When One Shark...

Great story from Australia today as one image sets the table for stronger regional shark protections:

A PHOTO of a grey nurse shark with a gang hook protruding from its eye has helped convince the State Government that more needs to done to protect the endangered species on the Mid North Coast.

The government has assured environmental groups it will consider tightening fishing restrictions off South West Rocks where the critically endangered sharks exist.

At the same time, greater protection for grey nurse shark colonies may follow off Coffs Harbour as the government reviews its Solitary Island Marine Park policy.

Environmental groups have welcomed news that Primary Industries Minister Steve Whan will look at tightening fishing restrictions.

Fish Rock and nearby Green Island near South West Rocks were declared as critical habitat for the sharks in November 2002, resulting in fishing and diving regulations.

Complete Story.

Follow up Blog Post.

Great White shark washes up on beach - Australia

Sad news from Australia this week as a beached and eventually de-jawed white shark was documented:

THE sight of a shark washed up on a stretch of sand locals call Hungry presented more than a few challenges for professional photographer Ruth Fahey. And it wasn’t just any shark, it was a great white, no less!

Ruth grabbed her camera phone and captured something few Coffs Coast locals have ever witnessed.

“I was walking along Hungry Head Beach on Friday morning when I stumbled across the shark, well out of the water in the high tide zone,” Ms Fahey said.

Then the bizarre and nerve-jangling rescue attempt began as two men attempted to haul the ocean’s top predator back to safety.

“As it was threshing about, they tried first to dig the sand away beneath it to refloat it but ended up man-handling it back into the water. It was still very sluggish when they got to knee deep water so the surfer waded it out until he was waist deep.”

Complete story.

True "Sharkitarians"

Frederic Buyle's underwater images of man and shark continue to appear around the Internet like rare found jewels. This is simply a great series of images.

His latest set can be found at the blog of Daan Verhoeven. If you can get past Daans "messianic vision" towards large predatory sharks and comments like these:

"Notice how her eyes seem to have the slight squint of pleasure?"

This photo set and the remainder of his observations are pure shark. Daan even coined a new term we kind of like for those who play with sharks, "Sharkitarian".

Amanda Cotton Gets a Blog-Kudos

It is refreshing to see the up and coming faces of underwater photography. Those shooters who, for the pure joy of the image, end up taking shots that have the potential to change the way we see things.

One of these people is Amanda Cotton whose black and white imagery of large predatory sharks strikes the right note about these animals in ways color photography cannot. As we blogged about her a few months back, "when shooting in black and white you are forced to tell a story to make the shot work, Amanda's work is just plain organic".

We discovered this week she launched a new blog (and the shark crowd goes crazy).

Kudos Amanda, while your images give voice to the sharks now it's time for you to give voice to your images...oh and we'll be here to help as well.