The Dorsal Fin

The Herald Sun is reporting that a pair of fishermen from South Australia were fined a total of over $15,000 (AUS) for a December 2008 killing of a great white shark. Additionally, the fishermen, Robert John North and Peter John Vivian, were required to forfeit the $5,978 (AUS) they received from the sale of shark’s jaws and teeth. The magistrate also ruled that the men may not possess sharks or shark-fishing equipment for a period of 5 years.

Great white sharks have been protected by law in South Australia waters since 1998.

UPDATE: According to YouTube user MsAnnabelle99, the shark in the video was a 4m+ tiger shark who had been around the boat for around 10 minutes with a pod of orcas. The video was shot approximately 8 miles off of Merimbula, New South Wales, Australia.

Not much info about this video, which showed up on YouTube today from user MsAnnabelle99. The only information provided in the video description is “shark almost bites arm.”

Based on an initial view at normal speed, it’s fairly difficult to discern what is going on, aside from the presence of a large shark around a fishing boat. However, the slow-motion footage (found at the end of the video) gives a better look at what certainly looks like a great white shark partially breaching the surface in close proximity to the cameraman, and another boater who is reaching out of over the side of the boat when the white shark surfaces.

Thankfully, it appears that everybody came out of the situation unscathed, with the exception of a good scare on the part of the cameraman.

White shark attacks on sea otters along the central coast of California hit record numbers for the month of August, this year, according to a 760KFBM.com report. The average number of shark attacks on sea otters for the month of August over a ten-year period is seven. In August of this year, scientists recovered 19 otters with apparent shark bite wounds.

Typically, when a white shark attack does occur on a sea otter, the shark will bite and then release the sea otter upon realizing that it a preferred prey item, according to Mike Harris of the California Department of Fish and Game. Harris goes on to note that unfortunately most of these attacks still prove fatal. Due to the nature of the severity of the bites and the anatomy of the sea otters, even an exploratory bite or a bite of “mistaken identity” can result in injuries that the sea otters cannot recover from.

The 760KFMB article notes that some researchers are speculating that unusually mild summer temperatures in the area might explain the increase in the incidences involving white sharks attacking sea otters, as the cooler ocean temperatures make area waters preferable to white sharks.

In addition to the shark attacks on sea otters, a New York Times article is reporting that a University of California, Santa Cruz report has linked sea otter deaths in California to a freshwater toxin. The toxin microcystin is produced by blue-green algae, and the report suggests that the toxin has leaked into the Pacific. Researchers involved in the study say that least 21 sea otter deaths were linked to the toxin.

Both sea otters and white sharks are listed as threatened species on the IUCN red list. Sea otters are classified as “endangered,” while great white sharks are currently classified as “vulnerable.”

Kudos to Rory Gibson of Australia’s Courier Mail, for his article, Hysteria over shark risk to swimmers unfounded. His commentary on the media and public reaction to the story about a photo of mauled great white shark caught on a drum line last month is both entertaining and poignant. Gibson points out, in a very tongue-in-cheek nature, that relatively low risks of shark attacks on humans, and stresses the need for conservation of the great white shark as a species. He is also critical of the Queensland shark control program, which “indiscriminantly kills a creature listed as vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.” Gibson suggests a moratorium on shark nets and drum lines until a non-lethal solution for managing white shark populations can be devised. Check out the entire article at the Courier Mail.

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.