Biofluorescence Sharks!

Happy shark week everyone!! Sharks may be the light of my life but they also can light up the ocean. There are actually species sharks that exhibit biofluorescence which means they glow!! They are able to glow green because of proteins in its skin that are activated by blue light. Now why glow? One reason is for communication and another is for camouflage. Swell shark ladies well actually glow more on their face and male chain catshark have glowing claspers to communicate for mating. Whereas deep sea sharks like laternsharks have glowing bellies so when viewed from below they blended into the waters above.

By Caroline Emch-Wei