In case you haven’t noticed, this week is shark week. Sharks seem to have a pretty bad image slapped on them – at least if you believe everything you see on the Discovery channel! – so I thought I’d help lift their ocean cred up a little. Here are my top 5 facts about sharks -
1) No matter how much white tea our silver tips shark may drink, his teeth shall forever remain shiny, smiley and cavity free. Sharks teeth are completely coated in Fluoride. Sharks frequently re-grow their teeth and can lose up to 20,000 in a lifetime, they must be making quite a few bob off the tooth fairy!
2) The largest hammerhead shark on record is 19’ 7”, that’s the equivalent of almost 3.9 Reggie’s! Even more impressively, their eyes being on the tips of their super-wide heads mean they have a complete 360 field of vision.
3) Blue sharks can reach up to 43mph in short bursts, they are the fastest sharks in the ocean – although they never look too happy about it…
4) Sharks – in theory - can sense a single drop of blood in 1,000,000 drops of water, I wonder if the same can be said about Louise and her tea tasting abilities?
5) The Aztecs attached chilli peppers to their boats to keep sharks away, scientists have since determined that this never worked – some say they'd still be about if they used our chilli chai temples instead.
