Photo of the Day: A Porbeagle Shark - Mission Blue

November 20, 2012

Facebook
Twitter
INSTAGRAM
RSS

Porbeagle sharks, Lamna nasus, known by some as blue dogs, are active wanderers of the ocean. Known to aggregate in small schools, the porbeagle shark is a wide-ranging coastal and oceanic species that reaches a maximum reported size of 355 cm TL.

Did you know? Porbeagle sharks maintain their body temperature above ambient water temperature through thermoregulation.

With low reproductive capacity and high commercial value (in target and incidental fisheries) of mature and immature age classes, this species is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Despite extremely depleted populations of porbeagle sharks being reported, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) recently failed to put management measures in place to help protect these beautiful sharks, leaving these blue dogs of the ocean particularly vulnerable.

Photo Credit: Doug Perrine, SeaPics

 

 

 

Facebook
Twitter
INSTAGRAM
RSS

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

We've Updated Our Privacy Policy

Read our new privacy policy here.