The Dorsal Fin

Dr. Michael Domeier’s “catch and release” technique for tagging sharks, which was employed last year at Guadalupe Island and featured on a new National Geographic series, has come under some criticism from other shark researchers, as of late, after the technique was used on two sharks off the Farallones Marine Sanctuary. San Francisco’s ABC-7 ran the following report yesterday on the topic.

The incident involved with the shark at the Farallones, in which a portion of the hook was left in the white shark’s throat, is sure to draw criticism from those who believe this technique is too invasive and harmful to the sharks involved. The incident also lends support Peter Klimley’s remarks that the costs might outweigh the benefits of this technique.

What jumped out at me the most, while watching this feature, was the fact that when the technique was first covered by Outdoor Magazine in the article Great White!, the article stated, “While it’s fishing in every sense of the word, it’s imperative that the sharks are released into the sea unharmed and unstressed.” Domeier’s comments in the ABC-7 report indicate that stressing the shark is an important aspect of the technique. However, the statement in the Outdoor Magazine article is not directly attributed to anybody involved in the research, so it might have been an error on the part of the author, John Burgman.

I have little doubt that Domeier has good intentions with this tagging program, and that the goal of the program is to gain more knowledge of the species, by doing multi-year tracking (which Domeier says is not possible with the harpooning method), in order to help protect white sharks. Domeier has a long-standing track record of white shark research, which can’t be ignored. However, I have a feeling that those who are critical of the technique will be put off by Domeier’s demeanor and perceived attitude displayed in the interview clips featured in the ABC-7 report (which may have been a result of clever editing, for all I know). In addition, the photo of the team apparently in a gung ho cheer after landing one of the white sharks at Guadalupe island probably won’t sit well with critics, either.

For more commentary on the subject, check out Shark Diver’s Underwater Thrills post and Pete Thomas’ post at the LA Times Blog, which features a response from Dr. Domeier in the comments section.

WECT-6 is reporting that a 16-18′ (4.9-5.5 meter) great white shark was spotted about a mile off the coast of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina on November 8. Fisherman, Michael Ross, captured a photo of the shark with his cell phone. According to the report, Paul Barrington of the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher confirmed that the shark in the picture was a great white shark and said that the current water temperatures is “good” for white sharks.

The temptation to throw in a Jaws reference was just too great for WECT-6, as the video segment is accompanied with Jaws theme music.

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.

ABC World News has an interesting video regarding the mauled shark photos from Queensland that have recently hit the media. The video, titled “Shark vs. Shark: Real or Hoax?” can be found accompanying the article, Shark-on-Shark Attack Frightens Australia’s Gold Coast. It features a photo of the mauled shark accompanied by the following commentary:

“Take a look at this. It’s supposed to be a photo of a shark with a bite taken out of it by another shark. This was allegedly taken in Australia. Sounds slightly fishy to us, but you can be the judge of that.”

While the details of the story certainly seem sketchy at best, considering the varying reports on the mauled shark’s size, the fact that there are photographs from multiple angles of the mauled shark seems to indicate that something took two large "bite-shaped" chunks out of the shark in the photos. It’s certainly possible that somebody with some serious spare time on his/her hands was busy in PhotoShop creating multiple angles of a hoax image, but I’m going to go ahead and give the images the benefit of the doubt of being "undoctored", unless somebody proves otherwise.

Original image of mauled shark
Image of mauled shark from second angle

All that being said, I don’t believe in “monster” sharks (nor “monster” orcas, for that matter). The existence of white sharks (or orcas) in the oceans that are large enough to make large bite wounds like those seen in the photos is neither impossible nor even improbable for me to believe in. It’s no secret that they exist. I just don’t believe that being large classifies an animal as a monster. I’m also not convinced, based on those two photos, of just what exactly caused the wounds to the mauled shark.

According the AP, three more great white sharks were tagged yesterday (09/08/09) off of Monomoy Island near Chatham, Massachusetts. This brings the total number of white sharks tagged to five, in the past week (two great white sharks were tagged in the area on Saturday). Several Chatham beaches continued to remain closed due to the presence of the great white sharks in the area.

CBS news also reported on this story, but they apparently could not resist the temptation to play up the "Jaws" angle, as seen in the video segment below.

From a shark research standpoint, the tagging of five white sharks in the Atlantic is exciting news. Hopefully, the data acquired as a result of the taggings will lead to more insight into migratory behaviors of Atlantic-bound great white sharks.