An incident which occurred at the Farallon Islands, on October 4, 1997, involving an orca attack on a white shark has somehow become “news” this weekend, at least on the ABC News website. The incident which was documented on video (and has been available on YouTube for years) is currently being featured on National Geographic Channel’s Wild series in an episode titled “The Whale That Ate Jaws.”

I have no idea why this story is back in the news this weekend (except for the fact that there’s a NatGeo show about it), although it is an interesting story, nonetheless. Also of interest was the resultant observed behavior of white sharks around the Farallon Islands after the predation occurred. According to a National Wildlife Magazine article the white sharks typically found around the Farallon Islands from September to December simply “vanished” after the orca attack on the white shark. The sharks did not return until the next fall. For a more in-depth discussion of the October 1997 event, as well as information about the “L.A. pod” of orcas and a possible second orca attack in 2000, check out the Showdown at Sea from National Wildlife Magazine.

YouTube user, BubbleheadJace recently posted some of the highest quality whale shark (Rhincodon typus) footage I’ve seen in a long time. The footage was shot in 2009 off Koh Tao, Thailand. The video encourages viewers to visit WhaleShark.org to learn more about whale sharks and how to protect them.

Dr. Michael Domeier’s “catch and release” technique for tagging sharks, which was employed last year at Guadalupe Island and featured on a new National Geographic series, has come under some criticism from other shark researchers, as of late, after the technique was used on two sharks off the Farallones Marine Sanctuary. San Francisco’s ABC-7 ran the following report yesterday on the topic.

The incident involved with the shark at the Farallones, in which a portion of the hook was left in the white shark’s throat, is sure to draw criticism from those who believe this technique is too invasive and harmful to the sharks involved. The incident also lends support Peter Klimley’s remarks that the costs might outweigh the benefits of this technique.

What jumped out at me the most, while watching this feature, was the fact that when the technique was first covered by Outdoor Magazine in the article Great White!, the article stated, “While it’s fishing in every sense of the word, it’s imperative that the sharks are released into the sea unharmed and unstressed.” Domeier’s comments in the ABC-7 report indicate that stressing the shark is an important aspect of the technique. However, the statement in the Outdoor Magazine article is not directly attributed to anybody involved in the research, so it might have been an error on the part of the author, John Burgman.

I have little doubt that Domeier has good intentions with this tagging program, and that the goal of the program is to gain more knowledge of the species, by doing multi-year tracking (which Domeier says is not possible with the harpooning method), in order to help protect white sharks. Domeier has a long-standing track record of white shark research, which can’t be ignored. However, I have a feeling that those who are critical of the technique will be put off by Domeier’s demeanor and perceived attitude displayed in the interview clips featured in the ABC-7 report (which may have been a result of clever editing, for all I know). In addition, the photo of the team apparently in a gung ho cheer after landing one of the white sharks at Guadalupe island probably won’t sit well with critics, either.

For more commentary on the subject, check out Shark Diver’s Underwater Thrills post and Pete Thomas’ post at the LA Times Blog, which features a response from Dr. Domeier in the comments section.

WECT-6 is reporting that a 16-18′ (4.9-5.5 meter) great white shark was spotted about a mile off the coast of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina on November 8. Fisherman, Michael Ross, captured a photo of the shark with his cell phone. According to the report, Paul Barrington of the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher confirmed that the shark in the picture was a great white shark and said that the current water temperatures is “good” for white sharks.

The temptation to throw in a Jaws reference was just too great for WECT-6, as the video segment is accompanied with Jaws theme music.

The Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) white shark program has been making the news quite a bit lately. Stanford University recently published an article about the program on the Stanford website along with the video below.

BBC – Earth News has posted a video of what is believed to be the first ever film footage of a living smalleye stingray (Dasyatis microps). According to the BBC report, the smalleye stingray is the largest known stingray and can reach widths of over 2m. The species has only been witnessed alive off the coast of Tofo, a beach located in southern Mozambique. The film was shot while filming a documentary about manta rays with Dr. Andrea Marshal of of the Manta Ray and Whale Shark Research Centre. The footage will air on BBC Two this Wednesday as part of the BBC series Natural World.

According to Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Notes, a juvenile female white shark, which had been held in captivity at the Monterey Bay Aquarium‘s Outer Bay Exhibit, was successfully released back into the wild on November 4, 2009. The 5’5″ 100 lbs. white shark had grown a couple of inches in length while in captivity and had put on about 20 lbs. of weight. The white shark was captured in August and had been on display at the aquarium since August 26, 2009. Over the past weekend, the white shark was involved in multiple incidents of “aggressive behavior” toward other sharks in the exhibit, prompting the aquarium’s husbandry team to make the decision to return the animal to the wild. In addition to her safe release, the white shark was tagged with two electronic tracking devices, one of which will report real-time location data, the other will report temperature, depth, and location data in 6 months. According to Randy Hamilton, vice president of husbandry, the white shark’s health was “excellent” upon her release.

YouTube user SideOffVideo recently posted this quick video shot of the captive white shark at the aquarium, prior to her release.

A recent article in the NY Post features one of the photographs discussed in yesterday’s post about Amos Nachoum’s photos from an illegal cage-less commercial dive at Isla de Guadalupe. The article, “Hi there, will you be my chum?” makes the absolutely baseless statement that “great whites are so short-sighted they can hardly spot what’s right in front of them.” While it was once thought that white sharks had poor vision (it was also once thought that the Earth was flat), research has shown that white sharks have a highly developed visual system. Perhaps, the article’s author, Andy Soltis, should give this article about white shark vision a read.

As far as the bit about a white shark hardly be able to spot what’s right in front of them, I’d suggest going for a white shark dive. Anybody who has been close enough to see the blue iris of a passing white shark can tell you that a great white shark will often “track” you with its eye movements as it swims by.

Granted, the whole theme of the article seems to be rather whimsical, in nature. However, the NY Post’s somewhat tabloid status, doesn’t excuse it from posting/printing completely unfounded “information.”

Kudos to Rory Gibson of Australia’s Courier Mail, for his article, Hysteria over shark risk to swimmers unfounded. His commentary on the media and public reaction to the story about a photo of mauled great white shark caught on a drum line last month is both entertaining and poignant. Gibson points out, in a very tongue-in-cheek nature, that relatively low risks of shark attacks on humans, and stresses the need for conservation of the great white shark as a species. He is also critical of the Queensland shark control program, which “indiscriminantly kills a creature listed as vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.” Gibson suggests a moratorium on shark nets and drum lines until a non-lethal solution for managing white shark populations can be devised. Check out the entire article at the Courier Mail.

UK media outlets, The Sun, the Telegraph, and the Daily Mail, have all run photos from Amos Nachoum taken at Guadalupe this fall. The one photo in particular that seems to be drawing the most attention from the media outlets is head-on shot of a “smiling” white shark that the media outlets are comparing to the character Bruce, from Pixar’s Finding Nemo.

While the head-on shark photo may be the center of attention for the average viewer, I have a feeling that one of the other photos, which features an underwater photographer diving cage-less in close proximity with a white shark, will likely cause some shark diving operators to cringe when they see it. Amos’ decision to take recreational divers cage-less at Isla de Guadalupe recently drew sharp criticism from some shark diving operators, as well as shark diving blogs, including Underwater Thrills: Swimming with Sharks and The Best Shark Dive Ever, due to the fact that it is against the law to offer cage-less dives on a commercial level at Isla de Guadalupe. The appearance of these images in the mainstream UK media probably are not going to alleviate that criticism, as Mr. Nachoum’s media promotion of this illegal dive will likely serve only to further threaten legitimate dive operations at Isla de Guadalupe.

Following hot on the heels of the “monster shark” hysteria, The Sun refers to the white shark in the photo as “giant,” while the Daily Mail calls it “gigantic.” The actual length of the shark was reported as 14′ (4.25 meters) in length.