Australian teen surfer Jake Davies was bitten on the foot by a bull shark according to Ten News. After the shark initially bit his foot, it “attempted two more attacks” according to a news.com.au report. Despite the news.com.au story claiming that Davies “almost had his leg bitten off,” the teen did not suffer any life-threatening injuries. Davies did suffer puncture wounds requiring stitches which he hopes to have removed on Monday. After the stitches are removed, Davies said he’ll likely be “straight back out there in the water.” Kudos to Davies for the positive attitude.

San Francisco’s Aquarium of the Bay has posted the short documentary “City of the Shark” to their YouTube channel for online viewing. The film focuses primarily on the aquarium’s sevengill shark research program. “City of the Shark” was developed by SeaStewards.

According to CBS4 the human remains that were found in a tiger shark caught in the Bahamas on September 4 have tentatively been identified through fingerprints. Bahamian authorities are still awaiting DNA test results.

The remains have been identified as one of two boaters who went missing after attempting to swim to shore following encountering engine trouble near “Jaws Beach” on August 29. Three other people who remained on the boat were rescued. It has still not been determined whether the man was alive when the shark ate his body.

“Jaws Beach” got its name after the movie “Jaws: The Revenge” was filmed there. Despite no determination on whether the man found in the tiger shark was actually attacked while he was alive or his remain were scavenged after his death, MyFoxNewYork has gone so far as to say that the man’s death “echoes the blockbuster U.S. film series in which a deranged great white shark emerges from the depths to dine on unsuspecting swimmers.”

Regardless of the cause of this man’s death, his loss is no less profound whether he drowned or was attacked while alive. Additionally, the other boater who attempted to swim to shore has still not been found. My thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of both men.

Shark attack survivors visited the United Nations yesterday to speak out on behalf of sharks in hopes of convincing the U.N. to adopt curbs on shark finning, according to The New York Daily News. The Pew Environment Group organized the group of shark attack victims who are also calling to an end to fishing for threatened and near-threatened shark species.

Debbie Salamone, Michael Coots, and Paul de Gelder were featured on CBS’s The Early Show and talked about their encounters and their participation in the Pew Environment Group’s rally at the U.N.

Last year, the Pew Environment Group organized a similar effort in which shark attack victims spoke with the U.S. congress about shark conservation.

The photo of above has been popping up on a lot of blogs, websites, and online news articles, due to the fact that it was posted on Flickr under a Creative Commons license that allows free copying, transmission, and distribution of the image. I have seen it appear in multiple news articles just today, under the Creative Commons link from Flickr. The problem here is that it has been brought into question whether the person who posted the image is the actual photographer/owner of the image.

The photo is part of Hermanus Backpackers’ Shark Diving photo set on Flickr, which features multiple surface shots of a great white shark cage dive in Gansbaai (South Africa). The great white shark image above is the only underwater shot in the photo set, but that’s not what really makes the presence of the photo suspicious. The color of the water in this photo certainly is not consistent with the water color of the other Gansbaai photos. The photo of above has telltale signs of being taken at Isla de Guadalupe and was previously featured on the homepage of a commercial great white shark dive operation that operates at Isla de Guadalupe, if memory serves me correctly. Additionally, this photo has been around since before the photos from the Gansbaai set were reportedly taken.

Based on some of the comments under the photo on Flickr, it seems that some of the other photographers in the Flickr community are doubting the ownership of this image. While the owner of the photo might not care that his/her photo is popping up around the web potentially with a photo credit attached to someone else, I was just curious as to whether he/she was aware that it’s listed under Creative Commons by someone who might not be the actual photographer.

Vimeo user Alessio Federici recently posted the video above featuring some excellent dive footage from Sipadan, Malaysia. About three minutes into the video there is some white tip reef shark (Triaenodon obesus) footage. White tip reef sharks typically grow to just about over 5′ in length, although in rare cases they may reach close to 7′ in length. The species typically feeds on bottom-dwelling prey such including crustaceans and cephalopods. They are generally not considered dangerous to humans unless they are harassed.

In addition to the shark footage there is some excellent footage of sea turtles, clown fish, cuttlefish, and morays.

The video, which was filmed in July of 2010, was shot using the Canon 5D Mark II’s video mode.

SyFy appears to have a new entry in its lineup of shark-related B-movies. Swamp Shark looks to follow in the footstep of a other SyFy “greats” like Sharktopus and DinoShark. The plot of Swamp Shark seems to revolve around a mutated shark spoiling “Gator Fest” by eating all the gators and several bathers. Despite warnings about the “swamp shark,” Mayor Vaughn…oops, I mean Sheriff Watson tries to avoid a panic by ignoring the problem in order not to lose potential revenue from the festival. Hmm, the plot sounds vaguely familiar.

Swamp Shark features film veterans Robert Davi and Kristy Swanson. Those who grew up in the 80s might recognize Davi as The Goonies villain, Jake Fratelli, and Die Hard’s Special Agent Johnson (who was of no relation to Die Hard’s other Special Agent Johnson).

Swanson is no stranger to the horror genre with films like Mr. Boogedy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Deadly Friend on her resume. Swanson’s character in Deadly Friend is behind the infamous “basketball scene” which also features the actress who played Mama Fratelli in The Goonies. Of course, none of this really has anything to do with sharks.

Swamp Shark will premiere next summer (2011) on SyFy.

According to CBS, surfer Kris Kerr snapped a photograph of a shark just before it “charged” him (CBS actually uses the word “attacked” him in the text description of the video. According to Kerr, he quickly shot the image and then punched the shark in the nose. Kerr was photographing his friend Ethan Wilson surfing when he spotted the shark swimming toward him, according to The Sky Valley Chronicle.

The video above from NatGeoTV.com presents a theory that a killer whale from the L.A. Pod of orcas might have used tonic immobility during a 1997 attack on a great white shark at the Farallones. The theory suggests that the orca (identified as “CA2”) potentially rammed the unsuspecting white shark, stunning it. While the shark was still disoriented the orca could have either grabbed the great white while it was on its back or flipped it over. The orca could have then held the shark upside down in its jaws, keeping it in a state of tonic immobility until the shark drowned.

While there is no hard evidence or clear-cut video footage of orcas inducing tonic on sharks in the NatGeo feature, the video does include video evidence of killer whales attacking stingrays in New Zealand using a similar technique. As seen in the footage, the killer whales approach the rays upside and grab them with their mouths, then right themselves, so that the rays are upside-down and effectively immobilized. Researchers hypothesize that if orcas have learned to use this technique on rays, then it’s not far-fetched to assume they could use a similar technique on sharks.

On a side note, some of the underwater footage of the “great white shark” in this clip features a shark that is clearly not a white shark. While I admittedly am not great at identifying certain species of sharks, I’m guessing the footage features either a lemon shark or a bull shark. Anybody care to enlighten me on the species seen at around 3 minutes in?

Thanks to DeepSeaNews.com for the video find.

Underwater videographers Ron and Valerie Taylor have been filming sharks for nearly 50 years primarily for documentaries, according to CNN.com. However, a sequence that they filmed for the horror movie “Jaws” might be one of their most recognized pieces of film. The Taylors discuss shooting the sequence in the video above.

While the fictitious shark featured in “Jaws” was supposed to be upwards of 25′ in length, the Taylors were used to filming great white sharks that were about half that length. To compensate for the size difference a miniaturized cage with a “small” man were used for filming the sequences in the movie that involved a real white shark (other scenes used the infamous mechanical shark “Bruce”). Ron Taylor goes on to discuss how the real white shark actually became entangled in the prop cage, which resulted in the shark panicking and essentially dismantling the cage, which gave off the appearance in the sequence used in “Jaws” that the shark was purposely attacking the cage.

While the Taylors are committed to conservation efforts for sharks these days, Ron Taylor admits that some of their work might have contributed to the negative stereotypes that exist among the general public when it comes to sharks. He says that “Jaws” was so effective and “well done” that people started believing that the fictitious tale was indicative of real shark behavior. Taylor goes on to say that some documentaries perpetuate these stereotypes due to the fact that a lot of documentary footage featuring human and shark interactions, involves baiting the sharks.

The Taylors are proponents of “no-take zones” in which fishing for all species of sharks would be prohibited to allow for sharks to reproduce and maintain sustainable numbers. Valerie Taylor believes that “good imagery” can help change perceptions about these protected marine environments and likens them to land-based national parks.

The full interview with the Taylors will air on CNN’s Talk Asia. For more information check out the article at CNN.com.