Lemon sharks come into our Mangrove habitat at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park. They are typically a smaller, docile species of shark. According to the International Shark Attack File, there have been only 10 unprovoked attacks by lemon sharks in the last century, all occurring in Florida and the Caribbean yet countless hundreds of thousands of these sharks are caught by by-catch, targeted by commercial and recreational fishermen along the US Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean, and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The US bottom longline fishery commonly targets this species and it is also caught as by-catch in both pelagic and gillnet fisheries. Their fins are highly prized and exported to Asia for shark fin soup. Their skin may be used for leather and their meat can also be consumed, all of which make this shark very marketable. There is growing concern that populations in the western north Atlantic and eastern Pacific Ocean are declining due to over-fishing.. There have been 0 fatal attacks attributed to this species. The lemon shark does inhabit coastal waters which swimmers, surfers and divers commonly utilize, including mangrove communities. The low number of attacks by this species indicates that it is a very minimal threat to humans. flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Lemonshark/Lemonshark.html
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 00:46:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015