Lemon Shark Shark Bites

My name's Steve Backshall.

Self-confessed shark obsessed.

This is Shark Bites.

This time, things are getting frenzied with

one of the snappiest sharks in our seas - the lemon shark.

These stocky and social sharks like to patrol the ocean floor,

churning up the sand in the search for their supper.

Measuring around three metres in length,

their yellow-tinged pitted skin earns them their name

and provides the perfect camouflage cover as they scour the sandy seabed

for stingrays, crabs and crayfish.

But how do they get a good grip on these hidden prey?

The warm waters of the Bahamas in the Caribbean are

a great place to find them.

Crazy as it seems, we're getting in there.

To analyse this feisty shark's bite in three dimensions, we're heading

in with a time slice rig made up of 20 small cameras and a box of bait.

With seriously supersenses, it doesn't take them long

to suss out that we have a box of fish with their name on it.

There are sharks everywhere! I'm getting absolutely beaten up here!

Aargh! Ow!

And after a little bit of feeding practice...

Ah! Oh! Wow!

..it was time for the main event.

Yes!

Perfect!

Wow!

And, if we take a closer look,

there's something brilliant about this shark's bite.

The lemon shark's mouth is on the underside of its head

so, in order to take a bite, it really needs to lift its snout.

But it does have an extra adaptation to give it a bit more reach.

In mammals like us, the upper jaw is fused to our skull and can't move.

But in the sharks, both the upper and lower jaw can move freely

and lunge forward to capture prey.

A marvellous modification for a far-reaching bite.

And this free-moving jaw also allows them

to open their mouths much wider.

So small prey is simply hoovered up.

The lemon shark - tonnes of tenacity, supersenses

and a bucket-load of bite make this the snappiest shark in our seas.