Sammy the Shark-Dubai

By now the world knows the plight of "Sammy the Whale Shark" in Dubai. As the story unfolds
this "rescued animal's" back-story has changed from one of wild animal care to wanton wild animal acquisition.

Which opens the door to an interesting story we can now tell you.

Several months ago we got a phone call from Dubai and an unnamed source who was looking to acquire "several great white sharks" for display. The source was wondering if our company Shark Divers was in the business of sourcing white sharks for public mega aquariums.

Naturally we were interested in the mechanics of the deal. How soon might they want these animals? One year. How many animals? Up to 5. How much per animal acquisition? The numbers varied but all told we were looking at $20-30 million for the entire project.

Which opens up the questions, the ethics, and the debate about wild animal acquisitions and large aquarium's desire to have and display charismatic megafauna...at almost any cost. While we're not implying the call came form this particular aquarium, the trend in Dubai at least at this time is animals at any cost.

Dubai Aquarium Tiger Sharks Turn Aggressive, Kill 40 Smaller Sharks

We blogged about Sand Tigers a few months ago and then double checked with a buddy who's in charge of sharks at the Long Beach Aquarium.

The final verdict? Sand Tigers are the "Hit Men" of the AQ world totally unpredictable. So it was no surprise when we read about this mornings aquarium equivalent of a "drive by massacre" at the Dubai Aquarium.

The final tally:

40 dead reef sharks

DUBAI - Sand Tiger sharks have killed at least 40 smaller reef sharks and been aggressive towards divers at The Dubai Mall Aquarium, Khaleej Times has learnt. Divers carrying out tasks in the tank, without a cage, have had their equipment substantially damaged and experienced minor injuries due to the behaviour of the sharks, according to sources.

Editors Note:The video we posted in January pretty much sums it up for these critters. A quick reminder to all AQ divers, always eat lunch with your back to a wall.

Mid East Undersea Cable Mystery-Solved!

Dubai (CMN)- As conspiracy theories build over the sudden and "mysterious"disconnect of 5 intercontinental data cables connecting large areas of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. A small team of specialized "cable divers" went down to investigate the reason for the sudden destruction.

What they discovered this week has shocked the world and answered the nagging question "Where did 5 Billion Dollars earmarked for Iraq's reconstruction go?".

Dive team leader John Magor from Dubai Salvage and Tow came right to the point, "We discovered an entire underwater city, complete with working tram lines (click image) that had inadvertently cut these cables when they ran over them". "This city is brand new, with hundreds buildings...even a Starbucks!".

The US State Department put out the following press release this afternoon, " Yes, dammit, we did build an entire city for 800,000 underwater. Everything we built above water in Iraq was being blown up, so we thought this was a good use of the Taxpayers money".

The following Underwater Onion was brought to you by Shark Diver. Seriously, this whole undersea cable thing is a bit spooky.