The Dorsal Fin

BBC – Earth News has posted a video of what is believed to be the first ever film footage of a living smalleye stingray (Dasyatis microps). According to the BBC report, the smalleye stingray is the largest known stingray and can reach widths of over 2m. The species has only been witnessed alive off the coast of Tofo, a beach located in southern Mozambique. The film was shot while filming a documentary about manta rays with Dr. Andrea Marshal of of the Manta Ray and Whale Shark Research Centre. The footage will air on BBC Two this Wednesday as part of the BBC series Natural World.

According to Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Notes, a juvenile female white shark, which had been held in captivity at the Monterey Bay Aquarium‘s Outer Bay Exhibit, was successfully released back into the wild on November 4, 2009. The 5’5″ 100 lbs. white shark had grown a couple of inches in length while in captivity and had put on about 20 lbs. of weight. The white shark was captured in August and had been on display at the aquarium since August 26, 2009. Over the past weekend, the white shark was involved in multiple incidents of “aggressive behavior” toward other sharks in the exhibit, prompting the aquarium’s husbandry team to make the decision to return the animal to the wild. In addition to her safe release, the white shark was tagged with two electronic tracking devices, one of which will report real-time location data, the other will report temperature, depth, and location data in 6 months. According to Randy Hamilton, vice president of husbandry, the white shark’s health was “excellent” upon her release.

YouTube user SideOffVideo recently posted this quick video shot of the captive white shark at the aquarium, prior to her release.

A recent article in the NY Post features one of the photographs discussed in yesterday’s post about Amos Nachoum’s photos from an illegal cage-less commercial dive at Isla de Guadalupe. The article, “Hi there, will you be my chum?” makes the absolutely baseless statement that “great whites are so short-sighted they can hardly spot what’s right in front of them.” While it was once thought that white sharks had poor vision (it was also once thought that the Earth was flat), research has shown that white sharks have a highly developed visual system. Perhaps, the article’s author, Andy Soltis, should give this article about white shark vision a read.

As far as the bit about a white shark hardly be able to spot what’s right in front of them, I’d suggest going for a white shark dive. Anybody who has been close enough to see the blue iris of a passing white shark can tell you that a great white shark will often “track” you with its eye movements as it swims by.

Granted, the whole theme of the article seems to be rather whimsical, in nature. However, the NY Post’s somewhat tabloid status, doesn’t excuse it from posting/printing completely unfounded “information.”

Kudos to Rory Gibson of Australia’s Courier Mail, for his article, Hysteria over shark risk to swimmers unfounded. His commentary on the media and public reaction to the story about a photo of mauled great white shark caught on a drum line last month is both entertaining and poignant. Gibson points out, in a very tongue-in-cheek nature, that relatively low risks of shark attacks on humans, and stresses the need for conservation of the great white shark as a species. He is also critical of the Queensland shark control program, which “indiscriminantly kills a creature listed as vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.” Gibson suggests a moratorium on shark nets and drum lines until a non-lethal solution for managing white shark populations can be devised. Check out the entire article at the Courier Mail.

UK media outlets, The Sun, the Telegraph, and the Daily Mail, have all run photos from Amos Nachoum taken at Guadalupe this fall. The one photo in particular that seems to be drawing the most attention from the media outlets is head-on shot of a “smiling” white shark that the media outlets are comparing to the character Bruce, from Pixar’s Finding Nemo.

While the head-on shark photo may be the center of attention for the average viewer, I have a feeling that one of the other photos, which features an underwater photographer diving cage-less in close proximity with a white shark, will likely cause some shark diving operators to cringe when they see it. Amos’ decision to take recreational divers cage-less at Isla de Guadalupe recently drew sharp criticism from some shark diving operators, as well as shark diving blogs, including Underwater Thrills: Swimming with Sharks and The Best Shark Dive Ever, due to the fact that it is against the law to offer cage-less dives on a commercial level at Isla de Guadalupe. The appearance of these images in the mainstream UK media probably are not going to alleviate that criticism, as Mr. Nachoum’s media promotion of this illegal dive will likely serve only to further threaten legitimate dive operations at Isla de Guadalupe.

Following hot on the heels of the “monster shark” hysteria, The Sun refers to the white shark in the photo as “giant,” while the Daily Mail calls it “gigantic.” The actual length of the shark was reported as 14′ (4.25 meters) in length.