Greenpeace Blog

At the end of Shark Week, it’s time for some good news on sharks. Despite all the earlier blogs this week, this is not me trying to convince you sharks are huggable and loveable (though, they are, obviously), rather a round-up of some good conservation news for the world’s often-underappreciated shark species.

Sharks have a never-ending supply of teeth. They regenerate replacement dentition on an inexhaustible toothy conveyor belt ... which explains why you see so few shark dentists.

But sharks are not all about teeth, despite the bad press. Filter feeders like the megamouth shark, are mostly big (but harmless) mouths; the winghead shark has a head half the length of its body, and; the thresher sharks have a huge tai (ideal for stunning fish before eating them) that can be the same length as its body.

Lots of people are frightened of sharks. That makes some sense if you think all sharks are relentless man-eating teeth-machines, but in reality the vast majority of them are much more scared of us, or they should be. There are over 350 species of sharks around the world, but they don’t all get to grab the headlines or star in feature film franchises. So in honour of Shark Week, and to show you how daft it is to be irrationally fearful of some of these critters, here’s a quick guide to the silliest-named sharks in our oceans.