The Sixgill Shark is found all over the world including Puget Sound. Sixgill Shark Survey: Elliot bay. Amongst shark species only the Blue Shark is capable of producing larger litters of pups than the Sixgill. The use of Puget Sound by juvenile sixgill sharks and their high site fidelity within Puget Sound could make them sensitive to climate-related changes, such as increases in temperature or potential decreases in oxygen, which could potentially lead to declines in prey availability (e.g., other sharks and rays, fish). THE GIST - Sixgill sharks have been sighted in Puget Sound and scientists didn't understand why the sharks were there. The sixgill shark population in San Francisco and Humboldt Bays of California and Puget Sound complex of Washington was considered to be in serious decline in 1995 as a result of fishery activity. Here in Puget Sound we are very fortunate to have bluntnose sixgill sharks (Hexanchus griseus).These Sound sharks are now protected after a closure on recreational sixgill fishing was put into action by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). The Seattle Aquarium (SA) began studying Sixgill Sharks in Elliott Bay in Puget Sound underneath the aquarium in 2003 (Griffing et al., 2014). ... Our objective was to find the elusive sixgill sharks that roam the deep waters in Puget Sound and fulfill a lifelong dream and ambition of Macklemore, a devoted shark enthusiast. The Puget Sound is home to 11 species of sharks. We have data on sixgill and sevengill sharks, spiny dogfish, lingcod, copper, quillback, yellowtail and black rockfish, and spotted ratfish. Most sharks have five gill slits, but the aptly named sixgills have six. Most sharks have five gills while the bluntnose shark has six, hence its name. Of these 11, three that are seen regularly are the Spiny Dogfish, the Sixgill Shark and the Brown Cat Shark… I found a reference to a female Sixgill that had 108 embryos in her uterus! Elliott Bay is situated on the east side of central Puget Sound’s main basin and the SA is centrally located in Seattle’s waterfront on Piers 59 and 60 in Elliott Bay (Figure 1). Seen often in the Puget Sound in the 1990s and 2000s, the sixgill seems to be a less frequent visitor in the last decade. These data are being used to describe the spatio-temporal patterns of behaviors expressed by top predators and other important members of the groundfish community in Puget Sound and along the West Coast. Yes, Sixgill sharks are oviviparous - the babies develop in the womb and are born swimming. Here we report findings from the SA’s Sixgill research program from 2008 to 2015 as a follow up to Sixgill Shark sightings results presented from … A 2010 study of movement patterns of 34 Puget Sound sixgills found that the sharks were resident to the area for at least four years before leaving for the outer coast, and displayed site fidelity while resident. A member of the cowshark family, they cruise the ocean floor in search of prey including fish, seals, crabs, shrimps, and smaller sharks. Puget Sound is a large, fjord-like estuary comprising most of the northwestern quarter of Washington State (Figure 1) [16,17]. - Genetic tagging shows that most of the sharks are actually brother and sister. Bluntnose sixgill sharks are members of the cowshark family. In Puget Sound, sixgill sharks have been observed in very shallow water, and an increase in catches by sport fishermen from urban piers led to a closure of the fishery by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) until the dynamics of the species could be better understood. Well, technically it’s the Bluntnose Sixgill Shark. The sixgill shark