About Deep Sea World: Our Sharks
Sand tiger sharks (Carcharias taurus)
Sand tiger sharks a sub-tropical shark species found in coastal regions around south Australia, South Africa and the eastern seaboard of America. The sand tiger shark is a member of the mackerel shark family and can reach up to 3.2 meters in length. They prefer warm waters but can happily live in temperate climates making them a very popular aquarium shark.
Deep Sea World currently houses six Sand tiger sharks. The 4 female and 2 male sharks originally came from a number sources including other aquariums and the wild.
The sand tiger shark was the first shark species to receive official protection, however they have recently been given greater protection in a move endorsed by the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Shark Specialist Group.
The Sand Tiger shark is included on the IUCN’s Red List of threatened species where they are listed as ‘vulnerable’. However the population of sand tiger sharks that exist off Australia’s East Coast is now listed as extremely endangered, facing an extremely high risk of extinction.
Like most shark species the sand tiger is long-lived, takes several years to reach maturity and produces few offspring. Females only give birth to one or two pups every two years. This results in the slow recovery of the species.
It is currently estimated that there are fewer than 300 individual sand tiger sharks in this area. The decline in numbers is due to incidental capture by commercial and recreational line fisheries.
Tope (Galeorhinus galeus)
Tope is one of the world’s most wide spread sharks and is found all over the world in both temperate and warmer seas. Tope are an extremely fast swimming shark and can grow up to two meters in length. Tope are also known as Soupfin sharks, school sharks, vitamin sharks and snapper sharks.
It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List mainly due to over-fishing both by trawlers, commercial fisheries and sports fishermen and are caught mainly for its meat, fin and liver oil.
Tope do not mature until around 10 years of age and then only breed every second or third year, interestingly enough the gestation period in Tope varies from 6 months in the UK to almost 2 years in South America. This does however prevent the tope from increasing it’s rapidly decreasing numbers putting making the shark making the tope an extremely vulnerable shark species.
Angel Sharks (Squatina squatina)
The angel shark is a flat shark species that can be found around the UK and Mediterranean. The angel shark is a temperate water bottom dwelling species found on the sea bed at depths of up to 150m. The shark prefers muddy or sandy bottoms where it lies buried with only its eyes protruding.
The angel shark is an ambush predator and will lie in wait for unsuspecting prey to venture close enough before being ambushed. The angel shark feeds mainly upon fish, crustaceans and molluscs.
The angel shark is now extremely scarce in UK waters as a result of unregulated fisheries. The angel shark population has been depleted in some areas to local extinction. The sharks are caught by bottom trawls and utilized for fresh and dried salted for human consumption, oil and fishmeal. As a result the angel shark is now listed as vulnerable on the World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened Species.
Angel sharks grow very slowly and mature only at a large size. The result is that very few angel sharks reach maturity and breed resulting in an ever declining population.
To date, angel sharks have never been bred in captivity, although Deep Sea World’s angel sharks have successfully mated, continuing research may enable this vulnerable species to be finally bred in captivity.
