Many movies cast sharks in a negative light. “Jaws,” we’re looking at you. But despite all the bad press these animals get, they’re not actually all that dangerous to humans. In fact, the Australian Institute of Marine Science reports that there are only about 10 shark attacks worldwide every year. Meanwhile, human fishing practices have killed millions of sharks.
Learning facts like these can change the way you look at sharks. Like snakes and other often-feared animals, sharks may seem less frightening once you know more about them. Start your learning journey with this list of cool shark facts.
Do you want to swim with a 40-foot-long endangered fish that weighs 11 tons? Lots of people do, making whale shark tourism popular in places like western Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In North America, La Paz, Mexico, is the place to swim with these enormous creatures.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species lists the whale shark as “vulnerable to extinction.” Their biggest threat is human activity. While hunting is the biggest problem, conservationists are also watching the steep rise in wildlife tourism.
In February, La Paz, a city of 250,000 on the Baja Peninsula, suspended whale shark tours in the Bay of La Paz because of a sudden drop in sightings. After about six weeks — which is long in tourism time and dollars — local authorities decided tours could resume.
Photo courtesy of FITUPAZ
Outdoors Wire talked to Ximena Vega, a tourist guide at Red Travel Mexico, to find out what was going on with the suspension and how people monitor whale sharks and decide on safe levels of human interaction.
“The whale shark population in La Paz Bay is monitored mainly by the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP), but it involves environmental authorities, tourism service providers, the scientific community, and NGOs,” Vega said.
Twice a week, boats go out to established areas 700 meters from the coast and “report on the number of sharks sighted, the sighting sites, the average size of the specimens and their behavior, as well as weather conditions,” Vega said. “This pause in whale shark activities is one of the measures we take to protect the population. When five or fewer of the species are seen within a defined area, these activities are suspended.”
Photo courtesy of FITUPAZ
The Bay of La Paz is a protected area where the number of boats allowed is strictly limited. “Only one boat is allowed per whale shark, and there can be a maximum of only 14 boats per shift,” Vega said. All boats are monitored via GPS, must stay within a defined area, and comply with strict speed limits.
Whale sharks prefer warm water temperatures above 72 degrees. These filter feeders mostly swim at the ocean’s surface, which makes them vulnerable to boat strikes, fishing mishaps, plastic ingestion, and tourism. Each whale shark has a unique spot pattern akin to human fingerprints. This is super convenient for researchers tracking the endangered species.
If you decide to swim with whale sharks in La Paz or elsewhere, enter the water slowly and stay at least a meter away. Don’t touch the sharks, and — it should go without saying, but some yahoos need to be told — do not attempt to ride the shark. Show some respect for the world’s largest fish.
An angler in Perth, Australia, caught and released a 10-foot bull shark Wednesday about a mile from the site of a recent fatal shark attack on a jet skier.
An angler in Western Australia has caught and released a 10-foot bull shark near the site of a recent fatal shark attack on a jet skier.
Kai Boyle, 21, posted images to social media showing him posing with the “Swan River Bull Shark” he landed late Wednesday at the East Fremantle boat ramp.
After the catch, Boyle shoved the shark into the river and watched it swim away. He stated on Facebook that an earlier post had been “taken down for abuse, but why not let people know what’s in the Swan River?”
Last Saturday, Stella Berry, 16, was fatally attacked at Fremantle after jumping into the river from her jet ski. Boyle’s catch occurred about a mile from that location.
According to 9News, Boyle’s catch and a confirmed shark sighting on Thursday prompted a search for the shark. News Perth tweeted that beaches along the Swan River “are in the process of being closed.”
A teen has reeled in a monster 2.5m bull shark from the Swan River last night, just days after a fatal attack in the same area.
Bull sharks, found in tropical and subtropical waters around the world, can be found in saltwater and freshwater.
According to the International Shark Attack File, bull sharks are responsible for at least 100 unprovoked attacks on humans, including 27 fatal attacks.
“It is considered by many to be the most dangerous shark in the world. It’s large size, proclivity for freshwater, abundance and proximity to human populations, particularly in the tropics, makes it more of a potential threat than is either the white shark or the tiger shark.”
Experts have identified the shark as a porbeagle, a species similar in appearance to great white sharks. Porbeagle sharks can measure 12 feet and weigh about 500 pounds.
Despite the timing of the stranding, the recent cold spell likely had nothing to do with the death of the shark. (The air temperature was 10 degrees when Medeiros snapped the photo.)
As Cape Wide News reported, the image reveals a severe injury on the shark’s side.
John Chisholm, a Massachusetts-based shark researcher, tweeted that he was “pretty sure this is one that originally washed up last week and has been moving around with the big tides.”
Chisholm alluded to other mysterious porbeagle shark standings that occurred earlier this winter. “Unlike the others, this one is a male,” Chisholm added.
Medeiros told FTW Outdoors that as of Sunday morning nobody had arrived to collect the carcass. “It’s still there, stinky now, and people have taken its teeth,” she said.
A Chinese food blogger who cut up, cooked, and ate a great white shark – and captured the lavish production on video – has been fined $18,500 by authorities.
A Chinese food blogger who bought a great white shark at market, then prepared and ate the apex predator in a lavish video production, has been fined $18,500 by authorities.
The blogger’s user name is Tizi but authorities identified her as Jin Moumou, while explaining last week in a statement that Jin bought the shark last April for $1,100 and posted her footage in July.
The footage went viral, which is what tipped authorities. (CLICK HERE to watch the video.)
White sharks are protected in China and Jin’s actions were in violation of the “Wild Animal Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China,” authorities explained.
According to the statement, the fisherman and “shark sellers” were arrested for catching and selling a protected species. The white shark, a juvenile, looks to measure about six feet.
In the footage, a smiling Jin informs her followers, “Don’t be fooled by their scary appearance, its meat is very tender.”
Stephens stated that the net was being used to catch squid.
The footage was copied by shark diver/conservationist Andy Brande Casagrande and shared to Instagram with the description: “Awesome to see these fishermen respecting & releasing this massive Great White Shark that was stuck in their net.”
Can you locate the mako shark in a photo quiz issued by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans?
Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans on Wednesday tweeted a quiz asking viewers if they can guess which of the four sharks in the accompanying image is a mako shark.
We’ll take it a step farther and ask viewers to identify all four sharks in the photo. (Answer provided below.)
Fisheries and Oceans included a link that contains information about the shortfin mako shark and explains that the species is classified as endangered in Canada.
Mako sharks are found globally in tropical and temperate waters, but in the North Atlantic the species is considered to be comprised of a single population.
The sleek and powerful predators and can attain bursts of 40-plus mph while attacking prey such as tuna or swordfish.
Mako sharks can measure 12 feet and weigh more than 1,000 pounds. (The world record catch, set off Massachusetts in 2001, stands at 1,221 pounds.)
In the comments section of the Fisheries and Oceans tweet, several followers provided the correct answer, and a few identified all four species.
The types of sharks, in order: A) White shark, B) Thresher shark, C) Hammerhead shark, and D) Mako shark.
A great white shark named Tough Guy, tagged off Southern California in 2021, is approaching Hawaii.
In late October a male great white shark nicknamed Tough Guy revealed his position off Vandenberg Air Force Base north of Santa Barbara.
It was noteworthy because at least three white shark attacks on surfers – two of them fatal – occurred in base waters between 2010 and 2014.
On Monday, Tough Guy was nearing the main Hawaiian Islands, showing the extent to which these apex predators seasonally migrate.
“White Sharks are peeling away from the mainland coast,” Michael Domeier, who runs the Marine Conservation Science Institute, stated via Instagram. “Looks like Tough Guy is coming back to Hawaii to say hello.”
Adult white sharks from California and Mexico typically spend winter in a vast swath of Pacific halfway between the West Coast and Hawaii, with some reaching Hawaii.
Tough Guy was tagged off Southern California on Nov. 21, 2021. He measured 12 feet at the time.
The Marine Conservation Science Institute has satellite-tagged dozens of white sharks and the public can track their movements via the nonprofit’s Expedition White Shark App.
–Generic white shark image courtesy of Michael Domeier/Marine Conservation Science Institute
Video footage captured Monday at Australia’s Bondi Beach shows two hammerhead sharks cruising inside safety nets designed to prevent large sharks from approaching the shore.
Video footage captured Monday at Australia’s Bondi Beach shows two hammerhead sharks cruising inside safety nets designed to prevent large sharks from approaching the shore.
The footage, shared to Instagram by Drone Shark App founder Jason Iggleden, shows the sharks swimming lazily beyond the surf, one behind the other.
“Great to see they diverted the nets safely,” Iggleden wrote in the description. “I haven’t seen this before, actually.”
Nobody was in the water at the Sydney beach when the footage was captured, just before sunrise. But a day earlier, Iggleden noted, thousands participated in a major swimming event.
Shark nets are controversial because they exact a heavy toll on marine life and cannot guarantee that sharks won’t find a way around the barriers.
Leonardo Guida, a shark scientist at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, told 9 News Australia that all three types of hammerhead sharks found off Australia are threatened.
“Two of the largest, scalloped and great hammerheads, are endangered and are protected species,” Guida said. “The fact these two were spotted on the beach-side of the net shows how outdated and ineffective this measure is.”
Iggleden’s commentary suggests that one shark in the footage is nicknamed Homer. “We’ll have to name the second one in the back,” he says. “Maybe Homer’s little girlfriend.”
Great white sharks have become a tourist attraction at Torrey Pines State Beach north of San Diego.
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and State Beach is known for its sweeping views of the Pacific. Migrating whales are sometimes spotted in the distance.
But these days great white sharks are the premier attraction for some hikers at the reserve near San Diego. Dozens of juvenile white sharks have spent the summer and early fall off Torrey Pines and Del Mar, just to the north.
The sharks have been feeding on stingrays and other bottom fishes, keeping a fairly low profile until recently.
Anglers began to hook them and on Oct. 30 the carcass of an 8-foot white shark was discovered on the shore at Torrey Pines. The shark died as a result of fishing activity. (White sharks are protected and targeting them while fishing is illegal.)
On Nov. 4, a distance swimmer was bitten by a shark off Del Mar and hospitalized. Lyn Jutronich told NBC San Diego that the shark shook briefly before releasing its grip. Jutronich was hospitalized and treated for puncture wounds to her right thigh.
The type of shark was not confirmed, but it was presumed to be a juvenile white shark.
On Nov. 6, the Torrey Pines reserve posted a Facebook image of a white shark in a wave. The image was captured via cellphone from the bluff at Yucca Point.
The Facebook post advertised the presence of sharks and listed spots from which they might be seen: Yucca Point, Razor Point and the Guy Fleming overlooks.
(Personal note: I observed at least four white sharks two weeks ago from the Guy Fleming North Grove trail. There was a field trip in progress and several children also saw the sharks.)
“For best results, plan your trip before 11 a.m. and during high tide,” the Torrey Pines reserve advised. “Sunglasses with polarized lenses and binoculars both also help.”
To be sure, the temporary white shark aggregation site at Torrey Pines is substantial.
Chris Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach, told FTW Outdoors that several white sharks tagged off Southern California in recent years are in the area.
“We’ve detected 31 tagged juvenile white sharks (in the last month) out the 62 tagged at Solana Beach, Del Mar and Torrey Pines over the last three years,” Lowe said. “We’ve seen up to 12 sharks in a single drone video frame at Torrey Pines in the last few months.
“This is now the largest aggregation since the Santa Barbara aggregation has broken down.”
It’s not clear how long the sharks will remain in the area.
–Top image courtesy of Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and State Beach
