are single sharks that gather in small groups during the breeding season. Cubs are born from eggs that develop inside the female. That is, the female of the giant shark does not lay eggs, but produces small sharks, ready for independent life. This method of reproduction is called egg production and is found among sharks.

For centuries, humans have been actively hunting giant sharks, but not so much is known about them. There are reliable data on sharks caught, whose length reached 9-10 meters, and also there are records of fish whose length exceeded 12 meters.

What do they eat

The giant creature feeds on zooplankton, as does the blue whale, for example. Its usual food is fish eggs, small crustaceans, various invertebrates that live in the water column and have tiny body sizes. Just in order to catch his lunch, the shark and have to constantly swim with his mouth open.

This may seem tedious, but the shark never worries about lunch: you just have to open your mouth and the food itself will be in the stomach, having gone through the filtering procedure with the help of gills. Since the size of her body is huge, the shark almost always swims with its mouth open, in order to obtain the necessary amount of food. And although the width of the mouth of the largest sharks often exceeds 1 meter and they could theoretically swallow not only large fish, but also humans, they never do this. To date, not a single case of their aggressive behavior towards people has been recorded, and even sea vessels do not cause them anxiety. This circumstance eventually turned against them: too trusting of people, they often become an accidental catch in fishing nets.