The Dorsal Fin

WARNING: The video below depicts actual events involving a boy biting the head off of a small live shark apparently for entertainment purposes. Some viewers will likely find this video to be very disturbing. Viewer discretion advised.

UPDATE:The shark video has now been pulled down. Thanks to those who flagged the video!

UPDATE:This video (and the sea gull video) are in violation of YouTube’s Terms of Service which prohibit videos depicting animal abuse. If you wish to report the video, view it at YouTube.com and click on the “Flag” icon and select “Violent of repulsive content > animal abuse”. The gull video has already been pulled down due to Terms of Service violations.

YouTube user xtyleradx posted the following video above, which appears to document the decapitation of a small live shark by a boy who bites the live animal’s head off. Based on the laughter in the background, this seems to have been done for amusement and entertainment purposes. The decapitated shark can still be seen moving after the boy has bitten his head off. The video is listed with the title “Shark Attack” on YouTube, but based on the events in the video, it seems like “Shark Attacked” would be a more appropriate title.

The same YouTube user has also posted a video documenting the decapitation of a live gull, apparently also for entertainment purposes, in recent weeks. Gulls are federally protected in the United States.

One should stress that these videos are not simply humans hunting animals for food. These are videos of people killing animals for the sake of entertainment. While you often hear that serial killers and violent criminals get their start killing animals, some psychological studies published in recent years have argued that this type of behavior is not necessarily indicative of a pattern of violence that will escalate to include violence towards humans. That is to say, that not all people who abuse animals will go on to become violent criminals. Regardless, I think it’s safe to say that the behavior documented in these videos is certainly enough to raise a red flag.

In a rather bizarre follow-up to the story about a sand tiger shark being found dead on Carolina Beach, a 15-year-old boy told WWAY-3 that he and some other teens were ordered by police to pull a sand tiger shark from the surf and allow it to die on the beach.

However, Carolina Beach Police Chief William Younginer says that’s not the case. According to Younginer, “once the first officers arrived on scene, the shark was out of the water and the shark never went back to the water.” Younginer went on to say that the officers believed the shark had already been out of the water too long to save. Experts believe the sand tiger shark, which is a protected species, was caught by a fisherman.

The sand tiger shark was dumped in a maintenance yard to decompose, where all of its teeth were later removed by a unidentified person.

The teen who made the claims to WWAY-3 says he is standing by his story.

A juvenile white shark that was once on display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium has turned up dead. The female great white was “collected” by the aquarium on August 12, 2009 and subsequently released back into the wild on November 4, 2009.

According to satellite tracking tags attached to her prior to release, the young female white shark (which can be seen in the video above) had initially traveled from Monterey Bay to Baja. She was near Ensenada, Mexico the last time she was “heard” from, according to the aquarium’s Sea Notes blog.

Unfortunately, Sea Notes goes on to report that about two months ago, the shark’s satellite tracking tags started reporting from land. Oscar Sosa-Nishizaki, a Mexican researcher, traced the satellite tag movements to the home of a fisherman who acknowledged having caught the shark in a gill-net, according to Pete Thomas’ Outdoors blog.

Great white sharks are protected species in Mexican waters, but it is not entirely uncommon for younger white sharks to end up being caught accidentally by fishermen and sold as “swordfish” at Ensenada fish markets, as the Underwater Thrills blog reported on last year.

While another white shark is gone, hopefully her death will help bring more attention to the problems that the species is facing.

Providence, Rhode Island’s ABC-6 News reported on June 23 that a 10-foot Great White Shark was captured in a fishing net and hauled aboard a fishing boat June 3rd off the coast of Narragansett, RI. One of the fishermen on-board the boat spoke with an ABC-6 reporter, choosing to remain anonymous, and informed him that the shark was released back into the water, in accordance with federal law. However, the crew also said that the shark seemed “fatigued” after being hauled in. ABC-6 also reports that there were reports that a great white was found washed ashore within a few days after the shark was captured and released.
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