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difficulty piercing through the defenses of any oceanic species. Some sharks will lose teeth whilst attacking their prey but this is not a problem to them as they can use and grow up to 20,000 teeth in their lifetime.

Our fear of the shark has led us to hunt them in huge numbers and some species are struggling for survival. The myth that sharks will come into our shallows and eat humans is blown out of all proportion. Some sharks will confuse the splashing of our limbs and dark shadows on the water to be seals and will strike thinking they are bagging themselves a tasty seal for a meal. These attacks are very rare but get publicized greatly should they occur.

Sharks will eat just about anything and this is confirmed by the gutting of several sharks that were caught. *Opening the stomach has unearthed bottles of water, hens, whole reindeer, bottles of beer, a hand bag, and wrist watch but to name a few. There hunger leads them to chomp anything and everything that may be floating in the waters in which they reside.

In closing, we can now see that the shark is the ultimate feeding machine. With a range of skills that set it apart from the majority of sea creatures, the shark has had little need to evolve over the 400 million years that it has inhabited the planet. Let us hope that the misconception that we associate with these impressive fish does not impel us to continue hunting them down and depleting species until they become extinct. The oceans are their homes and we are merely guests in them.

* Information supplied from http://wrt-intertext.syr.edu/I I2/samie.html

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