“The shark having already being dead gave us the unique opportunity for us to do research on it and to add the ‘basking shark’ to our fish atlas , which is being prepared. So in that sense, I was happy, although I would have preferred for it to be alive,” says Henrik Carl. <\/p>\n
Preserved in one piece<\/h2>\n
The Basking Shark is the world’s second largest fish species. It can grow up to 12 meters long and is rarely found in Danish waters. In order to avoid putrefaction the shark was put in formalin on Wednesday. As expected that wasn\u2019t an easy task.<\/p>\n
“It is a difficult exercise , since it is very large and hard to handle for us and there aren\u2019t many that have the space to keep a four meter long basking shark,” says Henrik Carl.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"\/old_files\/shark_picture_2_2015.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/picture><\/div>\nPhoto: Anders Peter Schultz, Statens Naturhistoriske Museum<\/em><\/p>\n Another advantage of preserving the shark as a whole is that the museum can carry out research experiments on it. \u201cThere was no one here who had anticipated getting a basking shark so we first have to think about what would be interesting to investigate about it,” says Henrik Carl. <\/p>\n The Museum might for example want to know the shark\u2019s age. That can be found out by examining its eye structure, a method also used in the Greenland whales. Researchers can also learn something about their food preferences and examine the shark’s DNA to find out which stock it belongs to. <\/p>\n Only the whale shark, which can grow up to 15 meters long, is larger than the basking shark. However, there is nothing to worry about you\u2019re on a Northern European beach with water up to your neck on a hot summer day: “The basking shark feeds only on plankton, so it is not a danger for humans,” reassures Henrik Carl.<\/p>\n This also applies to other large fish in Northern European waters: ”We have, for example, also the Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus<\/em>), which can easily cut a seal in half with their bite. However these sharks live in deep water and are here only during winter. Therefore they don\u2019t represent a danger to swimmers”.<\/p>\n universitypost@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n Do you have a good story? We would like to hear from you<\/a>. In the meantime, like us on Facebook<\/a> for features, guides and tips on upcoming events and follow us on Twitter<\/a> for links to other Copenhagen academia news stories.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ‘basking shark’ species is protected but was caught by mistake in a fisherman\u2019s net. Now at University of Copenhagen’s museum of natural history<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nSwimmers no worries<\/h2>\n