4 ms·
Sharks are pelagic, which means that they live in the open ocean, they don't need to be near either any coast, the surface or the bottom. Pelagic fish can wande
by Arnt 4y ago
Sharks are pelagic, which means that they live in the open ocean, they don't need to be near either any coast, the surface or the bottom. Pelagic fish can wander, with some restrictions.
Species that need a coast are in less luck, for example. The next appropriate coast may be far away. The Great Barrier Reef can't just migrate to Antarctica, even if there is a suitable coastline down there, because it can't get there from where it is. There is no continuously habitable area from where it is now to the potential new habitat.
- Rufbdbskrufb473 4y agoIs there anything stopping it from migrating down to the southern coast of Australia?
- tastyfreeze 4y agoAs conditions change that is likely to happen. Corals are broadcast spawners. The larva will settle in a hospitable environment wherever that happens to be.
- Scarblac 4y ago> Sharks are pelagic, which means that they live in the open ocean, they don't need to be near either any coast, the surface or the bottom. Some sharks are. There are 400+ species and plenty of them live near coasts or the bottom.
- Arnt 4y agoOh right, in theory I knew that. Sorry. But have the non-pelagic shark species survived any climate changes that would force them to migrate across a large inhospitable area? Sharks have survived very long as a group, but it's not clear to me that most/all of the individual species that have existed still do.