There's a lot of good information on salmon sharks and other north Pacific
shark species on the NMFS Alaska Shark Assessment home page at:

http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/oil/sharks.htm

This project is funded by Exxon Valdez oil spill settlement money by the
way.

According to the species profile:

"Salmon sharks inhabit coastal and oceanic waters of the northern Pacific
Ocean. They range from 35N to 65N in the Western Pacific, from 300N to 650N
in the Eastern Pacific, and may occur as far south as Baja California,
Mexico (Farquhar 1963, Compagno 1984, Croker 1942, Strasburg 1958, Hart
1973). In the Eastern Pacific the greatest densities appear to be found
between 50N to 60N (Blagoderov 1994, Nakano and Nagasawa 1996, Neave and
Havanan 1960). They apparently favor water temperatures ranging from 50C to
180C and occur from surface waters to at least 150m (~ 500ft) (Farquhar
1963, McKinnel & Waddell 1993, Nakano & Nagasawa 1996, Robinson & Jamieson
1984). The seasonal distribution of the salmon shark is difficult to assess
but there appears to be some annual north-south movement in both the Eastern
and Western Pacific (Ken Goldman 1998 pers. comm.). Female salmon sharks in
the Eastern Pacific apparently migrate south to pup in the spring off Oregon
and California (Goldman and Human in Press)."

I have never seen salmon sharks while diving but I have seen them on
occasion come up as a bycatch species in pelagic pollock trawls.  They are
impressive looking sharks when observed up close.  I think they are more of
a pelagic species rather than a reef-type species so I think divers would be
unlikely to encounter them on the nearshore rocky wall type dives that most
people do in the PNW.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: SouthEast US Scuba Diving Travel list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Shep Griswold
> Sent: Friday, October 20, 2000 4:46 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [SCUBA-SE] more on Sharks in Alaska
>
>
> I've never seen these sharks (salmon sharks) down here in these waters ...
> do they come down this far ? (Seattle)
>
> Thanks again for some really good educational stuff !  :)
>
>
> At 11:51 AM 10/20/2000 -0800, you wrote:
> >By the way, here's an interesting newspaper article on salmon sharks in
> >Alaska and shark research being done by NMFS in Alaska.  Salmon
> sharks are
> >the most common sharks in Alaska and a close relative of the great white
> >shark.
> >
> >http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/oil/sharkADN8272000.htm
>
>   ____
> (_/\_)Shep Griswold
> ==@ Kirkland,Wa,USA
> mailto:[log in to unmask]
>
> If you throw a cat out a car window, does it become kitty litter?
>