In November of 2013, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution took “our” vessel “Horizon” to Guadalupe Island to do some research on Great White Sharks.This is a video of the expedition. REMUS SharkCam: The hunter and the hunted from Woods Hole Oceanog…
The recent shark bite incident at Manhattan Beach Pier, made worldwide headlines. Just google “shark attack Manhattan Beach” and you get literally pages and pages of links with headlines screaming “Shark Attack”.
Weather.com used the picture below to catch their readers attention and wrote that A 7-foot-long great white shark attacked a swimmer off the California’s Manhattan Beach on Saturday, causing panic amongst crowds of people enjoying one of Southern California’s most popular beaches on the 4th of July holiday weekend.
 |
| source |
Now a headline and picture like that would scare any sane reader and make them think twice about swimming in the ocean.
Of course we know, that the shark didn’t really attack the swimmer, but was trying to get away from a fisherman, who had him hooked on a line, instead. Was this just a freak accident, or could this have been predicted?
Back in November of 2013, Pete Thomas wrote a piece for Grind TV about swimmers and fishermen harassing juvenile great white sharks at the exact location where this swimmer got bit. The article says:
“White sharks are a candidate species under the California Endangered Species Act and therefore fully protected,” Traci Larinto and Michelle Horeczko, part of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s White Shark Status Review Team, explained in a statement. “They cannot be taken or pursued. The public should take steps to avoid white sharks while fishing or being out on the water.”
As to the legality of trying to catch great white sharks, it has this statement:
“Right now, every surfer/thrill seeker with a GoPro is going out to Manhattan Beach and trying to film them, ride them, and catch them on hook and line,” said Christopher Lowe, a Cal State Long Beach professor and white shark expert. “Most people do not understand CESA regulations and that even incidental catch [or] being caught swimming after a shark with a GoPro camera can be considered take or harassment and is a citable, even jailable offense.”
So it comes as hardly a surprise that there are juvenile great white sharks in the area and unfortunately, it seems that, despite the law protecting them, some fishermen are still purposely trying to catch them.
“One rumor is that a couple of fishermen have caught and killed some sharks off El Porto and supposedly found squid in the stomachs. I just don’t think the public understands the ramifications of the law here.”
We have known for quite a while, that juvenile great white sharks are in the vicinity of Manhattan Beach and that fishermen, along with thrill seekers are harassing and trying to catch them. So it comes hardly as a surprise that something finally happened. Predictably though, the headlines don’t say that illegal shark fishing was to blame, but instead scream “Shark attack!”
It looks like the authorities have also realized that the fishing was the cause of this shark bite and reacted by banning all fishing from the pier, for the next 60 days.
This situation reminds me of all the idiots going outside the cages at Isla Guadalupe, where sooner or later, something might happen as well.
If you want to legally and safely swim with tiger sharks, dive with great white shark, or come face to face bull sharks, give us a call at 619.987.4275 or send us an email at staff@sharkdiver.com.
We specialize in “Safe and Sane” shark diving, always using cages when diving with great white sharks and only diving with sharks, where it is safe and legal to do so.
When done responsibly, swimming with these awesome creatures is truly an experience of a lifetime. After 14 years of diving with all kinds of sharks, I’ve come to love and respect them for what they are, highly efficient predators, that are neither mindless killers, nor harmless pets.
Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO
Shark Diver
About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com.
A swimmer in Manhattan Beach, CA was bitten this morning by a juvenile great white shark! Predictably, the headlines are screaming “Shark Attack Injures Swimmer!” and “Swimmer Attacked by Shark!”
Here is what actually happened. A man, fishing from the pier, caught a juvenile great white shark and was fighting it for 40 minutes. Trying to get away, the shark started biting at the line and in doing so, bit a swimmer. It is illegal to fish for great white sharks in California. Here is an excerpt from the California Fish and Game regulations.
“As defined in state law, “take” means “hunt, pursue, catch, capture, or kill or attempt to hunt, pursue, catch, capture, or kill.” Anyone who takes a white shark without a permit may be cited for violations of CESA and subject to criminal prosecution”
As usual, when something happens with a white shark, the shark gets the blame, not the fisherman who was endangering the public, by fighting a great white shark in waters crowded with swimmers on a holiday weekend! The headlines should read something like this “Illegal shark fishing causing serious harm to swimmer!”
Luckily the swimmer has non life-threatening injuries and we hope he’ll have a speedy recovery.
Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO
Shark Diver
About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com.
The story that a tagged great white shark has been eaten by another great white shark is making headlines around the world. Various news outlets like UPI are reporting that “Australian scientists are searching for a “mystery sea monster” that likely devoured a nine-foot-long great white shark they’d been tracking.” and People magazine is saying it was a “colossal cannibal great white shark” and even stating that it’s size is “estimated at 16 feet long and over 2 tons”
Wow, that is amazing! They not only know that this shark has been killed, they also know what killed it and even estimate the size of the killer. How the heck did they do that? Estimate the size and species of a predator by the temperature of a tag. And here I was, finding it incredible that another guy claims to be able to do that by the shape of a dorsal fin.
So let’s look at a few facts. The great white sharks do indeed maintain a body temperature of a few degrees above the water temperature. According to Elasmo-research.org, great white sharks maintain a muscle temperature of 7-9 degrees f, and a stomach temperature of 13-25 degrees f above water temperature. The scientists claim that the tag could not have fallen off, because it would have recorded a lower temperature first, before the jump to the higher temperature, after it was eaten. So if that were true, that would put the maximum temperature inside a great white shark stomach at 64 degrees and not 78.
Since the tags we are talking about here, are external, they record the temperature of the water and not that of the sharks muscle. Therefore, they would not have recorded a lower temperature after falling off. The fact that it plummeted straight down to 1900 feet is a further indication that the tag fell off. If another shark had attacked this 9+ ft great white, there would have been a struggle and they would not just have plummeted down. Also, the typical attack behavior of a great white shark is to strike and let the prey die, not fight with it and take it down deep.
Having watched great white sharks at Isla Guadalupe for 13 years, I’ve seen them fight, bite each other and noticed that the smaller sharks tend to stay away from the bigger ones. Those actions always seemed to be a way to establish the pecking order and not an attempt to kill and eat the other shark. As a matter of fact, when we encountered a dead shark a number of years ago, all the other sharks stayed away from the area for a while, indicating that they weren’t comfortable being in an area with a dead one of their own.
I have no problem saying that I have no idea what happened to this shark, but for the scientists to state that a “colossal cannibalistic shark” ate this individual, simply because of the temperature recording of a tag, is not very scientific at all.
This whole thing happened 9 years ago. So why is this all over the news now? Well, according to People, The Smithsonian Channel repackaged an Australian documentary called The Search for the Ocean’s Super Predator into another doc called Hunt for the Super Predator.
So all this is done to promote a “documentary” by the Smithsonian channel. Why am I not surprised that after “Nat. Geo” and “The Discovery Channel” they are just going after sensational headlines to boost their ratings as well. Let’s just scare the heck out of people by letting them believe that there are monsters lurking in the Ocean. It’s not like people don’t have an irrational fear of sharks already. It’s not like they are killing sharks based on this irrational fear. No, they need to stoke that fear so that they can sell their stupid “documentary”. Damn the consequences!
Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO
Shark Diver
About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com
A couple of days ago, there was a fake shark scare in Newport Beach, CA.
The Orange County Register reports:
 |
| source |
“NEWPORT BEACH – The warning was clear: A big, aggressive great white shark is on the loose along the shores in Newport Beach, and beachgoers are advised to stay away from the water.”
Problem was, local lifeguards and the U.S. Coast Guard never heard of any shark danger.
“I guess it was one of the local guys; someone who wanted to keep the crowds down at a break out there,” Coast Guard search and rescue controller Sandy Needle said about the notice. “There was nothing from the Coast Guard.”
The warning – which appeared on official-looking letterhead that said “United States Coast Guard” in the notification dated Wednesday – was floating around on Facebook, claiming that three incidents should put beachgoers on high alert.
The article goes on to give the details of the warning which contained the following paragraph:
The third sighting, the notice read, came when two lifeguards got a call about an adult-sized shark that bumped two kayakers and swam away after the boaters struck it “with an oar in the gill area of the fish.”
So far so good, it looks like the media is responsible for once and instead of hyping up a shark scare, are trying to calm the public.
The article then states, how they recognized the warning as fake.
“Although the flier looked official, there were a lot of clues that it was a fake.
“There’s a lot of misspellings, and it called a shark a fish,” Needle said.”
Well there you have it. It called the shark a fish! No self respecting Coast Guard representative would call a shark a fish! Everyone knows it’s not a fish, it’s a…. hmm, no not that, it’s a …… , I’m stumped! Any of you know?
Maybe I should be asking an expert in these matters.
You can read the entire article here
Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO
Shark Diver
About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com.
The secret is “out of the cage” now! The news has traveled all the way to Fiji! “da shark”, just wrote this blog on diving outside the cage and manhandling great white sharks at Isla Guadalupe.It has gotten worse and worse over the last few years…
Here is another stellar piece of journalism! The “Mail Online” has an article with the headline “The killers just off our shores”
Now what creature do you think they are talking about? Shark diving, swimming with sharks,
…. yep, a blue shark. In the article they state two things.
1 “The recent heatwave is thought to have brought killer blue sharks closer to the coast of Cornwall than ever before”
and
2 “Swimmers aren’t in danger from these sharks. They are highly unlikely to bite humans.”
Hmmm, say what? Killer blue sharks that are not a danger to swimmers!? Now I know about sensationalistic headlines, but contradicting your headline in your article seems to be something any self respecting journalist should avoid!
The article also has plenty of pictures of those “killers”, calmly swimming amongst humans.
The article also incorrectly states that 4 people have been killed by blue sharks in the last 5 years. According to the international shark attack files, there have been 5 fatal bites since 1910! So aside from contradicting his own headline, the author shows a complete lack of interest in getting his stats correct.
Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO
Shark Diver
About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com.
According to an article in the Daily Telegraph, a man was attacked by a wobegong shark. The article states that “Mr Porter had no advance warning when he was attacked.
“I had no idea what was happening — it just clamped on and that was the first I knew about it,” Mr Porter told The Daily Telegraph today. “It sort of bit through the flipper and went through to my foot.”Shark diving is fun. Diving with Great white shark. Swimming with Bull sharks, cage diving with Tiger sharks
Wait a second, the shark “attacked” Mr. Porter? Wobegong sharks are carpet sharks, that usually rely on their camouflage to hide from prey, so they can ambush it. So most likely what happened is that Mr. Porter stepped on the shark, which bit him in return.
The headline read: Port Macquarie man threw punches in the air after shark attack
Wouldn’t it be more accurate to have a headline that says “Port Macquarie shark bites man after being attacked by him”? Shark had no advanced warning, when Mr porter viciously stepped on it’s head!
 |
| Injuries caused by shark bite |
And the injuries to the man you ask? Here is a picture of the “severe” wound the “shark attack” has left on the “victim”
Now this type of human/shark interaction is really what I call worthy of newspaper headlines. There are thousands of people who step on a stingray each year and get stung in return, in some cases causing injuries more severe than the ones caused by this shark bite. Do you recall any newspaper headlines describing those incidents? As soon as a shark is involved, there are headlines, it’s always characterized as an “attack” and it almost never states that it was provoked.
Where is the harm in having headlines like this? You may be aware of the shark cull that is going in Australia right now. It is mostly based on the public’s fear of sharks and has very little to do with actually protecting the people. Headlines like these, perpetuate that fear and can cause real harm, not only to the sharks, but the entire ocean Eco system in turn.
I know I’m banging my head a against a wall, but had to get this off my chest.
Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO
Shark Diver
About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdivercom.
Congratulations Australia! You have done it again. According to “The Australian” a catch and kill order has been issued for what is believed to be a great white shark that killed a surfer over the weekend.
The article states 35-year-old Chris Boyd, was attacked on Saturday morning by what’s believed to be a great white shark at the popular surf break Umbries off Gracetown, 270km southwest of Perth. Mr Boyd, originally from Queensland, was killed instantly when he was mauled by a great white shark while surfing at popular break “Umbies” off Gracetown, 270km south of Perth at about 9am WST yesterday
It then goes on to say that The state’s fisheries department issued a catch and kill order for the shark, saying there was an imminent threat of more attacks in the area. The fisheries department is quoted as saying they weren’t ”just going to randomly kill sharks – it depends on what they see”
This is ridiculous. What exactly are they going to see? Since they say that the shark that attacked Mr. Boyd was “believed” to be a great white shark, how exactly are they going to determine that a particular shark is the right one, if they don’t even know the species for certain?
This is another typical reaction for a government agency. Do something, no matter how stupid, just to appear to be doing something.
Our heart goes out to the family of Mr. Boyd, but indiscriminately killing an animal is neither bringing Mr. Boyd back, nor is it making the ocean any safer for anyone else.
Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO
Shark Diver
About Shark Diver. As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com
According to a report in “The Daily Star” a tuna diver killed a 6 meter long (19.8 ft) great white shark. The article states:”It was either the shark or him. South Australian tuna diver, Dean Stefanek, 38, battled a 6-meter shark for 30 minutes and li…
