The Dorsal Fin

The rather whimsical video below was posted today at Jean-Michel Cousteau’s OFS YouTube Channel and features an encounter between a great white shark and an African penguin (sometimes referred to as a jackass penguin, due to the donkey-like noises they can emit). So exactly what happens when an African penguin and a white shark go toe-to-toe (or jaw to beak, as the case may be), check the video out and see for yourself!

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.

Earth-Touch.com posted a new video footage today featuring encounters with common bottlenose dolphins, a manta ray, and a 5-6m whale shark. The video footage was shot at Sodwana Bay, off the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa on October 14th.

According to News24.com, a surfer has died after suffering a shark bite to his right leg, while surfing Glentana and Outeniqua, near Mossel Bay, today. The species of shark involved in the attack is not known at this time, according to the report. The victim was brought ashore by a friend who had been surfing with him. According to National Sea Rescue Institute spokesperson, Craig Lambinon, the victim was airlifted to George Provincial Hospital in critical condition. After all efforts to save the man’s life were exhausted, he was declared deceased at the hospital. Lambinon made the following statement regarding the tragedy:

"The NSRI and the emergency services have expressed our deepest sympathies to the family of the victim."

This is the kind of story that you never want to see, and while the odds of a fatal shark attack are highly unlikely, those odds are of little consolation to the people who are directly affected by such a rare event. My sympathies go out to the friends and family of the victim.

A recent Independent Online article does a great job of objectively covering a research study on a 4m (13′) female bull (or Zambezi) shark, who was “caught, measured and then released and tracked,” in the estuary of the Breede River, which feeds into St Sebastian Bay at Witsand in South Africa.

Researchers believed the shark to be pregnant and concluded that the estuary could be a “nursery” for the species. The researchers also found that the bull shark “spent a considerable amount of its time investigating both shore and boat anglers up and down the river, as well as cast-netters at the mouth of the estuary, and that it frequently swam into water less than 1.5m deep.”

The article mentions the decline in numbers of the species, including it’s ‘near-threatened’ status on the IUCN Red List. Overall, the article does is quite informative without any sensationalism, and it does a good job of address conservations issues.