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The blue shark is a species of requiem shark. Blue sharks often school segregated by sex and size, and this behaviour has led to their nickname "wolves of the sea".
The top of the body is deep blue, lighter on the sides, and the underside is white. It grows to 3.8 meters long and can weigh up to 204 kilograms, with the highest reported weight was 391 kilograms. Squid are important prey for blue sharks, but their diet includes other invertebrates such as cuttlefish and pelagic octopuses, as well as lobster, shrimp, crab, a large number of bony fishes, small sharks, mammalian carrion and occasional sea birds.
The blue shark is an oceanic and epipelagic shark found worldwide in deep temperate and tropical waters from the surface to about 350 meters. In temperate seas it may approach shore where it can be observed by divers, while in tropical waters it inhabits greater depths. It lives as far north as Norway and as far south as Chile. Blue sharks are found off the coasts of every continent, except Antarctica. Blue sharks migrate long distances, for example from New England to South America.
These sharks are listed as nearly threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is estimated that 10 to 20 million of blue sharks are killed each year as a result of fishing. The skin is used for leather, the fins for shark-fin soup and the liver for oil. Blue sharks are occasionally sought as game fish for their beauty and speed.
More detailed information about Blue Sharks can be found here.
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