Blue Shark

Fascinating facts about the Blue Shark

• Blue sharks can navigate hundreds of kilometres without a map, following a straight line for days. In the northeastern coast of the United States, it was discovered that blue sharks are able to maintain a straight course for hundreds of kilometres over many days. It appears that the only continuously available cue that could be used to accomplish this is the geomagnetic field. This magnetic sense lets them travel efficiently across oceans, linking distant feeding grounds and breeding sites with minimal energy loss.
• Blue sharks give birth to more pups than most sharks, sometimes exceeding a hundred offspring in a single litter. Blue sharks are viviparous, with a yolk-sac placenta, giving birth to 4 to 135 pups per litter after a gestation period of 9 to 12 months. Blue sharks are viviparous and are noted for large litters of 25 to over 100 pups.
• During the day, blue sharks move at a mean rate of 1.2 kilometers per hour, with a mean swimming speed of 1.3 kilometers per hour. At night, their activity increases, with a mean movement rate of 1.8 kilometers per hour and a swimming speed of 2.8 kilometers per hour.
• Blue sharks dominate oceanic bycatch. They are one of the most abundant pelagic sharks, with large numbers being caught by fisheries as bycatch on longlines and nets. Blue sharks make up approximately 85-90% of the total elasmobranchs caught by oceanic fisheries as bycatch. This overwhelming presence in catches highlights their vulnerability to commercial fishing and underscores the need for targeted conservation measures.
• Large specimens can grow to 3.8 m (12 ft) long. The heaviest reported weight for the species was 391 kg (862 lb). Blue sharks can reach 4 m in total length and weigh up to 240 kg.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

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