Crazy Cool/Amazing Shark Video From Catalina

It's got all the elements, a gill netted seal, a hungry white shark or mako, and a surprise.

If it's September in California it's shark time folks. A free Shark Diver T-shirt to the first person to positively ident this shark as either a mako or very small white.

A similar attack by an actual mako on a seal happened on July 31, 2010 at Catalina.

Enjoy:

Great White shark carried out fatal Seychelles attack?

Strange though it may sound to folks who know white sharks, apparently the Seychelles gov has proof that a recent well documented shark attack was that of a great white.

Now we're not conspiracy theorists, but when you look at this a little closer somethings rotten in Denmark.

We point to the fact that almost from day one Seychelles gov officials said repeatedly that the shark involved "was not one of theirs," hoping to shift blame to a "rogue shark theory".

The recent discovery of a white shark tooth and confirmation from South African experts seems to back the gov assertions that a rogue shark is in the waters of the Seychelles, an island nation that relies on tourism revenues for 50% of GDP.

No mention of the typical tropical species like the tiger and bull sharks that frequent the waters of the Seychelles - there goes Occam's Razor.

We would like to see the tooth and find out who the SA shark experts were who signed off on the "rogue white shark" in Seychelles waters, anyone know who these folks are?

The whole thing doesn't sound right, and when it comes to high profile shark attacks in major tourism waters shark attack experts fly in by the truck load and everyone has a theory.

The hard facts are sometimes harder to come by.

California Whale Bite CSI - Dana Point San Diego

What you are looking at is the fluke of a migrating Grey Whale (Eschrichtius robustus) off the coast of San Diego at Dana Point last week. A fluke with a recent bite out of it.

The image is courtesy of Dana Wharf Whale-Watching with a hat-tip to Peter Thomas Outdoors who brought it to our attention.

Click on the image for the full size.

What we noticed almost immediately were tell tale triangular marks of what might be a bite from the Great White shark.

Typically at this time of year it is the Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) that is the predator de jour of the Grey Whale, and tail bites are their signature.

This whale will survive, and probably be a bit wiser from it's latest encounter with a predator.

Our question of the day - which predator was it?

White Shark Snacking Video - East Coast

The Dorsal Fin Blog got the scoop on a white shark and seal predation story this week:

Shark Week -- Education or Just Entertainment?

Chris Palmer and Peter Kimball just hit a home run over at Huff Post today talking Shark Week and the ongoing debate about wildlife television.

Many years ago I wrote an Op Ed for a local San Diego paper titled "When Filmmakers Attack."

The article, written five years ago, was way ahead of its time looking into the the ongoing production slide at Isla Guadalupe, Mexico.

In the ensuing 5 years since then at Guadalupe many productions have sought lowest common denominator anti-shark programming with no end in sight. Note to the underwater cameraman who shot this garbage, and you call yourself pro-shark? Waddaya, new?

Chris Palmer knows of what he speaks as the author of the book "Shooting in the Wild: An Insider's Account of Making Movies in the Animal Kingdom" he has the insiders eye to wild animal productions.

With the obvious value of these productions to behemoths like Discovery Networks there's little chance we'll see substantial changes anytime soon, but its nice to have voices like Chris Palmer adding weight and mainstream media to the discussion.


Kudos.

White Sharks - Isla Guadalupe - Video Snack

Over at the Dorsal Fin Blog a very nice video expose on the perils of fishing at white shark hot spot Isla Guadalupe.

Catching a 100lb tuna at this site is exciting, having said tuna "whomped on" by a 15 foot great white? Priceless.

Casting White Sharks as Villians...Again

We have been keeping tabs on a new production in the works called The Reef.

This mornings news from Australia confirms suspicions that another "white shark attack film" is in the offing, just in time for 2010:

AN overturned hull is causing some consternation near Shelly Beach but the person most affected by the makeshift shipwreck is a movie character. Thankfully.

The character shall remain nameless. Best to say he or she meets a “grisly demise” in the waters of Hervey Bay this week and a great white shark is probably involved at some level.

Complete Story

That's One VERY Big Critter!

According to the always hysterical shark media in Australia this week, a 20 foot Great white shark is stalking the waters - or at least something as big as that with teeth.

This time though we had to pause for a moment.

The image of a ten foot white shark with two simply titantic bites out of it was enough to make us church going believers in "20 foot sharks."

The thing that got to us was the fact these bites appear to be singular events. What animal on the planet, aside from a killer whale, could possibly take 200-300 pound bites out of prey items in one pass?

Now where's our shark cage?

Sharks - Leading Economic Indicator?

All the financial Titans of Wall Street needed to do was look at the shark world to predict the slumping economy.

They look at their numbers to divine and predict the future of the financial markets and we look at ours.

According to the International Shark Attack File recorded shark attacks in 2008 slumped by 24%. If that's not a leading economic indicator please tell us what is these days.

So, in 2008 sharks took a break munching humans (thank you Mr.Shark) and in 2008 the housing debacle started to unravel in a big bad way. We will be the first to predict, based on our indicators, that 2010 will be an unheard of year for shark attacks on humans.

This shocking news will also dovetail nicely into the "great global recovery" story of markets near or at par with previously recorded highs - and all will be well with the universe again.

With the uncharted nature of global financial markets many ex industry titans have turned to jello, snow flakes, and oracle bones to peer into the future. We'll stick with sharks. A 24% slump is good news in our world.

New Shark Species - "Single Toothed Carcharodon"

Santa Cruz - Shark researchers with the Pacific Coast Research Center have announced the discovery of a new white shark sub species at famed California big wave surf spot Mavericks. Following a recent attack on a surfer where a single 2 inch tooth was recovered from the surfers leg, marine biologists have confirmed this attack was from a hereto unknown subspecies now being called the "Unidenta'tus Carcharodon" or "Single Toothed Carcharodon".

"We estimate this animal to be at least 14 feet long with one very large tooth in the middle of it's mouth" said David Munns spokesman for the PCRC. "There's really no other explanation for the single tooth and corresponding video we saw on You Tube":



The following Underwater Onion was brought to you by Shark Diver. Always check your media.

Two escape as great white shark tears apart cage

We spend a lot of time on this blog talking about the 200 million dollar shark diving industry and how the actions of local operations ripple across the globe to eventually effect us all.

For the second day in a row a major newspaper in the U.K has acquired a You Tube video shot by a diver at Isla Guadalupe in 2007.

The video details one of the worst cage breaches ever caught in the history of cage diving.

The operation in question has had several cage breaches going back to 2004 at the same dive site with the same sharks.

By way of disclosure we also operate at the same site and before anyone proffers the idea this post about "slamming a competitor" we would like to put that to rest-now.

This post is about media, responsibility, and leadership within an industry. It is about our responsibility to the animals we make a living from, it is about treating the resource as a renewable one and not as a Biological ATM Machine.

This video, for the anti shark diving lobby, who would like to see an end to shark diving in places like South Africa, Australia, the Bahamas, remains the perfect visual media tool. It is the Golden Key.

For example this video is one of the primary reason the Mexican Navy enacted a ban on chumming at Isla Guadalupe in 2008. This ban affected an entire fleet of operators and shark divers from all over the planet. All due to a video and the complete lack of any media control exercised by a commercial shark diving company.

The abject irresponsibility of allowing this video to remain on the Internet where it continues to portray great whites in a 70's mindset, continues to harm other operations at this dive site, and continues to provide a platform for those who want to end shark diving-cannot be understated.

Leadership within an industry begins with the sharks and it ends with the realization that everything we do on a local level will eventually affect those on the other side of the planet either positively or negatively. The next steps are up the the company responsible for this event.

It is high time they took full responsibility for this sad affair and "retired" this video for the sake of the industry and for the ongoing perception of sharks worldwide. These animals deserve better, you know it, the industry knows it, and no amount of post event website spin will change that.

Sharks and the Media-It's about selling papers

Woke up this morning to the following headline:

New shark terror off local beaches

If you're reading a headline like that you know it's early summer in Australia...again.

Sharks inhabit a mythic place with the media, words like terror, and killer, are bandied about with storylines so weak that it's amazing people read them. This weeks white shark flyby of a couple of boaters notwithstanding.

Unless these guys were in a vessel made of plastic bags they were never in harms way, but that does to stop the media from hyping the encounter to sell some more papers:

"I think it could be a horrific summer, it doesn't look good I've never seen them that close." As the shark held the boat captive by bumping the boat, the savvy passengers decided to pull up the anchor and allow the boat to slowly drift before making their quick get-a-way.

Editors Note: We could use some shark reality with the media these days.

Guadalupe Island-Sharks, Tuna, Wildlife

Isla Guadalupe is wild place. Big game fishermen come here looking for monster tuna, divers come here looking for the sharks that sometimes feed on the tuna.

Occasionally the two meet at the same place at the same time, usually with spectacular results as a recent article in 976-TUNA will attest:

"Guadalupe Island provides both agony and ecstasy for anglers fishing its waters. The weather can be flat calm or brutal. The fishing can be epic or dismally slow. The dolphins, fur seals, elephant seals, whales, great whites, sea birds and flying fish provide continual entertainment for the naturalist in all of us."

For those few who have witnessed the sudden and very violent 2300lb addition to their catch, these words are nothing short of poetic.

Isla Guadalupe Shark Predation-Royal Star

We had heard "rumors" about this years white shark predation in September from the crews of the Royal Star at Guadalupe. If you'll remember we caught last years shark predation on video. Without a video many of the shark stories we get never see the light of day.

Now if we could only get a cameraman without apparent hypothermia to shoot the next predation event: