Hammerhead Shark Habitat

Sharks are fish, but unlike other fish they are made up of cartilage instead of bones. This cartilage is similar to the flexible cartilage of your ears. All sharks lack the organ, swim bladder that is filled with air to keep the fish upright. Therefore, they cannot remain buoyant, and sink to the bottom when they stop swimming. They have gill slits, but no gill cover. There are many types of sharks like the great white shark, the nurse shark, the Whale shark, the zebra shark, the hammerhead shark, etc. In this article we will try to obtain some information on the hammerhead shark habitat.

Hammerhead Shark Information
These sharks are so-called due to the unusual shape of their head that looks similar to a hammer. There wide heads are very useful to help them steer through the water. They are aggressive fish and feed on smaller fishes, octopuses, squid and crustaceans. These sharks do not hunt for human prey actively, but will attack on provocation.

The unusual head shape is very useful for hammerhead sharks in many other ways. The wide-set eyes give them a better visual range as compared to other sharks. Their specialized sensory organs is spread over the wide head, which is very useful to help them locate food in the ocean. They have the sensory organs called the ampullae of Lorenzini, that helps them detect the electrical fields that are created by prey animals. They have an increased ampullae sensitivity and are thus able to locate stingrays buried under the sand. Stingrays are supposed to be the favorite meal of sharks.

Habitat of Hammerhead Sharks
The hammerhead shark is found in the temperate and tropical waters within 40°N - 37°S latitude around the world. The smooth hammerhead shark is the only shark that swims the Canadian waters. This shark is characterized with a head without the central indentation. They prefer inshore waters less than 20 meters. They are found in the western and eastern North Atlantic ocean and the Indian Ocean. The smooth hammerhead shark is found in the waters of western Atlantic that range from Nova Scotia to Florida. They have also been reported in Nova Scotia waters off Herring Cove, Sambro Light and Brier Island. They have also been seen in St. Margaret's Bay and the northeast tip of Georges Bank. From North Carolina in the US south to Uruguay, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean regions in the western waters of Atlantic Ocean, the entire area is a habitat to the hammerhead sharks.

In the waters of eastern Atlantic Ocean, the hammerhead shark habitat spreads through Morocco to Senegal and the Mediterranean Sea. In the Indian Ocean, their habitat includes the Indo-Pacific region of the Ryukyu Island to New Caledonia and French Polynesia. The habitat of hammerhead sharks in the eastern Pacific range includes southern Baja, California through Mexico and south of Peru.

You can observe these sharks around the entire coast of western Australia. The great and smooth hammerhead sharks are rarely seen in the south of the Houtman Abrolhos Islands. Their habitat includes far offshore regions to depths of 300 m and shallow coastal areas, like those over continental shelves and lagoons. These sharks often undertake mass migration in summer and move poleward to cooler waters. This has led to classification of the great hammerhead as the highly migratory species within Annex I of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Physical Characteristics of Hammerhead Sharks
The front head of this large shark is nearly straight with a shallow notch in the center in adult great hammerheads. This helps to distinguish between the smooth and scalloped hammerheads. The first dorsal fin is very tall and has a pointed tip. It is strongly falcate in shape and the second dorsal fin is also very high. It is strongly concave near the margin.

The scalloped hammerhead is a smaller species with a rounded anterior margin and a notch on the head. The smooth hammerhead has a broad and flat unnotched head. The dorsal side of the great hammerhead is dark brown to light brown or even olive in color to fading white on the underside. The second dorsal fin in juveniles is dusky in color and the adults lack the markings in the fins.

The teeth of the hammerhead are triangular and strongly serrated. They become oblique towards the corners of the mouth. They have 17 teeth on either side of the 2-3 teeth at the symphysis in the upper jaw. On the lower jaw there are 16 to 17 teeth on either side of the 1-3 teeth at the symphysis.

Diet of the Hammerhead Sharks
These sharks prey on a variety of fish and sharks. They love stingray as mentioned above and the consume it along with the tail spine! They also prey on crabs, lobsters and bony fish like catfish, jacks, grunts and flatfish. They are also known to be cannibalistic and eat their own kind. They feed at dusk along the sea floor and use their electro-sensory system to find prey.

Reproduction in Hammerhead Sharks
Hammerhead sharks are viviparous and provide nutrition through a yolk sac placenta. There is a period of gestation of 11 months and the birth takes place during summer or spring in the Northern Hemisphere. There are 6 to 42 young pups that measure between 60 to 70 cm in total length. They show a unique behavior of mating at or near the bottom, that differ from other species of sharks. It has also been reported that the great hammerhead shark has been seen mating near the surface of the water.

Hammerhead Shark Facts
Here, I have compiled some facts about the hammerhead shark.

• The 'hammer' on the shark's head helps provide greater lift and maneuverability like a fin.
• There are many sharks found with stingray barbs that are stuck in their jaws, throat or sides of their head.
• When the pups are born, their heads are so flexible that the lobes fold against the body so that they have an easy passage through the birth canal.
• The great hammerhead shark is one of the largest of the nine identified species of hammerhead.
• In Africa, the hammerhead shark is also called the 'horned shark'.
• They can reach about 20 feet in size.
• The Bonehead shark is the smaller species of hammerhead sharks and the great hammerhead is the largest species of hammerhead sharks.
• The size of newborn pups is 28 inches long.

This was a little information hammerhead shark habitat. These are very interesting creatures and just as in the case of great white shark, never enter the water when you spot a hammerhead shark swimming around. Hammerheads have ruled the waters for over 300 million years and I hope they survive another 300.