The Dorsal Fin

The video above features footage of United Kingdom angler Pete Thorman participating in a catch and release tagging program of white sharks in South Africa. According to the video information, the footage is taken from old home videos during Thorman’s fishing trips to facilitate conservation efforts involving the tagging of great white sharks.

Thorman caught and released 26 white sharks as part of the program, according to the video description. The events featured in the video were shot prior to regulations that created a total ban on rod and reel catches of white sharks in South Africa.

In addition to commentary about Thorman’s angling efforts as they relate to the tagging program, the narrator of the video also interjects his opinions and theories about baited cage diving in South Africa.

The footage above features Mark Addison of South Africa’s Blue Wilderness free-diving with tiger sharks at Aliwal Shoal. Admittedly, I’m more of the no-touch diving mindset, so I’m not a big fan of the shots of “shark riding” seen in the video. That being said, the video does a good job of illustrating that tiger sharks aren’t mindless eating machines that will attack anything they see.

Raw video footage of a southern right whale breaching and landing on a sailboat has surfaced since the news story first hit the media last week.

The Independent Online reported that South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs is investigating the incident after several witnesses claim that the boat had illegally approached the whale in violation of regulations that require boaters to give the whales at least a 300m berth. The eyewitness accounts seemed to be backed up by a voice, which can be heard in the background of the raw video saying, “They don’t listen. You can’t go close.”

CNN.com has an extended version of the raw footage, in which the crew of the boat from which the video was filmed seemingly left the scene laughing at the crew of the sailboat without checking on the well-being of the boaters. Fortunately, nobody was hurt on-board the sailboat.

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.

The Dyers Island Conservation Trust recently posted this short video on parasitic copepods infecting white sharks in South Africa. If you’ve watched enough videos or looked at enough photos of sharks, then you’ve probably noticed some of these parasitic species freeloading off of a host shark. One of the most noticeable on white sharks, as can be seen in this video, is the Pandarus satyrus. While a vast majority of the oceans’ copepods are free-living, it is estimated that about 15% are parasitic in nature. For more information check out this article on parasitic copepods.