NBC Philadelphia is reporting that a boater alerted the Coast Guard that he saw a 12′ great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) off of New Jersey’s Island Beach. The boater reported that the shark was at least 200 yards from the shore, but “not too far” from the bathers at the nearest beach. Lifeguards were alerted after the report, but no beaches were closed as a result. The boater who reported the sighting was the only witness to report seeing the shark.

While some remain skeptical of the reported sighting, due to the fact that white shark sightings in the area are rare, it would not be out of the realm of possibility for a white shark would be in the area this time of year. Tracking data has shown that white sharks migrate up the East Coast as summer approaches and water temperatures rise.

For some reason, this old clip of Valerie Taylor hand-feeding a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) has recently been making the rounds online this week. The footage in the clip is from the Australian Geographic documentary “Shadow of the Shark.” The clip was posted on YouTube almost two years ago, but this week it has had a surge in views and has been featured on few high-traffic blogs, including Comedy Central’s Tosh.0.

The video clip shows Taylor feeding fish to a white shark and at one point patting the shark on the snout. Taylor says that she felt like she had an “understanding” with this particular white shark and thought that they could get along “quite nicely.” Taylor does point out that she did not have the same feeling with some other white sharks.

It should go without saying that white sharks are wild animals. One could make the argument that this footage and other footage of humans interacting with sharks help dispel the myth that sharks are simply “mindless killing machines.” However, the title of the YouTube video claiming that Valerie’s hand-feeding is “evidence” that great white sharks are “peaceful” is nothing short of anthropomorphism.

It should also be noted that Valerie Taylor (along with her husband Ron) have a great deal of experience being around white sharks. Hand-feeding a wild animal isn’t a wise idea for the average Joe/Jane…in other words, “kids, don’t try this at home.”

Austin’s KXAN reports that a 22-year-old woman who was bitten by a shark in Christmas Bay was treated and released from a Galveston hospital and does not expect to have any permanent physical damage.

The shark bite occurred on Monday at at a beach on Follet’s Island, Texas. Kori Robertson was in waist-deep water when she felt a “jerk” on her leg. Upon exiting the water, the woman discovered bite marks on her upper right leg.

According to the KXAN report, doctors believe the woman was bitten by a bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas).

A Long Island beach was closed yesterday due to multiple shark sightings. According to a CBS 2 report, a “pack of 18-foot sharks” was sighted “dangerously close” to the shore of a West Hamptons Dunes beach. While the report notes that some of the eyewitnesses thought the sharks were thresher sharks (Alopias vulpinus), the dorsal and caudal fins in the video do not appear to be consistent with that of common thresher sharks.

While I’m no expert on shark identification, the dorsal fin seen in the video looks more representative of a basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) to me. If anybody can identify the sharks based on the footage, feel free to share your insight in the comments section.

On a related note, CBS 2 also reports that a seal carcass was found on the beach this morning. A connection between the seal carcass and the sharks is being investigated. (Basking sharks are filter feeders and don’t eat or attack seals.)

According to Matt Wallace, great white sharks prefer AC/DC over other bands.

According to a Herald Sun article, great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) are fans of the Australian rock band AC/DC. At least, that’s what Adventure Bay Charter’s Matt Wallace told the Herald Sun.

Wallace takes cage divers out several times a week south of Port Lincoln, Australia to view great white sharks. He says that the sharks seem to prefer the “low frequency” music of AC/DC to other music. Wallace asked researchers about sound that would attract white sharks. He said he was told that the species responds best to frequencies below 200 Hertz.

Wallace used “trial and error” to come to his conclusion that AC/DC was the preferred band for the predatory fish.

LiveScience is reporting that scientists, with the support of the NSF have developed a fishing hook designed to reduce the accidental catch of sharks from commercial fishing. Developers incorporated “magnetic repellent” and “galvanic repellent” into the design of the hooks to “interfere” with sharks’ ampullae of Lorenzini, which are electroreceptors not found in “market-valuable” fish such as tuna.

These new hooks, called SMART (Selective Magnetic and Repellent-Treated Hook) hooks, were shown to reduce shark catch by 18 percent to 68 percent, depending on the species involved and geographic location, when compared to traditional hooks.

On a related note, GIZMODO, re-ran the LiveScience story with the following headline, “New Shark-Repellant Fishing Hook Leaves More Sharks in the Water to Eat People.”

The video above, shot by Darren Marshall, was recently posted to AKSinWA’s YouTube channel. According to the video, which was shot in Western Australia, a young humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) died after becoming trapped on a reef.

According to the information in the video, two 8′ tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) began feeding on the whale within minutes after its death. Within 45 minutes, the number of sharks had risen to approximately 30. The video also notes that bronze whaler sharks (Carcharhinus brachyurus) were also involved in the feeding event.

The sharks fed on the carcass for the next two days, leaving only skeletal remains behind when the feeding event ended.

In a case of “man bites shark,” The Palm Beach Post is reporting that beach visitors at a Lake Worth beach were greeted this morning by the sight of a shark which had apparently been reeled in and left gutted and beheaded on the beach. The shark’s head and innards left nearby the rest of the carcass along with multiple empty beer cans.

While beheading and gutting a catch is not unusual for fishermen, this is usually done to separate the inedible parts of a fish from the edible meat. In this particular case the entire shark was left on the beach, which would defeat the purpose of separating the meat of the shark from the head and entrails.

LiveScience.com is reporting that an August, 2009 aggregation of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) off the Yucatán Peninsula numbered up to 420 whale sharks within a 7 square-mile area. While this whale shark aggregation had previously been reported in the past, yesterday scientists announced that they had tallied the number of the animals to be an estimated 420.

For the full article on the recent whale shark report, check out LiveScience.com.

Lyman’s Beach on Hawaii’s Big Island has been the scene of two separate incidents involving what is believed to be a tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) biting a surfboard, according to a KHON2 report. The first incident occurred Sunday when a stand-up paddleboarder had her board bumped by a shark, followed by the shark biting the board. The second similar event occurred yesterday, in which, a longboard surfer had her board bumped and then bitten. No one was injured in either incident, but in both cases bite marks were left in the surfers’ boards.

Both incidents resulted in nearby beaches being temporarily closed. Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) air searches were unable to spot the shark in either instance. In both cases the surfers reported seeing “lots of turtles” in the area. Sea turtles are a known food source for tiger sharks.

Speculation that the same shark might be responsible for both bites is being investigated. DLRN will compare the bite marks on both boards to determine if the bites were delivered by the same shark. The size of the shark(s) will also be determined from the bite marks.