Carbon Emissions
This gas is the main greenhouse gas released when we burn fossil fuels.
What is Carbon Dioxide?
Rising CO₂ warms the ocean, which reduces the gas sharks need to survive.
What is oxygen?
This body part makes thresher sharks easy to recognize because it’s almost as long as their whole body
What is their long tail?
Thresher sharks are carnivores that mainly eat schooling fish like sardines, anchovies, and this nutrient-rich fish often found in the Pacific
What is mackerel?
Thresher sharks prefer this type of ocean zone where sunlight still reaches and prey fish gather.
What is the epipelagic (sunlit) zone?
Rising CO₂ warms the ocean, which reduces oxygen levels and contributes to the expansion of these low-oxygen zones.
What is Oxygen Minimum Zones?
As CO₂ levels rise and the ocean warms, sharks must do this more to meet their increased energy demands.
What is swimming more / increasing activity to get oxygen?
Instead of chasing fish down, Thresher sharks slap them first to stun them.
What is tail whipping?
Because thresher sharks sit near the top of the food web and help control prey populations, they are considered this type of species.
What is an apex predator?
Many thresher sharks migrate vertically, moving closer to the surface at night and deeper during the day to follow this ecological factor.
What is prey movement / diel vertical migration?
The ocean absorbs about this percentage of human-produced CO₂ each year.
What is about 25–30%?
As CO₂-driven warming expands Oxygen Minimum Zones, thresher sharks experience this ecological effect that makes them more vulnerable to fishing.
Habitat Compression
Unlike most sharks, threshers can keep parts of their body warmer than the surrounding water.
What is regional endothermy?
When thresher shark numbers decline, prey populations can grow too large, causing this food-web effect where balance between species is disrupted.
What is a trophic cascade?
Although they can tolerate cooler water because of regional endothermy, threshers still rely on stable levels of this key environmental factor to survive.
What is dissolved oxygen?