WARNING: Video features footage of live sharks being finned.

While Discovery Channel has faced much criticism for some of its programming choices for Shark Week over the past few years (including this year), there have been a few features popping up on Discovery Networks YouTube channel over the past few days that are conservation based. The video above which features some of the first known footage of shark finning, according to the intro text in the clip (typos aside).

The Beqa Adventure Divers blog and this article from The Huffington Post have pretty much summed up the negative aspects of Shark Week. Rather than focus on the negatives this year (like I did last year), I’m going to try shift my focus toward the “positive” or at least “educational” aspects of Shark Week. Hopefully, they won’t be few and far between this time around.

DiscoveryNetworks has posted the video above to their YouTube Channel. The video focuses on the repercussions of the extinction of sharks as top ocean predators. Researcher Andy DeHart of the National Aquarium points out the impact of the shark finning market on shark popluations but also notes that roughly half of the sharks killed each day as a result of accidental bycatch. DeHart goes on to say that of the roughly 400 species of sharks only 30 species are heavily fished. However, within those thirty species are some of the apex predators which help control stingray and fish populations. DeHart concludes the video discussing how the slow reproductive nature and small number of pups of some shark species also puts them at greater risk for extinction.

Raw video footage of a southern right whale breaching and landing on a sailboat has surfaced since the news story first hit the media last week.

The Independent Online reported that South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs is investigating the incident after several witnesses claim that the boat had illegally approached the whale in violation of regulations that require boaters to give the whales at least a 300m berth. The eyewitness accounts seemed to be backed up by a voice, which can be heard in the background of the raw video saying, “They don’t listen. You can’t go close.”

CNN.com has an extended version of the raw footage, in which the crew of the boat from which the video was filmed seemingly left the scene laughing at the crew of the sailboat without checking on the well-being of the boaters. Fortunately, nobody was hurt on-board the sailboat.

According to a WPRI Eyewitness News news clip, 3 to 4 great white sharks were spotted by a pilot yesterday (07/27/10) off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts. At least one shark, estimated at 12′ in length, was tagged by a fisherman. Increasing sightings of great white sharks around the Chatham area have been attributed by some researchers to large populations of seals, which are a food source of the sharks.

The "Cardiff Kook" in Encinitas, CA, which is routinely the victim of pranksters, has recently fallen victim to a paper-mâché great white shark. The video feature above from CBS8 shows off the “artistic prank” (and also shows off a girl picking her nose on camera at the beginning).

Shark HQ is now open at Australia’s Sydney Aquarium. The exhibit features various shark-themed displays and activities, including:

• tracking of great white sharks and bull sharks
• a shark hatchery and nursery with shark eggs and baby sharks on display
• shark tunnels which allow visitor to walk “underwater” with sharks
• Q&A sessions with shark experts
• “swim with sharks” demonstrations
• an animatronic great white shark

The animatronic great white shark can be seen in action in the video clip below. According to the news clip the animatronic shark measures 7.4m in length. (Please ignore the obligatory references to “Jaws” in the video clip.)

The St. Petersburg Times will run a print article on Bill Goldschmitt (aka “The Sharkman of Cortez”) in this Sunday’s edition of the paper. The article details many of Goldschmitt’s “strong opinions,” which include the belief that there are too many sharks in the oceans, and that scientists’ claims of decreasing are unfounded based on his own personal observations. Goldschmitt comes off as rather tame in the video above compared to the print article which is already available online at TampaBay.com.

If nothing else, the article is an “interesting” glimpse into the mind of Goldschmitt.

According to a statement from Paul Barrington, the shark involved in the Wrighstville Beach incident was erroneously identified as a sand tiger shark.

Contrary to statements made in a WECT.com feature on the recent shark attack at Wrightsville Beach, Paul Barrington of the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher was quoted today in a Lumina News article as saying…

"A lot of the media has so far erroneously identified it as a sand tiger shark. It takes a tremendous amount of forensics to determine specifically what type of shark it is."

The WECT.com feature stated that Barrington believed that "a sand-tiger shark could have been the suspect" in the Wrightsville Beach incident. However, Barrington’s recent quotes seem to dispute that notion.

George Burgess stated in the Lumina News article that the species of shark involved will likely remain a mystery. Burgess and Barrington confirmed the shark was approximately 4′ in length. Barrington’s list of suspected species include the small sharpnose shark (the species with presently the largest population in coastal NC), the dusky, the sandbar, the lemon, the black tip or the spinner shark, according to the Lumina News article.

It would seem that even whales aren’t immune to “Jaws” references in the news. CNN‘s report on a breaching whale that landed on a sailboat near Cape Town harbor features clips from “Jaws.” Additionally, during an interview in the report, the interviewer even asks one of the occupants of the boat if she thought about “Jaws” when the incident happened.

The southern right whale was “definitely badly bruised, but probably did not break anything,” according to a marine scientist quoted in USA Today. The USA Today article also calls into question whether or not the whale was being harassed by the boaters. Legally, sailors are required to stay at least 1,000′ from whales, according to the report.

In other breaking news, CNN also aired a clip this morning of a someone being chased by a moose. There were no “Jaws” references in the moose report, though.

UPDATE (07/22/10): Paul Barrington has been quoted by another news source as saying that the sand tiger shark was erroneously identified as the shark involved in the Wrightsville Beach incident.

According to WECT.com, Paul Barrington, of the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, believes the shark suspected of biting a 13-year-old girl at Wrightsville Beach, NC might be sand tiger shark (aka grey nurse shark or ragged tooth shark). Kendall Parker sustained a single bite to the arm, while she was in waist-deep water on Saturday. Her injuries required 40-stitches, but she is expected to make a full-recovery.

The sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus) is generally considered to be “docile” and non-threatening to humans. A sand tiger shark’s diet consists primarily of fish. Barrington mentions in the interview above that with a the number of bait fish in the water a “hit-and-run attack” could be a case of mistaken identity.