The Dorsal Fin

San Francisco’s Aquarium of the Bay will be featuring a new exhibit featuring comic characters from Jim Toomey’s comic Sherman’s Lagoon, according to a press release.

The exhibit, “Sherman’s Lagoon: Finning Isn’t Funny,” focuses on the ecological threats posed by shark finning as told through the cast of the Sherman’s Lagoon. The exhibit will include comics, daily presentations, and “an action station where visitors of all ages can help prevent shark finning.” In addition, visitors to the exhibit can also sign individual letters to be mailed to National Marine Fisheries Service in support of international bans on finning.

The exhibit opens June 26, 2010. Jim Toomey will be at the aquarium on opening day to promote the exhibit, sign books, and conduct a “Cartooning 101″ class. The exhibit will be open throughout the summer.

A relatively small white shark was killed on Friday during the Star Island Yacht Club Shark Tournament.

In a follow-up to today’s earlier post regarding internet rumors of a white shark being illegally caught and killed at the Star Island Yacht Club Shark Tournament, The East Hampton Press is reporting that a great white shark weighing between 300 and 400 lbs. (which would make it a relatively young white shark) was confiscated by the National Marine Fisheries Service after a participant in the Star Island Yacht Shark Tournament brought the shark in. (The great white shark has been a protected species in U.S. waters since 1997.) The article reports that the fisherman who caught the shark was neither fined nor arrested on the scene, according to Lesli Bales-Sherrod of the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement. However, he could face a civil charge at the conclusion of NOAA’s ongoing investigation of the event.

The East Hampton Press quoted Rich Janis, a manager of the shark tournament, as saying that the fisherman mistook the shark for another species. Janis went on to say that it was “an honest mistake” and noted that there was “no benefit” to the fisherman for bringing in the shark.

The information in the The East Hampton Press article is in stark contrast to the rumors that appeared on a few online angling forums, in which claims of an arrest, fines, boat seizure, and even a child endangerment charge were mentioned.

Was a great white shark illegally caught and killed at the Star Island Yacht Club shark tournament?

UPDATE: It seems that there is some truth to the rumors about a great white shark being killed during the Star Island Yacht Club Shark Tournament. However, claims of the arrest, boat seizure, and fines against the angler seem to be unfounded, according to a report from The East Hampton Press. Additionally, more forum members at Noreast.com have since posted refuting the claims that any action was taken against the anglers involved in the catching of the great white shark.

According to threads on The Hull Truth Boating Forum and Noreast.com a fisherman at the Star Island Yacht Club Shark Tournament in Montauk, NY illegally landed and brought a great white shark into the docks. The great white shark has been a protected species in U.S. waters since 1997.

According to a forum member at Noreast.com, who participated in the tournament, a fisherman not caught a white shark, announced over his radio that he caught it, and then brought it in to the docks. The forum member went on to say that the man who caught the great white shark, was arrested, his boat was seized, and he was fined $25,000, in addition to being charged with child endangerment for bringing the white shark on the boat with a 6-year-old child on-board.

It should be noted that all of this information comes from user-submitted discussion forums. I have been unable to find any news outlets reporting this story at the time of this writing. Hamptons.com has an article on the shark tournament, but there is no mention of a great white shark being brought to the docks, nor any mention of charges brought against any tournament participants.

UPDATE: This video is actually over 3 years old and was shot in the Gulf of Mexico according to YouTube user sharkyjones who posted the video in May, 2007. The shark is indeed a Greenland shark (Somniosis microcephalus), according to the video information.

YouTube user mmoo490 recently posted this video which is listed as “A Transocean video of a shark passing in front of a BOP stack-up.” Unlike some of the ridiculous hoax photos of sharks supposedly spotted on ROV cameras as of late, this one looks like legitimate footage. The information about the video is sparse and does not indicate where the BOP (blowout preventer) stack is, at what depth the camera was at, etc. Based on the video the dorsal fin appears to be almost non-existent on this shark. Anybody have an idea on what species this is? Greenland shark, maybe?

Live Science has an interesting read on how the movie “Jaws,” the Jersey Shore attacks of 1916, and World War II accounts of shark attacks have altered the public perception of sharks over the past century. The article quotes George Burress as saying

“At the turn of the 20th century, there was this perception that sharks had never attacked a human being. There was even a reward offered if someone could prove they were bitten by a shark — money that was never collected.”

The article goes on to note that after “Jaws” was released shark-hunting tournaments began to gain popularity on the East Coast of the U.S. According to Burress, the shark-hunting trend “dramatically reduced nearly all shark species over the following decades.”

The article also goes on to mention an “inadvertent benefit” that came about as a result of declining shark populations. Scientist became more conscious of the need learn more about sharks which resulted in an increase in funding for shark research.

Visit Live Science to see the full article, How ‘Jaws’ Forever Changed Our View of Great White Sharks.