• Question: Why do sharks have to keep moving to stay alive

    Asked by rash1997 to Clare, Dave, Glo, Ozge, Sean on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Gloeta Massie

      Gloeta Massie answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Not all of them have to – in fact, a lot of them don’t. The ones that do (great whites, etc.) have to push LARGE amounts of water over their gills to get the oxygen they need – so they have to swim – the others, well, they can basically suck the water in and push it out without having to move. Nice party trick!

    • Photo: Ozge Ozkaya

      Ozge Ozkaya answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      This is not the case for all sharks. While resting most sharks pump water over their gills to keep a nice flow of oxygenated water. They extract the oxygen from the water using their gills. However a small number of sharks have lost the ability to pump water and must swim to be able to breathe.

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