Stewardship
Shark survey week
Swim with a creature older than the dinosaurs!
Six gill shark mysteries
Six gill sharks are one of the oldest species of sharks and have been around since roughly 150 million years. That makes them older than the dinosaurs and their morphology has hardly changes. They live in deep off-shore waters most of their life but in spring and summer they comes closer to shore. Spring seems to be the time that female sharks give bith to live young in estuary type area and waters. Unfortunately not all of them are successful and some perish. Here is a short video of a necropsy on one of the female sharks that was found on shore. In summer there is a chance to see some of the juvenile and sub adult sharks at diveable depths. There is so much we do not know about these sharks and that is why we started this citizen science project.
The research
In and around August we visit sites where six gill sharks have been seen in the past and when we have an encounter we ask our divers to note important information and take images. We then share this with the science community to help develop a more complete picture of this species. On occasion we have a scientist who will give short presentations in the evening on shark biology in general and six gill sharks specifically. Have a look at one of our past shark survey weeks.