The Dorsal Fin

The Herald Sun is reporting that a South African man disappeared after being attacked by a shark off the coast of Port St. Johns. Witnesses reported seeing the man waving his hands frantically before disappearing under the water, leaving only a cloud of blood behind. The victim’s surfboard washed ashore and was retrieved, according to John Costello at the National Sea Rescue Institute. The NSRI are investigating the disappearance but no signs of the victim have turned up. The species involved can not be identified, since there are no bite marks to analyze. This is the second attack at the popular South African beach this year, according to the Herald Sun report. In January, a 26-year old lifeguard was fatally attacked by a bull shark.

I usually try to avoid repeating stories from some of the other major shark blogs out there, but this one is too good not to share, in case anybody missed it at The Best Shark Dive in the World! and Shark Diver’s Underwater Thrills: Swimming With Sharks. Video footage of a rare great white shark sighting off the coast of Florida, filmed last week about "6 to 7 miles outside of the Mayport Jetties," has been posted on YouTube. The video information posted on YouTube lists the shark as being at least 18′, although I suspect the size might be a bit overestimated, based on the apparent girth of the shark. (Then again, what do I know?) Regardless, of the shark’s size, it’s a rare find and the footage is well above “Bigfoot quality” in the respect that there is little doubt that the subject matter is clearly a white shark.

The video was posted by YouTube user surfergirl10244 who posted a couple more short clips of the white shark, in addition to the one above. Check out the links below for the other clips.

Clip #1
Clip #2

According to Adelaide Now article, Fisheries net catches ‘great white killers’, two Whyalla men were arrested for killing a great white shark and selling its body parts. The men were arrested by Whyalla police and Primary Industries and Resources SA Fisheries officers after a year-long investigation. In addition to the arrests, Fisheries officers seized over $120,000 (AUS) worth of property including fishing equipment, a commercial charter fishing boat, and white shark teeth and jaws. A third man is also expected to be summoned for “similar offenses.” The arrested men have been released on bail and are scheduled to appear in court at later date.

Taking a bite out of crime. McGruff the Crime Dog would be proud.

Great white sharks have been protected by law in South Australia since 1998, according to Rob Parkes, Primary Industries and Resources SA Fisheries strategic operations manager.

According to an AFP article, basketball player, Yao Ming has recently unveiled a new television commercial "aimed at wealthy Chinese" urging them to turn away from the consumption of shark fin soup. The commercial was produced by WildAid and features Ming pushing away a bowl of shark fin soup that is being offered to him in an upscale restaurant, accompanied by a narrator asking, “If you could see how shark fin is made, could you still eat it?”

Ming is quoted as saying, “We have species that need our attention and protection. They are endangered by excessive hunting by humans and deprived of habitats due to human greed.” Along with the television commercial, the basketball star’s image is also appearing on shark conservation billboard in China. Ming has been involved with WildAid in the past and made news in 2006 with his pledge to give up eating shark fin soup. Ming has also appeared in previous conservation PSAs for WildAid, including the one below which focuses on the hunting of elephants.

Hopefully, WildAid will post the new Yao Ming PSA online in the near future, as they generally do an exceptional job with their commercials (except that they tend to rely on the 100 million sharks a year “magic number”).

The rather whimsical video below was posted today at Jean-Michel Cousteau’s OFS YouTube Channel and features an encounter between a great white shark and an African penguin (sometimes referred to as a jackass penguin, due to the donkey-like noises they can emit). So exactly what happens when an African penguin and a white shark go toe-to-toe (or jaw to beak, as the case may be), check the video out and see for yourself!