A video game based on the popular Steven Spielberg horror film “Jaws” is now available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. While the trailer for the game might make some shark conservationists cringe with its “mindless eating machine” mentality, others might argue that it’s a harmless video game. “Jaws” the game certainly isn’t doing anything to dispel many of the largely unwarranted fears about sharks, but as a video game based on a fictitious horror movie, I have to wonder if anybody would really expect anything different.

If the game were billed as an educational app about sharks, I would certainly have no trouble crying foul. However, “Jaws” is a horror movie about a 25′ rogue great white shark who hunts down humans mercilessly. When you see the name “Jaws” attached to a video game, you pretty much know what you’re getting into.

“Jaws” (the film and its video game incarnations) catches a lot of flak for creating the mindset that sharks are mindless killers, but is the movie itself really the problem? For whatever reason, “Jaws” is simply very effective at scaring people, and the fear associated with the movie gets carried over into the real-world for many people. I would argue that the the inability to discern reality from fiction is far more to blame for misconceptions about sharks than a movie or a video game.

YouTube user opimoby (videographer Ross Isaacs) posted the video above featuring a children’s song titled “I’m a Shark.” The video is an excerpt from “Bubbles – On the Reef,” an educational children’s video intended to introduce children to ocean life. The video, shot in high definition, follows Bubbles the shrimp on an adventure through Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

The video information for “I’m a Shark” touches on issues such as shark finning and the theory that shark attacks on humans are the result of mistaken identity. All-in-all it seems that “Bubbles – On the Reef” sends a pro-ocean message to children, based on the excerpts and video information available. For more info about the video, visit Ocean Planet Images.

While the “I’m a Shark” tune isn’t quite as catchy to me as The Great White Shark Song, it seems like it’s sending a pro-shark educational message to a younger audience, which hopefully will counteract some of the more negative stereotypes associated with sharks in the media.

The Associated Press recently released the above video feature about a campaign to curb shark fin soup consumption in Hong Kong. The grass-roots movement hopes to have the controversial delicacy removed from restaurant menus. Shark fin soup has come under fire due to the acquisition of shark fins through shark finning, in which live sharks have their fins cut off and are then thrown back in the water to drown.

Shark fin soup is believed by some to have multiple health benefits including increased energy, heart disease prevention, improved skin quality, and increased sexual potency. However, there is no evidence to support any of these purported benefits.

A video of a finned whale shark filmed in the Philippines by Chung Shan Shan, a Hong Kong biology professor, has helped to fuel the movement against shark fin soup. The campaign seems to be supported primarily by the younger generation, some of whom, have decided to go against tradition and serve alternatives to shark fin soup at their own wedding banquets.

For more information, check out the full AP report.

WRBL 3 News is reporting that according to un-confirmed reports a Columbus, Georgia fisherman and a runner spotted a shark fin in the Chattahoochee River. According to the story, the fisherman broke his line while fishing and when the runner came to assist him, they both saw the shark fin, causing some to theorize that a bull shark may be in the river.

Bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) can tolerate freshwater and have been known to swim far up rivers, but the sighting of a bull shark near Columbus in the Chattahoochee would certainly be an extremely unusual spectacle. At the time of this writing, a non-scientific online poll by WRBL 3 News indicated that of those polled, 53% believed that the story of the Chattahoochee bull shark could be true.

Fox 5/69 San Diego is reporting that lifeguards have issued a warning to swimmers and surfers after a large shark was spotted in close proximity to swimmers. Reporters are referring to the shark spotted as a white shark. The warning applies to the coastline from rom La Jolla Cove to Scripps Pier and will remain in effect until tomorrow, provided no more additional sightings are reported.

Lifeguards have not closed any beaches, but advise swimmers not to venture out in the water alone and to avoid early morning and late evening swimming.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald a swimming ban has been imposed at beaches on the Riviera by French officials, after multiple witnesses reported seeing a 2m shark. The swimming ban applies to beaches at Cagnes-sur-Mer, Villeneuve-Loubet and Saint-Laurent-du-Var.

The head of public safety for the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer, Michel Gagnaire, said that the shark was spotted approximately 70m from shore. Gagnaire went on to speculate that the shark might be “disoriented due to illness or a wound and therefore more likely to attack swimmers.”

According to the International Shark Attack File, there have only been four unprovoked shark attacks recorded in French waters, since 1847. The Sydney Morning Herald report notes that last July a French Mediterranean beach was closed after a “shark” was reportedly sighted. Authorities later discovered that the animal sighted was actually a Mola mola (also known as an ocean sunfish).

Within a matter of days after Chuck Patterson’s great white shark footage from San Onofre started making the rounds in the media, YouTube user FussBrosProductions managed to put together a faux encounter with a white shark while kayaking by editing clips of Patterson’s white shark footage into some original kayaking footage.

A comparison of footage from Chuck Patterson and FussBrosProductions.

With the addition of the “Jaws” background music and a name like “FussBrosProductions,” it seems like the person or persons behind this particular video were just having a little bit of fun with some video editing, but it’s probably only a matter of time before somebody comments on the YouTube video swearing that they know the cousin of a kid who went to school with one of the kayakers and swears there were really white sharks there.

All beaches inside Chatham Harbor were closed yesterday after a 14′ (4.3m) great white shark was spotted by boaters in the harbor. The beaches will remain closed until at least this afternoon, when officials will decide whether to allow swimmers to return to the water.

The video above features some cliché “Jaws” references from the reporters, but at least some of the beach goers interviewed in the clip seem fairly level-headed about the presence of white sharks in the area.

YouTube user Rodolpheholler recently uploaded this nice little bit of footage shot in Hanifaru lagoon in the Maldives. The video features some nice human interaction with mantas. The footage is capped off with a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) surrounded by mantas.

In a rather bizarre follow-up to the story about a sand tiger shark being found dead on Carolina Beach, a 15-year-old boy told WWAY-3 that he and some other teens were ordered by police to pull a sand tiger shark from the surf and allow it to die on the beach.

However, Carolina Beach Police Chief William Younginer says that’s not the case. According to Younginer, “once the first officers arrived on scene, the shark was out of the water and the shark never went back to the water.” Younginer went on to say that the officers believed the shark had already been out of the water too long to save. Experts believe the sand tiger shark, which is a protected species, was caught by a fisherman.

The sand tiger shark was dumped in a maintenance yard to decompose, where all of its teeth were later removed by a unidentified person.

The teen who made the claims to WWAY-3 says he is standing by his story.