Sharks of the Sea

        During middle school, I was obsessed with sharks. Like a lot of kids, I based my entire personality on sharks and cats. I loved going on YouTube and falling down the deep-sea rabbit hole of the different historical sea creatures that once lived on Earth. I loved the idea of working with sharks, in my mind, they were just little water puppies. I watched scuba diving videos and saw how differently sharks acted from the way people perceived them. 

There are more than 500 different species of sharks on Earth. When you hear shark, you may think about the great white, or the tiger shark, but there are sharks who look completely different than the ones you are used to, like the Goblin shark. Goblin sharks are ugly little guys that have a protruding mouth, thin shark teeth and an elongated head. They live in depths as low as 4265 feet, or 1300 meters. They don’t swim all that great and have bad eyesight, this causes them to sick to a diet of other small fish and crab. They can live up to 60 years at best and are no danger to humans. 

 Another weird shark would be the Greenland shark, who are one of the largest shark species. One of the largest one's ever to be recorded would be 21 feet or 6 meters long. They are partially blind and typically have parasites that eat at their eyes. These sharks also usually live in cloudy, cold water with high levels of ammonia, which causes their meat to be toxic towards humans if they eat it. They are extremely slow growing sharks, having their sexual maturity reached, at 150 years old. They have a slow metabolism and are very sluggish, can even live up to an average of 250-500 years! 

The Wobbegong shark is another unusual, shaped dude, this one literally looks just like its name! They have spotted brown, beige or yellowish colors and are flat. Each shark has a very unique looking pattern. Its body is also covered in hundreds of little antennae-like things that are used to sense its surroundings and to help camouflage them from possible predators. They stick to ground level, on top of the sand is typically shallow waters. If not there, they’d be hiding in coral reefs or rocky areas with hiding spots. They can attack humans if they feel threatened, but they don’t often. They are very flexible sharks so if they wanted to bite you, they totally could.