[CRACK Sharks, Terrors Of The Deep 2.0
Virginie Fayad
These sharks dwell in the deepest seas, only traveling near the surface to gather enough food to survive. Their largest teeth are over a foot long and capable of breaking through the hull of a ship. Academics call these ancient monsters megalodons, but for the normal folk they are widely known as deep terror sharks.
Ancient Guardians. Deep terrors were created long ago to protect long-forgotten civilizations. Now, these guardians patrol ancient ruins, protecting the treasures they hold from those who dare to trespass. Once a day a deep terror leaves its ruins to hunt.
A Shadow in the Sea. The first sign of a deep terror hunting near the surface is the sighting of a massive shadowy object moving quickly below the surface. By the time its fin appears, this shark has already begun its attack.
Deep within the oceans lies a rarely seen but very terrifying animal known as the frilled shark. A member of the order of Hexanchiform sharks, the frilled shark has a single dorsal fin, six or seven gill slits, and no third eyelid (unlike many other sharks). The shark gets its name from the way that their first gill slit attaches underneath their jaw, forming a sort of frilly collar around its throat.
The first recorded capture of a frilled shark happened, quite surprisingly, in the 19th century by a German scientist. Though his papers on the sharks were eventually lost, the shark was recorded swimming along the bottom of the Atlantic ocean in 2004, and later in 2007 a weakened specimen was caught swimming in the shallow waters of Japan. Though the shark died shortly after being captured, most likely due to it already being unwell, its capture gave researchers some valuable footage of the ferocious beast.
One thing that has always amazed me an made me wonder about life in the sea is the deep sea. It is amazing how life can survive under such great pressures and in such great darkness. The things that are found down there always tend to be really scary, but definitely enable science to grow and expand. Their life forms can teach us awesome things in the science world!
It amazes me that there are still creatures such as this one that we have not fully discovered or even understand yet. I like how you tied the shark back the mythical tales, as there is usually a worldly explanation for a lot of folklore that we hear. Animals like these make me wonder what else lies in the depths of the ocean that has never been seen.
The most haunting of our imagined monsters remain hidden as they stalk us, striking when we least suspect it, while we are relaxing, or at play. The megalodon roams the ocean unseen and unseeable, except in our imaginations. And it often surfaces in our consciousness when we are at rest or play by the seaside. The reason that the great shark holds such a chilling grip on us must be sought in the very long history of the interaction of sharks with people.
Is there anything more spine-chilling than the thought of being eaten alive? Tigers and crocodiles occasionally eat people, but they are restricted to specific regions that are far removed from the areas inhabited by the majority of humans. Of all the great predators, only sharks patrol the waters off all our coastal cities and tourist resorts. As with the most feared of monsters, they are the ever-present, unseeable terror.
There is a contentious theory that our species went through an aquatic phase during its evolution, according to which the long periods our ancestors spent in the sea foraging for marine life account for our hairlessness, our thick layer of subcutaneous fat, and our abilities to swim and hold our breath. If the theory is true, then perhaps this primeval foray into the water has something to do with our deep fear of submerged predators.
More certain is the idea that at least 50,000 years ago, people were making heroic oceanic voyages, for example, to reach Australia. In those days, well before the widespread despoliation of the oceans, these first intrepid mariners must have crossed waters that often roiled with sharks and their prey. Perhaps they even lost the odd companion to snapping cartilaginous jaws. Whatever the case, as soon as our ancestors began plunging into the sea to travel or to exploit it for food, they exposed themselves to the risk of encountering sharks.
Over time, many human communities have struck a balance between fear and respect for sharks, and in some of the most ocean-going cultures of the world, both humans and sharks thrived. Because sharks play vital roles in the marine ecosystems, this live and let live association facilitates healthy, stable food chains, which bring real benefits to humans as well as to the environment.
Many of the communities that maintain a respectful relationship with sharks have incorporated the creatures into creation myths as ancestors, or gods. In Maori mythology Parata is the shark-god who lives in the depths of the ocean. With each breath he controls the oscillation of the tides. The Fijian shark-god Dakuwaqa is the protector of fishermen, shielding them from the jaws of sharks and securing their safety at sea. Sharks can be attracted to canoes and can even swim ahead of them in ways that make it appear that they are guiding the humans in the vessel, and of course, sharks know where the best fishing grounds are, all of which may have influenced Fijian beliefs.
In Hawaii it was believed that the ancestors could manifest in the form of a shark, and that sharks would guide canoes and herd fish into nets. In the Solomon Islands, sharks steer the transition from the living to the spirit world. There, bodies of the dead are laid on reefs at low tide, to be eaten by sharks, allowing the spirits of the deceased to join the ancestors. On Anaa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago, warriors take the name of the oceanic whitetip shark, and in large areas of Polynesia sharks that live in the open ocean (some of which are known maneaters) are seen as taboo and cannot be killed or eaten.
Following the adoption of Christianity in Oceania in the early 1800s, many of the beliefs protecting sharks broke down, and some previously protected species were intensively fished to the point that they vanished from the once well-frequented waters. Only in the most remote and uninhabited of places, such as Caroline Island in Kiribati, or the privately owned Clipperton Island, can the full glory of sharks before human hunting decimated them now be appreciated.
In a spectacle reminiscent of the Pacific before human exploitation, hundreds of black-tipped reef sharks can be seen in the lagoon shallows there, while numerous larger sharks patrol offshore. All are so unafraid that they will bite at the paddles of rowers making for the shore, and even nip at their feet as they wade onto the beach.
Internal Fertilization: The cookiecutter shark, like most sharks, reproduces through internal fertilization. The male uses specialized claspers to transfer sperm to the female, marking the beginning of a fascinating journey.
Ovoviviparity: The Art of Internal Hatching: This is where things get interesting. The cookie-cutter shark is ovoviviparous. Unlike egg-laying fish, females retain fertilized eggs within their bodies. Here, the embryos develop, receiving nourishment from a yolk sac, similar to land reptiles and birds.
A Long Gestation: The gestation period for a cookie-cutter shark is a marathon, not a sprint. Estimates suggest it can take anywhere from 12 to 22 months for the embryos to fully develop inside the mother. This extended gestation period is likely an adaptation to the resource-limited environment of the deep sea.
Challenges in the Deep: Despite the decent litter size, the harsh environment of the deep sea takes its toll. Predation by larger fish and limited food availability likely contribute to high juvenile mortality rates.
It just isn't summer until someone punches a shark. Since Jason Statham is off on "Hobbs & Shaw" duties, that task falls to Canadian actress Sophie Nelisse, the plucky heroine of "47 Meters Down: Uncaged," the wholly unnecessary sequel to the Mandy Moore vehicle "47 Meters Down."
But whereas Moore's trip to the bottom of the ocean was high-concept yet tightly contained, co-writer and director Johannes Roberts throws all his previous restraint out the window. High school mean girls? Underwater Mayan catacombs? Blind sharks?! You name it, Roberts chums the water with it to see if it draws any bites. The result is a water-logged late summer creature feature that doesn't come close to the previous entry's minimal pleasures.
Two daughters of Hollywood royalty, Corinne Foxx and Sistine Stallone, make their feature film debut in "47 Meters Down: Uncaged," and one can assume their last names and large Instagram followings helped secure their parts. Foxx stars as Sasha, a popular girl at Modine International School for Girls in Yucatan, Mexico, where she's just moved with her annoying stepsister, Mia (Nelisse), mom (Nia Long) and underwater architect stepfather (John Corbett).
Hoping to avoid a boat trip with Dad, the girls head out on an adventure with Nicole (Stallone) and Alexa (Brianne Tju). Cliff jumping turns into cave diving, as teen girls in Mexico are wont to do, and the foursome head underwater to explore underground Mayan burial sites that are now underwater due to rising sea levels. Mia and Sasha knowingly embark on the trip despite their father producing a great white shark tooth he found there the day before.
The undersea voyage is sort of like a "Marine Biology for Dummies" trip, and it turns disastrous as the girls destroy a few centuries-old underwater columns and stir up the terrors of the deep, namely, sharks that have evolved to live in such dark confines underwater and are therefore blind. The film is a bit like "The Descent" meets "The Meg," as the girls venture into a claustrophobically tight space and don't like what they find has evolved there.
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