Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Slowest Shark ever Still Manages to Hunt Seals... Somehow

Swimming at speeds that have been compared to "crawling babies," the Greenland Shark is not exactly the image of deadly speed. Their approach appears slow and a little bumbling due to their blindness; if you don't believe me, check it out:


Yet, scientists have discovered that, somehow, they've been eating seals. Seals swim at twice their speed; they've been known to evade even Great White sharks, who often have to blast them from below in order to hunt healthy adults. So, how are the Greenland sharks getting fresh, live seal?

Though the theory has yet to be proven, there is a strong belief within the scientific community that the sharks have learned to ambush Arctic seals that are asleep in the water. Seals sleep in the water in the Arctic; the leader of the study suggests that the shark takes advantage of that and ambushes them from below when asleep. While it seems surprising that a slow, blind shark could accomplish anything resembling an ambush, we should keep in mind that encounters with this shark are rare, as it is a cold water, deep-sea animal that only swims to the surface at night to feed. We don't even know how they continue on as a species, let alone how they hunt.

Check out the complete article from National Geographic at this link!