According to a WPRI Eyewitness News news clip, 3 to 4 great white sharks were spotted by a pilot yesterday (07/27/10) off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts. At least one shark, estimated at 12′ in length, was tagged by a fisherman. Increasing sightings of great white sharks around the Chatham area have been attributed by some researchers to large populations of seals, which are a food source of the sharks.

The St. Petersburg Times will run a print article on Bill Goldschmitt (aka “The Sharkman of Cortez”) in this Sunday’s edition of the paper. The article details many of Goldschmitt’s “strong opinions,” which include the belief that there are too many sharks in the oceans, and that scientists’ claims of decreasing are unfounded based on his own personal observations. Goldschmitt comes off as rather tame in the video above compared to the print article which is already available online at TampaBay.com.

If nothing else, the article is an “interesting” glimpse into the mind of Goldschmitt.

According to a statement from Paul Barrington, the shark involved in the Wrighstville Beach incident was erroneously identified as a sand tiger shark.

Contrary to statements made in a WECT.com feature on the recent shark attack at Wrightsville Beach, Paul Barrington of the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher was quoted today in a Lumina News article as saying…

"A lot of the media has so far erroneously identified it as a sand tiger shark. It takes a tremendous amount of forensics to determine specifically what type of shark it is."

The WECT.com feature stated that Barrington believed that "a sand-tiger shark could have been the suspect" in the Wrightsville Beach incident. However, Barrington’s recent quotes seem to dispute that notion.

George Burgess stated in the Lumina News article that the species of shark involved will likely remain a mystery. Burgess and Barrington confirmed the shark was approximately 4′ in length. Barrington’s list of suspected species include the small sharpnose shark (the species with presently the largest population in coastal NC), the dusky, the sandbar, the lemon, the black tip or the spinner shark, according to the Lumina News article.

According to WECT.com, Paul Barrington, of the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, believes the shark suspected of biting a 13-year-old girl at Wrightsville Beach, NC might be sand tiger shark (aka grey nurse shark or ragged tooth shark). Kendall Parker sustained a single bite to the arm, while she was in waist-deep water on Saturday. Her injuries required 40-stitches, but she is expected to make a full-recovery.

The sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus) is generally considered to be “docile” and non-threatening to humans. A sand tiger shark’s diet consists primarily of fish. Barrington mentions in the interview above that with a the number of bait fish in the water a “hit-and-run attack” could be a case of mistaken identity.

According to the Cape Cod Times, a 15′ (4.5m) great white shark was spotted “chasing seals into shallow water” south of Nauset Beach in Orleans, Massachusetts on Sunday (July 11). Chatham Harbor Master Stuart Smith reported seeing the shark “chase seals into breaking surf, trap them against the shore and then attack them.” The sighting did not result in any beach closures in the area.

A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs encouraged potential beach-goers to be aware of the presence of the sharks and to avoid swimming in areas populated by seals. The spokesperson suggested not to change plans about going to beach as a result of the sighting and noted that white sharks have been sighted in the region for hundreds of years.

The Cape Cod Times reports that the last recorded fatal shark attack in Massachusetts was in 1936.

CapeCast interviewed beach-goers about the sighting, which can be seen in the video of above.

Artist, researcher, and conservationist Guy Harvey was recently featured on CNN. The video touches on the many aspects of Harvey’s work including his marine-life artwork and his conservation efforts. Harvey’s revolutionary no-kill Ultimate Shark Challenge tournament is also briefly discussed in the video feature.

Harvey has also recently launched the Save our Gulf campaign, in which proceeds from the sale of posters and t-shirts go directly to efforts to clean-up the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Check out CNN.com to read the full-article about Guy Harvey.

The U.S. Coast Guard has issued a shark advisory for boaters in northeast waters.

The Associate Press is reporting that the Coast Guard has issued an advisory for boaters off northeast coast of the U.S. The article features several quotes from Al Johnson, the 1st Coast Guard District’s recreational boating specialist. There is no mention of Johnson’s expertise on white shark behavior, although the article does quote him on the subject. While Johnson does say that predation is generally not a concern for boaters and paddlers, he goes on to state…

“But I have no doubt that a great white shark that swims into your comfort zone would surely find a splashing paddle or dangling hand inviting. I also expect that same passing shark would spend little time differentiating between boater, paddler and prey.”

While it’s certainly prudent (for multiple reasons) to make boaters aware of the presence of white sharks in the area, the statements from Johnson seem to be a bit off-base. There are multiple first-hand accounts of people kayaking around large white sharks without the “splashing of a paddle” causing aggressive behavior from the sharks. The most well-known white shark encounters involving kayaks was documented by Michael Scholl and Thomas Peschak for Africa Geographic.

That being said, just because other people have kayaked with white sharks without incident does not necessarily mean that it’s something that is recommended for everybody to do. In fact, just last year there was a case of a kayak being bumped by a white shark in Australia that resulted in the kayaker being tossed into the water. The kayaker was unharmed and swam to a nearby boat.

However, to say there is “no doubt” that a shark would consider a dangling paddle “inviting” or spend little time differentiating between prey and a boater/paddler is a fairly bold statement. Research and observed behavior of white sharks has shown that white sharks can often be very discriminating about targeting prey during a predation event.

So, while Johnson does offer some sound advice to boaters on some levels, his rationale behind the advice is somewhat questionable, in my opinion. Should the public be aware that white sharks are in the area? Of course, but the information regarding the presence of these animals should not be accompanied by conjecture that seems to be in stark contrast to available research and observed behavior of white sharks.

At the end of the day, white sharks are large predatory animals, and from that respect a level of caution should always be taken in their presence, as there is certainly a level of danger associated with them. However, research has shown that they are also not the mindless attacking machines of horror movies and folklore who attack anything in sight. It is important for those who might encounter these animals to understand that, in order to avoid a panicked response, so that encounters can be addressed with common sense and level-headed thinking.

Here’s to a safe holiday weekend for all of those celebrating Independence Day this weekend, whether you be in the water or on the land.

The presence of white sharks in the Cape Cod area is expected again this summer.

Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory’s “State’s little white lie” addresses what the author appears to believe is an attempt by Massachusetts state officials to downplay concern over the presence of great white sharks in the Cape Cod area. McGrory likens an announcement from Ian Bowles, state secretary of environmental affairs, and Dr. Gregory Skomal of Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries to the attempted cover-up of a shark attack by the fictional character, Mayor Vaughn, from the movie “Jaws.” The announcement from Bowles and Skomal informed the people of Massachusetts that there was nothing to fear from great white sharks in the area, when it comes to visiting Massachusetts beaches over the upcoming holiday weekend.

Clearly, McGrory does not agree with this statement, but he offers little in the way of any kind of scientific evidence as to why this announcement should be viewed with skepticism by the public, save for references to a Google search, regarding white shark births and information from Answers.com (which is a user-submitted wiki, often lacking any references) regarding the maternal nature of white sharks. The references to white shark births were included as a result of McGrory expressing concern over the young white shark that was tagged last week in Stellwagen Bank last week.

McGrory’s logic seems to be that if a young white shark is present in Massachusetts’ water, then there is potential for other white sharks, including the shark’s mother and possible siblings, to be in the same general area. While this line of thinking isn’t necessarily flawed, the idea that swimmers are at risk due to the sighting of a young white shark 20 miles off the coast could certainly be considered questionable.

McGrory’s piece is undoubtedly tongue-in-cheek at times, but the overall message is that he believes beach-goers in Massachusetts are in danger if they go swimming. McGrory seems fairly convinced of this danger to the point that he calls into question the sincerity of Dr. Greg Skomal and his stance on the safety of swimmers. McGrory goes so far as to pick apart the semantics of Skomal’s voicemail message which states his is “in the field,” to which McGrory remarks that he prefers his shark expert to be “in the water.”

While there are always going to be risks involved with going to the beach (and doing just about anything else in life), the scientific evidence suggests that the risk of an attack by a great white shark is relatively negligible. Obviously, the presence of a relatively large number of white sharks which are known to be feeding in a particular area will increase the odds of an attack if people are swimming in that area. In that respect, McGrory’s concerns over the dangers of white sharks are not completely unfounded. However, last year when a large number of sightings of white sharks were reported near Chatham beaches, the government did, in fact, recognize the increased risk and closed the affected beaches.

McGrory’s story seems to promote the idea that officials such as Bowles and Skomal are being irresponsible by informing the public that the beaches are safe, but the same argument could be made toward McGrory for suggesting (albeit sarcastically) that the officials are being disingenuous toward the public. McGrory doesn’t offer much evidence to support the implied dangers that he is trying to alert the reader to. The article implies McGrory’s knowledge of white sharks is limited to what he has seen in the movie “Jaws” and to what he has Googled. On the other hand, Dr. Skomal has a background studying marine life, including great white sharks and was on-hand and “in the field” (aka on the water) last year during the tagging process of some of these white sharks. To McGrory’s credit, he does state toward the end of his column that he can only speak for himself. However, he then goes on to urge everyone to stick to the miniature golf course over the holiday weekend.

At the end of the day, we all have to make our own decisions about the risks we take. I’ll be heading to a North Carolina beach next week not far from where a bull shark attack occurred last week. I’m more worried about being on the road with drunk drivers over the holiday weekend than I am about swimming with sharks. As Mr. McGrory said, I can only speak for myself.

CNN ran a feature this morning on about the effects of the oil spill on sharks. The video feature itself focuses on Neil Hammerschlag‘s tagging of sharks touches on the potential effects that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could have on shark populations there. Hammerschlag also points out that a hammerhead shark he had been tracking via a satellite tag stopped transmitting data right around the time of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, although Hammerschlag went on to say that a number of factors could have contributing to the termination of the data being transmitted. Hammerschlag’s research teams hopes to gather information from the tagged sharks with regard to whether or not they will be swimming through water contaminated with oil from the spill. You can read the full article at CNN.com.

KABC News is reporting that a 13-year-old North Carolina teen is expected to fully recover after being bitten twice on her left leg while swimming off Topsail Island in North Carolina. Carley Schlentz’s wounds required 60 stitches. While doctors expect her to recover fully, she will be on crutches for the next few weeks and her mother said she may need reconstructive surgery after the wounds heal. The species of shark involved in the attack has not yet been determined.