hammerhead shark interpreter needed

[swedeheart]

Could somebody please help me make sense of this sentence; it's from a Wikipedia entry about hammerhead sharks. English isn't my first language and I just don't get it: "Hammerheads are one of the most negatively buoyant of sharks."

Que??

[carrot99]

Q: How do sharks and rays control their buoyancy without a swim-bladder?

In a 1986 paper published in the Journal of Fish Biology, it was proposed that negatively buoyant fishes (i.e. those that would sink without some buoyancy aid) may adopt a positive body tilt (i.e. nose up, tail down) during steady swimming to increase total lift.

http://www.wildlifeon...ers_elasmobranch.html

Hope the link helps. Apparently hammerheads don't have a bladder to fill with gas to help them float but have large livers filled with a special oil to increase buoyancy instead,

[swedeheart]

! Well whuddayaknow. I considered that that might be what 'negatively buoyant' meant but I thought I must be wrong. My other hypotheses were 'uncheerful', or 'cheerful to a fault' - but I discarded those as well ha ha. Thanks a lot, carrot99. Nice article, I loved the fart shark described towards the end of the text. And the piccy http://i48.tinypic.com/1494guh.jpg Thanks!

[greenrook]

If English isn't your first language, then I congratulate you on your command of it...-G-

[swedeheart]

Thanks greenrook, that's very nice of you. Most Swedes are able to express themselves in English, passably. Our television airs a lot of English and American series and films. Having said that... I still use dictionaries an awful lot. /Thanks!

[carlton23]

In many cases, Europeans speak our language far better than our youth of today. I often have difficulty understanding my own sons.