@ebbster2012 (fuck you tumblr not letting me tag people)
you've just given me something to google and flail over, thank you very much xD
okay okay okay
sharks
sharks in the thames
venomous sharks in the thames
back in 1957, the thames was designated "biologically dead" because, well, pollution and all that. for the past 60-plus years, conservation efforts have done a rebirth of life in the thames and surrounding areas. nowadays, there's something like 115 or more species of fish in the river and almost 100 species of birds that life on or around the thames.
that's pretty amazing, not gonna lie.
but sharks.
shorks
sharkie warkies
those are a bit different
of the identified shark species found in the thames, there are the tope shark, starry smooth hound shark and spurdog shark. and yes, imma talk about em now.
because i can and sharks are awesome
tope shark
[image source: the wildlife trust]
topes can grow up to six feet in length and live something like 50 years. they're considered to be a vulnerable species. they're long distance swimmers, with some truly awesome migration patterns (one shark tagged in the uk pinged in the canary islands - yes, where la palma and the exploding volcano of doom is situated off the west coast of africa).
tope sharks have never attacked a human without being provoked (tip, don't pull on its tail and you're fine). they live on fish and crustaceans and cephalopods. all of which are plentiful around the uk and, now thanks to conservation efforts, the thames too.
they do have teeth, like most sharks, but its two rows in a wide mouth which is good for eating what it eats. gotta say, the photo of it above looks dorky cute and i wanna give it cuddles lol.
starry smooth hound shark
[image source: wikipedia]
these beans max out around 5ft and live in the northeast atlantic, putting them squarely in the area of the uk and western coastal europe. neat.
it looks like a soft boi
like the tope shark its diet is crustaceans, but not much else (those poor crabs) but unlike the tope, the starry smooth hound shark isn't listed as vulnerable but as near threatened although their numbers in the mediterranean probably class them as vulnerable there because of this species being eaten by people.
poor boi
spurdog shark
[image source: wikipedia]
these beans are part of the dogfish family which i've talked a bit about before here.
spurdogs top out at 3 feet which is a decent length for a little shark i think and can live around 70 years. unfortunately, they're listed as a vulerable species like the tope shark because of habitat loss/damage, human idiocy, over fishing etc etc.
poor little boi
spurdogs or spiny dogfish (as i know them) tend to swim in groups which is why overfishing is such a problem for them. the "spiny" part of the spiny dogfish name, honestly, kinda self-explanatory because these sharks have 'spines' in front of their dorsal fin which, apparently are venomous
i've talked about dorsal fins before in another post here if you want to learn more about them but with the spurdog, they have two (the big one and the smaller one closer to the tail) and its between these two dorsal fins that the venomous spines are located
the venom isn't deadly to humans but it definitely is painful and causes swelling if you have the misfortune to be "spined" by a spiny dogfish
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if you'd like to consider supporting my madness relating to sharks, i have a kofi and paypal respectively.
