🔵🦈🧵 There’s something almost miraculous about seeing Blue Sharks (Prionace glauca) in the wild. 💙 🌊
2 comments — live from bluesky
Dr Lauren Smith · 0 · 6h agoThey are the most heavily exploited pelagic shark on Earth, estimates indicate between 7-20 million sharks are caught annually as they undertake their vast migrations.
Dr Lauren Smith · 0 · 6h agoThey account for roughly 60% of the global reported shark catch, making up 41% of the international fin trade and 36% of the traded shark meat.
Dr Lauren Smith · 0 · 6h agoThe global ex-vessel value of the blue shark meat and fin trade is estimated at $411 million, surpassing the value of individual bluefin tuna species!
And yet, remarkably, the Blue Shark persists.
Dr Lauren Smith · 0 · 6h agoUnlike many large sharks, which grow slowly, mature late and produce very few young, Blue Sharks have an unusually productive life history. Females commonly give birth to 25–50 pups, with exceptional litters exceeding 100, and they can reach sexual maturity at around 4–6 years old.
Dr Lauren Smith · 0 · 6h agoThey also occupy a vast range, occurring throughout the world’s temperate and tropical oceans, dominating the vast open epipelagic zones. Fortunately they also have a reasonable post-release survival rate of between 60-80%.
Dr Lauren Smith · 0 · 6h agoTogether, these adaptations give Blue Sharks a remarkable capacity to withstand levels of exploitation that would devastate many other large shark species.
Dr Lauren Smith · 1 · 6h agoBut resilience is not immunity and seeing them in the wild, knowing that those individual’s have managed to run the commercial fishing vessel gauntlet is a privilege.
Beautiful photo. These are my favorite sharks. Thanks for the information.