By Rick Graham • Dream On Sportfishing Consequently, shark tourists usually travel to the Great Barrier Reef or Galapagos Island to witness this phenomenon. No human fatalities have been recorded.[27]. [12] By distributing the receptors over a wider area, like a larger radio antenna, hammerheads can sweep for prey more effectively. Hammerheads trap stingrays by pinning them to the seafloor. Their heads help improve movement and hunting ability. Fossils show that hammerheads might have evolved earlier during the Paleocene. Unlike most sharks, some hammerhead species usually swim in schools during the day, becoming solitary hunters at night. Most of the members are gray in color and have some greenish tint with white bellies. Stingrays are a particular favorite. According to scientists’ DNA studies, the ancestor of the hammerheads probably lived about 20 million years ago. Only a few attacks from this family of sharks are on record for many years. Greetings Anglers! Marina Pez Vela has announced new dates for it's world class fishing tournament lineup... Los Sueños Inshore Report March – April 2020, Los Sueños Offshore Report – March -April 2020, Costa Rica Sets the Bar High for Sport Fishing, Costa Rican Congress approves controversial trawling law, Costa Rica Boosts Plan to Track Vessels, Combat Illegal Fishing, Marina Pez Vela Announces New Tournament Lineup, How and Where to Catch Trophy Roosterfish. (2011). By Mark Owuor Otieno on October 17 2017 in Environment.  By Alberto Gutierrez • Pura Pesca Costa Rica As the winghead shark has proportionately the largest "hammer" of the hammerhead sharks, this suggests that the first ancestral hammerhead sharks also had large hammers. Hawaiian children who are born with the hammerhead shark as an animal sign are believed to be warriors and are meant to sail the oceans.
Classified as “Sphyrna couardi” in the early 1950s, the Whitefin Hammerhead was thought to be its own unique species. ", "Husbandry of scalloped hammerhead sharks Sphyrna lewini (Griffith & Smith, 1834) at Reef HQ Aquarium, Townsville, Australia", "Electroreception in juvenile scalloped hammerhead and sandbar sharks", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hammerhead_shark&oldid=982893853, Wikipedia pending changes protected pages, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Habitat: bays, coral reefs, shallow waters Location: world-wide, warmer tropical and temperate waters Size: range between13-20 feet Description: These sharks are named for their unmistakable hammer-shaped heads. When the supply of yolk is exhausted, the depleted yolk sac transforms into a structure analogous to a mammalian placenta (called a "yolk sac placenta" or "pseudoplacenta"), through which the mother delivers sustenance until birth. The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks that form the family Sphyrnidae, so named for the unusual and distinctive structure of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a "hammer" shape called a cephalofoil. Some scientists have theorized that the hammer-like shape of the head may have evolved to enhance the shark’s vision. After birth, hammerheads do not give parental care to pups, which group together in warm water until such a time that they are able to defend and fend for themselves.

They live within the Mesopelagic zone and a little deeper (up to 80 meters deep) but are sometimes found within very shallow, salty waters. However, they have a huge blind spot directly in front of their nose. Hammerhead sharks hunt prey on the ocean floor. Renowned artist Ken Thaiday Snr is known for his representations of beizam in his sculptural dari and other works. The cephalofoil laterally project outwards, thus giving the shark the hammerhead shape, and as a sensory organ, the ability to easily notice electric field created by prey or threats from miles away. This was the first shark known to do this. The bluefin trevally, Caranx melampygus (also known as the bluefin... Costa Rica Fishing Species - Wahoo Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Some of these sharks are believed to be family members who died and have been reincarnated into shark form. Hammerheads are found worldwide. By Mikey Erickson • Coastal Angler Magazine This family belongs to the order Carcharhiniformes and has two genera: Eusphyra and Sphyrna, the first with one species and the latter with the remaining nine. Pregnant sharks have a gestation period of 8-10 months, and eventually give birth to between 20 and 50 soft pups of approximately seven inches in length and with round heads. What to expect, who to charter, when to go.
All the hammerhead sharks have excessively small mouths, in comparison to other sharks, located at the bottom of the cephalofoil with serrated triangular teeth.   [4] Their heads have lateral projections which give them a hammer-like shape. A hammerhead scans the sand for its favorite meal, the stingray. [6], Since sharks do not have mineralized bones and rarely fossilize, their teeth alone are commonly found as fossils. Today, species of the hammerhead include Eusphyra blochii (Winghead shark), Sphyrna corona (Scalloped bonnethead), Sphyrna couardi (Whitefin hammerhead), Sphyrna gilberti (Carolina hammerhead), Sphyrna lewini (Scalloped hammerhead), Sphyrna media (Scoophead), Sphyrna mokarran (Great hammerhead), Sphyrna tiburo (Bonnethead), Sphyrna tudes (Smalleye hammerhead), and Sphyrna zygaena (Smooth hammerhead). Just like their distinct appearance, hammerheads do not share all social and behavioral traits of other sharks as they do not act aggressively towards human beings but only become defensive or attack when provoked. The Fight Against Illegal Fishing in Costa Rica Goes High Tech and High Altitude The endangered species of hammerhead sharks include scalloped and great hammerheads. They generally prefer warmer waters along coastlines and continental shelves. However, the great hammerhead lives entirely in deep waters. In the evening, like other sharks, they become solitary hunters.

Learn about catching Cubera Snapper, Costa Rica Fishing Species - Tarpon Usually, a litter consists of 12 to 15 pups, except for the great hammerhead, which gives birth to litters of 20 to 40 pups.

Hammerhead sharks rarely pass through the waters of Maui, but many Maui natives believe that their swimming by is a sign that the gods are watching over the families, and the oceans are clean and balanced. All maps, graphics, flags, photos and original descriptions © 2020 worldatlas.com.