The Dorsal Fin

YouTube user yleelawman recently posted the above video of what is described as a great white shark filmed in Stellwagen Bank during a whale watching tour. White sharks have been spotted fairly regularly in the waters off of Massachusetts, during this time of year, when the species is known to commonly migrate to northern waters of the Atlantic.

Update: A reader has commented that the dorsal fin seen in the video seems more characteristic of a basking shark than a white shark. After watching the video again, I’m inclined to agree. Basking sharks are also not uncommon in Massachusetts waters. Just last month a basking shark washed ashore on a Massachusetts beach after being filmed earlier swimming very close to shore.

If any shark experts out there would like to weigh in on the species identification, please let us know in the comments section. Thanks!

A great white shark predation event on a seal was captured on video by a Massachusetts’ family. According to WPRI, the event occurred 20 yards from shore, off the coast of Provincetown last week. Estimates put the white shark at approximately 15′ (4.5m) in length according to the report.

While the WPRI video report refers to the feeding event as “vicious” and “violent,” it is also noted that it is part of “the cycle of life.” Seals often serve as a natural food source for larger great white sharks.

A video game based on the popular Steven Spielberg horror film “Jaws” is now available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. While the trailer for the game might make some shark conservationists cringe with its “mindless eating machine” mentality, others might argue that it’s a harmless video game. “Jaws” the game certainly isn’t doing anything to dispel many of the largely unwarranted fears about sharks, but as a video game based on a fictitious horror movie, I have to wonder if anybody would really expect anything different.

If the game were billed as an educational app about sharks, I would certainly have no trouble crying foul. However, “Jaws” is a horror movie about a 25′ rogue great white shark who hunts down humans mercilessly. When you see the name “Jaws” attached to a video game, you pretty much know what you’re getting into.

“Jaws” (the film and its video game incarnations) catches a lot of flak for creating the mindset that sharks are mindless killers, but is the movie itself really the problem? For whatever reason, “Jaws” is simply very effective at scaring people, and the fear associated with the movie gets carried over into the real-world for many people. I would argue that the the inability to discern reality from fiction is far more to blame for misconceptions about sharks than a movie or a video game.

Fox 5/69 San Diego is reporting that lifeguards have issued a warning to swimmers and surfers after a large shark was spotted in close proximity to swimmers. Reporters are referring to the shark spotted as a white shark. The warning applies to the coastline from rom La Jolla Cove to Scripps Pier and will remain in effect until tomorrow, provided no more additional sightings are reported.

Lifeguards have not closed any beaches, but advise swimmers not to venture out in the water alone and to avoid early morning and late evening swimming.

Within a matter of days after Chuck Patterson’s great white shark footage from San Onofre started making the rounds in the media, YouTube user FussBrosProductions managed to put together a faux encounter with a white shark while kayaking by editing clips of Patterson’s white shark footage into some original kayaking footage.

A comparison of footage from Chuck Patterson and FussBrosProductions.

With the addition of the “Jaws” background music and a name like “FussBrosProductions,” it seems like the person or persons behind this particular video were just having a little bit of fun with some video editing, but it’s probably only a matter of time before somebody comments on the YouTube video swearing that they know the cousin of a kid who went to school with one of the kayakers and swears there were really white sharks there.