Shark Trivia

Did You Know that you can find a lot of Sharks in the Graveyard….

….in the waters off North Carolina’s coast? The area is often referred to as the Graveyard of the Atlantic thanks to the more than 1,000 wrecks from pirate ships to German U-boats dating back to 1526 when maritime record keeping began in North Carolina. The wrecks are scattered across the seafloor from Currituck Beach in the north to Cape Fear in the south.

The waters here have often been considered treacherous due to the shifting sandbars, shallow reefs, strong tides, seasonal hurricanes, and the confluence of the colder Labrador Current with the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream.

Many of these wrecks now provide the framework for an impressive system of marine life including an abundance of Sand Tiger Sharks and occasionally others including Hammerheads, Threshers, and Bulls. The area is now thought to be one of the best locations in the world for sightings of the Sand Tiger Shark.

Through recent research, female Sand Tiger Sharks appear to have favorite wrecks they return to year after year, a finding that could help in shark conservation. However, male sharks are not being found to return. While there is no firm evidence that points to the exact reason that females are returning to the same shipwrecks over time, shipwrecks are potentially a critical habitat for these sharks.