Microsoft has released a new commercial featuring the rather infamous “Zombie vs Shark” scene from Lucio Fulci’s 1979 film, Zombie (aka Zombi 2), in which a zombie attacks a tiger shark. Despite the fact that the shark in the video is clearly a tiger shark, the Microsoft ad mistakenly refers to the animal as a great white shark.

While the zombie has the upper-hand early on, the tiger shark ends up with the zombie’s upper-hand and upper-arm at the end of the battle. Unlike many other shark attack sequences seen in movies of this era, the shark scene in Fulci’s Zombie was filmed with an actual tiger shark. The zombie was reportedly played by the shark’s trainer. Below is the “Shark vs Zombie” scene in its entirety.

Don’t try this at home kids! In a battle between a fisherman, a tarpon, and a great hammerhead shark, put your money on the great hammerhead. The video was shot under Long Key bridge near Duck Key, Florida. After a 20 minute fight with the tarpon, the fisherman loses his catch to a great hammerhead. Half of the tarpon surfaces not long after the initial attack, and the fishermen decide it would be a good idea to reach over the side of the boat and grab the remaining carcass of the tarpon only to have the hammerhead come up from below and literally take the tarpon out of their hands. The video information lists the hammerhead at about 14′ in length.

As a public service announcement, I’d like to discourage anybody from trying to hand-feed a large predatory wild animal in the manner displayed in this video, unless, of course, you are striving to make the final cut for The Darwin Awards. Fortunately, these guys came home with their hands and fingers still attached.

The owner of the video has also posted this longer version of the fisherman vs. tarpon vs. shark events.

The Dyers Island Conservation Trust has recently released this video documenting the healing progress of a male great white shark in the vicinity of Dyers Island. In late 2008, the shark sustained a relatively large injury along the vetebral column near the front of the primary dorsal fin. The video suggests that the injury was likely caused by a boat propeller.

The video documents the sharks’ healing progression over a 2-month period while the shark remained in the region. When the shark returned to the region in November, 2009, the wound appeared to have healed up amazingly, at least from a visual standpoint, and the shark did not seem to be suffering any permanent effects as a result of the injury.

The Dyers Island Conservation Trust recently posted this short video on parasitic copepods infecting white sharks in South Africa. If you’ve watched enough videos or looked at enough photos of sharks, then you’ve probably noticed some of these parasitic species freeloading off of a host shark. One of the most noticeable on white sharks, as can be seen in this video, is the Pandarus satyrus. While a vast majority of the oceans’ copepods are free-living, it is estimated that about 15% are parasitic in nature. For more information check out this article on parasitic copepods.

The Guy Harvey Ultimate Shark Tournament has released a video of a bull shark being tagged during the competition. The catch-and-release tournament offers an alternative to the traditional shark harvest competitions. Competitors and researchers work hand-in-hand to promote responsible competitive fishing and shark conservation. Mote Marine Lab researchers tagged the 8’2″ female bull shark, which was caught by tournament competitor Clyde “Bucky” Dennis.

Dennis achieved a level of notoriety and infamy in 2006 when he caught and killed a pregnant great hammerhead shark that was carrying 55 pups, and then again in 2009 with the killing of another large female great hammerhead. The IUCN lists the great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) as a globally endangered species.

It’s refreshing to see Dennis participating in a no-kill situation that might very well yield some valuable research toward protecting future shark populations.

Not having any tv at home, I miss out on commercials sometimes, but this one was brought to my attention by SharkDiver’s Undewater Thrills blog via SouthernFriedScience.com

If one were to take a step back and look at the big picture when it comes to this ad, sharks seem rather harmless, given that the product being advertised is an aid to help people stop smoking. Consider this, adverse health effects from cigarette smoking account for an estimated 443,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, according to the CDC. The average number of fatal shark attacks for the entire world is around 5-10, depending on whose statistics you look at. So, maybe the guy in the commercial really does have bigger problems to worry about than the great white shark latched on to his arm.

David at SouthernFriedScience.com is critical of the ad due to its negative portrayal of white sharks and notes that it only reinforces the false notion that white sharks are just out there waiting to attack people. Personally, while I can see where David is coming from on some level, I think the ad is relatively harmless and fairly amusing. The shark could have easily been replaced with a dog or just about any other animal with a mouth on it and still have had the same effect. Granted, media featuring sharks tends to focus more on biting, but in the case of this commercial, the over-the-top portrayal and comical nature of the ad make me think that the ad wouldn’t evoke a sense of realism or fear into the minds of the viewers that would result swaying their opinions about sharks one way or another. At the end of the day, I think certain “educational” programs (*cough* Discovery Channel *cough*) are far more culpable for promoting negative stereotypes of sharks than a silly Nicorette commercial.

By the way, the special effects on the great white shark in this commercial beat anything I’ve seen on the big screen, to date. Kudos to the FX guys who did the cg work on this advertisement.

Kirk Gatrich, a researcher for Florida International University who was bitten on the arm by a lemon shark about two weeks ago, says he’ll continue to work with sharks and is “completely comfortable” being around large sharks. Gatrich and a colleague were leaning over the side of a boat measuring the lemon shark when it turned its head and grabbed Gatrich by the arm.

According to WSVN-TV Gatrich is working on research that deals with the dwindling number of shark populations in the world’s oceans.

A quick video follow-up on the guy driving around with a bull shark carcass in his pick-up truck in St. Petersburg. According to WTSP-10, Josh Lipert drove the shark to Gandy Beach and “carved it into steaks, which he gave to friends.” Mmmmm, bull shark steaks. Nom nom nom. (Wait, BULL SHARK steaks? Seriously? Note to my friends: please don’t ever give me bull shark steaks.)

Lipert kept the jaws as a “souvenir” (aka trophy).

A juvenile white shark that was once on display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium has turned up dead. The female great white was “collected” by the aquarium on August 12, 2009 and subsequently released back into the wild on November 4, 2009.

According to satellite tracking tags attached to her prior to release, the young female white shark (which can be seen in the video above) had initially traveled from Monterey Bay to Baja. She was near Ensenada, Mexico the last time she was “heard” from, according to the aquarium’s Sea Notes blog.

Unfortunately, Sea Notes goes on to report that about two months ago, the shark’s satellite tracking tags started reporting from land. Oscar Sosa-Nishizaki, a Mexican researcher, traced the satellite tag movements to the home of a fisherman who acknowledged having caught the shark in a gill-net, according to Pete Thomas’ Outdoors blog.

Great white sharks are protected species in Mexican waters, but it is not entirely uncommon for younger white sharks to end up being caught accidentally by fishermen and sold as “swordfish” at Ensenada fish markets, as the Underwater Thrills blog reported on last year.

While another white shark is gone, hopefully her death will help bring more attention to the problems that the species is facing.

Update:It has since been reported that Discovery has decided to pull the re-enactment of the attack from the 2010 Shark Week programming. Kudos to Discovery for responding to the requests of friends and family of the victim.

According to TCPalm, Discovery Channel’s 2010 Shark Week will include a program focusing on shark attacks titled, “Day of the Shark III.” The program will focus on six shark attacks and feature a re-enactment of the fatal shark attack on a Stuart, Florida man, who was attacked while kiteboarding on February 3rd of this year.

TCPalm quoted Stephanie Forsberg, a friend of the victim and an organizer of a memorial fund in his name, as saying…

“I love the Discovery Channel, but to do a re-enactment, and do it this soon, I don’t think they’re being very sensitive to this community, to Steve’s family and especially to his mother.”

Forsberg went on to say…

“I think they (the Discovery Channel) just want to boost their ratings. This is just too soon for a lot of us.”

As last year’s Shark Week illustrated, Discovery’s approach of sensationalizing shark attacks does, indeed, result in a boost in their ratings. It should come as no surprise that they are stooping to the same tactics with this year’s programming for Shark Week. At the end of the day, it’s all about ratings (and advertising money) for Shark Week.

Fear sells better than education does, apparently. When it comes to Shark Week, Discovery Channel seems to have abandoned the education aspect a long time ago.