Sharks Content

Sharks and Rays Leap Out of the Water for Many Reasons, Including Feeding, Courtship and Communication

Andy Fell — September 23, 2024 - 12:15pm

Many sharks and rays are known to breach, leaping fully or partly out of the water. In a recent study, colleagues and I reviewed research on breaching and ranked the most commonly hypothesized functions for it.

Sharp Decline in Basking Shark Sightings in California

Katherine E Kerlin — February 22, 2022 - 12:00pm

About the size of a small school bus, the basking shark is the second largest fish in the ocean and is found in temperate and tropical waters across the globe. In the mid-1900s, basking sharks were observed by the thousands each year off California鈥檚 coast. Now they are rarely seen at all in this region, called the California Current Ecosystem, or CCE.

Shark Park

Katherine E Kerlin — July 19, 2018 - 4:28pm

North America鈥檚 biggest marine protected area 鈥� Mexico鈥檚 Revillagigedo National Park 鈥� may have been nearly seven times smaller if not for shark-tracking data collected by researchers and alumni from the University of California, Davis.

The park, known as the 鈥淕alapagos of North America,鈥� protects more than 57,000 square miles around the Revillagigedo Archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage site composed of a string of four volcanic islands about 300 miles southwest of the Baja Peninsula.

Reef Fish That Conquer Fear of Sharks May Help Control Excess Algae

Katherine E Kerlin — January 12, 2017 - 1:08pm

Coral reef fish experience 鈥�landscapes of fear鈥� depending on where and how much shelter from predators is available, according to a 51吃瓜黑料 Davis study. However, the study found that reef fish are willing to move past that fear. They will stray far from their sheltered coral refuge and risk the possibility of being eaten by sharks and other predators if the pay-off in tasty algae is higher.