Shark Underwater Photography

• Buoyancy
Unlike bony fish, sharks do not have gas-filled swim bladders for buoyancy. Instead, sharks rely on a large liver, filled with oil that contains squalene and the fact that cartilage is about half as dense as bone. The liver constitutes up to 30% of their body mass. The liver's effectiveness is limited, so sharks employ dynamic lift to maintain depth, sinking when they stop swimming. Sand tiger sharks store air in their stomachs, using it as a form of swim bladder. Most sharks need to constantly swim in order to breathe and cannot sleep very long, if at all, without sinking. However certain shark species, like the nurse shark, are capable of pumping water across their gills, allowing them to rest on the ocean bottom.
Some sharks, if inverted or stroked on the nose, enter a natural state of tonic immobility. Researchers use this condition to handle sharks safely.