Schooling hammerhead sharks ho hum right?? Well not exactly. While we have been seeing a lot of hammerheads around Socorro and San Benedicto Islands, I always find it exciting to see these quiet shy critters. And I find the science behind their behaviour quite fascinating with great thanks to Dr. Peter Klimley at the University of California Davis for his time explaining the behaviour to us. Peter is responsible for ground breaking scientific research on hammerhead sharks. Turns out that schooling only happens during the day. The schools break up at dusk and the individual sharks head out to hunt for food during the night. Amazingly they are able to navigate their way back to the rest of the school at dawn by following agonic lines ie it is believed that they are able to sense magnetic properties in the sea floor below them with sensors in their “hammerhead” and navigate back to where they started. Can you imagine how difficult it must be to be out in the blue swimming around and find you way back to a specific point in vast Mother Ocean. The schools reform. Biggest female sharks on the inner part of the school. Little guys on the outside. Everyone swimming in the same direction in a circle that never stops. Why?? we don’t know although possibly it has to do with mating. Or domination or establishing pecking order. Maybe it’s safety in numbers. Personally, I like to think that these guys just plain enjoy each other’s company!
Safe diving.
– Captain Mike
photo of the week
