According to Matt Wallace, great white sharks prefer AC/DC over other bands.

According to a Herald Sun article, great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) are fans of the Australian rock band AC/DC. At least, that’s what Adventure Bay Charter’s Matt Wallace told the Herald Sun.

Wallace takes cage divers out several times a week south of Port Lincoln, Australia to view great white sharks. He says that the sharks seem to prefer the “low frequency” music of AC/DC to other music. Wallace asked researchers about sound that would attract white sharks. He said he was told that the species responds best to frequencies below 200 Hertz.

Wallace used “trial and error” to come to his conclusion that AC/DC was the preferred band for the predatory fish.

LiveScience is reporting that scientists, with the support of the NSF have developed a fishing hook designed to reduce the accidental catch of sharks from commercial fishing. Developers incorporated “magnetic repellent” and “galvanic repellent” into the design of the hooks to “interfere” with sharks’ ampullae of Lorenzini, which are electroreceptors not found in “market-valuable” fish such as tuna.

These new hooks, called SMART (Selective Magnetic and Repellent-Treated Hook) hooks, were shown to reduce shark catch by 18 percent to 68 percent, depending on the species involved and geographic location, when compared to traditional hooks.

On a related note, GIZMODO, re-ran the LiveScience story with the following headline, “New Shark-Repellant Fishing Hook Leaves More Sharks in the Water to Eat People.”

The video above, shot by Darren Marshall, was recently posted to AKSinWA’s YouTube channel. According to the video, which was shot in Western Australia, a young humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) died after becoming trapped on a reef.

According to the information in the video, two 8′ tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) began feeding on the whale within minutes after its death. Within 45 minutes, the number of sharks had risen to approximately 30. The video also notes that bronze whaler sharks (Carcharhinus brachyurus) were also involved in the feeding event.

The sharks fed on the carcass for the next two days, leaving only skeletal remains behind when the feeding event ended.

In a case of “man bites shark,” The Palm Beach Post is reporting that beach visitors at a Lake Worth beach were greeted this morning by the sight of a shark which had apparently been reeled in and left gutted and beheaded on the beach. The shark’s head and innards left nearby the rest of the carcass along with multiple empty beer cans.

While beheading and gutting a catch is not unusual for fishermen, this is usually done to separate the inedible parts of a fish from the edible meat. In this particular case the entire shark was left on the beach, which would defeat the purpose of separating the meat of the shark from the head and entrails.

LiveScience.com is reporting that an August, 2009 aggregation of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) off the Yucatán Peninsula numbered up to 420 whale sharks within a 7 square-mile area. While this whale shark aggregation had previously been reported in the past, yesterday scientists announced that they had tallied the number of the animals to be an estimated 420.

For the full article on the recent whale shark report, check out LiveScience.com.

Lyman’s Beach on Hawaii’s Big Island has been the scene of two separate incidents involving what is believed to be a tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) biting a surfboard, according to a KHON2 report. The first incident occurred Sunday when a stand-up paddleboarder had her board bumped by a shark, followed by the shark biting the board. The second similar event occurred yesterday, in which, a longboard surfer had her board bumped and then bitten. No one was injured in either incident, but in both cases bite marks were left in the surfers’ boards.

Both incidents resulted in nearby beaches being temporarily closed. Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) air searches were unable to spot the shark in either instance. In both cases the surfers reported seeing “lots of turtles” in the area. Sea turtles are a known food source for tiger sharks.

Speculation that the same shark might be responsible for both bites is being investigated. DLRN will compare the bite marks on both boards to determine if the bites were delivered by the same shark. The size of the shark(s) will also be determined from the bite marks.

WPTV.com is reporting that the increased number of swimmers and surfers at Florida beaches over the Memorial Day holiday weekend statistically increases that chances of a shark attack. The report notes that sharks are migrating north along the Florida peninsula as water temperatures warm along the east coast.

The report also features the typical advice to help reduce the risk of shark attacks, including avoiding swimming at sunrise and sunset, staying in large groups, avoiding splashing, and leaving the water in a non-panicked manner if a shark is spotted.

The famous Guadalupe white shark photo also makes an appearance in the WPTV report.

Australia’s Ten News recently interviewed surfer and shark attack survivor Bethany Hamilton. The movie “Soul Surfer” which is based on the true story of Hamilton’s “triumph over tragedy” opens in Australia today.

In addition to the movie, Hamilton’s “Soul Surfer” book reached the #1 spot on the New York Times Bestsellers list for Children’s Paperback Books earlier this month, and is currently #3 in that same list.

OnisonArchive has posted a “parody” of sorts about saving sharks. I’m not really sure what Onison is supposed to be, but it reminds me of Dieter from Sprockets. This spoof of shark conservation hits on just about every shark stereotype that one could come up with.

YouTube user WFF0001 recently posted the above video of a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) making an appearance at the Guy Harvey sponsored Bimini Big Game Club Billfish Invitational. The video features some free-divers “hitching a ride” on the shark by hanging on to the shark’s dorsal and caudal fins.

Similar videos in the past have generated debate centered around the “no-touch” philosophy of diving. Some argue that whale sharks don’t appear to be bothered by swimmers and divers “hitching a ride,” based on the fact that the animals don’t immediately try to leave the area when this kind of activity occurs. While whale sharks are also listed as a “vulnerable” species on the IUCN Red List, those with the “no harm, no foul” philosophy that point out that whale sharks are not in any danger of being injured by people “hitching a ride.”

The other side of the argument is that the whale sharks don’t really have a say in the matter and can’t express whether or not they’re bothered by people “riding” them.

If you have an opinion on the “riding whale sharks” debate, feel free to share it in the comments section.