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profile great
hammerhead shark
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Great
Hammerhead Shark stock photo available for licensing
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professional marine imagery of many
shark species |
underwater picture of Great Hammerhead
Shark in the Atlantic Ocean |
scuba diver with Great Hammerhead Shark
(Sphyrna mokarran) |
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common
name |
Great
Hammerhead Shark |
| scientific
name |
Sphyrna
mokarran |
| range |
Worldwide,
most tropical and occasionally warm temperate |
viewing
hotspots |
Bahamas,
French Polynesia |
| habitat |
Primarily
coastal |
| size |
To
20 feet (6m) |
| diet |
Rays, skates,
sharks, fish |
| trivia |
Large females
have up to forty 2.5’ long pups; few attacks recorded, but considered
dangerous |
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The Great
Hammerhead Shark, Sphyrna mokarran, is an impressive fish, a
solitary giant with a tall curved dorsal fin much like an orca
whale. It’s the largest of the eight or nine species of
hammerheads (family Sphyrnidae), which are immediately recognizable
because of their flattened T-shaped heads. Some scientists surmise
it acts like an airplane wing, providing lift during swimming.
Certainly this "cephalofoil" enhances mobility, allowing
the shark to make extremely tight turns, and the position of the
eyes at the outer edges of the "hammer" likely improves
stereoscopic vision.
Though usually not aggressive, the great
hammerhead’s size, averaging 10-12 feet (females are larger than
males), demands respect and caution from divers and swimmers. Up
until recently encounters were hit and miss, but recent expeditions
in the northern Bahamas Islands of the western Atlantic Ocean have
proved reliable for winter-time sightings over 80-100 foot deep
offshore reefs.
The Great Hammerhead feeds on a wide
variety of mid-water and bottom fishes, including other
elasmobranchs. Most noteworthy is its preference for skates and
rays. At night it hunts stingrays, eagle rays, guitarfish and the
like, using an amazing technique. Using the side of its hammer, it
pins a ray to the bottom, then deftly rotates its head to the side
and bites off a large chunk of the prey’s wing. The
pin-spin-and-bite attack continues until the skate or ray is
consumed.
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