Shark Science Monday: Thomas Farrugia discusses restoring lost shark and ray habitat

A major threat facing sharks is the loss of important nursery habitat. In this week’s Shark Science Monday, Thomas Farrugia discusses how effective habitat restoration can be.

Feel free to ask questions for Thomas in the comments.

~WhySharksMatter

3 comments

  1. SARAH · October 30, 2010

    DOES GUITARFISHES MAKE NOISES OR CAN THEY BE QUIET? ARE THEY DANGERISS OR CAN YOU TOUCH THEM I WANT TO STUDY SHARK AND HAVE ALWAYS LOVED DOLPHINS TOO.

    • Edmund Burke · October 30, 2010

      Of course they can make noise you dumb dumb havevn’t you seen Jaws? You can’t touch them either because they love the taste of human flesh because with all the increasing number of attacks recently they know what we taste like so they go to the beach and bite more humans.

  2. Thomas Farrugia · November 15, 2010

    Hey Sarah,
    Good question about making noise, I’m not 100% sure about that, although I’ve never heard them make any noise, or know of any way they could make noise, at least none that we can hear. They’re not like dolphins who can actually vocalize.

    And no, they are not dangerous at all. Like about 90% of the shark and ray species, they do not get much large than an adult human, they eat small fish or crabs and clams and things like that, and are actually quite shy so they won’t come close to humans on purpose. The worst I’ve heard of is a diver that was bothering and chasing a large guitarfish around in southern California and the guitarfish whipped around and gummed the diver’s arm. They don’t really have sharp teeth so it was like a baby chewing on his arm!

    If you go to many aquariums, they will usually have a touch tank and sometimes there will be a shark or ray in there you can touch.

    Good luck, working with sharks is fantastic!

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