The Dorsal Fin

YouTube user TheKraken21 posted the above video featuring a flying remote controlled great white shark balloon seen at San Diego’s 2011 Comic Con. According to another YouTube video, the flying shark was part of Discovery’s “Shark Week” promotion.

Here’s another Shark Week 2011 promo from DiscoveryNetworks YouTube Channel. The clip is taken from the program “Great White Invasion” and features Chris Fallows free diving off Mexico’s Isla de Guadalupe with multiple white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias). Guadalupe is know as one of the premiere locations for viewing great white sharks during the fall months.

Shark Week 2011 programming premieres July 29 at 9pm on the Discovery Channel.

DiscoveryNetworks YouTube channel offers up a preview clip of the upcoming show “Jaws Comes Home” which features footage shot around the carcass of whale which several blue sharks (Prionace glauca), as well as an an 18′ female white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), have come to feed on.

Researcher Greg Skomal and cameraman Nick Caloyianis take the opportunity to film/photograph the encounter from a cage, which is being supported by buoys. After taking an interest in the orange buoys supporting the cage (which the narrator dramatically describes as “attacking”), the white shark becomes trapped between the surface and the top of the cage.

While situations involving wild animals will always have a level of unpredictability, hopefully the engineers behind this particular cage design/setup will take this event into consideration with future designs.

The 2011 edition of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, hosted by Andy Samberg, is featuring a video contest, in which contestants can submit videos showing how they “celebrate” Shark Week. The submission period for videos is from June 13 to July 1. After the submission period ends, 16 videos will be chosen by Discovery Channel for a bracket-style head-to-head “Shark Week Tournament.” The videos will be voted on by online viewers over a 3-day “squabble.” The video with the higher percentage of votes will then move on to the next round. The top-two videos will be aired a commercials during Shark Week, with one video ultimately being crowned the winner.

For more information and full contest details, visit the Shark Week Video Contest website.

It looks like Andy Samberg will once again be “On a Boat” in the near future.

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Saturday Night Live’s Andy Samberg (also of The Lonely Island fame) has been named Shark Week’s “Chief Shark Officer” and will be hosting this year’s week of shark-related programming on The Discovery Channel. Samberg told Entertainment Weekly that he was “overjoyed” to be working on Shark Week.

The article goes on to mention that this year’s Shark Week will feature 7 all-new episodes. One of the new episodes, tentatively titled “Shark Invasion” will focus on great white sharks reportedly swimming in close proximity to beaches in South Africa, Australia, and the U.S. The episode will also address the question as to why there are so few attacks, in spite of the sharks’ presence in shared waters with beachgoers.