BRUCE THE SHARK FROM FINDING NEMO WAS RIGHT, FISH ARE FRIENDS

Think Great White Sharks are loners and just swim and hunt on their own? New research shows that some Great Whites like to hang around in packs, and even socialise.

We don’t mean they’ve been drinking down The Chrissie Watkins Arms or anything like that, but the findings, published in the journal Biology Letters, followed a group of tagged sharks during 2017 and 2018. What they found was surprising, as they discovered that dozens of them were hanging around together.

And not just hunting for food as a group as sometimes they would spend up to an hour together, when just out patrolling

Florida International University marine scientist Yannis Papastamatiou, lead author of the study said: "Most associations were short, but there were sharks where we found considerably longer associations, much more likely to be social associations. Seventy minutes is a long time to be swimming around with another white shark.

“The important question we still have to answer is what’s the reason for being social for these sharks?”

It is thought that the sharks, although not working together, may be sharing information about such things as the location of prey.

And if Great White Sharks are more social then we originally thought, then perhaps the sharks in the Jaws sequels really were out the avenge their friends?

Words by Dean Newman

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