Wikipedia:WikiProject Sharks/Items needing attention

This is a clearing house for items that need attention but aren't so urgent that they need changing immediately. List the item under the appropriate heading for somebody to check at a later date

If your can fix one of the problems, please fix it and then remove it from the list if you have a definitive fix, or make a note against it if it is a problem that is likely to reoccur.

What to list here:

• Requests for images to illustrate articles - diagrams, maps, photos
• Requests for citations for statements made in articles (including generally uncited articles)
• Random facts that may make good additions to articles if they can be confirmed, or statements that clash between different articles
• Problems with images - range maps that appear to be wrong or questionable, images that appear to be wrongly identified, images that need identifying
• Problems with nomenclature - clashes of name, missing names etc.

Requests for citations

• Shark has a lack of citations throughout

Unconfirmed "facts"

Longest gestation

• We have Frilled shark claiming "It has been suggested that the gestation period is about 3.5 years, which would give the frilled shark the longest gestation of any vertebrate, considerably exceeding the elephant's period of 22 months." (But see latest statement in Frill shark GrahamBould 15:21, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
• basking shark states " Gestation is thought to span over a year (but perhaps 2 or 3 years)"
• Spiny dogfish does not mention any gestation period
• In shark we state "Dogfishes also have the longest known gestation period of any shark, 22 months"

References

• Sharks as food spiny dog fish, 24, = longest
• Fact Sheet: Basking Sharks claiming basking shark have the longest without stating any time
• Chlamydoselachiformes: Frilled Shark claiming frill shark is at least 3.5y
• Biology of the Basking Shark stating basking probably 3.5y and maybe 14m

So basically I have no idea what is correct and suggest that we should write some kind of summary of these unknow facts and make it common in all shark pages mentioning this. Suggestions? Stefan 14:04, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

The FAO catalogue gives "probably 1-2 years" for the Frilled shark, "variously reported as 18-24 months, and may vary by area" for the spiny dogfish, and nothing for the basking shark. Since the spiny dogfish is the only known range I think we should use this. Something like : Dogfishes have the longest recorded gestation period of any shark, at between 18 24 months". I've only answered this so quickly as I was looking at it in the shark article earlier. Yomangani^talk 15:51, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

AS03

In 2020, GlaxoSmithKline announced that it would manufacture a billion doses of squalene for potential use in GSK's COVID-19 vaccines. Shark Allies predicts that around 250 000 sharks would need to be slaughtered to receive one dose of such a vaccine, considering that 2500 to 3000 sharks are needed to extract one tonne of squalene (if indeed the squalene is obtained from shark livers). As such, Shark Allies is concerned that killing so many sharks would do irreversable damage to our ocean's ecosystems and suggests that it should opt to use plant-based and synthetic alternatives for squalene.

The environmental organisation Shark Allies hence assumes that GSK would use shark-derived squalene in its AS03 adjuvant. This seems very unlikely as it is quite an inefficient and laborious way to make squalene (and thus seems unsuited for large scale production).

I'm note even sure whether squalene production from shark livers happens much at all (for any vaccine) for the same reasons. Can it be investigated whether AS03 is indeed produced using shark-derived squalene, whether GSK will indeed use AS03 for its COVID-19 vaccine version, and what vaccines actually still exist that use shark-derived adjuvants ? Whereas this "news" seems wrong and doesn't appear at wikipedia articles, it's important to disprove this information. User:Genetics4good

it was mentioned on NPR as well. --awkwafaba (📥) 14:58, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

References

Problems with images

• Image:Loro_parque_shark_1.jpg - shark needs identifying

Thats a blacktip reef shark isn't it. The only other one i could think it of being is the blacktip shark but they don't have quite an obvious black mark on the top of the dorsal fin chris_huh 09:44, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

That's what I thought too, but the shape seemed a bit off, so I wanted to confirm. Yomangani^talk 09:48, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Looks like blacktip reef shark to me, but I will ask an expert, will get back. Stefan 13:19, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

My 'expert' says that it probbaly is a blacktip, but it is not the best of pictures so he is not 100% sure, the fact that it is a picture from a tank also implies that it is a blacktip which is more common than the alternatives in tanks. Stefan 00:08, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

• Image:Basking_shark_distribution.gif - shows it worldwide rather than coastal

I made it worldwide due to this Archived 2007-06-06 at the Wayback Machine reference. I'm not sure which is correct, I have read that there is speculation that they go deep and off shore during sesons that they are not costal and shallow, but I really do not know. Stefan 13:19, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

It appears to be referred to as coastal in every source I can find, and while they are migratory I don't think the migration route is normally counted as part of their range. Just looks a bit strange if anybody compares the text to the range map, but I listed it here as there are more range maps that need doing before we start going back to ones that need refining. Yomangani^talk 16:41, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

• Image:Gray_reef_shark_distmap.png - does not show grays in red sea where ther are present, see also text of article. Stefan 13:19, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

See [1] for ref for dist map that matches very well with the one we have, except that it also have red sea. Stefan 14:46, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

I can add Red Sea. I copied the map from a book, which doesnt show it in the red sea, which is strange. I think a lot of the maps need to be checked since a lot of the maps are different when coming from different sources. chris_huh 16:16, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

FAO catalogue doesn't show it in the Red Sea - maybe I'll have to splash out on the updated version. Yomangani^talk 16:45, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

If the picture Image:Grey_reef_shark2.jpg is a gray then they exists in the red sea, I took the picture and it for sure was in the red sea! When I have made some distribution maps all the source I have found have been different, so I think it is very clear that shark distribution is very unknown. Stefan 00:05, 9 September 2006 (UTC)