#79 Oceanic Whitetip

Critically Endangered

Still part of the white theme

This shark has a few other names as well: Nigano shark, silvertip shark, oceanic white-tipped whaler. They are not good for shipwreck survivors. They are found in deep water, but like to hang out near the top of the water. Like most marine animals, they can only guess the numbers based on how many have been caught. These are unfortunately caught for their fins (an especially evil and disgusting practice in my opinion), meat, oil, and skin. Jacques Cousteau said these are "the most dangerous of all sharks". They are the shark that survivors of the USS Indianapolis and the RMS Nova Scotia described as killing many who had survived the initial sinking. These used to be abundant, but numbers are assumed to have dropped by 70%-95% since the 1990's.

I had to get out today to get something to help my mom keep her paintings safe. Thankfully only one was damaged in the evacuation, and it was able to be completely restored with no problem. Yesterday at this point on the road, ahead of me was blue sky. Now there is no blue sky and the air quality is considered hazardous over a huge swath of Oregon, and some areas are so far beyond just hazardous it is almost to the point of needing to be chewed rather than breathed.

This is just a small sampling of the paintings my mom managed to save. Most are of places along the coast, plus quite a few of my kids. The one of the boy with the binoculars is my oldest son when he was much younger. She managed to get over 200 paintings to our house!