DiscoveryNetworks' Featured Videos on YouTube appear to focus on shark attacks on humans.

It seems that Discovery Networks’ fixation on promoting shark attack footage has stretched beyond their annual Shark Week. Today while browsing through YouTube for recent shark-related videos, I was presented with “Featured Videos” ads from DiscoveryNetworks‘ YouTube channel. I guess it shouldn’t really come as any surprise that Discovery is continuing to push shark attack footage on YouTube. Their promotion of Shark Week 2009 was centered around over-the-top fictionalized shark on human violence, including cheesy videos of fake shark attacks, which appeared on YouTube.

It should be noted that these shark attack ads for showed up while searching on the term “shark” (not “shark attack”) using the “upload date” filter, despite the fact that the videos are listed as being uploaded “1 year ago.” Of course, I realize this all part of YouTube’s marketing of “Featured Videos,” but Discovery Networks certainly has a hand in which videos are promoted. Two shark attack videos certainly seem like odd choices for a company that claims to be conservation-minded.

A “monster shark” is in the news again. Much like the previous “monster” shark reports, this one can apparently change size at will (or at the will of whatever particular media outlet is reporting the story). Unfortunately, this shark was killed by fishermen. Even more unfortunate is that Vic Hislop has purchased the shark’s carcass.

The supposed “monster” this time around is a hammerhead (presumably a great hammerhead, based on its size), which is being reported at various lengths. The Daily Mail reports that the hammerhead shark weighs “one and a quarter tonnes” and is “20ft long.” Most other outlets are reporting the shark to weigh 1,200 kg and measure 5m (approximately 16′) in length. Researchers estimate the shark to be forty years old.
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Kids, don’t try this at home (or while vacationing in Mexico)…

National Geographic recently posted the video above to their YouTube channel which features cameraman Nick Caloyianis being charged and bitten by a bull shark, after researchers attempted to attach one of National Geographic’s Crittercams to the animal. Upon being stuck with a barb, the bull shark escaped the Crittercam crew and began to swim away, when a fisherman attempted to hook it in the mouth. The shark appears to have previously sustained some serious injuries to the side of its jaw (there appear to be two hooks visible in the shark’s flesh in one of the close-up shots) that the fisherman was attempting to hook. Upon being hooked, the shark turned around and swam toward Caloyianis, biting his leg and eventually his hand. Fortunately, Caloyianis made a full-recovery from his injuries.
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YouTube user MsJbieberfan has posted the video below along with a description claiming that SeaWorld Australia reportedly has a young great white shark in captivity. I have not been able to find any legitimate news source to support the claim, and the video certainly does nothing to validate it, considering that the shark in the video is not a great white.

Personally, I’m thinking the story seems like “bull.”

A great white shark tagged off of New Zealand was recorded to have reached a depth of 1,200m.

According to New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, a 4.8m great white shark nicknamed “Shack” has set the deepest dive ever recorded by a great white shark at 1,200m. NIWA scientist, Malcolm Franics, said the shark made several other dives between the 1,000m and 1,200m mark. The previous depth record for a great white shark was 1,000m. “Shack” is one of 25 great white sharks tagged by NIWA over a five-year period. Data from the tagging program has also revealed information about migration patterns and white shark populations in New Zealand and Australian waters. For more information, check out the NIWA news release.

Shark Diver’s Underwater Thrills blog recently posted the following videos of some potential Darwin Award winners harassing captive nurse sharks.

According to the video information, these videos were shot at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.
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Hein Mevissen, founder of John Doe Amsterdam, recently posted the “Killing a great white shark with your bare hands” video to his YouTube channel. Much like the somewhat infamous Shark Surfer video, Mevissen’s video was also commercially produced (created for MTV Networks Europe). While the average person would know better than to assume this is anything but a piece of fictional entertainment, it’s probably only a matter of time before YouTube viewers start claiming it’s real.

Regardless, TheDorsalFin.com does not condone the barehanded killing of great white sharks (or any other killing of white sharks), the severing of human arms, or dancing upon dead shark carcasses, unless, of course, it is all done fictionally for mindless amusement and attention.

If I hear from my neighbor’s friend’s cousin’s classmate who was actually there when this really happened, I’ll be sure to let everybody know.

SharkTruth's Happy Hearts Love Sharks contest encourages participants to skip shark fin soup on their wedding day in hopes of winning a trip to dive with whale sharks. (Image courtesy of SharkTruth.com)

Shark fin soup has traditionally been viewed as a sign of wealth in Chinese culture, and a lack of it at a wedding banquet can have negative implications. Shark Truth founders, Claudia Li and Vivian Kwong, created the non-profit group with the idea of educating people of Asian cultures about the practice of finning to harvest shark fins used in the traditional delicacy. Their “Stop the Soup” pledge offers couples a valid reason to forgo shark fin soup on their wedding day, and their “Happy Hearts Love Sharks” contest provides even more incentive to make that pledge.
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UPDATE: The quick overview that I refer to below was replaced by a transcript of the actual 60 Minutes segment, which is a total about-face of the quick overview and is an excellent pro-media example of how news outlets can cover shark stories without fear-mongering. I have since posted a follow-up on “The Sharkman” segment from 60 Minutes.

According to CBSnews.com, Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes will include a feature on great white shark diving with Michael Rutzen, who is well-known for his cage-less interactions with white sharks in South Africa.

The quick overview at the CBS website can’t seem to distinguish reality from fiction as best detailed by the following excerpt…

How do you swim with the star of “Jaws?” With a paramedic on board and an ambulance on the shore…

Unless, the article is referring to swimming with Richard Dreyfuss, or the ghost of either Roy Scheider or Robert Shaw, one can only assume that the “star” they are referring to is the giant rubber-skinned mechanical shark prop that “starred” as the serial killer shark from the 1975 film. The video preview seems to indicate none of the above, rather Anderson Cooper and Mike Rutzen appear to be swimming with actual great white sharks, which, contrary to over-the-top sensational media outlets, are not the same as gigantic fictional sharks portrayed by a problematic movie prop.

Keep up that top-notch journalistic integrity CBS!

While the above AP report essentially echoes my previous post about the CITES conference, there was one small bit of good news that came at of Doha, Qatar. According to USA Today, the porbeagle shark (Lamna nasus) was added to the CITES Appendix II, which regulates exportation of the species for international trade.