Sharks!!!!

craner

Beast of Burden
I haven't worked out how to introduce this thread yet. But I think it's necessary.

So, um, what's your favorite shark?

I like the megamouth shark, myself. But I'm weird.

You? And why?

Purple prose, please.
 

rewch

Well-known member
now this is a real thread... i can see why you'd like the megamouth since it is a fairly recentt addition to the elasmobranch family... and especially since one of the first specimens was discovered after it had swallowed a us warship's parachute anchor... i like the greenland shark since it has anti-freeze for blood, is a bit of a throwback and is rumoured to have picked off many survivors of the titanic... but i think all sharks are pretty interesting... they do however give me the willies
 

Woebot

Well-known member
whale sharks are my favourite. they have that exquisite mottled skin and they're so large, the largest fish in the world (thy're not mammals) also they're rather sweetly docile but have that groovy shark look. the fish that has it all....
 

rewch

Well-known member
something very reassuring about something so large being so harmless...rather like vegetarian dinosaurs

wobeggone sharks are grand too...but very weird
 
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rewch

Well-known member
also there are some interesting theories that the biggest mofo of all carcharadon megalodon may not be extinct after all...its the one that makes the great white look like a goldfish...you can buy its teeth on the internet, but teeth have been recovered that are apparently less than 10,000 years old...and if the megaladon lasted that long where are they now?
 

nick.K

gabba survivor
it's tough to find a favourite. i was fond of crap sharks (or pathetic sharks) from viz in the 80s, they were scared of people, water, fish, everything and spent their whole time chatting about inconsequential stuff, weather, clothes, and whenever something'd happen or they were called upon to act, they'd fall into hysterics or run away

no, I do like the real things. no particular favourite but I'm keen on the outrageous facts marine biologists turn up. that some sharks can't stop moving else they stop breathing. and I somehow used to think that they didn't stop living until they were killed by another predator, like perpetual motion submarines. bollox of course, but it sounds good. can't remember where i got the idea from, but it always stuck with me. perhaps it's cause they're are so out of place in our world. Sharks haven't changed their design for millions years, evolving before the dinosaurs had made an appearance, a living document of the world 300 million years ago.
 

jd_

Well-known member
I found a severed shark's head washed up on a beach when I was a kid. Spent forever trying to dig some of it's teeth out with a spoon but I didn't get anywhere and eventually noticed the circling cobos so I abandoned it to them.

I was always into the hammer heads because their name is great and they look fucked up.
 

turtles

in the sea
jd_ said:
I was always into the hammer heads because their name is great and they look fucked up.
Dude! Totally agree. I mean their heads are shaped like hammers!! Can you imagine how messed up the world would be if "hammer" was the default head shape instead of "roughly ovoid"? It would be messed, but in a really good way.
 

mind_philip

saw the light
There is a picture of me standing inside a recreated set of megalodon jaws somewhere. I think it was taken in New Orleans.
 

Randy Watson

Well-known member
For pure WTF I agree with jd_ and bipedal, it's got to be the Hammerhead. How did it evolve to that?

I witnessed a shark dissection at the Durban Sharks Board earlier this year. No human arms or licence plates in the stomach, just a load a mackerel. I almost asked for my money back. :D

The biggest surprise was the size of the liver, which took up about 3/4 of the body cavity. Apparently it plays a vital role in providing ballast.
 

sufi

lala
The biggest surprise was the size of the liver, which took up about 3/4 of the body cavity. Apparently it plays a vital role in providing ballast.
mmm i have happy memories of eating shark liver with paolo & a few musicians on the beach in dakar, senegal.
the fishermen had jus brought in their catch and gave us the sharks cos they ain't halal, (apparently, because they can eat people)
we cooked up the livers in an old corn beef tin & devoured with wiskey & ice (also not halal) accompanied by guitar and djembe, singing for dinner, mmm
 

rewch

Well-known member
mmm...deelicious...in al-hudaydah in yemen i used to go & hang out with the fishermen bringing in their catches & they always had lots of hammerheads...they were also very cheap (see sufi above)...but we could never get the ice for the whisky...on another note contrary to my assertions about megalodon there is a good article here on why they couldn't have survived extinction
 

nick.K

gabba survivor
i had a nightmare (lucid dream) about woebot and sharks last night. the sharks were eating themselves, their own bodies, in a feeding frenzy. matt kept an eye out while I tried to reason with them. it's unresolved, sharks are living fossils, they terrify me
 

nomos

Administrator
nick.K said:
i had a nightmare (lucid dream) about woebot and sharks last night. the sharks were eating themselves, their own bodies, in a feeding frenzy. matt kept an eye out while I tried to reason with them. it's unresolved, sharks are living fossils, they terrify me
LOL.
--
During the summer of 2001, the American cable news media was very diligent in its monitoring of the shark situation. If memory serves, citizens were being devoured left and right. Then, come September, terrorists were suddenly the new big threat and the whole shark thing just fell off the map. Blatant smokescreen.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
so what about all these reports in the news about the recent evolutionary leap in Great White feeding habits?

Sharks attacking people and then coming back to finish them off.

Sharks working in pairs, tag teams in Perth, etc.
 

nick.K

gabba survivor
was forcibly ejected from an international golf tournament for shouting 'the g-g-g-great. w-w-w-wh-y-yy-te. s-s-s-shyyaaaaaark!' everytime greg norman tee-ed off. ok, i was a teenager: working as a caddy and drinking all the half empty magnums. hell, it was the 80s. no excuse but we're all young once.
 
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