Boston.com has posted a feature on the great white shark research tagging effort going on off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts. Dr. Greg Skomal and his crew have successfully tagged two great white sharks in the area within the past week. The video above features footage of Saturday’s successful tagging.

A small sand tiger shark (aka grey nurse shark, or spotted ragged-tooth) caught by fishermen in Long Island Sound is making the rounds in the local news media. Despite being a species considered relatively harmless to humans, the news of the presence of a sand tiger shark apparently stirred up some fear among some of those interviewed in the story above.

Mystic Aquarium suggests that fishermen who catch sand tiger sharks should release them. While the fishermen who caught the shark seem to be enjoying the fame of their “big catch,” they told NBC Connecticut that they would release any sharks that they catch in the future.

WARNING: Video features footage of a shark being shot with a handgun.

Seriously, don’t try this at home, kids…or on a boat with your kids. This really does appear to be a video of somebody firing a handgun at a hooked shark from a boat, which appears to have at least three children on-board. According to the video information, a “7 ft bull shark gets shot in the head after a 45 minute long fight.” The video information also goes on to say the bullet hit the line and the shark survived.

Eric Cheng posted some amazing whale shark footage to his blog/journal yesterday. The footage was shot off Isla Mujeres, and according to Cheng’s journal they had over 500 whale sharks around the island. Cheng’s work never ceases to amaze. In addition to the video above, Cheng has posted an exceptional close-up shot of a “whale shark gulp” in both 2D and anaglyph 3D versions in his recent blog/journal entry.

For more about Eric Cheng check out his website EricCheng.com. Additionally, you can view some of his amazing photography on his Flickr Photostream. Cheng also owns and runs WetPixel.com, an online community for underwater photography and videography.

Fox25 Boston is reporting that another great white shark has been tagged off of Chatham, Massachusetts. The shark estimated at 10′ in length was tagged yesterday by researchers. A total of 8 great white sharks were reported yesterday by shark spotters near the eastern shore Monomoy Bay. Chatham’s South Beach was closed to swimming as a result of multiple great white sharks being spotted near the shore. Yesterday marked the second time a great white shark was tagged by researchers within the past week near Chatham.

Discovery Networks is running a contest of sorts to “be a part of Shark Week.” The rules are simple. Just upload a video (with no background music) of yourself creating your own lyrics to the tune of Discovery’s “Boom De Ah Dah” song and upload it to YouTube as a response to the above video. This is your chance to voice to Discovery how you feel about Shark Week.

To send your video response go directly to the above video on YouTube and click in the empty box below the video where you can add a comment. When you click in the empty comment box, a link will appear to the right that reads “Attach a video.” Follow the instructions from there to add your personalized Shark Week video.

WARNING: Video features footage of live sharks being finned.

While Discovery Channel has faced much criticism for some of its programming choices for Shark Week over the past few years (including this year), there have been a few features popping up on Discovery Networks YouTube channel over the past few days that are conservation based. The video above which features some of the first known footage of shark finning, according to the intro text in the clip (typos aside).

The Beqa Adventure Divers blog and this article from The Huffington Post have pretty much summed up the negative aspects of Shark Week. Rather than focus on the negatives this year (like I did last year), I’m going to try shift my focus toward the “positive” or at least “educational” aspects of Shark Week. Hopefully, they won’t be few and far between this time around.

DiscoveryNetworks has posted the video above to their YouTube Channel. The video focuses on the repercussions of the extinction of sharks as top ocean predators. Researcher Andy DeHart of the National Aquarium points out the impact of the shark finning market on shark popluations but also notes that roughly half of the sharks killed each day as a result of accidental bycatch. DeHart goes on to say that of the roughly 400 species of sharks only 30 species are heavily fished. However, within those thirty species are some of the apex predators which help control stingray and fish populations. DeHart concludes the video discussing how the slow reproductive nature and small number of pups of some shark species also puts them at greater risk for extinction.

Raw video footage of a southern right whale breaching and landing on a sailboat has surfaced since the news story first hit the media last week.

The Independent Online reported that South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs is investigating the incident after several witnesses claim that the boat had illegally approached the whale in violation of regulations that require boaters to give the whales at least a 300m berth. The eyewitness accounts seemed to be backed up by a voice, which can be heard in the background of the raw video saying, “They don’t listen. You can’t go close.”

CNN.com has an extended version of the raw footage, in which the crew of the boat from which the video was filmed seemingly left the scene laughing at the crew of the sailboat without checking on the well-being of the boaters. Fortunately, nobody was hurt on-board the sailboat.

According to a WPRI Eyewitness News news clip, 3 to 4 great white sharks were spotted by a pilot yesterday (07/27/10) off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts. At least one shark, estimated at 12′ in length, was tagged by a fisherman. Increasing sightings of great white sharks around the Chatham area have been attributed by some researchers to large populations of seals, which are a food source of the sharks.