A TOOTHY SUBJECT
Learn about sharks’ vital role in oceans at ABQ BioPark Aquarium
Learn about the crucial role sharks play in our ocean ecosystems and how we can help them thrive during Shark Discovery Day.
The educational event on Saturday, July 14, at the ABQ BioPark Aquarium will honor national Shark Awareness Day. Aquarium docents will be talking about shark biology and the different types of sharks, as well as about their importance in the ocean and what we can do to help them survive.
The aquarium features sand tiger sharks, sandbar sharks, nurse sharks, zebra sharks, blacktip sharks, and a wobbegong shark, which has an interesting appearance with little tassels dangling on the front of its face. The wobbegong can be shy and can usually be found hiding in the aquarium’s shipwreck structure, but it does come out once in a while. Visitors can touch the more gentle bamboo sharks and epaulette sharks in the aquarium’s mangrove touch pool.
“They are really important,” said Katie Carillo, education clerk at ABQ BioPark Aquarium and Botanic Garden. “They are what’s called an indicator species for the ocean. So if you’re looking at shark populations, if they’re healthy, they can tell you basically about the health of the ocean and the health of the populations of the food that they eat. Sharks are really important in helping keep a balance. They’re really important to keeping a balance in the different species below them in the food chain. Healthy sharks mean healthy oceans.”
Eventgoers will learn about the multiple shark species that are threatened due to human demand for shark fins, meat and liver oil. Sharks also fall victim to becoming by-catch as a result of commercial fishing practices.
“Some good ways people can help even in Albuquerque is to avoid any sort of products or foods that contain any shark byproducts,” Carillo said. “There’s a lot of cosmetics and medicines that may have shark liver oil in them, and then also by purchasing sustainable seafood. These are fish that are harvested in such a way that they are not depleting the shark food sources and also that help reduce catching shark by-catch.”
Sharks are unlike other fish in a number of ways, one of which is that they do not have a swim bladder to help control buoyancy. Instead, they have fatty livers, which help them float. Their liver oil is easily absorbed by human skin, so it is used in some cosmetics and listed as the ingredient squalene or squalane, according to Carillo. Shark fins are used for medicinal purposes in different cultures and as a delicacy and served as shark fin soup.
“A lot of sharks are caught just for their fins, so fishermen will go and they will just cut their fins off and then throw the sharks back into the ocean,” Carillo said. “Obviously, it can’t swim anymore because it doesn’t have fins.”