Need I say more?
Posted on 07/04/2005 9:49:30 PM PDT by Mongeaux
Great white sharks may be the poster child of marine predators. Yet scientists know surprisingly little about Carcharodon carcharias.
To map their movements and chart a course for the protection of great whites, one research team is getting up close and personal with the sea's top predator.
For three years Ramón Bonfil, a conservation scientist and shark specialist with the Bronx-based Wildlife Conservation Society, has been hand-fitting South Africa's great whites with dorsal-fin satellite tags. The tags reveal the sharks' day-to-day and long-term movements.
Bonfil's capture technique includes a heart-pumping face-to-face meeting with the king of the ocean food chain.
"It's a potentially dangerous situation, but we try to minimize the risk for both the scientists and the sharks," Bonfil said. "We don't want to kill a shark by mistake while studying it. Accidents can happen, so we're careful to work on nice flat water without risking more than we should."
Great white sharks can grow up to 20 feet (6 meters) long and weigh up to 5,000 pounds (2,270 kilograms
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
He needs to meet Nicolette Sheridan.
Tag a 20 ft., 5000 pounder and I'll be impressed.
The before and after pictures are startling.
I'd say she punched a shark. I'm pretty sure she did. I doubt it was a great white .....but even if it was a great white (most people think all sharks are great whites), i doubt it was a big one. I'd say this is the same scenario as someone seeing a 4 foot snake in India and saying that he just escaped with his life by the skin of his teeth from a 'menacing 15 foot King Cobra with a hood the size of two adult hands!'
If she punched such a sucker out then she is one heck of a person and I tip my hat off to her (although to be fair if she punched any shark ---even a small shark --- in a bid to save a stranger makes her a true star in my book. That took real b@!!s either way, particularly for a stranger). But all the same I doubt she punched a 'big' great white shark.
Cheers mate. And yep, this is one tale that requires a swig of drink. All Big Fish stories do. Cheers.
LOL.
I live on the Texas Gulf Coast where we have both sharks and alligators and hurricanes... There have been several alligators in OUR NEIGHBORHOOD, one was 11.5 ft. long. It isn't a rare occurance either. But I can avoid sharks, I stay OUT of the water.
A half-dozen sharks lurking off the upper Texas coast prompted state park officials to close five miles of beach Monday.
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It was the first time Sea Rim State Park's waters have been placed off limits to visitors because of a predatory animal, said Lee Roberts, the manager of the park, which is located about 20 miles south of Port Arthur near Sabine Pass.
Over two hours Monday morning, rangers spotted at least five sharks, some as close as 30 to 50 feet from shore. The rangers could not determine the species of the sharks.
"When we found that many sharks in that short period of time, we closed the beach until further notice," Roberts said. Officials in Florida have also temporarily closed public beaches this summer after two teenagers were injured and one killed along that state's coast this year.
"In the summer, we will see one or two a month," Roberts added. "We are seeing four and five in two hours. That is considered a potential problem."
The beach's closure comes after fishermen in the area reported seeing a school of sharks over the weekend in Sabine Pass. They also said a dead bull shark, a species which can tolerate the brackish water found close to coasts, washed ashore Sunday.
The sightings join others along the Texas coast recently.
In mid-June, fishermen caught a six-foot shark off South Padre Island close to shore and in an area where children were playing.
Meanwhile, in Freeport over the Fourth of July weekend, two bull sharks were weighed in during the annual Freeport Fishing Fiesta tournament.
Mingo Marquez, harbor master for Bridge Harbor Marina in Freeport, suspected that a band of seaweed which brought thousands of stingrays to some Brazoria County beaches provided the sharks with an all-you-can-eat buffet.
"I think the stingrays had something to do with it," Marquez said. "I haven't seen bull sharks around here for awhile."
Marine experts say reports of sharks near shore are normal this time of year because they are moving into more shallow and warmer water to chase the baitfish they like to eat.
"They are coming up following the groceries," said Terrie Looney, Texas Sea Grant's marine extension agent for Jefferson and Chambers counties.
Looney, however, said the recent drought, which is diminishing the amount of fresh water reaching the Gulf, could be boosting water salinity and enabling more shark species to come closer to beaches.
Another hypothesis is that baitfish populations could be larger than normal.
Roberts said that on Sunday he noticed large numbers of menhaden and other baitfish off Sea Rim's beach.
Last summer, there were several shark bites along the Texas coast, although there have been only 19 attacks since 1980.
This year, sharks have already attacked three teenagers in Florida, killing one and injuring two others.
Armin Trojer, 19, of Baden, Austria, was released from the hospital Sunday after being treated for a bite to his ankle. Trojer was standing in chest-deep water near Boca Grande when he was attacked Friday.
On June 25, 14-year-old Jamie Marie Daigle, of Gonzales, La., was mutilated and killed by a bull shark near Destin.
Two days later, 16-year-old Craig Adam Hutto, of Lebanon, Tenn., had to have his leg amputated after he was bitten off Cape San Blas.
There have also been other scares in recent days. Sharks were seen about 20 feet from shore in Deerfield Beach last week, prompting a temporary closure of the Broward County beach.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Darn, she looks better at 41 than I did at 17!
I live along the Texas gulf coast too. Ive been keeping my eye on this story, and tomorrow I plan on heading down to Sea Rim and helping them out with a few of their problems. You cant beat a cold beer and a shark steak!!!
Kick its ass!!!
We're gonna need a bigger boat
It's between his LEGS! He's crazy!
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