🦈 We know that most sharks need to keep swimming in order to breathe through their gills. Do you have to do the same?
🦈: "Well I-"
OOC: Anatomy questions are more easily explained out of character, so! im gonna yap about shark breathing for a bit because its really cool. sorry Wpnz.
the answer is...yes! and also no! its complicated.
despite the common assumption, most species of sharks actually don't need to constantly swim to breath, its just not something most people question so it never gets explained properly.
So there are two ways of breathing through gills. obligate ram ventilation and buccal pumping. obligate ram ventilating is the one where they need to move to breath, their bodies have no way to pump water over their gills so they need to swim with their mouth open constantly to allow oxygen to reach them. (and fun fact, these sharks dont fully sleep, they're capable of resting only half of their brain while the other half stays active, letting them keep body movement going). Species like the great white, hammerhead, whale shark, and thresher shark are all obligate ram ventilators.
buccal pumping is more akin to regular breathing. these sharks have specialized muscles in their cheeks that suck water through their gills, they can do it while stationary allowing them to rest. some common buccal pumping sharks are nurse sharks, catsharks, as well as skates and rays.
the vast majority of sharks actually use both of these methods! switching between them as they rest and travel.
I gave Wpnz two sets of gills, one on his neck and one in his sides. I imagine the neck gills are exclusively buccal pumping, they're closest to his mouth and get the most oxygen that way. his torso gills are mostly ram ventilators, but are still connected to his throat and just recieve less oxygen when he's stationary, so he'll be less tired and out of breath when he's moving and hunting.
I actually didn't know this when i designed him, but blacktip reef sharks, which are the main inspiration in his design, also use both breathing methods! so, nice coincidence lol
ok thank you for coming to my shark gill ted talk
