Sharks are among the most dangerous marine creatures in the ocean. They are terrifying predators for both marine life and humans. Besides their danger, there are some fascinating facts about them that you might not expect.
1. Great white sharks consume 11 tons of food each year, while the amount of food that humans consume in the same period is only about half a ton.
2. More than 80% of people bitten by sharks survive and recount their experiences.
3. Humans kill about 73 million sharks each year, whereas sharks kill 12 people annually. Sometimes, they tend to approach humans while swimming to investigate before swimming away. In reality, sharks rarely choose humans as a meal unless they are hungry or mistakenly perceive humans as a threat. So what happens if that occurs? It would be a test filled with teeth, pain, and blood.
A Great White Shark. (Photo: Eric Hanauer/Alamy)
4. When it’s time to give birth, mother sharks lose their appetite to ensure they do not eat their own offspring.
5. Sharks replace their teeth multiple times. Their teeth do not fall out due to decay but often get stuck in their prey.
6. While many people consider sharks the most dangerous animals in the world, in reality, the number of deaths caused by wasp stings or dog bites each year is much higher than those caused by shark attacks. The chance of dying from a falling coconut is greater than from a shark attack!
7. Tiger sharks, bull sharks, and great white sharks are responsible for most human attacks. They prey on animals similar in size to humans and inflict fatal bites.
8. Great white sharks are notorious man-eaters. However, they do not like the taste of humans, often biting and then releasing their victims.
9. Sharks thrash their prey to tear the flesh. Therefore, we should hold onto the shark if bitten, or else we risk losing limbs.
10. For defense, humans can punch a shark hard on its nose or poke its eyes. Sharks do not want to face difficulty when hunting for food.
11. Whale sharks can live up to 100 years!
12. Sharks have such a keen sense of smell that they can detect a drop of blood in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
13. Sharks will sink if they stop swimming.
14. Greenland sharks eat polar bears and can live up to 200 years.
15. As their teeth develop, tiger sharks begin attacking and eating each other even while they are still embryos in their mother’s womb.
16. Shortfin mako sharks can reach maximum speeds faster than a Porsche car.
17. Great white sharks can swim freely for months without eating.
18. Most people tend to think that sharks give live birth. In reality, a mature female shark can lay eggs measuring up to 14 inches (35 cm), equivalent to a large pizza, which are nurtured in the mother’s body until they hatch. Sharks are the largest egg-laying animals in the world.
19. Sharks are believed to have appeared over 420 million years ago, even before the time of the dinosaurs.
20. Sharks possess extremely sensitive hearing that allows them to hear prey from distances up to 900 meters. This characteristic makes sharks one of the ocean’s most fearsome predators.
21. When a mother shark is giving birth, the first sharks born will eat the remaining unhatched eggs. This happens on both sides of the uterus, resulting in only two surviving sharks.
22. An astonishing fact is that shark species vary greatly in size. Did you know that whale sharks can grow up to 50 feet (15 meters), while lantern sharks only measure seven inches (15 cm)?
23. Sharks have terrifyingly strong senses. Essentially, sharks, especially great whites, are born killers. Not only do they possess incredibly sensitive vision and hearing, but they also have electroreceptors in their snouts, allowing them to sense movements from what they consider prey. Furthermore, they can detect blood from hundreds of meters away, equivalent to the length of several football fields combined. In fact, great white sharks can smell from distances up to 1.5 kilometers.
