Mo Ganji: Great Hammerhead | Großer Hammerhai | Sphyrna mokarran | No. 089/250 from work group 8/99

Great Hammerhead | Großer Hammerhai | Sphyrna mokarran

Mo Ganji’s single line considers the Great hammerhead — a large, wide-ranging predatory shark with a distinctive flattened head adapted to open oceans and coastal waters — through a gesture of focused reduction. The continuous line offers a restrained indication of form, enough to suggest a presence while remaining open to interpretations beyond the category of “shark.” By removing excess, the drawing allows essence to surface before function or fear defines the being.

Sphyrna mokarran is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List. Distributed across tropical and warm temperate oceans worldwide, the species has suffered steep population declines. Despite its broad range, it occurs at low densities and is especially vulnerable due to slow growth, late maturity and low reproductive output.

The primary threats include targeted fishing and bycatch, driven largely by demand for fins, as well as degradation of coastal habitats used for feeding and movement. Hammerheads are particularly susceptible to capture in nets and on longlines, and post-release survival is often low. These pressures have led to rapid declines across much of the species’ range.

Ganji’s single line allows the hammerhead to be encountered beyond scale, power or menace. It opens a space to attend to a presence shaped by movement and depth, gently reminding us that human extraction and classification often eclipse the continuity of marine life — and that our assumption of standing apart from the ocean falters when faced with the fragile persistence of beings moving through the same shared waters.