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Shortfin Mako Shark
Threat Level:
High
The Mako Shark is also known as the Bonito & Blue pointer.
- SHORTFIN MAKO SHARK
Scientific Name.... Isurus Oxyrinchus
Family Name...... Lamnidae
- General Information: The shortfin mako shark is the most spindle-shaped shark of the mackeral family, with a long, conical snout, short pectoral fins, and a crescent-shaped caudal fin. The shortfin mako shark is the shark thats featured in Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea, is well known as a sport fish.
- Size: Mako pups are born at a length of 23.
to 27.6 inches.
Mako sharks can grow to lengths about 13 feet ( 3.95m ).
- Teeth: Shortfin mako sharks teeth are visible
even when its mouth is closed. They have long slender, smooth-edged
daggers.
Prey grabbed by these teeth are not likely to get away!
- Color: Their color is a brilliant metallic blue dorsally and white ventrically.
- Feeding Habits: The adult makos feed mainly on large fish such as tuna, swordfish, billfish squid and cetaceans. The baby makos feed on small fish and squid.
- Social Behaviour: The shortfin mako usually occurs singly, although they will at times aggregate, especially around a food source. Makos have been observed chasing each other away from baits. They have been known to swim in figure-eights and jaw gape, which has been interpreted as an aggressive display.
- Habitat | Migration | Distribution: Shorfin makos are worldwide and live offshore in tropical and temperate waters, from the surface down to 490 feet ( 150 m ). They are rarely encountered, but may be seen by open-water divers.
- Life Span: There is still some uncertainty about its life-span, but it is suspected to reach ages of between 11-20 years.
- Reproduction: Shortfin makos are viviparous, but lack a placental connection. Older embryos eat some of the eggs and smaller embryos while still in the uterus during the gestation period of 15-18 months.
- Swimming: Shortfin mako sharks are the speed demons of the shark world. They can swim very fast and is capable of spectacular leaps of 20 feet in the air when hooked and achieving bursts of speed of more than 22mph. One is known to have traveled 1,322 miles in 37 days.
- Shark Attacks: They are potentially dangerous and have attacked humans. However, attacks on fishing boats, when a angry mako leaps into a boat after being caught on the end of a fishing line, are more likely to occur.
- Population Report: Not uncommon; however, reduced by developing fisheries.