The Dorsal Fin

WARNING: Video features preparation of a dissection of a great white shark.

Nat Geo Wild recently posted the above video about the jaws of a great white shark to its YouTube channel. Despite the “Menacing Jaws” title, the video itself is fairly informative and manages to avoid sensationalism, for the most part.

A female white shark that had drowned in a fishing net is being prepared for dissection in the clip, and her jaws are used for illustrative purposes throughout the video. The clip discusses the anatomical features of the jaws of white sharks and briefly touches on the physiology associated with a great white shark bite.

Also of interest in this video is the mention of the market for great white shark jaws. Due to the white shark’s protection status in most of the waters where they are commonly found, great white shark jaws are considered highly valuable, which unfortunately can make the species a target for illegal fishing. White shark jaws also unfortunately carry a high “trophy” status, which also make them a desired item by some. A quick search online turned up one set of white shark jaws with an asking price of close to $10,000. (The jaws for sale were obtained legally prior to protection laws, according to the seller.)

Underwater videographers Ron and Valerie Taylor have been filming sharks for nearly 50 years primarily for documentaries, according to CNN.com. However, a sequence that they filmed for the horror movie “Jaws” might be one of their most recognized pieces of film. The Taylors discuss shooting the sequence in the video above.

While the fictitious shark featured in “Jaws” was supposed to be upwards of 25′ in length, the Taylors were used to filming great white sharks that were about half that length. To compensate for the size difference a miniaturized cage with a “small” man were used for filming the sequences in the movie that involved a real white shark (other scenes used the infamous mechanical shark “Bruce”). Ron Taylor goes on to discuss how the real white shark actually became entangled in the prop cage, which resulted in the shark panicking and essentially dismantling the cage, which gave off the appearance in the sequence used in “Jaws” that the shark was purposely attacking the cage.

While the Taylors are committed to conservation efforts for sharks these days, Ron Taylor admits that some of their work might have contributed to the negative stereotypes that exist among the general public when it comes to sharks. He says that “Jaws” was so effective and “well done” that people started believing that the fictitious tale was indicative of real shark behavior. Taylor goes on to say that some documentaries perpetuate these stereotypes due to the fact that a lot of documentary footage featuring human and shark interactions, involves baiting the sharks.

The Taylors are proponents of “no-take zones” in which fishing for all species of sharks would be prohibited to allow for sharks to reproduce and maintain sustainable numbers. Valerie Taylor believes that “good imagery” can help change perceptions about these protected marine environments and likens them to land-based national parks.

The full interview with the Taylors will air on CNN’s Talk Asia. For more information check out the article at CNN.com.

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.

It would seem that even whales aren’t immune to “Jaws” references in the news. CNN‘s report on a breaching whale that landed on a sailboat near Cape Town harbor features clips from “Jaws.” Additionally, during an interview in the report, the interviewer even asks one of the occupants of the boat if she thought about “Jaws” when the incident happened.

The southern right whale was “definitely badly bruised, but probably did not break anything,” according to a marine scientist quoted in USA Today. The USA Today article also calls into question whether or not the whale was being harassed by the boaters. Legally, sailors are required to stay at least 1,000′ from whales, according to the report.

In other breaking news, CNN also aired a clip this morning of a someone being chased by a moose. There were no “Jaws” references in the moose report, though.

Live Science has an interesting read on how the movie “Jaws,” the Jersey Shore attacks of 1916, and World War II accounts of shark attacks have altered the public perception of sharks over the past century. The article quotes George Burress as saying

“At the turn of the 20th century, there was this perception that sharks had never attacked a human being. There was even a reward offered if someone could prove they were bitten by a shark — money that was never collected.”

The article goes on to note that after “Jaws” was released shark-hunting tournaments began to gain popularity on the East Coast of the U.S. According to Burress, the shark-hunting trend “dramatically reduced nearly all shark species over the following decades.”

The article also goes on to mention an “inadvertent benefit” that came about as a result of declining shark populations. Scientist became more conscious of the need learn more about sharks which resulted in an increase in funding for shark research.

Visit Live Science to see the full article, How ‘Jaws’ Forever Changed Our View of Great White Sharks.