Frozen Sharks Washing Up on Cape Cod

By Jasmin Malik Chua, Live Science Contributor | January 6, 2018 06:18pm

As the Arctic blast continues to roil the Eastern Seaboard with gusty winds and frigid temperatures, at least four thresher sharks have been found frozen off the coast of Cape Cod.

Is Old Man Winter to blame? Probably not, as the sharks likely died not from hypothermia but from stranding themselves in shallow waters as they attempted to migrate south, according to Greg Skomal, the senior fisheries scientist who leads the shark research program for the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game.

Unlike blue sharks, mako sharks and basking sharks, thresher sharks tend to linger in the Gulf of Maine until late December, Skomal said. Characterized by their long, scythe-like tails, the animals possess endothermic abilities, meaning they can retain their metabolic heat to a certain extent. [On the Brink: A Gallery of Wild Sharks]

Indeed, a recent tagging study found that the animals leave waters only when they dip below temperatures of 46 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius). As a result, many of them don't start their journey to warmer climes before midwinter.

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Thresher sharks stun prey with tail slaps

Thresher sharks use their impressive tails to stun lots of prey at once with sharp overhead "tail slaps", scientists have confirmed.

The sharks' scythe-like tails make up half the length of their body, so it had long been suspected that the animals used them as hunting weapons.

Footage of the predators using their tail to stun and kill sardines has finally confirmed this.

The findings are reported in the journal Plos One.

Dr Simon Oliver, founder of the Thresher Shark Research and Conservation Project and a researcher based at University of Liverpool, filmed pelagic thresher sharks as they hunted off Pescador Island in the Philippines.

The vast sardine shoals there are feeding hot spots for these sharks, and the researchers encountered and filmed more than 60 occasions where the sharks "bullwhipped" their tails in an effort to kill the fish.

"It was a massively exciting moment for me to come across his behaviour," said Dr Oliver.

Back in 2010, another team managed to film the common thresher shark swiping at and making contact with tethered bait using their tails.

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