The world near us, but difficult to study and observe, is an underwater world. Despite the fact that it is very close, it is less studied than the surface of Mars. Nevertheless, people are interested in unusual, and sometimes mysterious, inhabitants of this kingdom. Even toy manufacturers are fueling this interest: for example, the giant hammerhead shark KO.MAXI, released not so long ago by DeAgostini, makes children wonder what kind of creature it is, how it lives and how dangerous it is.
Description
The body of this fish is similar to the body of its relatives, except for the unique shape of the skull. The giant hammerhead shark is the largest representative of not only the hammerhead family, but in general one of the largest sharks. In addition to the Arctic, these fish can be found in all oceans. Often this predator appears even on the rather cold shores of the Primorsky Territory of Russia - in the summer they are frequent guests in the Sea of Japan.
The giant hammerhead shark differs noticeably from its relatives in the unique structure of the skull - on the head of the fish there is an outgrowth in the shape of a regular rectangle. Its scope is 25-27% of the whole body, while the front edge is curved very slightly. The mouth of this shark is in the form of a strongly curved sickle. The teeth are quite small, triangular, their toothed edge. In the upper jaw of the shark there are 17 dentitions, in the lower - 16-17.
All shark fins are sickle-shaped. The largest is the anterior dorsal. A distinctive feature of young individuals is the dark corner of the posterior dorsal fin. The trailing edge of all fins has significant curvature.
The body is colored unevenly: the color is dark brown, gray and olive on the back, very light, almost white, on the belly. No individuals or spots were observed in any individual.
The giant hammerhead shark, the description of which can kill the desire to frolic in the ocean waves, is not in vain has such a name. The average body length is 4-5 meters. However, there were much larger specimens. Often fish having a length of about 6 meters, the largest shark caught was 7.89 m long. The weight of the most impressive individuals can exceed 500 kg. The highest weight was recorded in a pregnant woman with fifty-five cubs of a female - 580 kg.
Habitat
The giant hammerhead shark does not have a clear habitat - it loves to travel in different regions. You can see it in the penitentiary and in the shelf zone of the seas and oceans. It occurs both in temperate latitudes and in tropical ones.
The Atlantic Ocean is “mastered” by sharks from Uruguay to North Carolina, from Senegal to Morocco. Swims fish in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, in the Gulf of Mexico.
In the Pacific and Indian oceans, a giant hammerhead shark is found almost everywhere: both off the coast of Australia and Polynesia. You can meet her from Peru to Southern California.
There is information, however, it is not documented that individual specimens were caught off the coast of Mauritania, the Gambia, Western Sahara, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The shark prefers to spend time in the coastal zones, hunting in the water column from the surface to at least 80-meter depth. He prefers to live in lagoons and coral reefs. He can take a fancy for a cozy place near the slopes of the islands or find deep-water places near the coast.
It has been observed that sharks are subject to seasonal migrations: in the warmer months they travel to higher latitudes.
Food
The giant hammerhead shark, like any other representative of this species of fish, is a predator. It feeds mainly on bony fish, crustaceans, reefs (and if you're lucky, then larger ones), sharks, rays. He loves seahorses and poisonous rays. The stingray thorns do not interfere with the predator at all - there are cases when hundreds of these tools were stuck in the belly of a caught individual. Sometimes attacks marine mammals. Cases of attacks on people are known.
Behavior
Most hammerhead sharks are loners. For hunting, they use electrosensory sensory organs, smell and binocular vision.
These fish from an early age are able to attack any resident of the sea, even more aggressive and large. The only danger for them is sea parasites and people.
Breeding
The giant hammerhead shark, the photo of which can make you abandon diving, is a viviparous fish. Her offspring appears every two years. The period of gestation is 11 months. In one litter there can be from 6 to 55 cubs, however, such an amount is not common. On average, fish bring from 20 to 40 fry. The length of the newborn is 50-70 cm.
Unlike other sharks, these prefer to mate near the surface of the water. Puberty occurs when the female grows to 2.5-3 meters. Males need to reach the mark of “only” 2.3-2.7 meters in length.
These fish live on average 20-30 years, but there are those whose life lasts more than half a century.
Danger
In the ranking of the most dangerous creatures for humans, this fish is in the top ten (among the inhabitants of the ocean). However, the shark really attacks not so often. The divers who met her in the water claim that most often she does not show aggression, but only curiosity. Nevertheless, one should not hope too much for this, sinking to the bottom. More than one hammerhead shark attack on humans is known.
The main reason for the rarity of cannibalism among these sharks is its infrequent appearance in densely populated areas. Most attacks were reported in the Philippines, Hawaii, and the Florida Islands — it is in these areas that most hammerhead sharks prefer to breed.
