How Long Do Sharks Live (And Why)?

How Long Do Sharks Live (And Why)?

Exact Answer: 20-30 Years

Sharks come under the group of the elasmobranch fish which are characterized by the cartilaginous skeleton, They have five to seven-gill silts on both sides of the head. The pectoral fins are not fused with the head of the fish. The modern sharks of the ocean are characterized under the clade Selachimorpha or Selachii. They are the sister group of the ray. The shark is getting extinct due to environmental changes from the subclass of Elasmobranchii like Cladoselache, and Xenacanthus which are similar to the Chondrichthyes, for example, Holocephalid eugenedontidans.

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How Long Do Sharks Live?

Sharks are known for more than 420 million years. The spiny shark is referred to as Acanthodians which are not a part of Chondrichthyes which are paraphyletic. The assemblage leads to the cartilaginous fish as a whole. There are over 500 species of shark which are different from each other. They live in all the seas at the depth of 20,000 meters. They cannot live in the freshwater. There are some exceptions too like blue shark and river shark.

The shark’s body has a special covering called dermal denticles which protect them from damage, and parasitic attacks. This covering also helps in improving the fluid dynamics. It has several sets of replaceable teeth in its mouth. There are several species like the tiger shark, blue shark, incredible shark, mako shark, harvested shark, and hammerhead shark found in the world. Sharks are on the top of the food chain of the water ecosystem.

The sharks are caught by the humans for their meat, and shark fin soup. The population of the shark is getting extinct due to human actives which causes the change in their ecosystem. The population of the shark is decreased by 71%, due to the industrial setups, and overfishing. In the 16th century, sharks were called sea dogs, because they are sea hunters. There are many species which are termed dogfish, and porbeagle.

Shark meat is consumed by many seafood eaters. Its meat comprises the tissue in its body. There are some sharks that are used for human consumption, like porbeagles, shortfin, mako shark, consumption shark, and harvester shark. This meat is mostly consumed in Asia, which is prepared with different methods like frying, smoked, or salts shark meat. They are mainly used in Iceland, Japan, Australia, and some parts of India, and Canada. Small sharks are mostly consumed in Britain.

The meat of the shark has a strong smell of salt, because of the presence of urea content in it which makes the fish smell weird. The presence of urea and alkali is diminished by the marination process before the actual cooking process in the fluids like lemon juice, or saltwater. There is proper planning, and techniques for cutting the meat of the fish into steaks, ad filets to give them an appearance. The European nations have a significant market in the field of shark meat.

In European nations like France, Germany the salted dogfish is very famous and consumed by a large portion of the population. This meat is commonly prepared in the shape of a steak, and filets. The sharks have olfactory senses which are located in the short duct which are not fused like bony fish which opens between the interior, and posterior nasal passage. There are some species of shark that can smell blood in the seawater.

SharkLifespan
Spiny Dogshark20-100 Years
Tiger Shark20-30 Years
Nurse Shark25 Years
Whale Shark100-150 Years

Why Do Sharks Live That Long?

The sharks have the special ability to detect the direction. The sharks detect the directions through the sound effects. This method is used by many other mammals also to find directions. The size of its olfactory senses varies in different shark species. The size of the bulb decides that how much a shark can sense its prey from different distances in the seawater. In an environment where the visibility is very low, these sharks have strong senses for detection.

It is very difficult for humans to screen the sharks in the water because they change their locations every time making it very difficult to take care of them. The shark goes through internal fertilization The mating process of the shark is not very frequent, it is very rare. This rare mating process affects the population of the shark because they are already getting extinct from the earth.

Conclusion

The life expectancy of the shark mainly depends upon the environment they live. The fishes are found in the ocean, and the sea is a potent source of containment.

References

  1. https://www.publish.csiro.au/mf/mf98017
  2. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/299/5605/389.abstract
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