10 Jenis Hiu Unik di Dunia

1. Hammerhead Shark
Memiliki panjang antara 2 hingga 6 meter, dan semua spesies memiliki kepala menyerupai martil gepeng. Mata dan lubang hidung ada di ujung kepala. Mereka ditemukan di perairan hangat sepanjang garis pantai dan paparan benua.

Kepala yang berbentuk seperti martil ini juga memberikan keuntungan berupa area penciuman yang lebih luas, meningkatkan potensi menemukan partikel di air sedikitnya 10 kali dibandingkan dengan hiu 'klasik' lainnya.

2. Goblin Shark

Pernah ditemukan di perairan jepang dan termasuk jenis hewan purba yang masih bisa bertahan hidup hingga saat ini. Jenis ini memiliki panjang 1,3 meter serta bentuk yang unik dengan moncong pipih dan panjang. Biasanya hidup di kedalaman 150 hingga 200 meter.

3. Threasher Shark

Jenis ini adalah yang terbesar dari tiga spesies hiu (panjangnya sampai dengan 6,1 meter) dan dapat ditemukan di semua daerah beriklim hangat. Selain itu mulai dari gigi sampai ekor merupakan senjata untuk melumpuhkan mangsanya. Hiu jenis ini telah mengalami penurunan populasi yang signifikan karena adanya penangkapan yang berlebihan.

4. Frilled Shark

Adalah ikan hiu yang jarang terlihat di permukaan, jenis ini terkenal karena pertumbuhan gigi mereka yang aneh. Jenis ini juga pernah ditemukan masih hidup di lepas pantai Jepang dekat Awashima Marine Park di Shizuoka, barat daya Tokyo.

5. Spined Pygmy Shark

Merupakan salah satu anggota terkecil dari keluarga hiu, mencapai panjang maksimum hanya 11 inci. Spesies ini pernah ditemukan oleh anggota Komisi US Fish Steamer Albatross Ekspedisi Filipina antara 1907-1910. Meskipun pertama kali ditemukan di perairan Filipina, hiu ini tersebar di seluruh samudera yang ada dunia.

6. White Whale Shark

Hiu ini ditemukan oleh penyelam yang berenang di pantai Kepulauan Galapagos pada bulan Agustus 2008 dan Hiu ini dapat tumbuh hingga 50 sampai 60 kaki serta beratnya dapat mencapai 10 ton. Ikan hiu ini ditemukan pada samudera tropis dan hangat dan tinggal di laut terbuka dengan umur sekitar 70 tahun.

7. Saw Shark

Bentuknya hampir sama dengan ikan gergaji, sebagian besar tersebar dari perairan Afrika Selatan ke Australia dan Jepang, tinggalnya di kedalaman 40 meter dan tahun 1960 hiu ini ditemukan di perairan yang lebih dalam (640 m sampai 915 m) dari barat laut Karibia.

8. Greenland Shark

Merupakan salah satu Hiu terbesar dari perairan Samudera Atlantik Utara sekitar Greenland dan Islandia. Hiu ini hidup jauh di utara daripada spesies ikan hiu lainnya. Hiu jenis ini dapat tumbuh hingga 6,4 m (21 kaki) dan mencapai berat 1000 kg.

9. Megamouth Shark

Jenis hiu yang sangat langka sejak yang ditemukan pada tahun 1976. Dapat tumbuh hingga 18 kaki dan berat mencapai 2,5 ton.

10. Whorl-tooth Shark [Helicoprion]

Hiu berumur panjang ini pertama kali muncul di lautan Karbon dan banyak yang berpikir bahwa Hiu ini hanyalah mutasi, tetapi menurut catatan fosil menunjukkan bahwa ia hidup antara 280 dan 225 juta tahun yang lalu. Dan yang aneh adalah penemuan batu berbentuk "lingkaran gigi" di daerah Idaho, Wyoming dan Utah.

FOREWARNED

New Obama Slogan Has Long Ties With Marxism, Socialism

What a neat little coincidence...

Sharks Count!: Pew provides informative infographic on sharks

The Pew Environment Group, based in Washington, DC, has been making real quantitative, measurable progress in shark conservation.  They put much of their focus on working with governments and political decision makers while also putting out some of the hard facts about the current condition of the shark species.

Here's a great infographic they just made available on their website.  If you have a conservation website of your own, they provide the embedding code you would need or you can just save the image. 

 Source: Pew Environment Group

Bald Eagle: U.S. icon is also a conservation success story

Nations around the globe have their flags that help to give them an identity, a visual rallying point as it were.  They can also have their iconic symbols that can range from buildings to geological formations to plants and animals.  For the United States, it is the bald eagle - a symbol of magnificence and strength.

And as the American expansion rolled across the great nation, the bald eagle, whether deliberately or by accident, was slowly pressured and pushed from one habitat to another until this iconic symbol of one of the most powerful and successful nations on earth was faced with extinction.  Irony abounds.

Chosen as the national bird in 1782 (to the disappointment of statesman Benjamin Franklin who had proposed the turkey), the bald eagle's numbers slowly declined until there were only 417 nesting pairs of eagles in the lower 48 states when the Endangered Species Act was initiated in 1963 (the bald eagle was formally declared endangered under the Act in 1967).  The nation's founding fathers did not have to travel far within the new fledgling states to see a bald eagle, but by the 20th century the birds were typically found only in rugged, remote mountainous areas - further west and north where human populations were scarce as was large scale agriculture.  

Along with large commercial agriculture came the need to control pests and with that came the use of pesticides.  The broad use of DDT contributed to the decline of the bald eagle - as well as many other birds of prey - as the pesticide slowly worked its way up the food chain.  When ingested by bald eagles, it produced weakened eggs and the bird's survival rate plummeted.   

Midwest states, with large population centers and agriculture, were essentially devoid of bald eagles.  The state of Iowa, as an example, did not have a single nest from the early 1900s until the late 70s when one nest was finally sighted.  But now it appears that is all changing.

Iowa's number of nesting pairs numbered around 9,000 in 2006 and they continue to grow.  With the use of DDT discontinued, along with the adoption of other regulatory measures between the United States and Canada, the overall population of bald eagles has continued to rise and it was officially de-listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1997.  Numbers now range over 115,000 in the United States and Canada.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources carefully monitors the number of nests and nesting pairs, utilizing a program that involves both government officials and volunteers to monitor the nests.  The birds need to be observed but not disturbed in any way, so involved conservation groups and the department keep the exact location of many of the nests under wraps. 

The return of bald eagles to states like Iowa is an example of the overall success nationwide in bringing back the populations of bald eagles back to respectable levels.  It is the iconic symbol of a nation but, more importantly, it is an important member of nature's balanced community and a success story that bears repeating for many animal and plant species from coast to coast. 

Source: The Republic
Source: Wikipedia                     

Shark News: not a couple of good weeks if you're a shark

It hasn't been a particularly good couple of weeks for sharks.

First there was the large 20-foot, 4000-pound female white shark that was caught in the Sea of Cortez.  Reportedly caught accidentally in the fishing nets of some local fishermen, it garnered media attention because of its massive size.  As it turns out, it apparently had a research tag showing it had traveled from the coast of central California.  Conjecture is that it traveled to the Sea of Cortez to give birth as this is a popular theory being proposed and studied by researchers.

The Sea of Cortez is an area that is being heavily fished by local fishermen and several species are being hard hit by the overall level of the catch.  If juvenile white sharks are being taken - evidence of which has been seen in local fish markets - and females are being caught, either accidentally or deliberately, for a slow-reproducing animal like the great white shark, this is not good news.

Next up was the unfortunate fatal attack on a bodysurfer in South Africa.  There have been fatal attacks throughout the years, but what raised the hackles of locals and caught the attention of the media was the fact that a film production company/research group was in the area apparently chumming to attract sharks for tagging purposes.  South African government officials, who had issued the permits to allow the research, pulled those permits and from there it's been a media communications nightmare of accusations and a lot of CYA.

The production company had been filming in the past for National Geographic Channel's Shark Men series, but Nat Geo issued a response saying that they had not been working with this particular company for some time.  South African government officials are being accused of faulty vetting of the operation in issuing the permits, but it's been said that there were scientists on board to ensure that no reckless behavior for the sake of dramatic film footage was taking place.  And the production company claims that their actions were well within acceptable practices.

Then along comes a preliminary research study from Australia that says there may be a causal link between chumming used by shark diving operators and behavioral changes in white sharks.  The report itself says it's not conclusive and does not imply that, because of chumming, white sharks are purposely seeking out humans, but it certainly added fuel to the fire of the anti-shark locals.  It's quite a media mess and at this point it's hard to tell what the final results might be as to whether we'll see some knee-jerk reactions against the sharks by officials trying to placate those who believe they have greater rights to the seas than do the sharks.  At the very least, it's bad P.R. for the sharks; the spectre of shark nets or a crack down on all shark diving operators always looms in the background.

Finally, the media outlets have been jumping all over a new study from the University of Hawaii and British Columbia's University of Victoria which says that Pacific reef shark populations have declined by as much as 90 percent or more in the past few decades.  This decline has been noted in other studies, but this particular study had an interesting twist to it, as reported by The Washington Post's environmental writer, Juliet Eilperin.

The researchers study shark populations over 46 islands in the Pacific and not only found a decline but, conversely, found increases in shark populations wherever human populations decreased over the years and the productivity and temperature of the ocean increased.

“Our results suggest humans now exert a stronger influence on the abundance of reef sharks than either habitat quality or oceanographic factors,” said the researchers. 

Many of the islands involved in the study have laws and regulations in place to protect sharks but, as is the case with many conservation regulations worldwide, enforcement is lacking either due to lack of resources or political will.

Julia Baum, assistant professor at the University of Victoria and co-author of the study, said, “To me, enforcement of these islands is a major unsung conservation challenge, and I suspect that if this is not effectively addressed [as soon as possible], the reef sharks on these islands will be fished out within the next 10 years.”  

The Muppets' Kermit the Frog once sang, "It's not easy being green."  It's not easy being a shark either.  We need our green puppets for comic relief; and we need our sharks for something far more important: the preservation and natural balance of the sea's marine life.

Source: Sacramento Bee
Source: Mail & Guardian Online.  
Source: The Washington Post  
Photo: Brian Skerry

Walk On Out

Michelle Obama Fantasy Is To Walk Out Of The White House And Just Keep Walking

Wow! That's my fantasy, too!