Second fatal shark attack in a week. This is bound to cause a ridiculous, over-the-top media frenzy that will piss me off. Visit site »
Andy and I share an interest in sharks (although he’s certainly got more experience with them than I do!). Today, he writes a nice post about a huge threat facing our favorite fishes: finning. This is the practice of catching sharks, slicing off their fins, and throwing them back into the water to die. The reason? Shark Fin Soup. It’s a delicacy, and companies are willing to pay top dollar for shark fins. Problem is, sharks are being slaughtered in record numbers, to the point where areas once brimming with the amazing predators are now almost completely devoid of them. It’s bad news for the whole marine ecosystem to lose apex predators. What can you do? Help the anti-finning movement by avoiding any restaurant that sells Shark Fin Soup. Visit site »
According to this, Yahoo! has a 40% investment in a shark finning company. The two of you out there who are as interesting in sharks as I am will know that this is one of the most deplorable acts committed upon mother nature by humankind — one in which sharks are fished, de-finned alive (i.e. their fins are sliced off with a big ass knife), and dumped back into the ocean, where they will die a slow, agonizing death because they are unable to swim (and therefore, unable to breath).
Why? Because the fins are used to make shark-fin soup, a delicacy in many foreign countries — and because the fisherman in question are often third-worlders who get paid pennies for going shark fishing on tiny canoes which simply can’t hold the whole shark, so they are forced to dump the fish back into the water. If they were harvesting the whole shark, the practice wouldn’t be so bad. Upwards of 100 million sharks are slaughtered each year for their fins.
100 million. How many sharks kill humans every year? Now who’s the monster of the sea? Visit site »
A new juvenile white shark was introduced into the Outer Bay exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on August 28. This is the aquarium’s third white shark, and Monterey Bay is the only aquarium that has ever kept a white shark alive for any length of time at all. As I recall, the first two were there for about nine and six months, respectively, before they needed to be freed back into the Pacific Ocean. So, if you’re in the bay area, get yourself to the aquarium and check out the white shark while it’s there — it won’t last forever! Visit site »
The Frilled Shark, a species of rarely seen alive because its natural habitat is about 2,000 feet under the sea was captured on film by staff at a Japanese marine park this week. Cool stuff. Visit site »
Roger is an underwater photographer, and in this blog entry he talks about (and showcases his great photos of) a recent dive with the Zambezi shark (usually called the Bull Shark in America) — arguably the most aggressive and dangerous all of shark species. Visit site »
The new white shark at Monterey has a blog. Sadly, they’re not letting him update it himself, but it is updated daily with behavior tidbits, feeding information, etc. There’s an RSS feed, to boot. Very cool. I say again: if you’re in the bay area, you should totally get to MBA to see this shark — he won’t last long and you never know when, or even if they’ll get another one. Visit site »
Absolutely the best Great White photos I’ve seen on Flickr, and possibly anywhere. Wow. Just stunning. I wish Luke had provided a bit more context — I’ve love to know where these were taken. My guess is Guadalupe Island, Mexico, just based on the water clarity. Visit site »
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has again captured a young White Shark for it’s Outter Bay exhibit. The aquarium was the first to keep a White Shark alive for more than a few days in captivity back in 2004, but had to release their original shark after about six months. Now, they’ve got another one. If I were in the Bay area, I’d be sprinting to the aquarium to see this one before it, too, is released. Visit site »