Difference Between Dolphin Fin and Shark Fin

Dolphin Fin vs Shark Fin
 

Capability of identifying a shark from a tuna by observing the fins is much advantageous, especially for someone living around seawaters. Dolphins do not usually attack the humans, but sharks do, and the person’s life could be saved if the identification is correct. Although the differences between dolphin and sharks are known as a whole, it would be the variations of their dorsal fins that would matter the most to save the life since the whole body does not come out of the surface too often. This article intends to emphasise some important differences between the fins of dolphin and shark.

Dolphin Fin

Dolphins are mammals, and their skeleton is made up of bones. Their whole body is highly streamlined to give them an easy swimming friendly shape in the water column. The dorsal fin of dolphins is smooth and curved, which could be a very important observation to make when they swim close to the water surface. In addition, the tip of the dorsal fin is smoother than pointed. Dolphins have only one dorsal fin, and there are no any small fins between dorsal and caudal fins. Dolphins usually swim close to boats even in the deep sea, because of that they have some sort of damaged dorsal fins. Although they do not swim close to sharks, as they both evade each other usually, dolphins suffer in certain cases of crossing each other’s paths. However, the smooth texture of the fins of dolphins does not change due to those accidents. The attachment of the rear end of their dorsal fin is smooth and gentle. The caudal fin of the dolphins could not be seen unless it decides to jump out of water. The caudal fin is oriented in a plane that is perpendicular to the plane of dorsal fin in these mammalians. The economic value of the dolphin fin is very low, but those have been used as fish baits in some places.

Shark Fin

Sharks are cartilaginous fish, living exclusively in the sea. Their exceptionally shaped, streamlined body with powerful fins offers them a strong and fast swimming ability. They are voracious carnivores and the top predators of the sea, with ever-active brains with at least one cerebral hemisphere is active even while asleep. Therefore, the danger of facing a shark is high, and it would only be better if the shark could be identified from a good distance just by observing the dorsal fin. The dorsal fin of shark is straighter than curved with a sharply pointed tip. Most of the shark species have two dorsal fins and the anterior fin is larger than the posterior fin. The posterior edge of the both dorsal fins of sharks is ragged, and that could be seen in many species from a good distance. Sometimes the caudal fin could also be seen put out of the water, as it lies in a parallel plane as the dorsal fin. However, the caudal fin is seen only when, they are very close to the surface of the sea. Despite their furiousness as a predatory fish, people have been managing to cut off the shark fins for money. That is because the shark fin has a great value as food, especially as a shark fin soup or other deep fried chips and fillets.