Sharks

There are more than 300 different kinds of sharks.

They live in the sea all round the world, but most sharks live in warm water, like the sea round China.

Sharks often swim near the surface of the water. You can see their back fin above the water. It looks like a grey triangle. Some sharks eat shellfish. Other sharks eat plankton. Plankton is tiny plants and animals floating in the water. The whale shark eats plankton and it is the largest fish in the world! Some sharks eat fish, and the great white shark eats dolphins and seals, too.

A shark can have 3 000 teeth in its mouth!

Some sharks are over 12 metres long, and some are less than a metre long. They are not all dangerous. There are less than 100 shark attacks on people each year.

Thousands of sharks are killed for food. People eat shark meat only in a few countries, like Japan. A lot of people like to eat sharks' fin soup.

Some fishermen cut off the shark's fins, throw the shark back in the water, and let the shark die slowly.

Puzzles

1. Match the sentences. Write the right letters in the boxes.

   1. It eats fish, dolphins and seals.

   2. They were in the net of a boat from Norway, in 1986.

   3. It looks like a grey triangle.

   4. A lot of people eat it.

More than 120 million fish. □

A shark's fin. □

The great white shark. □

Sharks' fin soup. □

1. Look at the picture. Write the right words.