• Question: Do sharks sleep?

    Asked by to James on 26 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: James Bell

      James Bell answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Most sharks need to swim all the time to get water passing over their gills and get oxygen into their blood. Some sharks will rest in areas with natural currents that allow them to get away with not swimming for a bit but there always has to be water passing over their gills.

      Certainly sharks don’t sleep like we do, but there are people who think that they might have times of the day when, although they are still moving they are kind of half asleep.

      Whales like Orcas have the ability to ‘sleep’ half of their brain at a time, allowing them to rest but also making sure they don’t stop swimming and drown

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