Giant sharks do not hibernate

2002/09/11 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Biologia
• Zoologia

The giant shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is a peaceful plankton found in all the oceans of the Earth. After the whale shark, it is the second largest fish in the world, reaching 18 meters of length.

Capture the plankton by filtering the water. The big mouth stays open while nothing and catches in gills the small beings that form the plankton. They say it is capable of filtering all the water from a pool of 50m in length in an hour.

Scientists from the Marine Biology Association of Great Britain, to analyze the displacements of sharks, marked 21 giant sharks and followed them by satellite three years ago. With the data collected since then, interesting conclusions have been obtained. The most surprising thing is that in winter they do not hibernate.

Being much less plankton in winter, it has been believed that sharks stop eating and hibernate at the bottom of the ocean. However, with the new data obtained, they have discovered that in winter they are also very active. They move more than was expected to look for food and many times dive into great depths.

Therefore, sharks move in a wider area than expected and, according to scientists, if you want to protect the giant shark, you will have to take into account all that space.