Salmon Shark

ocean · sharks · apex predator · cold water

Built for speed. Salmon sharks have a streamlined body shape called thunniform, just like their distant cousins the tuna, which helps them zip through the cold northern Pacific Ocean to hunt.

Salmon lovers. These sharks got their name because salmon are their favorite food, though they also eat squid, herring, and other fish from the ocean.

Warm stomach trick. Unlike most fish, salmon sharks can heat up their stomachs to help digest food faster, which is a rare superpower found only in certain sharks and other special ocean hunters.

Northern ocean home. Salmon sharks live in the chilly waters of the northern Pacific Ocean, where they sit at the top of the food chain as apex predators.

Ocean mysteries. Scientists have noticed something strange: there are way more males than females in some salmon shark populations on the west side of the Pacific, but more females on the east side, and nobody really knows why.