Research at Vanderbilt University has helped fit shark attack survivor Craig Hutto with a “bionic” leg that can do all the things a normal leg can do including navigating various terrains, walking at different speeds, and transitions from sitting to standing.

Hutto’s right leg was amputated below the knee after he suffered injuries due to a shark bite in 2005. Hutto now works as a lab assistant for Vanderbilt mechanical engineering professor Michael Goldfarb who developed the artificial leg. Goldfarb was looking for an amputee to test his creation on when he was introduced to Hutto by the technician who fitted Hutto with his original prosthetic leg.

Goldfarb plans to release the prototype leg to a manufacturer in the near future and expects the cost of the leg to be comparable to a traditional prosthetic. Goldfarb noted that Hutto’s participation in the development of the leg was “invaluable.”

In addition to working in Goldfarb’s lab, Hutto is a nursing student who hopes to work Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt after graduation. This is the same hospital where Hutto was treated after his shark attack. Hutto credits medical personnel with saving his life and hopes to be able to “give back” with his chosen career path.

You can check out the full story at Vanderbilt University’s website.

Canada’s CTV News reports that the jaws of a great white shark caught by fisherman Wayne Linkletter will be donated to the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History located in Halifax. The white shark was accidentally trapped in fishing weir intended to catch herring near Economy, Nova Scotia on August 7. While Linkletter has donated the head of the captured shark to science, the video report at CTV News stated that he plans to eat the rest of it.

Though rare sightings of white sharks in Nova Scotia waters have been reported, physical evidence to back up the reports has been sparse in recent years. The accidental capture of this white shark provides solid evidence of the species presence in the region.

The shark’s jaws are in the process of being cleaned by a museum curator. The jaws are expected to go on display around mid September in the Halfax museum’s marine gallery.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) has listed Atlantic populations of white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) as “endangered,” while the species is listed as globally “vulnerable” on the ICUN Red List .

UPDATE: RussiaToday recently released the video report below…

Australia’s Herald Sun reports that a second shark attack has occurred off of Russia’s Pacific coast (another attack happened in the region one day earlier) in the Sea of Japan. According to the report, a 16-year-old boy is recovering from “serious” injuries as a result of a shark bite. The boy was apparently bitten on the upper leg while swimming off Zheltukhin island in Russia’s Khasan district.

On Wednesday a 25-year-old man suffered sever injuries to both of his arms resulting in the loss of both forearms. According to Arkady Babenko, the head of surgery at Khasan Central District Hospital, the man is in “grave” condition and remains in “intensive care” after being attacked by a shark while swimming off a beach in the Khasan district.

Shark attacks in the region were unheard of up until this week. Vladmir Rakov, a marine biology professor in Vladivostok, noted that there had been no documented cases of shark attacks on humans in the area. Rakov went on to say that it was likely a white shark behind the attack on Wednesday, based on eyewitness descriptions, according to the Herald Sun article.

YouTube user Nickaway recently posted the video above which shows a group effort to help return what is listed as a 12.5′ tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) back to the water. The video was shot next to Bob Hal Pier in Corpus Christi, Texas. According to the video description the shark was tagged and released from the beach. Based on the video footage, it looks like quite a bit of effort was needed to get the shark back out into the gulf.

Kudos to all of those involved in the release effort.

According to a Change.org blog post, the Food Network has removed all recipes from their website featuring shark meat. The move was prompted by an online petition, which was signed by over 30,000 people.

Susan Stockton, of Food Network Kitchens issued the following statement on the network’s future use of shark-based ingredients:

"As a policy, Food Network and Cooking Channel do not incorporate or showcase recipes that involve animals on endangered species list or the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list, with the recent addition of sharks to those watch-lists, we will make sure that future content does not highlight shark as an ingredient. We understand there are many species with sustainability concerns, and we make efforts to stay informed and pass that information onto our audience."

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list recommends seafood options based on catch methods and species sustainability with a goal of maintaining healthy oceans.

Boston’s NECN is reporting that three Chatham beaches have been closed indefinitely after beachgoers witnessed a white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) preying on a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) “close to beach.” The three beaches closed are North Beach, North Beach Island and South Beach are closed to swimming. A swimming ban from 5pm to 9:30am still remains in effect for Chatham’s Lighthouse Beach.

After two fatalities believed to be the results of shark attacks off of Seychelles, experts are being called in to identify the shark responsible for the attacks and to help “catch” the shark, according to an ITN News report. Police spokesman Jean Toussaint said that there is a “big effort” being made to catch the shark responsible for the attack. Alain St Ange, Director of Tourism, said that if a “rogue shark” is responsible, authorities will try to catch it.

A British tourist died as the result of apparent shark bites earlier this week. The victim was swimming off Anse Lazio beach located on the Seychelles island of Praslin. Earlier this month a French tourist died as the result of injuries that “looked like a shark bite” while diving off the same beach, according to Toussaint.

NECN reports that a ban on swimming between 5pm and 9:30am has been put into effect along east-facing beaches in Chatham, Massachusetts. The ban began Wednesday (August 10) after a white shark was spotted “a little too close to shore,” according to the report.

While the report notes that the feeding time for white sharks is “from dusk ’til dawn,” white sharks have been documented to feed during daylight hours. The ban coincides with times when officials are not able to patrol those areas for sharks, which is likely a more reasonable explanation for the time-frame of the ban, which was also pointed out in the report.

According to various media outlets, including North Carolina’s WITN-7, a 54-year-old South Carolina man, was bitten by a shark about 13 miles of the coast of Morehead City, NC. Donnie White was on a fishing boat and had entered the water to cool off when he was bitten on the lower leg, according to reports. He was taken to Carteret General Hospital. While White’s injuries do not appear to be life-threatening, his condition has not been released.

The world-famous Headington Shark.
(Photo courtesy of James Turnbull under Creative Commons license.)

The world-famous and often photographed Headington Shark celebrated its 25th anniversary on Tuesday, according to the Oxford Mail. The fiberglass shark was created by artist John Buckley and placed on the roof of Bill Heine in 1986. The shark celebrated its 25th birthday with a street party featuring a book-signing by Heine who recently wrote a book about the story behind the fiberglass shark.

Heine had originally placed the shark on his roof to mark the 41st anniversary of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in World War II. The appearance of the shark almost immediately drew criticism along with a threat from the Oxford City Council to remove the shark by force, according to the Oxford Mail. However, Heine took the issue to a public inquiry and was eventually granted permission to keep the shark in place, where it has remained for the past 25 years.