New feature attraction
Have you been up close and personal with a rare and curious creature of the deep recently?
If you haven’t then don’t worry. You won’t have to swim in tropical waters to see the world’s most beautiful and endangered sharks – the hammerheads – because two of them have come to live in our Tropical Ocean Tank. They are just under a meter long at the moment but they could easily grow to be as big as two meters.
We are really excited to have the hammerheads as our new residents because it means we’re making great progress with our new conservation drive. The current population of hammerhead sharks is about 10% of what it was 30 years ago. This is because their fins are considered by some to be especially valuable. Sadly, the hammerhead grows slowly and only produces a small number of young - so over fishing has a devastating effect on their population. If we don’t do something to help now they may never recover.
Happily our new residents are alive and well and settling in among the black-tipped reef sharks and giant sea turtle. They are astounding, mysterious creatures! See them for yourself and you’ll understand what we mean!
Of course if you wanted to spot one anywhere else you’d have to take a trip to either the Western Atlantic, The Caribbean or the Indo-Pacific and Red Seas! But you can see them here - for the first time ever in a UK aquarium - at Sea Life Birmingham
SEA LIFE Conservation
We have recently launched a conservation shark tagging project to bring attention to the plight of the hammerhead shark. We hope it will also provide us with important information that will guarantee the future of this beautiful and mysterious creature. You can support this cause at SEA LIFE Birmingham by helping to fund this important work.
Threats facing Hammerhead Sharks
Fishing lines and nets from boats pose the biggest threat to this small shark
Hammerhead sharks are targeted for capture and to be sold illegally. This threat is increased by its natural predilection for gathering in huge schools. This makes them easy to find and catch.
The demand for shark fin soup and shark finning that occurs as a result accounts for most hammerheads caught commercially