The Dorsal Fin

The past few weeks have generated negative sentiment toward Rosie O’Donnell among some online conservation groups for photos that recently surfaced on Mark “The Shark” Quartiano’s website. A photo featuring O’Donnell and some of her family members posing with a hammerhead shark they caught, recently appeared after Quartiano named O’Donnell “This Month’s Celebrity Angler.”

The shark seen in the photo at the center of the controversy appears to be a great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran). The great hammerhead is listed as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List. Despite the endangered status of the species, it was not until January 1 of this year that it became illegal to kill great hammerhead sharks in Florida state waters.

Until this week the criticism was limited to online social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter. However, it seems that the major media has picked up the story this week. Several media outlets based in Miami are reporting on the story, as are a handful of international media outlets.

O’Donnell has responded via Twitter that the photo was “taken years ago” and occurred before the regulations were put into effect banning the killing of hammerhead sharks. Quartiano told Miami’s WSVN-TV that conservationists are targeting the wrong person, noting that as a result of commercial fishing operations “metric tons of sharks being killed daily right outside of our coast.”

YouTube user CaptainRichSmith11 recently posted the video above, which features a great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran) going fin-to-fin with an Atlantic Tarpon (Megalops atlanticus). I’m pretty sure the great hammerhead ended up winning the battle. I could have done with the “Jaws” theme music, but it’s still some nifty predation footage.

According to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission press release, the FWC has proposed new rules to prohibit the harvest of tiger (Galeocerdo cuvier), great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran), scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini), and smooth hammerhead (Sphyrna zygaena) sharks in Florida waters. According to the FWC, research indicates that these species have suffered population declines in recent decades, and the scalloped hammerhead is “overfished.”

The Sun-Sentinel is reporting that the FWC has already “approved a ban” on the killing of these species. However, the FWC press release states that a final hearing on the proposed ban will not take place until November.

While the proposed ban would prohibit the killing of these four species, catch-and-release fishing of the sharks would still be permitted.

MSNBC is reporting that the results of the first successful satellite tracking of great hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna mokarran) followed a single shark over a 62-days journey. The great hammerhead was tagged in the waters of southern Florida as part of an effort by Neil Hammerschlag and colleagues who are tracking tropical sharks in an attempt document migration patterns.

Over the course of the great hammerhead shark’s 62-day journey, Hammerschlag told MSNBC that the shark had traveled 745 miles (as the crow flies). The shark swam from the waters of southern Florida to the coastal waters of New Jersey.

Scientific data about the great hammerhead is scarce, but this latest study will hopefully provide more insight into the migratory behavior of the species and help researchers to identify key geographic locations where the sharks migrate for feeding, mating, and giving birth.

The evidence that great hammerhead sharks are capable of traveling such large distances in a relatively short time also indicates that the species could potentially be migrating into international waters making to susceptible to illegal fishing. Hammerschlag hopes that this research will help provide information that can be used to assist with conservation efforts aimed at protecting and managing great hammerhead sharks.

YouTube user GrantJohnsonMD has posted a video of a free-swimming great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) being tagged off of Bimini, Bahamas. The shark is described as a 12′ female and was tagged with a with a NMFS dart tag, which will help with research purposes to better understand the species, which is listed as “endangered” on the IUCN redlist.

The video description points out that the shark was tagged while free-swimming (as opposed to a catch and release tagging) in order to reduce stress on the animal. As can be seen in the video, the shark does not seem to be fazed by the tagging process. She remains in the area after being tagged and continues to show interest in the hang bait.