Large Shortfin Mako Taken Just Off Yarmouth Harbour, Southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada 
Comparing the size of the sharks head & mouth to the guy standing beside it, one can quickly
appreciate what would happen if one of these phanthoms of the deep grabbed you
whilst  in the water Carla Allen, Transcontinental Media

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The Ocean Shores' Great White Shark Hoax 

**Scroll down for more shark stories

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 16 May, 2005 : - - There is a  good story that has been circulated on the Internet about a large Great White Shark that towed a vessel backwards after being tail looped. The story, a hoax, is posted below. In fact the photographs (above and below) are of a large short-fin Mako shark that was captured off of Nova Scotia.

The close up of the sharks head and mouth clearly show lower dentition that is narrow and pointed, which are characteristics of the Mako shark, unlike the broad, somewhat triangularly serrated teeth of a white shark.

Ralph S. Collier, of the Shark Research Committee has kindly provided the link to the Urban Legends page outlining this particular hoax entitled Yarmouth, Nova Scotia: Urban Legend based on This Years Shark Scramble Catch.

More images of the real event are to be found at the Florida Museaum of Natural History Ichthyology Department and this provided by a Surfersvillage visitor after noticing the hoax story..... Thank you Anonymous.

So the foregoing are the facts, and the following is the HOAX;-

Ocean Shores' Great White Shark

Ocean Shores Wa. USA - While the ocean vessel 'Dawn Raider' was commercial fishing for dogfish, this Great White was hooked in the mouth but only resisted slightly for 15 minutes before it came up alongside the boat to have a look; long enough for one of the crew members to slip a rope around it's tail !!! 'And that's when the s**t hit the fan!!.

The Shark took off towing the 42 foot fishing boat backwards through the water at about 7 Knots.  Just like in JAWS, the boat was taking on water over the stern and the crew watched in horror as the shark would actually jump completely out of the water at times. This went on for an hour before the shark finally drowned.

Ocean Shores Great White on display

She weighed in at 1035 LBS. It is suspected she followed a weak El Nino current into local waters in search of food.  Although mid 60 deg. water is considered ideal for these sharks, the larger ones can tolerate water in the low 50s .

Shawn Alladio
K38 Water Safety
www.ShawnAlladio.com
www.K38Maritime.com  

S.Africa animal sacrifice could spark shark attack - Oh Boy

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 16 May, 2005 : - -  JOHANNESBURG, May 12 (Reuters) - Blood from sheep butchered in a religious ritual at one of South Africa's busiest tourist beaches could tempt sharks towards bathers, an official warned on Thursday.A small group called the Healing Oracle has carried out such sacrifices on a beach in the eastern coastal city of Durban, media reported. Its leader Prophet Moses Michael said it was inspired by the Old Testament to help cure sick people.

But biologist Sheldon Dudley of the Natal Sharks Board, which aims to reduce attacks on humans, said the blood may attract sharks even though the beach is protected by nets."Putting blood or offal into the water is simply not sensible," he told Reuters. "A shark in the vicinity of the beach may come to investigate."Shark nets have helped to reduce attacks in South Africa and Durban has not seen any major incident in recent years. But three or four people are attacked every year elsewhere off the country's coasts, Dudley said.

Animal protection officers said they were also investigating cruelty allegations around the sacrifices, and an official supervising the Durban beach said they were unacceptable."A beach is a public place and we can't have animals being sacrificed in front of visitors and children," the beach official told Durban's daily news.

Source Alert Net
Contributed by K38 Rescue  

Watch the teeth

The recent rise in shark attacks may just mean there's more of them -- and us

By Deborah Sullivan Brennan

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 16 May, 2005 : - -  One morning last June, Kelly French of Laguna Beach paddled among dolphins in glassy water near San Onofre as he waited on sun-flecked swells to ride a wave. Instead, he met a surfer's worst nightmare. From the deep, a 9-foot white shark surfaced about 20 yards away.

French swung his legs up and clung to his board as the fish charged him. "I was in shock that I was seeing that large a shark in my favorite surfing spot," he says. The shark thrashed the board for about 20 seconds before diving beneath the surface. Seizing the reprieve, French says he bodysurfed to safety.

French was one of four shark attack victims off the coast of California and Oregon last year, and one of 16 in those waters since 2000, says Ralph Collier, director of the Canoga Park-based Shark Research Committee and author of "Shark Attacks of the Twentieth Century."

Shark attacks are rare, but that rate in recent years is double the average of the previous 50 years, during which sharks struck 107 surfers, divers, kayakers or swimmers. Only one attack was reported in the half century before that, in 1926.

No attacks have been reported so far this year, but surfers and swimmers have reported several shark close encounters in waters at such beaches as Zuma, Huntington and Encinitas. Some researchers say attacks might be increasing as more humans share the water with more sharks.

Their numbers are difficult to quantify, but white sharks may have surged since 1993 when laws banned killing or capturing them in California. An abundant supply of seals and sea lions could lure the fish closer to swimmers and surfers, Collier says.

"It's a combination of more sharks and more people using the habitats that the sharks are in as well that leads to higher interaction," says Bill Sydeman, director of marine ecology at Point Reyes Bird Observatory, which studies sharks at the Farallon Islands.

Sometimes those interactions prove deadly. Sharks killed two people on the West Coast in the last two years. Abalone diver Randall Fry, 50, was decapitated in August off Mendocino County by a large shark as he readied for one last dive. A swimmer was killed near Avila Beach when a shark attacked her in 2003.

About half of the shark victims escape unscathed or suffer only minor injuries, Collier says. An additional 35% to 40% sustain wounds that require hospitalization. Fewer than one in 10 victims since 1926 have lost their lives. Sharks sometimes chomp people — or surfboards or kayaks — before spitting them out as unfamiliar prey, experts say. That's what happened to Peck Euwer from Santa Barbara, when a shark attacked his surfboard as he paddled out to Maverick's in 2001.

Other times sharks attack aggressively, as in French's case, then retreat, giving the victim a chance to escape.

"When we say there were 20 shark attacks in the year, everybody seems to think of the horrendous, fatal ones or incidents where people lose a limb," says Marie Levine, executive director of the Shark Research Institute in New Jersey, which tracks global shark attacks. "But most of them tend to be very minor."

Levine questions whether the upsurge in shark attacks reports reflects increased reporting of minor incidents. "In one incident [in Florida] a man's big toe was cut. If it was a dog bite or he'd stubbed his toe at home it wouldn't make news," she says.

John McCosker, a senior scientist at the California Academy of Natural Sciences in San Francisco and coauthor of the book "Great White Shark," says the recent increase in attacks could be a statistical blip, not a long-term trend. "I think it was just a stroke of bad luck on the part of our species," McCosker says.

Experts advise caution when entering shark-infested waters.

Don't wear colorful swimsuits, flashy jewelry or contrasting colors. Steer clear of murky water, where sharks and humans might bump into each other, Collier says. Avoid dark, rocky bottoms and submerged outcroppings; Sydeman says studies at the Farallons show that white sharks use topography to conceal attacks. Also, avoid places frequented by seals and sea lions or where previous attacks occurred.

Source LATimes
Contributed by K38 Rescue 

Shark Alert!  - Numbers dropping

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 16 May, 2005 : - - One of nature's most powerful predators, the great white shark, has been protected from unfettered international trade, which is pushing it to the brink of extinction as of 12 October 2004 - after lobbying from WWF.

"Great white shark populations are crashing, and the current levels of trade in this naturally rare species are totally unsustainable," said Callum Rankine, Species Officer at WWF-UK.

"Though many of these sharks are killed by mistake in fishing nets, effective trade controls could help to avoid continued depletion. It is all the more important as the great white shark is a migratory species and, as such, needs to be protected throughout its range. Today's decision gives the green light to such measures."

The species has now been included on CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Appendix II, a move which means that sales of the body-parts of this creature - the world's largest predatory shark - will be subject to strict controls.

Great white sharks are fished for their jaws and teeth - sold as tourist curios - as well as for their fins, used for shark fin soup. They are also targeted by some sport anglers as trophies.

The high value of these products on the market provides an incentive for fishers to actively target great white sharks or to kill those that are accidentally caught, and could otherwise be released alive. According to WWF, the listing of the great white shark on CITES Appendix II will reduce such an incentive. It will also support those countries that have already protected the species due to conservation concern.

WWF also urges all range States to take action for the conservation of the species, and to address other threats - such as bycatch - as well.

Source WWF
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