Shark’s bodies are designed for how they attack and hide. You can tell what a shark is going to do by the way they move their body. For gray reef sharks (to the left) during normal swimming they curve their back, and their pectoral fins are held straight out from their body. In their threat posture the shark arches its back and holds its pectoral fin downward. It also swims in a figure eight. If what ever is threatening the shark does not swim away slowly the shark will attack.

            The mako shark is shaped like a bullet to help it shoot through the water towards its prey. The mako shark can reach speeds up to 25 mph. Some have even suggested that they can reach up to 60 mph. A mako’s speed allows it to catch its prey, bite it, and swallow it whole.

            A thresher shark’s tail is its main weapon. The tail is as long as the shark’s body. The thresher approaches and stuns its prey or even kills it with a fast whip of its tail. The prey is then easier to swallow. The killing power of a thresher’s tail means that it does not require very large teeth and jaws. It is still a shark though, and has teeth that are extremely sharp.

            Instead of getting food, some sharks use their physical appearance to avoid becoming food. The angel shark, for one, is well camouflaged. It can lay on the seafloor, and not be recognized. Its skin and patterns match the color of the sand and the rest of the seabed. If a predator passes a couple inches over head, it will not be able to sense the angel shark is there. The swell, wobbegong, and angel shark are all sharks that can hide on the seabed.

            Swell sharks normally hide in beds of broken sea shells and colored rock. When it hides in crevices and tightly packed rocks it gulps down water swelling up so that it can not be pried upon.

            A tasseled wobbegong sharks live mainly in rock beds. With its pattern of green and white color, it is invisible with gray rock surrounding it. It can appear in other colors depending on where it’s born. Its beard of skin around its mouth is mistaken as seaweed by fish, and they are soon dinner for the wobbegong.