My Deep-sea Fishery

How do basking sharks hunt for food?

Scientists and marine biologists have discovered after research that basking sharks eat in a very magical way, that is, they open a big mouth and wait for the food to swim into its mouth by itself.

The basking shark has a huge olfactory bulb in its body that can guide the prey in the "correct" direction. The basking shark swallows a little bit of food as it swims into its mouth. In addition, they will not actively hunt their prey.

Xiang Yang tried to swim towards the basking shark. The basking shark is a passive filter-feeding animal that can filter plankton, tiny fish and countless invertebrates from 2000 seawater per hour. He pushed the sea water into his gills, so there would be no danger for Xiang Yang to get close to this basking shark.

Xiang Yang swam very fast, and within a few flashes he swam close to the basking shark.

After seeing Xiang Yang, the basking shark closed its mouth, and stared at Xiang Yang curiously with its small mung bean-like eyes. They don't attack humans like great white sharks, nor do they avoid humans like fin whales.

Basking sharks are harmless to humans and are not tempted by bait thrown by humans.

Xiang Yang reached out and touched the skin of the basking shark. The flesh was very tight and the skin was very elastic. It could be seen that its muscles were very well developed.

"This should be a basking shark that has just grown up and hasn't found its group yet." Xiang Yang secretly thought.

Basking sharks have a very speechless habit, that is, basking sharks are generally separate male and female creatures that move in groups.

It means that in a large group of basking sharks, the males are all males, and the females are all females. There may be several male cubs in the female basking shark group. Once the male cubs reach adulthood, they will leave immediately. Female basking sharks.

The number of basking shark populations is uncertain.

At the least, they are in groups of three or four, and there are also particularly large groups of basking sharks. There are more than one hundred sharks in a mighty group, which is like a living ocean cleaner.

This basking shark seemed very unaccustomed to Xiang Yang's touch. The moment Xiang Yang's hand touched it, it immediately swung its huge body and retreated.

A pair of small mung bean-like eyes were crowded together, staring at Xiang Yang curiously.

Xiang Yang felt a little funny, and waved at the basking shark.

Xiang Yang knew that this basking shark could definitely see him waving, because although the basking shark's eyes were smiling, they were well developed. Their eyes were like a dog's sense of smell, they could see far away, and they could see through vision. To confirm whether passing ships have been seen before.

Seeing Xiang Yang waving his hand, the basking shark thought that Xiang Yang was going to hit it, so he backed up a little.

Don't look at the huge body of basking sharks, in fact they are in a very awkward position in the marine food chain.

Judging from the creatures they hunt, they belong to the very lower level of marine predators in the pyramid of the marine food chain.

However, there are not many creatures that can prey on basking sharks. The only ones that have been discovered so far seem to be killer whales and tiger sharks.

Dolphins and eels are also often attracted to basking sharks and like to chase and bite them.

However, even if the dolphins and eels catch up with the basking sharks, they generally cannot kill the basking sharks, because the skin of the basking sharks is very tight and thick, and it is impossible for dolphins and eels to separate them.

Xiang Yang didn't intend to hunt this basking shark.

Although basking sharks used to be the main harvest of fishermen in the history of fishing, they have a very wide range of commercial uses. Their bodies can be made into canned fish or fish meal. Fish skin is the finest leather material, made of basking shark skin Leather belts, leather jackets, and leather boots were once included in the scope of luxury goods.

In addition, the fins of the basking shark are the raw material of the well-known Jiutian shark fin. The price of this thing is absolutely priceless.

There is a boss in Hengdian who has a pair of Jiutian shark fins. Since 2005, he has been renting them out to various crews as props for filming. Now almost twenty years have passed, and he is still reluctant to eat them.

Xiang Yang looked at the fin of this basking shark and sighed softly in his heart. It is because of this fin that basking sharks have been hunted and killed in large numbers. In recent years, they have been almost extinct due to overfishing.

After the International Union for Conservation of Nature listed basking sharks as one of the "endangered species", many coastal countries in the world have introduced laws to protect basking sharks. my country is also restricting the trade of basking shark products. Especially in the past few years, domestic Many of the superstars in the film have filmed public service advertisements that refuse to eat shark fins and do no harm if there is no killing.

This basking shark is very timid, with a length of more than four meters, but it is still afraid of Xiang Yang, who is less than two meters long.

Its mung bean-like eyes kept staring at Xiang Yang, and then its body kept backing away.

Seeing this, Xiang Yang no longer had the desire to continue to catch up. He quietly watched the basking shark swim backwards for a certain distance, then swung its tail and swam towards the distance, then turned around and headed towards the original place. The road swam back.

When Xiang Yang swam back, there were no crew members in that sea area, and they all went up to the deck.

Every half hour of diving, you must board the boat and rest for a while. This rule has now changed from a rule set by Xiang Yang to the crew to a tradition of Xiang Yang's fleet. Everyone consciously abides by it, strictly enforces it, and reminds each other.

Xiang Yang swam quietly to the bottom of the boat, then surfaced, and climbed onto the deck through the hanging ladder of the boat book.

Chen Qingsheng saw Xiang Yang boarding the boat, went to the side of the boat and stretched out his hand to hold Xiang Yang, he said with a smile: "Captain, you have been down this time for a long time, what good things did you get?"

"I didn't catch anything." Xiang Yang smiled and patted the empty net pocket on his waist, "I haven't been down for a long time, so I went to the deck first to inform you about the starfish shrimp. Minutes passed, and in fact it was only ten minutes since I went into the sea."

Fang Youqun looked at Xiang Yang with a strange expression on his face, "Brother Yang, there are times when you come up empty-handed?"

No wonder Fang Youqun was surprised, in the past every time Xiang Yang went into the sea, it was Xiang Yang who caught the most fish alone, but this time Xiang Yang went down for more than ten minutes and didn't catch anything.

"There are a lot of seafood under the water." Fang Youqun counted them one by one with his fingers, "Starfish, starfish shrimp, fluttering fish, big lobster, swimming crab, brother Yang, you can't go down for more than ten minutes to catch everything. Can’t you? If you really can’t get anything, it’s good to pick up a few scallops.”

"The captain found the fluttering fish, the ribbon moray eel, and the starfish shrimp." Chen Qingsheng squinted at Fang Youqun, "Do you think the captain just needs to catch a few seafood like you? He is more credited for finding these things than you are." Fishing a hundred catties of seafood is still big, without him, I put starfish shrimp and floating fish in front of you, do you know them?"

"Well."

Fang Youqun let out an eh, and looked at Xiang Yang in embarrassment, "Brother Yang, are you looking for something good again?"