Sharks

Sharks are cartilaginous fish in the class Elasmobranchii. There are about 400 species of sharks.
Below are some of the best-known varieties of sharks, along with facts about sharks that you
may not know. 

Kinds of Sharks

The whale shark is the largest shark species, and also the biggest fish species in the world.
Whale sharks can grow to 65 feet in length and weigh up to 75,000 pounds. Their backs are
gray, blue, or brown in color and covered with regularly arranged light spots. Whale sharks are
found in warm waters in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.

Despite their huge size, whale sharks feed on some of the tiniest creatures in the ocean,
including crustaceans and plankton.

Basking sharks are the second-largest shark (and fish) species. They can grow to up to 40 feet
long and weigh up to 7 tons. Like whale sharks, they feed on tiny plankton and may often be
seen "basking" at the ocean surface while they feed by slowly swimming forward and filtering
water in through their mouths and out their gills, where the prey is trapped in gill rakers.

Basking sharks may be found in all the world's oceans, but they are more common in temperate
waters. They may also migrate long distances in winter: One shark tagged off Cape Cod was
later discovered near Brazil.

Shortfin mako sharks are thought to be the fastest shark species. These sharks can grow to a
length of about 13 feet and a weight of about 1,220 pounds. They have a light underside and a
bluish coloration on their back.

Shortfin mako sharks are found in the pelagic zone (open ocean) in temperate and tropical
waters in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans and the Mediterranean Sea.

There are three species of thresher sharks: the common thresher (Alopias vulpinus), pelagic
thresher (Alopias pelagicus), and the bigeye thresher (Alopias superciliosus). These sharks all
have big eyes, small mouths, and long, whip-like upper tail lobes. This "whip" is used to herd
and stun prey.