Island of the Great White Shark Screening

For those of you in the Southern California area, two terrific aquarium organizations are holding screening/lecture events for Island of the Great White Shark. After the screening of the documentary, filmmaker Richard Theiss will be on hand to field questions about the film, and discuss the current state of affairs at Isla Guadalupe and shark conservation in general. This film draws a crowd so call early and coax a friend along who might be convinced that all sharks are really demons-your opinion will change.

Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institute of Oceanography
La Jolla, CA
When: Tues., Jan. 6, 2009, 6:00-8:00pm
For RSVP/tickets, call: 858-534-4109

Heal the Bay (Santa Monica Pier Aquarium)
Santa Monica, CA
When: Wed., Jan. 21, 2009, 7:00-8:30pm
For information, call: 310-393-6149

While we're here how about a shameless plug for those of you shopping for the holidays: The Island of the Great White Shark DVD is available online through Amazon, currently at a reduced price for holiday season. This award-winning documentary is a great stocking stuffer for shark lovers and those who could benefit from seeing the magnificent great white shark in a different light.

Giant Squid vs ROV 0-1

Huzzah! More Giant Squid news this week. Well, unless the ROV in this video is 60 feet across, perhaps not a Giant Squid but squiddy video news none the less...and we'll take it.

A huge squid was caught on underwater camera attacking a ROV at around 1650 ft water depth in the Gulf of Mexico. The ROV hydraulic arm made an attempt to nudge the squid away but it held on firmly to its target until it gave up and left:

Iconic Shark Image 2009-Amanda Cotton

Recently Wolfgang Leander introduced us to Amanda Cotton. We have been big fans of Wolfgang's honesty and pure love of sharks. Wolf has quietly been the voice of conscience within the shark community for a number of years now. He's got a rare and unique talent with these animals in water that is "organic".

Amanda shot what we believe is the "Iconic Shark Image" of 2009 featuring Wolfgang and a female Tiger with a hook in her mouth. As a stand alone image the story telling is terrific and as an ambassador image to the plight of sharks worldwide there are few that compare.

We have always been partial to black and white underwater images of sharks. It is much harder to shoot in black and white because you are "compelled to tell a story" with the image-and that takes talent. As talented as Old Wolf is with his shark interactions so is Amanda with her seemingly organic ability to "be there for the image".

Shark Fin Du Jour-Sponsored by Yahoo! Inc

Our weekly feature at Underwater Thrills:Swimming With Sharks is the "Shark Fin Du Jour".

It's a look at Alibaba.com the NYSE of shark fin products on the Internet-Sponsored by Yahoo! Inc.

We will take you into the individual sellers listed on that site and introduce the top companies, what species they sell, and how many thousands of pounds of shark fins they have for sale on the global market.

Today our Shark Fin Du Jour is Stavcorp Australia Pty Ltd who can source a stunning 10 tons of sharks fins a month and who have a minimum order of shark fin via Alibaba.com of 3000 kilograms or 6500 pounds-per order.

To put this into perspective 10 tons of sharks fin equals roughly 11,000 dead sharks-per order.