| Caught by Mike Gibbs Feb 17,2004. It weighed in at 557 1/2 pounds! Good job, Mike! |
This is a truly beautiful animal. It is the most well-adapted of the sharks to life in the pelagos and the most active. Like it's cousin, the Great White, it's musculature is kept well above water temperature through high metabolic rates and an amazing heat-exchange system. This allows for it's remarkable speed in pursuit of it's prey (mainly tunas and mackerels). The Shortfin Mako is the fastest swimmer of all the sharks, reaching sustained speeds of 22mph (with bursts over 50mph) and has been known to travel over 1300 miles in little over a months period. These sharks have a rapid growth rate, twice as fast as some of the other Lamnidae species.
