It’s uncommon that predatory animals like sharks have simply meat of their stomachs. Whereas most sharks primarily prey on fish, marine mammals, and different sea life, they’re nonetheless indiscriminate predators who by chance eat stuff that’s not precisely edible. For millennia people have misplaced, wrecked, or purposely dumped every kind of stuff within the ocean. That features every little thing from clothes and jewellery to priceless paintings and historical artifacts. And on condition that the our trendy oceans are stuffed with plastic, steel, and basic flotsam and jetsam, the stuff you could find inside a shark’s abdomen more and more resemble the contents of a dumpster.
That’s why analyzing the contents of a shark’s intestine is such an attention-grabbing pursuit, notably for anglers, marine biologists, and even forensic specialists. We are able to’t resist an excellent shark story, so we rounded up of among the wildest gadgets — and physique components — discovered inside sharks’ stomachs all through historical past.
Why Do Sharks Eat Rubbish?
Photograph by Reinhard Dirscherl / Getty Pictures
Earlier than we dive into the roundup of the bizarre stuff sharks eat, let’s get a greater concept of why sharks find yourself consuming all this junk within the first place (and the way they survive the indigestion).
Most marine species are exhibiting growing indicators of consuming plastic, steel, and different non-food refuse. As these supplies enter the marine meals chain, they work their approach as much as apex predators like sharks. In different phrases, when sharks eat fish they eat every little thing that fish has eaten, which helps clarify among the smaller trash, microplastics, and different oddities discovered inside a shark’s abdomen.
However as the next checklist demonstrates, sharks will typically simply eat trash outright. The truth is, sure species of sharks are extra vulnerable to consuming rubbish than others. Tiger sharks, for instance, are nicknamed the “trash cans of the ocean” as a result of they’ll lock their serrated enamel round absolutely anything. Whereas tiger sharks are often called one of many high species accountable for unprovoked assaults on people, we additionally know that sharks are likely to discover their environment with their mouths. They’ve delicate nerve endings of their enamel and sometimes their exploratory bites may cause fatalities (in people, as an example) or end in an unnatural meal. (Keep in mind, the chances of dying from a shark assault as we speak are extraordinarily uncommon: Only one in 4.3 million, in accordance with the Worldwide Shark Assault File on the Florida Museum.)
Photograph by Stefan Irvine / Getty Pictures
Fortunately, shark stomachs include acids which might be robust sufficient to ultimately dissolve steel, in accordance with the Hawaii Division of Land and Pure Sources. Some species are even able to pushing their stomachs inside out, rinsing them, then placing them again in place. However neither of those methods helped sharks digest a few of these really outlandish abdomen treasures we now have found all through historical past.
The Weirdest Stuff Ever Discovered Inside a Shark
A Swimsuit of Metal Armor
Photograph by Francisco Daum / Flickr
A 1994 New York Occasions article reported on a touring shark exhibit that appeared on the American Museum of Pure Historical past in New York. A part of the exhibit featured gadgets discovered inside shark stomachs over time. One of many gadgets on show was a duplicate of a full swimsuit of metal armor with a helmet.
Associated: Nice White Shark Tales from Cape Cod Captains
A sixteenth century French doctor named Guillaume Rondelet recorded this discovery in his Libri de Piscibus Marinis, or “Abstract of Marine Fishes” after discovering the armor in a lifeless nice white shark. Each the placement of the discover and the way the armor ended up within the water within the first place stay mysteries.
Fur Coats
Talking of protecting outerwear, that 1994 shark exhibit additionally had a fur coat on show. However this wasn’t the one recognized occasion of sharks consuming coats. In accordance with Shark! Killer Tales from Harmful Depths by Robert Reid, the early twentieth century Australian surgeon and writer V.M. Coppleson spoke of a tiger shark discovered off the coast of the Adriatic Sea that had consumed not one, not two, however three overcoats — plus a nylon raincoat for good measure.
License Plates
Photograph by Jerry Woody / Flickr
The trope of the shark consuming the license plate was popularized after the 1975 launch of — what else — “Jaws,” throughout which Richard Dreyfuss pulls a Louisiana plate out of a tiger shark’s abdomen throughout a autopsy. (Theories flow into across the license plate being a nod to the James Bond collection with the “007” initially of the plate quantity, as Spielberg wished to work on the British spy film collection however was turned down.)
An actual license plate (from Florida) has been discovered inside actual shark’s abdomen, and it was additionally on show in that 1994 exhibit. Some anglers hypothesize that steel license plates resemble large steel fishing lures, which set off a fish’s predatory response. There are additionally a variety of license plates on the market, so it’s not shocking that that sharks have eaten their justifiable share.
One Tattooed Human Arm
Photograph by way of Nationwide Library of Australia
In 1935 a tiger shark was hooked from an Australian seaside and brought to the Coogee Aquarium and Swimming Baths in Sydney. It was laborious to overlook it when the shark regurgitated an entire, heavily-tattooed human arm into the aquarium. The invention of the distinctive arm began what would turn out to be a monthslong homicide investigation involving a boxer-turned-billiards-club proprietor named James Smith. Smith had disappeared mysteriously that April after having lied to his spouse about going fishing.
As an alternative, he had gone to a seaside cottage to go to a buddy recognized to be concerned in petty crime. After an insurance coverage rip-off fell by way of, investigators theorized that Smith’s buddy murdered and dismembered Smith, then packed him in a barrel and tossed him out to sea. (It’s not clear if the barrel broke aside at sea, a shark bit into the barrel itself or, maybe strangest of all, the arm merely didn’t match into the barrel and was tossed overboard.)
Smith might have met an unlucky finish, however his resting place inside a shark’s abdomen is way from distinctive. Human stays have been discovered inside greater than only one shark. We all know sharks have eaten loads of people over the centuries; what’s exceptional is catching one earlier than it digests its meal.
An Total Reindeer
Few sharks can be able to swallowing a mature reindeer entire. Nice white sharks come to thoughts, however their ranges don’t precisely overlap with that of a reindeer. So leeave it to the Greenland shark, the world’s longest-living vertebrate that swims within the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, to swallow reindeer entire, together with components of a horse. Greenland sharks are recognized to feed on carrion and are sometimes drawn to smelly spots like business fishing operations.
Greenland sharks can dwell as much as 400 years. Whereas they’re largely understudied resulting from their distant and reclusive nature, they’re thought-about a globally weak species. They’ll develop to some 21 ft lengthy and weigh as much as 2,255 kilos.(This video of Swedish kayak angler Joel Abrahamsson catching and releasing one weighing 1,225 kilos is value watching.) A fisherman named Terje Nordtvedt caught the IGFA all-tackle Greenland shark document in Trondheimsfjord, Norway on Oct. 18, 1987. The shark weighed 1,708 kilos 9 ounces.
An Unopened Bottle of Wine
In 1942 the crew of a French fishing trawler discovered an outdated bottle of Portuguese madeira wine within the abdomen of a 6.5-foot blue shark. Madeira is a fortified wine made within the Portuguese islands of the identical identify. In accordance with Atlas Obscura, madeira was usually made and aged on transatlantic ships headed from Europe to the North American continent, which drove a excessive demand for it. With this a lot wine consistently at sea, it’s unsurprising {that a} bottle ended up overboard. The French fishermen allegedly sampled the booze and located it to be in completely drinkable situation.
Canine (Collars, Leash, and All)
Photograph by James D. Morgan / Getty Pictures
Coppleson, the physician who wrote in regards to the disembodied arm in Sydney, additionally extracted the entrance half of a bulldog with a leash round its neck from a tiger shark present in Sydney Harbor. The bulldog was accompanied by limbs from a number of completely different inventory animals, together with pigs, sheep, and even chunks of horse. Coppleson additionally found a special tiger shark off Bondi Seaside (close to Sydney), whose abdomen contents included a mature spaniel canine with a collar nonetheless mounted round its neck.
Migrating Songbirds
In 2017 a examine revealed within the analysis journal Ecology revealed that child tiger sharks within the Gulf of Mexico have been overwhelmingly consuming songbirds as they migrated over the big expanse of ocean. Mississippi State College researcher Marcus Drymon led a workforce of scientists to catch and pump the stomachs of some 107 child tiger sharks earlier than releasing them into their dwelling waters. Of these sampled specimens, 41 of them had remnants of songbird meals previous.
Photograph by Ilana Nimz / NOAA Fisheries
“Tiger sharks will see a straightforward meal and snatch it up, however I used to be stunned to be taught that the sharks have been consuming songbirds — I assumed that they’d be seabirds,” co-author Kevin Feldheim informed Science Every day of the examine. Drymon added, “None of them have been seagulls, pelicans, cormorants, or any form of marine fowl.”
Different Unusual Issues Sharks Have Eaten
It’s unattainable to rattle off all of the bizarre stuff ever to fulfill its finish inside a shark’s abdomen (who is aware of what they’ve digested within the depths of the oceans). Listed below are just a few different honorable mentions:
- An unopened can of salmon
- A inexperienced iguana from the Galapagos Islands
- A leather-based pockets
- A coil of copper wire
- The propeller from an outboard motor
- A bison cover
- A keg of nails
- Porcupine spines
Ultimate Ideas
Photograph by G.P. Schmahl / NOAA
Sharks are curious creatures that discover their environment utilizing all of their senses and skills, and meaning biting with their mouths. Sharks each by chance and intentionally eat every kind of peculiar gadgets, notably as trash continues to pile up in our oceans. Thankfully, they’ve iron-clad stomachs that may usually dissolve even the hardest meals, together with steel.