INTRODUCTION
Welcome to my website. I am creating this website to attempt to save the not very known Spear Tooth Shark. The creation of this website started as a part of a school project, but I'm really exited about making a website to save the spear tooth shark from extinction. In order to help save these animals people need to know more about them.
The spear tooth shark is also referred to as the Freshwater shark.
Not much is known about this species like it’s life, habitat, descending rate and what it eats. I chose it because I wanted to find out as much as I could about it.
Not much is known about this species like it’s life, habitat, descending rate and what it eats. I chose it because I wanted to find out as much as I could about it.
HABITAT
The spear tooth shark does not like ocean water so it lives in tropical, rough, shallow, muddy and freshwater tidal rivers and estuaries that are slightly salty. A tidal river is a river with tides and rapids in it, an estuary is a small body of coastal water with one or more rivers or streams running into it. The spear tooth shark likes Australia because there are a lot of tropical waters up north.
LOCATION
The speartooth shark lives in the rivers around the tips of Queensland and Northern Territory. It also lives on the banks of Indonesia.
FOOD
The Spear Tooth Shark's diet includes Long Armed Prawns, Burrowing Gobies, Gudgeons, Benthic-Feeding Jewfish and Bony Bream. It tends to eat animals that burrow into the riverbed and swim close to the bottom of the river.
Long Armed Prawn
Burrowing Gobie
Bony Bream
Gudgegon
Benthic-Feeding Jewish
PREDATORS
The only predators to the Spear Tooth Shark are bigger sharks and humans.
LIFE CYCLE
Not much is known about this species due to the lack of specimens in research collections. The research indicates that the baby Spear Tooth Sharks are approximately 59 cm long at birth. There is no data on the age, or maximum size of the Spear tooth Shark, however the Spear Tooth Shark is known to have feeding and life cycle migrations offshore, and migrate inshore to breed.
DESCRIPTION
They have small eyes and slender, serrated triangular teeth.
They have a very plain colour pattern, with a grey upper surface, a pale underneath and an inconspicuous pale stripe along its side. While this colouring may seem dull, it is usually acting as a very effective camouflage technique called countershading. From above, the shark is indistinguishable from the dark river bed, while from below it blends in with the light backdrop of the surface.
They have a very plain colour pattern, with a grey upper surface, a pale underneath and an inconspicuous pale stripe along its side. While this colouring may seem dull, it is usually acting as a very effective camouflage technique called countershading. From above, the shark is indistinguishable from the dark river bed, while from below it blends in with the light backdrop of the surface.
WHY THEY ARE ENDANGERED
The main threats to them are:
1. Recreational and Commercial fishing with the use of gill netting and long lines. The Spear Tooth Shark is accidentally caught while people fish for other species. Recreational fishing is when someone fishes for fun as a hobby and accidentally catches this species and commercial fishing means that they go fishing and sell the fish they catch. When the Spear Tooth Sharks are caught they are eaten or just discarded.
2. Degradation of their habitats. Pollution is destroying their environment. For example mining pollution near the Fly river and proposed dredging and mining at Port Musgrave and uranium mining in Kakadu National Park.
3. It has a small population, restricted range, and particular habitat needs so all these reasons make this animal this extremely vulnerable to these pressures and has been listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
In Australia it has been listed as Critically Endangered on the 1999 Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. This commonwealth act does not apply until a distance of 3 nautical miles from the coast [1 nautical mile = 1852 metres] although this is likely to be out of the range of where a Spear Tooth Shark lives.
HOW YOU CAN SAVE THE SPEAR TOOTH SHARK
1.Keep our waterways clean
Dont leave litter, oil, plastic, dogs' droppings, rubbish, cigarette butts, pesticides, chemicals, detergents, leaves and clippings and other items littering our streets because when it rains this rubbish will run into our storm water drains. It will go straight through our waterways and flow into our oceans and environments and will kill not only hundreds of Spear Tooth Sharks but other marine animals and plants.
2.Tell everyone about the Spear Tooth Shark because not many people know about this shark and tell them about their possible extinction.
3.Make Your Voice Heard
Dont leave litter, oil, plastic, dogs' droppings, rubbish, cigarette butts, pesticides, chemicals, detergents, leaves and clippings and other items littering our streets because when it rains this rubbish will run into our storm water drains. It will go straight through our waterways and flow into our oceans and environments and will kill not only hundreds of Spear Tooth Sharks but other marine animals and plants.
2.Tell everyone about the Spear Tooth Shark because not many people know about this shark and tell them about their possible extinction.
3.Make Your Voice Heard
- State and territory government conservation agencies are responsible for the management of national parks and the protection of wildlife. They are sometimes supported by public foundations, so you could join one of them.
- Start a group dedicated to protecting a threatened plant or animal in your area or perhaps to help care for a national park.
- Write articles or letters about threatened species to newspapers and your local, state or Federal Representatives.
- 4.Here are a list of websites to check out:
- http://ccwa.org.au
- http://www.edo.org.au/links/ngolinks.html
INTERESTING FACTS
This species was thought to be exclusive to the northern coast
of Australia but it has allegedly been sighted in Papua New Guinea. The Spear-Tooth Shark primarily lives in tidal rivers and estuaries of tropical waters preferring slightly saline freshwater.
of Australia but it has allegedly been sighted in Papua New Guinea. The Spear-Tooth Shark primarily lives in tidal rivers and estuaries of tropical waters preferring slightly saline freshwater.
REFERENCES
· http://www.arkive.org/speartooth-shark/glyphis-glyphis/
· http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=82453
http://www.melbourneaquarium.com.au/explore-the-aquarium/animals/animal-profile---freshwater-sharks
[PDF] HOUSEHOLDS - KEEPING OUR WATERWAYS CLEANwww.indigoshire.vic.gov.au/files/.../Households_Stormwater.pdf
http://www.endangeredspecie.com/Ways_To_Help.htm
· http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=82453
http://www.melbourneaquarium.com.au/explore-the-aquarium/animals/animal-profile---freshwater-sharks
[PDF] HOUSEHOLDS - KEEPING OUR WATERWAYS CLEANwww.indigoshire.vic.gov.au/files/.../Households_Stormwater.pdf
http://www.endangeredspecie.com/Ways_To_Help.htm
