It’s time for another First Friday Facebook Live.

This time, in celebration of Shark Week, Taylor and Nick visited the Science of Sharks exhibit in the West Wing. They talked about the incredible diversity of sharks and the important roles they play in their ecosystems.

The educators also spoke about the two main forms of shark reproduction: laying eggs outside the mother’s body (oviparous) and live birth (viviparous). Did you know there are 11 different species of sharks on exhibit at the Aquarium? Or that 80 percent of all sharks are 4 feet long or less? Watch the video and learn more! 

Learn more about sharks in our blogs!

Conservation Context

Despite their popularity, sharks are a group of fish that we know remarkably little about. While we do know that they are highly vulnerable to overfishing and climate change, basic information on movements, population structure, behavior, and life-history are unknown for many vulnerable or exploited species of sharks, skates, and rays. At the Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, our research on sharks, skates, and rays focuses on delivering scientific data that can be used to improve the management and conservation of threatened or data-poor species. We study everything from basic species life history to behavior to broad-scale movements.