WARNING: video contains language that some may find offensive.

Matt Garrett captured the video above of an adult white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) spotted about 25 miles southeast of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. According to an NBC report Garrett, from Boston, was fishing with friends when the shark showed up and began circling the boat. Garrett says the shark stayed in the area for about 20 minutes.

While white shark sightings off of the coast of North Carolina are not unheard of, it is fairly rare for sightings in the area to be documented on video. Tracking data indicates that the waters off North Carolina are along Atlantic white sharks migratory routes. In the spring and summer months white sharks have been documented traveling north along the East Coast from Florida waters to the cooler waters off New England, and then returning south in the fall and winter months.

David Shiffman (WhySharksMatter) of the Southern Fried Science blog has been named a finalist in the 2011 Blogging Scholarship. If he wins the scholarship it will provide him with $10,000 of funding for his dissertation research which focuses on the ecological importance of sharks to coral reefs.

If you want to help support David and his research, you can vote for him at the 2011 Blogging Scholarship voting page.

Forbes has an article about The Peninsula Hotel chain’s recent announcement that shark fin soup will be removed from the menus of all eight of its luxury hotels on January 1, 2012. The chain includes locations in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. According to the article other hotels in the region are “reviewing policies” on the dish, but the article notes that it appears that few others appear ready to drop the dish from the menu.

You can check out the entire article at Forbes.

NatGeo Wild’s “Shark Attack Experiment: Live” premieres on Friday November 25 at 9pm EST, 6pm PST. The two-hour live event will reportedly investigate if “sharks are out to get you” and will feature divers and conservationists interacting with sharks in South Africa’s waters. According to the NatGeo site, the team of experts will attempt to “separate shark attack myths from realities.”

“Shark Attack Experiment: Live” will cap off NatGeo Wild’s “Sharkathon” which will feature 9 hours of shark programming shot at various locations around the globe.

According to a release from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) the harvest of tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier), great hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna mokarran), scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini), and smooth hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna zygaena) will be prohibited in state waters. The measure, which was voted on today, will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2012.

The measure will also prohibit the “possession, sale and exchange” of any of the four species that are taken from state waters. However, the species may still be caught on a catch and release basis. The measure applies only to state waters and does not prohibit the harvest of these four species in adjacent federal waters.

Western Australia officials have ruled out the culling of white sharks.

The Australian is reporting that Fisheries Minister Norman Moore has ruled out any cull of white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) in response to three fatal shark attacks in Western Australia. Instead a newly formed response unit will look examine the effectiveness of shark nets, correlations between weather conditions and shark attacks, and whether or not protection laws have resulted in an increase in the number of the species.

Moore said that his department is trying to balance protecting the species and providing as much information about the probability of shark attacks when they go swimming. Additionally, the response unit will assess the effectiveness of the SMS shark alert system.

Wildlife artist Frank Newmyer has added another video featuring more photos of his breaching white shark sculpture. The latest video features plenty of close-up shots that show off the level detail in the piece.

YouTube user sharkwatcharabia recently added the above video which features a pair of zebra sharks being “hatched” at Dubai’s Burj Al Arab aquarium. There’s no mention in the video description of why the shark’s are being assisted with the hatching process.

YouTube user bqnbarb13 recently uploaded the video above which, according to the video description, features two humpback whales surfacing in close proximity to a surfer and a couple of kayakers. The video was shot by Barb Roettger off of Santa Cruz, California. While the video title “Surfer Almost Swallowed by Whale” is a bit over-the-top, it’s still some impressive footage.

A juvenile male white shark recently released by the Monterey Bay Aquarium has died, according to a report from the aquarium. The white shark (seen in the video above) had been on display at the aquarium from August 31 until late October of this year. The shark was released on October 25. Data from a pop-up tracking tag, attached to the shark prior to his release, revealed that the he died “shortly after he was released.”

The report from the aquarium’s Sea Notes blog, goes on to say that the white shark team will review its procedures and protocols in order to see if changes to the program are necessary.

This marks the second time that tracking tags have revealed the death of a white shark released from the aquarium. A juvenile female white shark that was released in November of 2009 showed up dead in a fisherman’s gill-net in early 2010. After a tracking tag attached to the shark started reporting data on land, a Mexican researcher traced the tag movements to the home of a the fisherman who acknowledged having caught the shark.