New England sharks

I'm going to do a series of posts about sharks in different places in the USA.  My first state is one that I was always told was a place too cold for sharks.  New England.

Several species of sharks that live in New England are:
Basking Sharks
Dogfish
Great Whites
Threshers
Blue Sharks
Makos
Porbeagle
Hammerhead (only one kind)
Tigers
Dusky Sharks

Basking sharks are the second largest type of sharks, but are harmless to humans! They are krill-eaters.  They are more often spotted in the summertime in New England.

Dogfish are a small variety of sharks, that often get stuck in lobster traps.  Dogfish may bite humans, but it will not be a serious injury.

Everybody knows that Great Whites have been known to attack humans.  But do they attack in New England?  Well in 1916 there was a well-known series of shark attacks, where the Great White swam up a river in New York, and attacked people swimming in the river.  The last Great White I have heard of in New England was caught off the coast of Boston, it was a young male.  Here is some good information about Great Whites, and attacks.  Please notice that the most recent fatal attack was 1938.

I do not know very much about Thresher Sharks.  I know that they very rarely attack humans.  In fact I have never heard of a Thresher attack.  They have very long tails, which is where they get their names, if I'm not mistaken.

Blue Sharks.  A larger species of shark, yet still not as big as Great Whites,  Bulls, Hammerheads, or Tigers.  These sharks will swim into waist-deep water, and will - very, very, very, rarely - attack humans.

Makos, shortfins are common in New England, but are consider good eating.  Male makos rarely reach over 500 lbs., but most females reach 1,000 lbs., or higher! Makos have been known to eat Blue sharks!

Porbeagles look a lot like shortfin Makos, and the two species are often confused.  They live in New England all year long.  Females can get around 200 lbs., heavier than the males.

Smooth Hammerheads live in New England.  Some species of Hammerhead live in schools, including Smooth Hammerheads.  Out of all Hammerhead species, Smooth Hammerheads are the most cold hardy, and can is found worldwide.  They tend to like to stay in shallow water, in large groups.

Tiger sharks are identified by the stripes on their backs, and sides.  Tigers are also known as the "Garbage cans of the Sea" because they will eat almost anything.  Unfortunately, that includes humans.  However, these sharks are popular in demand for their fins, skin, and livers.  And with their slow reproduction rate they are listed as endangered species.

Dusky sharks have often been mistaken for Bull Sharks in New England.  Bull Sharks do not live in New England, but Dusky Shark have a similar look.  These Sharks also have a slow reproduction rate, and are not able to breed until they are about 18-23 years old! The females only have a litter once every 3, or more, years.  They are also very valuable, and over fished for fins, skin, meat, and livers.

So these are Sharks of New England!

This is going to be on of the info sheets for my project.

Project part 3 - Info sheets!

I have a presentation board that was being used for my Snakehead project, that a few of you may know about.  (I never finished that project...)

I am going to have multipul sheets of paper about different species of sharks:

1. Reef Sharks: Blacktipped, Whitetipped, and more! (The shoe box is a shoebox reef, in case you forgot)

2. Harmless Sharks: Harmless to humans that is... They still have to eat.

3. "Man-Eaters": Do they really eat men?  And do they eat women and children, too?

4. Small Sharks: And you thought sharks were big man-eaters!

5. Shark Teeth, and Jaws: The only bones they have.

6. 2001: Summer of the Sharks... For some unknown reason.

7. Shark products: I know.  I didn't want to know about these either.

8. Odd places to find sharks: Washington state, Greenland, Canada, sharks are everywhere!

I'm also going to have handouts with a little bit of information from each sheet on them.  But that's a whole other post :)

Today:

Somebody asked me what I want to be when I grow up.  Obviously I said "I want to be a Zoologist, or Marine Biologist.  My favorite animal is sharks."

   Then I explained the family sharks are in (Elasmobrach, a family of "cartilige fish" fish without actual bones, their skeletons are made out of cartilige instead of bones.  The only bones in their bodies are their teeth!), and the family that Whales, and Dolphins are in (Cetacean, a family of aquatic mammals.), these are the animals I want to study.
 
   Thayet, is doing well, she will swim up to your finger, and nudge it, or bite it if you stick in her tank.  She also swam onto my hand a few times.  I do not think that she is ready to breed, but then again I'm ready to breed them!

Shark Project Part 2: The Shoebox Reef

Part two is here!! I also put up a POLL for anybody interested, vote for the new URL! :)

 This is a reef I'm making out of cardboard.  I'll be making more "Reef Squares" to add, but for now I only have one!

This is the top of my shoebox.  It's going to be in my "shark museum" during my presentation!

This is the inside.  As you can see, my cardboard reefs are not in place, the shoebox isn't completely blue yet, and there is only one shark.  (It's a Blacktip Reef Shark in case you're wondering.) 

I have made more progress on making the inside of the shoebox blue.  Now instead of painting it I've been going at it with a blue marker.  :) 

Part 3 is going to be coming soon, that'll be "Info Sheets".  But I may do a post on another "project", on my smaller "sharks" King Jonathan, and Queen Thayet Bubbles.  :D  My Bettas.

Project - Part one: Clay

I'm afraid I was much too busy to post anything yesterday.  And for those who are readers, but not followers, I am going to be changing to URL.  I think it's going to become juniorelasmo.blogspot.com, juniorzoologist.blogspot, or the thesharkkid.blogspot.  Why don't I put up a poll?  Comment with any other ideas!

This is the beginning of my project.

This is a small model shark, one I did just for fun, and not the better one.

This is my "sparkle shark"! My better model, with all it's fins, and such correctly placed, and spaced apart from each other.

This is the BEGINNING of my project! Later I'll will post "Project - Part two: The Shoebox".  :)

Now presenting: The SHARK ZONE!

I have decided to change Disaster Spot, again.  Yes, AGAIN.  Natural Disasters used to be my favorite thing in the world! (Well not quite, but I did spent a little too much time studying them.  Now I like sharks better than disasters.  I mean I've always, always, ALWAYS loved sharks, I just loved disasters more at that time, and when I made this blog!

Well now my thing is sharks.  BIG sharks.  Little sharks.  Any size, any type, any color, any pattern, any level of aggression, and any prehistoric shark. 

And other fish.  But mostly sharks.  This blog is now going to be "The Shark Zone", but I'm also going to information about other fish.  Such as: I got a female Betta as a birthday present this year, I got a male last year.  So at some point in time I am going to breed them, when?  I don't know.  But I'll post pictures, and videos, and updates, and all that good stuff :p

Tomorrow I will post the beginnings of a shark project I'm working on.  When I'm finished it's gonna be HUGE.  I am going to be giving a presentation on Shark for my family, and friend sometime at the start of the school year! (I know it sounds kind of backwards...)

The end of the World *Part 1*

Apparently the world was supposed to end last Saturday.  Some people were saying it was going to be Zombies (:D), most said natural disasters.  Disasters did hit in some places. 
                                                            So now I have a question:

If you could choose how the world

was going to end, how would

it happen?  And when?



My answer is: It would an outbreak of a illness that nobody has ever seen before. 

   The illness will turn certain people into zombies.  The rest of the people would have to find out how to destroy this illness, because it's contagious, even if it means finding, and killing, the infected people. 

   The Disease can only be transferred by the bite, or scratch, of a zombie.  You can (obviously) only kill a zombie by destroying it's brain.  You must do that without getting bitten, or scratched.

   It will happen within the next 10 years.  Good luck.

I will be looking foward to reading what you say! And remember you can't say you don't want the world to end.  If the world as we know it HAS TO END, and you get to choose how, how would you want it to end?

   I'll put up a page about your choices later, so make sure I get a lot of disasterous endings to put on the page!

APRIL FOOLS!

So obviously at least one person fell for my last post.  I wouldn't delete Disaster Spot! And if I decide I don't like Disasters anymore it'll be something like "The Shark Zone"! Or something similar.  So I hope I didn't freak you out too bad, but I hope you fell for it, at least for a few seconds!

Disaster...

I'm sorry.  I don't really like Disasters, and even though it's "Disaster Spot" again and not "Creepy Corner" I don't want to have this blog anymore.  I am going to delete it.  Good-bye, and thank you all for reading while it was up.   ._.

Year change! 1998-1999

I figured, seeing as we've been in 1998 for a looooong time, we should switch! To 1999.  No not a giant step, but hey, it's progress, and progress is good.  Somewhat.... I guess.  I dunno, all I know is that there's a another year full of Disasters coming to Disaster Spot, are you ready?

(That sounds like some kind of comercial, I know..)