The Dorsal Fin

The now infamous cage breach video shot at Guadalupe in 2007 continues to get more mileage in the media. The latest outlet that it has shown up at is Tru Tv’s World’s Dumbest series. For some reason, media outlets just love this video and making generalizations about white sharks and shark diving, in general. While there are countless hours of exceptional Guadalupe white shark video footage out there, for some reason a few seconds of this footage keeps showing up all over the place and continues to give a bad impression to viewers about what really goes on with cage diving at Guadalupe.

In what may be some good news to the ears of shark tour operators, the Honolulu Advertiser is reporting that a proposal to ban shark diving operations on O’ahu has been abandoned. The decision was made yesterday (October 7) by the Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee following a 7-1 vote against the bill, which was preceded by close to three hours of testimony from those both for and against the ban.

Opponents of shark diving operations suggest that the tours can create a hazard to the safety of the general public. However, there is no scientific evidence to support this claim. According to the article, the committee was advised by attorneys that concrete evidence needed to be provided which supported the safety hazard claim. As of now, only anecdotal evidence exists, according to Todd Apo, council chairman.

The bill was proposed by Charles Djou, the chairman of the Executive Matters Committee. Djou stated that he believed enough evidence was presented in yesterday’s testimony to support the idea that shark tours can pose a threat to the public. Based on the 7-1 vote, it would seem the rest of the council disagreed.

YouTube user Jero Prieto recently posted 91 seconds of some excellent shark footage. According to the YouTube info, it was shot last month in the Galapagos. The footage features schooling hammerheads being closely followed by a whale shark. The camera angle as the whale shark passes by really makes for some fantastic footage. Take note that at no point in the video do the divers decide to hitch a ride on, stand on, or have a party with 14 of their closest friends on the whale shark.

National Geographic recently posted a new video on their YouTube channel set to ABC4Explore‘s The Great White Shark Song.

Unlike the original video (WARNING: Explicit lyrics), which predominantly featured footage from South Africa, the new video features a lot of footage from what appears to be Isla de Guadalupe (I see a few familiar sharks in the video). ABC4 (Andy Brandy Casagrande IV) is seen throughout the video strumming his guitar in open water with multiple white sharks, which I’m sure will make a lot of dive operators cringe. I’m not sure who he was diving with out there, but needless to say, “Don’t try this at home, kids.” (and by “home” I mean, Isla de Guadalupe). The new video also features toned down lyrics (no “F bombs” in this version).

YouTube member Austin Buzzett posted a video yesterday with some footage of whale shark encounters off Grayton Beach and Seagrove Beach. The video does feature a few scenes with divers/snorkelers touching and hanging on to the dorsal fin of one of the whale sharks, which I strongly discourage, I think the overall theme of the video and the nature in which it depicts the whale sharks is definitely worth sharing.