Count Duckula Reimagined

Running somewhere

A Sea Full of Sharks. Written by Betsy Maestro. Illustrated by Giulio Maestro. 1990.

Colorata Goblin Shark

Meet the largest family of living sharks today—deep-sea catsharks.

Deep-sea catsharks are the largest family of living sharks today, with more than 90 species. Catsharks were named for their long, cat-like eyes that are specialized for seeing in low light conditions. These a-meow-zing sharks can be found up to 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) below the surface and grow up to 75 centimeters (30 inches).

MBARI has observed several deep-sea catshark species, for example, the brown catshark (Apristurus brunneus), longnose catshark (Apristurus kampae), lollipop catshark (Cephalurus cephalus), and filetail catshark (Parmaturus xaniurus). Most catsharks lay elaborate clusters of egg cases. The eggs can take up to two years to develop. Tough egg cases, made of keratin protect the developing embryos from predators. A changing ocean means an uncertain future for catsharks. Warming waters could affect developing embryos, and expanding low-oxygen zones could displace adult populations.

So, in a previous tag response on the diver resisting the urge to pet the sixgill shark, I pointed out that we don’t know how a bluntnose sixgill shark, Hexanchus griseus (Bonaterre, 1788), would respond to human touch outside of duress. Well… as of today, that’s no longer the case. Here’s a video from John Sanders’ channel; just uploaded. We can see the shark settled to the floor, as it did in the GIF. It may even be the same shark. She appears unbothered by the touch, and isn’t fighting and isn’t trying to get away. In this video, we have two perspectives of the same event. So, it appears that this specific H. griseus doesn’t mind attention from humans. Reminder that every shark has a different personality, and we need more evidence before we can say that H. griseus is okay with touch and attention like this.

Normal art

From La Ballena y los animales del mar, illustrated by Gabriele Pozzi, 1985.

i am going to create an environment that is so toxic