I’ve always wondered about the sharks in the foreground of Winslow Homer’s famous painting, The Gulf Stream. Is there something about the storm, the proximity of a possible meal (the poor guy in the boat), or some other factor that would make them stay on the surface like that, or was Homer just going for aesthetic impact?
I’m no shark-ologist, but I’ve watched me some shark week on Discovery channel.
Sharks don’t come out of the water, unless they’re specifically targeting a food item with their mouth. Dorsal fin protrusion excepted.
MIRite?
I’m no shark-ologist either, but I’ve had an interest in sharks ever since I was little. I’ve never seen sharks behave like that in any documentary. Sharks do occasionally come out of the water. The great white’s around Seal Island do it fairly regularly, as noted in PatriotX’s link (there are some cool youtube videos of that too) but that’s because the seals have learned a trick of following the coral underneath to stay safe from the sharks and then darting across the open water, and the sharks have countered this by staying low in the open part and racing up to the seals when they make their dash. Whether or not the shark actually gets the seal, his momentum is going to carry him up out of the water in a rather impressive breach.
Sharks have accidentally jumped into boats going after fish as well, but that’s fairly rare.
Sharks will come out of the water like that if they are in a feeding frenzy and there are a lot of fish near the surface. In the middle of a storm with waves though I can’t see it happening.
These sharks are kinda doing it, but they are in a frenzy and you see more fish than sharks (and there’s no storm or serious waves):
Little sharks in shallow water:
And kinda off topic, but since it was mentioned, AIR JAWS:
Aesthetic impact. It’s not like Homer spent any time studying the habits of sharks, and he was consciously imitating works like “Watson and the Shark.”
Painters were not trying to come up with an accurate rendition of events (other than with things like faces), and often meant the works to be allegorical or to make a dramatic point.
Investigatory Behavior toward Surface Objects
Surface swimming
Surface swimming for prolonged periods (hours to
days or weeks) is seen in certain coastal transient species,
even where ‘diving’ behaviour is theoretically
possible. This behaviour has been observed in whale
(Wilson et al. 2006), white (Klimley et al. 2002, Bonfil et
al. 2005, Bruce et al. 2006), tiger (Tricas 1981, Holland
et al. 1999), and school sharks Galeorhinus galeus
(West & Stevens 2001). Explanations for surface swimming
include using the Earth’s dipole field and/or
celestial signs to navigate, thermoregulate (Klimley et
al. 2002) and feed on schools of prey at the surface by
whale sharks (Colman 1997, Jarman & Wilson 2004,
Graham & Roberts 2007).
http://wfcb.ucdavis.edu/www/faculty/pete/papers/EnvBioFish(2002)63_117-135.pdf
Thirdly, members of the three species swam at the surface
for prolonged periods. Finally, the movements of the mako and white sharks were at times loosely associated
with bottom topography. We discuss the various adaptive advantages that have been proposed for these behavioral
patterns. Oscillatory swimming has been attributed to the following: (1) heating the body in the warm surface waters
after swimming in cold, deep water, (2) alternating between two strata of water, one carrying chemical information
as to its source, and deriving a direction to that stratum’s origin, (3) conserving energy by quickly propelling oneself
upward with many tail beats and slowly gliding downward with few beats, and (4) descending to where magnetic
gradients are steeper, more perceptible, and useful to guide migratory movements. At the surface, an individual
would be able to swim in a straight line by using following features as a reference: (1) celestial bodies, (2) polarized
light, or (3) the earth’s main dipole field. Furthermore, an individual would conserve energy because of the greater
ease to maintaining a warm body in the heated surface waters.
For this reason white sharks use displays in order to discourage other sharks. White sharks have been observed with their caudal fin out of the water slapping the surface, usually in the direction of a second shark. This “tail slap” is the most common avoidance display shown by white sharks.
So the sharks may be swimming there to be seen by the viewer. Or it may have been a phenomenon which Homer had witnessed at some point.
Perhaps he intended for the sharks to be “fighting” over intended prey.
Interesting. So it could be scientifically accurate. Thanks, folks.