Luke Morris

It was a sunny day in March of 1985. As Shirley Ann Durdin was diving for scallops in Peake Bay, South Australia, a great white shark measuring about 20 feet suddenly attacked her and tore her body in half. Her family, who was 150 yards away from her, was helpless and can do nothing but watch. Her floating headless torso was all that remained of her. And when the rescuers finally came, the great white came for seconds and devoured what was left of her, too.  This story is just one of the numerous cases of shark attacks in the world involving the great whites. But aside from this predator, which other sharks species are also considered dangerous?  In this post, we’ll discuss about them, as well as some of history’s most horrifying shark attacks and some survival stories.  Why do sharks bite humans? According to the International Shark Files of Florida Museum, there are a total of 73 unprovoked bites and 39 provoked ones that occurred in 2021 alone. These attacks are often caused by increased human encounters, curiosity, and mistaken identity.  Humans aren’t an essential part of a shark’s diet, as they prefer fatty prey such as seals and stingrays. However, when faced with a human, they tend to get curious, so they try to take a bite or two. So how likely are you to get bit by these men in grey suits? The victims of shark attacks are often males because they’re more prone to having encounters with them, and not because sharks have gender preferences.  According to statistics, the number of men who surf and go scuba diving is higher than women. As much as the mainstream media hyped shark attacks, the chance of you getting attacked is 1 in 264.1 million. This is significantly lower compared to being struck by lightning or hitting the lottery jackpot. In 2021, for instance, there were 9 only fatal shark attacks in the United States out of 73 total cases.  The Top 8 World’s Most Dangerous Sharks Out of 548 shark species, only 13 of them have attacked humans. The most number of bites come from the great whites, tiger sharks, and bull sharks. They are also the ones responsible for Australia’s high number of fatality attacks from the years 1958 to 2014.  Aside from those three mentioned, there are also other dangerous shark species that you should be wary of. Here are some of them along with stories of their most gruesome attacks.  #8 Great Hammerhead Shark Known for their hammer-looking heads, the great hammerhead sharks are one of the most feared shark species. But surprisingly, they’re only responsible for 17 attacks on humans since 1580.  These sharks are characterized by their small mouths and eyes on the sides of their head. They have a size that can grow up to 20 feet, with a weight that can reach 500 lbs.  Great hammerheads are often found in the warm waters of Mexico and Florida. They hunt by moving their heads to look for their prey’s electric signals first, knocking them off next, and then pinning them down to the ocean floor as they feed on them.  These sharks don’t typically consume humans because they prefer to feast on stingrays; however, they sometimes bite humans due to their curiosity. Great hammerheads are also cannibalistic, which means they eat their brothers and sisters, as well as their mother’s unfertilized eggs. But while they may seem scary and intimidating, we are more of a threat to them than they are to us. Due to the shark fin trade, their numbers are slowly decreasing, and experts fear that they will become extinct if this continues.  #7 Shortfin Mako If you think you can out-paddle a shark — much more a shortfin mako — think again. This shark species is known for being the fastest shark because of its ability to swim with a speed of 45 to 50 miles an hour.  Aside from being fast swimmers, shortfin makos are also known for being aggressive. Overall, they are accountable for 900 recorded provoked and unprovoked attacks on humans. Most of these attacks are provoked because they’re often caught and dragged inside boats for recreational fishing.  These dangerous sharks are not to be played around with, though. With a bite force measuring 3,000 lbs or 13,000 newtons, shortfin makos have the strongest bite of all sharks. To give you a reference to how strong they are, a human’s bite force only ranges from 247 to 292 lbs. Yikes. Shortfin makos are characterized by their distinctly large, black eyes and pointed snouts. They have an average size of 10 feet, with a weight that ranges from 130 to 300 lbs.  Unlike regular sharks, shortfin makos don’t use electroreceptors to detect their prey. Instead, they use their sense of seeing, hearing, and smelling for hunting.  #6 Oceanic Whitetip Sharks Whitetips are sharks that came straight out of nightmares. This species is responsible for the most unrecorded attacks in shipwrecks and planewrecks, as well as the worst shark attack in mankind’s history. In July 1945, the USS Indianapolis ship carrying 1,196 men was split and sunk by a Japanese submarine, leaving 900 survivors floating aimlessly in the ocean. Unfortunately, the explosion attracted hundreds of oceanic whitetips — sharks known for their aggressive behavior.  Because the ocean was filled with dead bodies, blood, and frantic survivors, these sharks went on a feeding frenzy for days. Out of 900, only 317 men survived. Sergeant Edgar Harrell, one of the survivors, said, “All we heard was men being eaten alive. Every day, every night. You would hear a blood-curdling scream and look and see someone going under.” Whitetip sharks are characterized by their long white-tipped dorsal, pectoral, caudal, and pelvic fins. Currently, their population is decreasing in numbers because of bycatch fishing and Asian sharks fin trade.  #5 Blacktip Sharks Next, we have the resident sharks of New Smyrna Beach Florida — the blacktip sharks. No thanks to … Read more

Researchers publish millions of scientific discoveries every year. But did you know that even though we’ve been sailing the oceans for centuries, and exploring space for only decades, we know more about the universe than the deep earth? Based on NOAA’s studies, only 5% of our oceans are mapped, and 95% of them remain uncharted until this day. The reasons why the ocean remains a mystery are its depth and pressure that makes it nearly impossible to explore. But over the years, however, oceanographers have developed modern technologies that have made amazing discoveries beneath the ocean’s surface. In this article, we’ll tell you all about it.  The Ocean Exploration Technology Modern oceanographic research relies heavily on cutting-edge technology. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) equipped with state-of-the-art sensors allow researchers to explore the ocean floor with unparalleled precision. These tools have facilitated significant discoveries and advancements in our understanding of the marine environment. The Ocean’s Most Amazing Discoveries  What experts like most about exploring the deep oceans are the stories they tell others about what they’ve discovered. To help them expose their discoveries are advanced technologies that enable them to dive into the deep. Among those are sonar mappings, scientific buoys, ocean satellites, deep-sea submarines, and undersea exploration vehicles (human-occupied, remote-controlled, and hybrid).  So how much of the ocean have we really discovered over the years? Here are the most significant events and discoveries about life in the deep.  The Ocean’s Deepest Point The ocean contains trenches, forms that are similar to mountain ranges and canyons beneath the water. They are long depressions in the seafloor as the result of tectonic activities, such as when tectonic plates slide under another plate. Two of the deepest trenches in the world are the Mariana Trench located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, and the Philippine Trench in the west of the North Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, the shallowest trench can be found in the Atlantic Ocean because of its seafloor that consists of continental shelves.  The deepest part of the Mariana Trench is known as the Challenger Deep, a crescent-shaped trench that consists of active volcanoes and openings that vent out liquid sulfur and carbon dioxide. According to records from submersibles and bathymetry, this point has a measured depth of 35,768 to 35,856 meters or 6.7 to 6.79 miles.  To give you a ballpark of how deep Challenger Deep is, let’s compare it with Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.  In theory, if Mount Everest is put in the deepest part of the ocean, it wouldn’t even see the light of day. Towering at 8.84 km or 5.49 miles high, this Himalayan mountain will be submerged in the 11 km or 7-mile long Challenger Deep. With this kind of depth, do you think it’s possible for humans to reach its bottom? Actually, yes. The first person to ever go on solo deep diving in Challenger Deep was the renowned film director James Cameron, who also happens to be an avid deep-ocean explorer. According to him, what surprised him the most about this exploration was when he found plastics and candy wrappers at the bottom of the Challenger Deep.  In 2019, Cameron’s record was topped by Victor Vescovo, Guinness World Record holder and the first person to successfully dive into the deepest parts of all five oceans. This amazing feat was brought by the expedition known as Five Deeps.  Thriving Ecosystems  Deep in the waters where the sun’s rays can’t penetrate, researchers first believed that life in the ocean’s deepest part is impossible. But as it turned out, they couldn’t be more wrong.  Life thrives when there’s food available, and this is true when it comes to underwater ecosystems. Although food is scarce, marine organisms are able to live off minimal food by having slow metabolisms and consuming minerals from the seafloor. They also rely on what experts call the ‘marine snow’, or the shower of organic matter, remains of decaying animals, and feces that fall from the shallow waters.  The deepest parts of the ocean also have hydrothermal vents that emit water that’s hot enough to melt metal. Surprisingly, researchers found a teeming ecosystem surrounding these vents consisting of flea-like creatures, snailfish, amphipods, and tubeworms. A lot of organisms can adapt to deep-sea environments, even with their most extreme conditions. Most fishes in deep zones can withstand depth pressure that comes with massive force because they don’t have air sacs. Instead, they have piezolytes to protect their molecules from getting crushed by high pressure. Ninety percent of deep-dwelling organisms are also bioluminescent in able to adapt to their pitch-black habitat. Some of them become luminescent because they consume bacteria with light-emitting cells called photophores.  Unusual Creatures of the Deep The deeper the ocean is, the weirder the creatures become. The following are some of the marine organisms caught on footage by oceanographers. They are animals that don’t require sunlight and some of them are also known to exist for millions of years.  Bristlemouth fish This species is the most abundant vertebrate on the whole planet. In numbers, these fishes can take trillions — maybe even quadrillions! Bristlemouth fishes are often found in the Melosopelagic zones of oceans in tropical regions.  Like some worms and butterflies, this species is characterized by a male-first hermaphrodite attribute known as protandrous, a phenomenon wherein some bristlemouth fish start as male, then switch to female as they grow.  Kitefin sharks Next, we have the largest bioluminescent vertebrate that’s known today and also the slowest moving shark — the kitefin shark. This fish is characterized by its lobed fins, thick lips, blunt snout, and large eyes that allow it to see in deep seas. They’re often caught by fishermen because of their sizable oil-rich liver, skin, and flesh.  Chimaera (Ghost sharks) Known for their ghost-like features and unusual body parts, chimaeras are cartilaginous fishes that are known to exist before dinosaurs. They have the slowest evolving genome, hence why they appear … Read more