Tracking data from tagged great white sharks has been surprising some researchers.

The travels of great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) equipped with the SPOT tags in both the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean have surprised researchers over the past month or so.

According to OCEARCH’s Global Shark Tracker, an adult female white shark (nicknamed “Mary Lee”) left Cape Cod waters last September and headed south, as researchers had expected. By the beginning January, Mary Lee had made her way to the waters off northern Florida, which was inline with the theory that Atlantic white sharks spend their time in waters off the southern states of the east coast of the United States during the winter months and then head north during the summer months when water temperatures rise.
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The Humane Society of the United States is reporting that Texas lawmakers have introduced legislation that would make it illegal to sell, purchase or transport shark fins in the state. The bill (HB 852/SB 572) was introduced by Representative Eddie Lucio III, and Senator Larry Taylor. If passed, the law would take effect on July 1, 2014. Similar legislation has been passed in California, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington.

You can read the full text of the proposed House and Senate bills by following the links below.

83(R) House Bill 852
83(R) Senate Bill 572

Should beachgoers be worried about year-to-year changes in shark attack numbers?

The University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File released its 2012 findings this past Monday, and some major media outlets were quick to report that the 53 “unprovoked” shark attacks in the U.S. last year ties the “record number” of annual attacks reported in the U.S. (the same number of attacks was reported in 2000). While the data seems pretty straight-forward, what does a record number of shark attacks actually mean from a scientific and statistical standpoint?

As the ISAF 2012 summary is quick to point out, short-term trends should be viewed with caution as they are not necessarily indicative of any kind of statistical significance. When viewing annual counts of attacks, each annual number of attacks is a single data point making the possibility of any one year’s count being an outlier, and the ISAF summary notes that year-to-year variability is high.

The report goes on to state that the number of “unprovoked attacks” worldwide has consistently increased each decade since 1900, and while no statistical analysis of this data is discussed in the summary, it seems that a significant positive trend in the number of reported attacks exists. But, does an increase in the number of reported attacks translate to an increased risk of being attacked by a shark? Are individual beachgoers across the U.S. (and the world) less safe from shark attacks now than they were in the past? To answer these kinds of questions, one must consider more data than simply the number of reported attacks.

The 2012 summary discusses other factors which can affect the number of reported attacks. The report states that the number of shark-human interactions is directly correlated with the number of hours humans spend in waters where sharks are found. The report goes on to say that an increase in attacks should be expected over time as an “upsurge” in aquatic recreational activities continues. In addition to more people being in the water, the ISAF also has improved its efficiency in recording attacks over the past few decades, which logically would result in an increase in reported attacks, even if the number of actual attacks remained consistent during this time period, given the assumption that not all attacks were recorded.

The gist of this past year’s ISAF summary seems to be that while the data might indicate a “record number” of attacks in the U.S. and a slight increase in worldwide attacks from 2011 to 2012, the relative risk of an individual human being involved in a shark attack has not necessarily increased over the past year.

California white sharks have endangered species protection during a one-year review period.

KABC-TV reports that the California Fish and Game Commission has voted unanimously to advance the candidacy of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) as a potential endangered species. The status review will last for one year and will grant the species the same protections as a listed endangered species during the review period.

It is already illegal to target and harvest white sharks in California. The candidacy status will also make incidental catch of the species illegal in state waters.

The commission vote followed a petition from Oceana to protect the subspecies of white sharks along the California coast. According to the KABC-TV report, state researchers hope to get a more accurate estimate of population numbers during the review and will assess threats to the species. The commission will use the information gathered from the review to make an “informed decision” on whether to list the species as endangered under California law.

The great white shark is currently listed as “vulnerable” globally on the IUCN Red List.

A South African fisherman poses with a protected great white shark at Beacon Point, Mossel Bay.
(photo courtesy of Oceans Research)

According to a press release from the South African Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), fisherman Leon Bekker has been found guilty of illegally catching and landing a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) by the Mossel Bay Magistrate’s Court. Bekker was reporteddly sentenced to either a fine of R120,000 (approximately $13,500 or 10,000€) or twelve month prison sentence (suspended for five years).

Bekker was found guilty of having “caught, landed, and disturbed” the protected shark species in March of 2011. The verdict marks the first time in the history of South Africa’s courts that someone has been convicted of violating the protection legislation of the great white shark.

According to the press release, The DAFF “welcomes the verdict and stiff sentence” and hopes it will serve to deter others who might be contemplating catching or disturbing South Africa’s protected species.

In October of 2011, Bekker was identified by the Cape Times as the fisherman seen posing with a great white shark, which had been landed on the rocks at Beacon Point, Mossel Bay. Oceans Research issued a press release on the catch, which included photos taken by researchers Enrico Gennari and Ryan Johnson that documented the shark being caught and dragged onto the rocks. Bekker was also photographed posing with the shark after it was landed.

Female white shark caught and killed in Mozambique. (photo used with permission from Adam Baugh)

Adam Baugh encountered group of local fishermen hauling in a catch from their fishing nets on Monday (12/28/2012) in Jangamo, Mozambique (35km south of Inhambane). When Baugh, a dive instructor at the Guinjata Resort Dive Centre, saw that the fishermen had caught a large shark, he headed down to the water with his camera. As he got closer to the shark he realized that the fishermen had netted a female great white (Carcharodon carcharias), which he estimated to be approximately 3m in length. According to Baugh’s account the shark was already dead when she was pulled into the beach.
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