罢丑别听聽at the 91爆料 has North America’s largest聽聽that聽houses a number of sharks, including many species that live in Pacific Northwest waters.

聽is the manager of the fish collection. She showed 91爆料 News some specimens of sharks, from preserved catfish and dogfish that are common in Puget Sound, to a baby sixgill shark, baby conjoined twin sharks, and the jaws of a great white shark caught on a fishing trip in Willapa Bay.

Maslenikov says the fluid you see in the jars is not formaldehyde. Specimens are passed through a formalin solution that fixes the tissues and preserves their lifelike condition; then they are聽stored in 70% ethyl alcohol.聽When opened, the聽metal tank housing the leopard shark, for example, smelled like raw fish and alcohol mixed together — a little聽like a sushi bar.

While the fish collection聽is maintained primarily for research,聽it’s also available for the public to tour.聽There are more than 11 million preserved fish specimens from around the world, but most come from the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea and from freshwater habitats of the Pacific Northwest.

For more information, contact:
Katherine Maslenikov, 91爆料 Fish Collection manager:聽pearsonk@uw.edu
Kiyomi Taguchi, 91爆料 News video producer:聽ktaguchi@uw.edu

Sharks often get a bad rap, even though most species are harmless to humans, says聽, manager of the at the Burke Museum.

In honor of Shark Awareness Day on July 14, 91爆料 News sat down with Maslenikov to learn about sharks in the Pacific Northwest, plus ask a few burning questions about shark behavior, possible myths, and their role in the ecosystem.

The Pacific Northwest is home to several smaller species, including the dogfish family of sharks, leopard sharks and sixgill sharks. Off the coast of Washington are larger species, including great white and salmon sharks.

Sharks usually don’t intend to attack humans, Maslenikov said. When they bite humans, they are most likely trying to figure out what they are — especially in colder water where people might wear wetsuits that could look like a seal or sea lion to a shark, she explained.

Sharks can, however, smell blood in the water and can detect everything moving around them by sensing minute changes in electrical currents, making them very good at finding prey, Maslenikov said.

The longest living species is the Greenland shark in the Atlantic Ocean, which can live more than 400 years. The fastest-known shark is the shortfin mako, which can speed along at up to 50 kilometers (31 miles) per hour.

Read more about the extensive , which includes more than 11 million specimens.