Hammerheac Shark

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Hammerhead Shark
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Thank you for visiting Hammerhead Shark . We try to provide you with the most complete information we can about fish and fishing. We update our sources constantly. Please scroll down to learn more.

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    There is no denying that Hammerheads are one of the strangest looking fish in the ocean. They look like the result of a Harry Potter dream. However, their odd shape does have advantages. Hammerheads are swimming noses. Their have the ability to detect chemicals, like blood, in solution at concentrations as low as one part per million. Hammerheads swing their head from side to side like a metal detector to sample the water with their noses and use the information to track blood or the smell of wounded prey.

    Their noses also have sensors called ampullae of Lorenzini that enable them to detect weak electrical fields and chemical changes in the water. For example, they can detect the current of an AA battery with terminals almost a mile apart. Hammerheads can detect prey buried in the ocean out of sight. Why? Think about the science of electrophysiology. Our hearts beat at the command of a very weak electrical field. The hammerhead can detect this electrical field and zoom in on otherwise hidden prey.

    Hammerhead sharks are the order of Carcharhiniformes. That means that they are ground sharks, they have five gill slits, their mouth is behind their eyes, an anal fin and two dorsal fins without spines and they have a spiral intestinal valve which means that food passes through their gut very slowly. They do not feed often and contrary to popular opinion, they have a very slow growth rate. Their five gills allow the shark to breathe by extracting oxygen from the water and then pushing it over the gill slits.

    Hammerheads do not spend all day swimming around. If they did, they would use up a lot of their energy (imagine if we always had to keep walking - even in our sleep!). Instead they have a liver that is filled with oil which is lighter than water. This gives most sharks enough buoyancy to seem like their floating in the water.

    Like other sharks, the hammerhead has evolved a large range of senses. They are most sensitive to light in the blue-green spectrum which makes their vision very sharp, although testing has shown that they might be far sighted. Hammerheads can hear sounds in the entire range we can. But their specialty is low frequency vibrations like those made but a wounded fish. Their ears also have canals for balance and motion detection.

    Like other sharks, hammerheads congregate in schools or hundreds of individuals, with the largest known schools containing as many as 500. The reason why hammerheads school is unknown. Hammerheads only school during the day. They break up at night to do their feeding. The schools contain mainly small to medium sized hammerheads and this may reduce the risk of predation from larger sharks.

    Hammerheads use internal reproduction whereas most ocean dwelling animals reproduce externally. They give birth to a litter 15-30. After the hammerhead gives birth, the baby hammerheads are on their own with no help from their mother.

    Their favorite meal is the stingray and also includes fish, shrimp, squid, crabs, snails, sharks smaller than them and lobster. The hammerhead is brown to gray on top with a lighter underbelly. Large Hammerheads are very fragile and do not survive well in captivity.