Saturday 3 August 2013

Day 4

On Day 4 we learned about shark anatomy and we dissected a dogfish to look at its main organs.We learned that the biggest organ is the liver. The liver of a shark is full of oil which helps the shark to float as oil is less dense than water. Basking Sharks used to be fished heavily for the oil in their livers. One of the biggest Basking Shark fisheries was at Achill island. The street lamps in Galway used to be lit with the oil from their livers!

Shark interns feeling the rough skin of a shark- the shark armour!


Later we learned about the negative way sharks are portrayed in the media and thats dogs kill more people each year than sharks. Did you know that humans kill around 100 million sharks a year! Sharks are apex predators which means they keep the food web balanced. Here is an interesting article about it   http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/science/30sharks.html?_r=0

We played a game that let us learn about commercial fishermen and the sizes of fleets. We learned that as long as stocks (mini eggs) are not over fished they can replenish themselves.

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