They live in temperate waters around the world, but are distributed unevenly in populations that have little exchange between them. Bronze whalers have distinctive outwardly hooked teeth, moderately rounded broad snouts, and bulges at the base of the upper caudal fin. Bronze whalers are big, with males maturing at about 6.6 to 7.5 feet (2 to 2.3 meters) in length, while females mature at 7.9 feet (2.4 meters). The bronze whaler (Carcharhinus brachyurus) gets its name from its gray to olive-green coloring.

It's also been known to scavenge on dead marine animals and steal from fishermen's nets.Īnd that brings us to the bad news: Although blue sharks aren't known to be particularly aggressive - especially compared to their nastier cousins the bull sharks - they won't turn their noses up at a potential meal of human flesh, either, if you happen to be shipwrecked or floating on your seat cushion after surviving a plane crash.īronze whaler sharks compete with common dolphins for the same food source, and it's usually not humans. That's where it finds its dinner: small bony fishes, like herring and sardines, and invertebrates, like squid, cuttlefish and octopus. This aquatic predator, which can grow more than 12 feet (3.6 meters) in length, prefers to remain in waters at least 1,150 feet (350 meters) deep. Here's the good news: You don't have to worry about a blue shark ( Prionace glauca) stalking you while you frolic in the waves a few yards from your beach blanket. 10.īlue sharks, like this one swimming in Azores, Portugal, are usually much more afraid of humans than humans are afraid of them.

These 10 top the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) records of attacks around the world between 1580 and the present. Of the approximately 30 species that have attacked, which are the most dangerous? Let's sift through the attack statistics, the stereotypes and the sharp teeth to find out. While the most dangerous shark may always be the one that's swimming right toward you, it's worth remembering that of the almost 400 identified shark species, less than 10 percent have been implicated in an attack on a human.

These sharks may not be specifically trolling for human flesh, but if they were to take a sample bite, they could do some serious damage. In the past few years, the number of shark attacks has risen slightly, although that's likely due to more people engaging in recreational water activities, as opposed to hungrier sharks.Īny shark that measures more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) is a potential threat to humans because it's big and because it likely has adaptations, such as more developed jaws and stronger teeth that have enabled its large size. Sometimes the statistics support our fears. While we can forgive some of those nearly 18,000 dogs for biting us, sharks don't show the same types of emotion, which makes it easy to paint them as mindless man-eaters. For many, sharks represent the unknown and the unknowable. Still, even the possibility of a shark attack terrifies us, thanks to movies like ' Jaws' and sensational news reports.

Emotion octopus