Megamouth!

I just got this off of another email list that I am on. If you haven't
heard of the mega mouth shark before, it has only been defined for a few years (not sure on exactly when the first specimen was caught). It is kind of like the ceolocanth of the shark world. Exciting!!!!!

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Hi all! This just in from elasmo-l:

Hello ELASMO-L,
On October 19, 2001, another Megamouth shark (male, approx. 18 ft. fork length) was caught in a drift gillnet and released alive in good condition. A U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service observer was aboard the commercial swordfish vessel, approx. 42 miles northwest of San Diego, California. The observer was able to collect a tissue biopsy and take many color photographs including one of the upper jaw with white lip and lower jaw with dark spots on a white chin. The observer also noted the presence of claspers. Water depth at this location is 460 fms. and the sea surface temperature was 65.8 F. This is the fourth (November 1984, October 1990, October 1999) Megamouth shark caught off Southern California in a drift gillnet targeting swordfish.

If you are interested in seeing the photos, please go to the following web site: http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/mega15.htm

Kate, the megamouth shark was unknown until 1976 when the 1st specimin was caught off Hawaii entangled in a deepwater net line. Very little is known about this species. It is a deep water shark found (rarely) in all oceans. It is believed to be a filter feeder at between 500 - 3300 ft.

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Don't you think?

Looking at the pics it appears it doesn't have any "sharp" puncture deep into your flesh type teeth. Mouth shape looks similar to a whale sharks.

Do they call it a megamouth because of the size of the mouth on that rascal? Doesn't look overly big, but then again maybe this is a baby. How big do they get, does anyone know?

Inquiring minds need to know.

Neat pics, and info.

I've heard of the Megamouth, but thought found in the Atlantic... you learn more every day.

If I remember the first story I heard on them -- you're right - the name came from the size of their mouth. How big, well that's sort of unknown, there have been so few found that there is little concrete data. I'll try and find the urls that had the info on them.... will post later.

Their mouths are extremely large compared to their overall size. The max known length was 17 ft, but it appears the latest is a tad bigger and being a male (claspers) it is not the largest possible since female sharks tend to be larger than males. Since very few individuals have been seen it's impossible to get an accurate guess at max size.

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Finally a shark named after butch and I, that is cool huh Butch?

I am thinking that we resemble the wide belly shark as opposed to the wide mouth....................

I don't know Butch...Wide Bellied Big Mouth Shark could fit both you and Syruss! :froggy:

hehehe....=-x

Thanks for sharing. Very cool info and PICS. I'm looking forward to those Urls DivingGal!
I love to read anything I can about sharks. I believe there are 365 different species. Right Walter?
:sunny:

Number of species is open to debate. For example, some believe the Sand Tiger of the US, the Snaggletooth of South Africa and the Grey Nurse of Australia to be the same species while others believe them to be three distinct species. This confusion exists with many other sharks as well. Everyone tends to agree there are around 300 species. They range in size from very tiny to huge. Few of those approximately 300 are considered dangerous. That's not a thought that comes to mind while making a safety stop on a solo dive when a 6 ft Gray Reef heads straight at you turning away at a distance of three ft.

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