By LeiraOlecra

In January 1981, Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary was designated as one of the largest near off shore reefs in the southeastern part of United States. This sanctuary is located at Sapelo Island in Georgia. It has a total land area of 150,000 square miles of marine and great lakes of water.

This place is famous for its 17-square-nautical-mile sanctuary of living creatures and dubbed as the “live bottom.” Submerged under the 60-70 feet of water are reef’s rock ledges, it has crannies and nooks and lots of places for invertebrates to latch on and for fishes to hide. This is where the five species of whales can be found.

The Great Hammerhead, this specie is common in warm ocean waters and is an active predator. It can easily be recognized by its usual wide head which purpose is to maneuver under the sea. It can reach a length to as far as 18 feet and has a weight of 1,500 pounds. If there is one species of shark that can really be considered as dangerous to human – this is it.

The Lemon Shark, these belong to the requiem sharks, one of the largest families of shark. The requiem sharks are believe to be responsible for extreme attacks and its family members includes tiger shark, the bull shark, the black tip shark, the blue shark and the sandbar shark.

It is called by its name because of the yellowish color on its side. They are usually found along the southeast coast of the US. It depends on smaller sharks, crabs, shrimp, and other bony fish for foods. They weighed 200 pounds and can grow six to eight feet in length.

The Nurse Shark, this specie of shark is slower compare to other species and often seen resting at the bottom of the body of water. Its favorite foods are shrimp and crabs. It can be recognized by the barbels or sensory organs that hang below its nose. These barbels help this kind of shark to locate food at the bottom of the body of water. It can grow and reach six to ten feet and weighed 300 pounds. As long as they are not disturbed or harmed – only then they can be dangerous to humans.

The Spiny Dogfish, this specie can be found on the east coast of the US. It usually swim with its fellow species in groups and can easily be recognized by its two dorsal fins. Each fin has spine and is the favorite of students for laboratory dissections. Its flesh is edible and often used for dog or cat foods. This specie’s favorite foods are squids, octopus, and small fishes and other smaller invertebrates.

Spiny dogfish grows smaller compare to other species to around three feet to four feet long. The male specie takes 11 long years to mature while it takes 18-21 years for women specie to mature. While for its gestation period, it takes 20-24 months from fertilization until young spiny dogfish is born.

The Tiger Shark got its name from the vertical black stripes on its sides. This is one of the largest sharks in the ocean and eats almost anything like birds, horseshoe crabs, ordinary crabs, small fishes, skates, conchs, sea turtles and even garbage from human.

Since this is a requiem shark, it is responsible for human casualties just like we see in movies and read in news articles. It weighed 2,000 pounds.