The Dorsal Fin

YouTube user eclundpoland recently posted this shark diving video, which contains both video footage and some stills of whale shark encounters at the Galapagos, along with brief footage of a few hammerheads at the beginning. The footage was shot this month and offers a small glimpse of the abundant wildlife that the Galapagos Islands have to offer.

YouTube user jentinkertaylor posted this promotional video for Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions. While the video is a promotional piece, it does feature some nice footage great white shark (along with several other species that can be found around the islands) footage from the Neptune Islands that is definitely worth a look.

And now, for some positive media featuring living hammerhead sharks…

YouTube user DiveDownBelow posted this video, which was filmed at Sipadan, Malaysia. It’s refreshing to see a healthy school of hammerhead sharks in their natural habitat. Kudos!

YouTube user, BubbleheadJace recently posted some of the highest quality whale shark (Rhincodon typus) footage I’ve seen in a long time. The footage was shot in 2009 off Koh Tao, Thailand. The video encourages viewers to visit WhaleShark.org to learn more about whale sharks and how to protect them.

UK media outlets, The Sun, the Telegraph, and the Daily Mail, have all run photos from Amos Nachoum taken at Guadalupe this fall. The one photo in particular that seems to be drawing the most attention from the media outlets is head-on shot of a “smiling” white shark that the media outlets are comparing to the character Bruce, from Pixar’s Finding Nemo.

This photo might not look like Bruce from Finding Nemo.
But, it does show that you can take a close-up of a smiling great white shark from inside a cage at Guadalupe.

While the head-on shark photo may be the center of attention for the average viewer, I have a feeling that one of the other photos, which features an underwater photographer diving cage-less in close proximity with a white shark, will likely cause some shark diving operators to cringe when they see it. Amos’ decision to take recreational divers cage-less at Isla de Guadalupe recently drew sharp criticism from some shark diving operators, as well as shark diving blogs, including Underwater Thrills: Swimming with Sharks and The Best Shark Dive Ever, due to the fact that it is against the law to offer cage-less dives on a commercial level at Isla de Guadalupe. The appearance of these images in the mainstream UK media probably are not going to alleviate that criticism, as Mr. Nachoum’s media promotion of this illegal dive will likely serve only to further threaten legitimate dive operations at Isla de Guadalupe.

Following hot on the heels of the “monster shark” hysteria, The Sun refers to the white shark in the photo as “giant,” while the Daily Mail calls it “gigantic.” The actual length of the shark was reported as 14′ (4.25 meters) in length.