00:00There are three species of thresher shark, common, big eyed and the endangered pelagic
00:13species.
00:17They all hunt schooling fish in open water and it's no easy task.
00:24So to help them feed they've evolved extremely long tails which they use in a novel but very
00:31effective way.
00:34A good sized thresher will be four metres in length but two metres of it, half its body
00:40length is taken up by its super long tail which it uses to beat fish to death with.
00:51What they do is when they see a shoal of prey is they swim at it at top speed and as they
00:56get there they put on the brakes by jamming down their large pectoral fins.
01:04That causes that flexible tail to whip over their heads and strike at anything in the
01:11way.
01:12Fish are either killed outright or so badly stunned that it's then super easy for the
01:17thresher shark to swim round and pick up an easy meal.
01:22It's this fantastic whipping action that's earned the thresher shark the nickname the
01:26Indiana Jones of the ocean.
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