The Dorsal Fin

The following report and accompanying photos were provided by Cassie Heil of Oceans Research. The report involves a fisherman catching a protected great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) at Beacon Point in South Africa’s Mossel Bay. The shark was eventually returned to the water by Ryan Johnson, an Oceans Research scientist. Thanks to Ms. Heil and Oceans Research for sharing this story, and kudos to Johnson for his efforts to return the protected shark back into the water.

Man Illegally Catches a great white shark in Mossel Bay
Press release – 16th October, 2011: Mossel Bay

On Friday 14th October 2011, Oceans Research received a phone call from local members of the community regarding an incident that was taking place at Beacon Point in Mossel Bay. A fisherman was in the process of catching a great white shark and was hauling it onto the rocks. In South Africa, the white shark is a protected species, and if one is inadvertently hooked then it must be immediately released.

Ryan Johnson, a scientist from Oceans Research rushed down to the location to discover the fisherman still had the shark out of the water; was making no effort to return it to the water and was instead posing for photographs being taken by his two companions. Simultaneously, Oceans Research scientist, Enrico Gennari, telephoned the local fisheries inspector from the Department of Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), who assured Gennari that he was going to make his way to the location to investigate (the DAFF offices are situated less than 1 kilometer from the fishing location).
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The following report and accompanying photos were provided by Cassie Heil and Oceans Research. Thanks to Ms. Heil and Oceans Research for sharing this story, and kudos to all those who helped with the rescue effort.

3m Great White Shark breaches into Research Boat Oceans Research Team gets a little too close for comfort

Mossel Bay, 18 July, 2011: The Oceans Research team, a marine research organisation working in Mossel Bay, got the surprise of a lifetime today when a 3 meter great white shark breached into their research vessel, shocking a field specialist and her crew.

Field Specialist Dorien Schroder of Mossel Bay, and six crew members had been chumming since 7:30 this morning with sardines off of Seal Island, conducting research for a population dynamics study that has been ongoing for the past three years. They had been chumming for over an hour and had a fair amount of activity around the boat, taking data on at least 4 sharks, including a shark named Pasella, which has been frequently seen in the bay since 2008.

Activity around the boat had ceased for about five minutes and all was pretty quiet at the stern. Schroder describes the incident; Next thing I know I hear a splash, and see a white shark breach out of the water from side of the boat hovering, literally, over the crewmember who was chumming on the boats portside. Schroder automatically sprang into action and pulled the crewmember quickly away towards the stern of the boat’s platform into safety. The crewmembers all jumped towards the stern of the boat as the 3m, 500kg, shark landed on the top of the fuel and bait storage containers. The shark had landed with only half of its body onto the boat and Schroder and her team hoped that as it thrashed it would make its way back into the water. But instead the panicked shark worked itself into the boat getting stuck in between the 1.5x2m area behind the container and boats stern. The shark began thrashing around, destroying equipment and cutting the fuel lines as it twisted and turned on the boats deck. (continue reading…)

Discovery’s new promotional video for “Ultimate Air Jaws” follows Chris Fallows as he attempts to understand why white sharks are coming in close to shore of the coast of Mossel Bay.

If this video is an indication of what we can expect from the network this year as far as promotional material for Shark Week 2010 goes, then I’d say they’ve made leaps and bounds in the right direction compared to last year’s marketing campaign. The promo video features some amazing slow-motion breach footage and seems to be more focused on information and education versus trying to drum up fear. Hopefully, we’ll see more of these types of promotional videos from Discovery leading up to this year’s Shark Week.

Apparently, the term "monster shark" is hip these days. Another story of a supposedly “monster shark” has hit the news media less than a week after the story of a “monster shark” off the Queensland coast caused a media storm of it own.

A Daily Telegraph article titled, Monster great white shark caught in South Africa not yet fully grown, reports about another supposed “monster.” This time the “monster” is unfortunately a white shark that died as a result of being entangled in a shark net on August 31, 2009 near Mossel Bay (Western Cape, South Africa). According to the report, the shark was an adolescent female measuring 4.3m (14′) in length. Those familiar with white sharks would hardly consider this to be an exceptionally large white shark, but for some reason some in the media have deemed it a “monster shark.” For some reason, The Daily Telegraph is reporting that the news that this is an adolescent shark is “frightening,” despite the fact that white sharks are known to grow considerably larger than the shark involved in this story. In fact, a much larger white shark was caught in the same area in 2002, according to the report. No word on whether or not that white shark met the requirements to be classified as a “monster.” Then again, “monster shark” might not have been a cool buzzword in the media back in 2002.

Some of the media outlets out there need to come back to Earth, because they are clearly way over the top, when it comes to these “monster shark” stories.

In related news, IOL News, is reporting that the dissection of the shark caught in Mossel Bay has been filmed by Windfall Films for the UK documentary series, Inside Nature’s Giants.