Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiskadoro
Should be pretty maxed out. They live for thirty years give or take a year so it was probably close to if not over thirty. Sharks grow their entire lifetime in fact they age them by checking the growth rings like tree rings in their spine. Since it was the largest ever taken it's probably one of the oldest and wasn't going to around much longer.
The enviros were pissed off that the shark was taken because they said it was valuable for reproduction. The truth is they only pup every three years with a 18 month gestation then a 18 month break between pregnancies. So if it was close to thirty, which it probably was, unless it was carrying pups it was probably not going to reproduce again.
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Are you kidding Jim?
I am the biologist who initially contacted Mako Matt and arranged for the fish to be sampled for research purposes. Both Keith Poe and Mako Matt were extremely helpful and made sure that the appropriate labs recieved sections of vertebrae, tissue, and stomach contents for future analysis. The fish is currently being aged and compared to other tagged and recaptured sharks in order to validate the results.
Where did you find the information you posted in the quote above? 30 years old? 18 month gestation period? Please direct me to the scientific journal which states data supporting or validating you claims.
The two statements you made above are actually the two most important questions that researchers are
STILL trying to answer. Shark biologists are the first people to admit that they know nothing about the reproductive cycle, gestation period, litter size, migration patterns, and population size of large female mako sharks.
And the age and growth rates of mako sharks are yet to be validated. Old studies have previously estimated that mako sharks could live for upwards of 20 years. But new, current research, is revealing that those estimates are likely way OFF.
Yes sharks are aged using cross sections cut out of their vertebrae. And yes they can be read similar to the methods for aging trees with tree trunk rings. But unlike most bony fish and trees aging sharks in not as straightforward as you would think.
For example it is unknown if mako sharks create one, two, or three growth rings per year. This fact alone is why the jury is still out on aging sharks.
I admit I'm not expert myself and the statements you made above could be true. I just spend a lot of time working with the researchers who are currently trying to decide on the appropriate methods to age mako sharks.
NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center has been injecting Mako and blue sharks for years with a antibiotic which stains the vertebrae of sharks that they then tag and release. Ask Keith Poe about this if you like.
The only way to validate age and growth for sharks is to recapture those same tagged sharks and then determine the amount of growth that occurred during their time at liberty based off when the shark was tagged and then counting number of growth rings laid down after the sharks vertebrae was stained with the antibiotic.