Lamnidae

Salmon shark

Lamna ditropis

Twin tail keels following northern fish runs

• Gray
• White
• Cross-climate
• Temperate
• Tropical
• Globally widespread
• Marine fish
• Fusiform
• Large

Engineered for explosive high-speed pursuit through the icy subpolar waters of the North Pacific basin, the salmon shark is a heavy-set, endothermic apex predator closely related to the great white shark. Its compact, muscular fusiform torso displays a dark slate-grey to blue-black back that terminates in a clean white belly mottled with distinct dark grey splotches. A short, conical snout and cavernous mouth house large, triangular, dagger-like teeth flanked by tiny lateral cusplets designed to grip slick pelagic prey. Endothermic vascular heat exchangers (rete mirabile) elevate core muscle, stomach, and eye temperatures up to sixteen degrees Celsius above surrounding frigid waters, enabling blistering acceleration in subarctic currents. Ranging across the subarctic Pacific from Japan and the Okhotsk Sea across the Bering Sea and Alaska to southern California, it patrols waters from the surface down to six hundred and fifty meters depth. Schools pursue Pacific salmon, herrings, pollock, cod, and squids. Aplacental viviparous with oophagy, maximum recorded total length reaches three hundred and five centimetres.

Sources: NOAA Fisheries — Salmon Shark, Lamna ditropis