Free Republic

The largest male white shark ever tagged by the research group OCEARCH is close to the coast of North Carolina as it migrates northwards. Contender, a nearly 14-foot long adult great white male shark, was first tagged by OCEARCH in January 2025. He was first spotted off the coast of Georgia, then spent time near Florida. For the past several weeks, he has been moving northward, with his tracking device pinging multiple times off the coast of South Carolina and North Carolina. On June 11, his tracker pinged just 22 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras. OCEARCH said in...

BOCA GRANDE, Fla. — A 9-year-old girl was snorkeling in Boca Grande, Florida, when she became the victim of a shark attack. Leah Lendel was about four feet from her mother when the incident happened, WBBH reported. The attack happened on Wednesday around noon, USA Today reported. Nadia Lendel said that Leah submerged to snorkel, then came up and screamed. That’s when she saw her daughter’s arm covered in blood, her hand mostly torn off at the wrist. Nadia Lendel was holding her two toddlers and she tried to take them to shore so she would be able to help...

A Los Angeles business owner has found a novel way to keep homeless people from camping near his building: playing a children’s song on an annoying loop. “They played ‘Baby Shark’ all night long,” Tracy, a woman who lives in an encampment next door to the building at the corner of West 11th and Main streets, told NBC4 Los Angeles. “They’re doing everything they can to make us move or drive us crazy. But it’s doing the latter. It’s driving people crazy.” The building owners began playing the song through a loudspeaker pointed directly at the encampment, which Tracy told...

Terrifying video shows a diver being attacked by a shark as horrified beachgoers watched on helplessly. The unidentified diver is assumed dead after the attack at a beach in Israel that has been drawing tourists to see the sharks — with one video showing one swimming right up to a child standing in the water. The attacked diver was heard screaming, “They’re biting me!” before being dragged further out to sea off the city of Hadera on Monday ... They’re eating him, eating the man!” .... “Wow, wow, he’s with the shark, he’s fighting him,” ... “I was in the...

HEARTSTOPPING footage shows the moment two giant whales move in to protect a diver from a bloodthirsty shark. Benoît Girodeau was diving off the coast of Mauritius when he was approached by an oceanic whitetip shark - a species known for its aggression. VIDEO AT LINK..................... The whales fiercely defended the terrified diver from the sharkCredit: Caters The two sperm whales got in between Benoit Girodeau and the sharkCredit: Caters The reggae-dancehall artist known as Natty Gong shared underwater footage of the shocking moment he was circled by two 45-tonne sperm whales who chased off the "curious" shark. He shared...

Megalodons likely gave birth to large newborns about 13 feet long, roughly the size of today’s adult shark. Representational image: Megalodon, a giant prehistoric shark, ruled the oceans millions of years ago. iStock Megalodon, a giant prehistoric shark, ruled the oceans millions of years ago. The conventional view of megalodon as simply a larger version of the great white is now being challenged as new research has uncovered a more complex reality. Led by Professor Kenshu Shimada of DePaul University, a team of 28 experts from around the world analyzed a nearly complete vertebral column of a megalodon found in...

Police have revealed missing fisherman Paul Barning was entangled in his own fishing line and not wearing a life jacket when he fell overboard during a fishing competition on Sunday. The 58-year-old was pulled into the water about 1pm on Sunday while taking part in the Game Fishing Association state tournament off the Port Stephens coast near Newcastle, sparking a major search effort. In a press conference on Monday afternoon, NSW Police Superintendent Joe McNulty said police believed the vessel was reeling in a mako shark when Mr Barning became entangled in the fishing line. “After the entanglement we believe...

A tourist has been savagely attacked by a shark off a Caribbean beach, with reports that the victim lost both her hands as her husband tried to fight the beast off. The woman, believed to be a Canadian national, had been enjoying a holiday to the Turks and Caicos islands when the bloody attack happened last Friday. She was just a few yards from the shore when the predator struck, according to local media. The 55-year-old had been wading in the shallows as she 'attempted to engage' with the animal and take a picture of it, local authorities said. Witnesses...

Researchers are tracking what is believed to be the largest shark ever tagged by OCEARCH in the southwest Atlantic, with its last pings off Florida’s east coast. The white shark, named Contender, was originally tagged on Jan. 17, 2025, approximately 45 miles off the coast of the Florida-Georgia border and has generally traveled southward along the Gulf Stream. According to biologists, the shark is nearly 14 feet long and weighed an impressive 1,652.8 pounds when researchers found it. The shark’s tag will transmit real-time data to researchers, providing insights into his movements and behavior over the next several years.

Over a year after a 15-foot great white shark was found dead with mysterious bite wounds and stripped of its internal organs, DNA analysis uncovered its killers. Two animals, orcas, also known as killer whales, and broadnose sevengill sharks, were responsible for the gruesome attack... The body of the massive shark, known as the Carcharodon carcharias, was discovered in October 2023 in southeastern Australia, baffling scientists. ... The carcass sparked significant attention from the public due to its size, bite marks, and the speculation of it being the result of a killer whale predation, ... Although its head, spine, and...

An American tourist was eaten by a shark while on a dream diving vacation with friends in Indonesia. The body of Colleen Monfore, of South Dakota, was found inside the shark’s stomach after she was swept out to sea by strong currents, the Sun reported. Monfore, 68, and six pals were enjoying a dream diving trip around Pulau Reong island. She was dragged out by strong currents on Sept. 26 — and the boat’s guide was unable to pull her back in. A fisherman caught the shark in East Timor on Sunday. “The shark was caught but it was not...

Notice is being given to swimmers, kayakers and paddleboarders to "swim at your own risk" after five harbor seals were attacked by a shark or sharks in Pacific Grove. “Any time we see that and we see multiple ones, we like to set out an advisory to the swimmers in the local areas just to protect them and let them know that we've seen this. Now, the shark may not even be in the waters here anymore,” said Kim Akeman, a shoreline docent at Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuaries. Advertisement Those monitoring the harbor seal population say five were attacked...

A legendary surfer and actor known for his role in “Pirates Of The Caribbean” was killed in a shark attack in Honolulu, Hawaii on Sunday. Honolulu’s emergency services were unable to save Tamayo Perry, 49, after he was attacked by a shark while surfing off the island of Oahu at around 1 p.m. Sunday, according to the BBC. Shayne Enright, spokeswoman for Honolulu Ocean Safety and for The Honolulu Medical Services Office, confirmed Perry’s death in a press statement after paramedics used jet skis to bring him back to shore. Kurt Lager, acting Chief of the Ocean Safety Department, said...

WALTON COUNTY, Fla. (WKRG)- The Walton County Sheriff’s Office beach marine unit continued to monitor the shoreline Saturday, following two shark attacks that sent three people to the hospital Friday. Saturday, the beaches on the panhandle remain closed. According to the Walton County Sheriff’s Facebook page, deputies found a 14-foot hammerhead shark east of South County Highway 395 in Santa Rosa Beach, but they stated it is not an uncommon sighting.

A woman from Boston was killed during a shark attack while vacationing in Nassau, Bahamas, on Monday, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force. The unidentified victim, 44, was paddle boarding with a male relative at Sandals Royal Bahamian resort when the fatal incident occurred around 11:15 a.m. According to Boston’s WCVB 5, witnesses told local news outlets that the woman had gotten married on Sunday.

An American woman has been killed by a shark while paddleboarding in the Bahamas, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force. The woman was paddleboarding with a male relative near the back of the Sandals resort, about three-quarters of a mile out to sea, when she was attacked, police said. A lifeguard responded on a rescue boat, police said. CPR was administered but the injuries to the right side of her body were too severe, police said.

Reports of "aggressive shark behavior" have temporarily shut down a two-mile stretch of a popular California beach, officials said Sunday. Witnesses at Sunset Beach in the Southern California town of Huntington Beach told lifeguards that a shark was splashing and acting aggressively at 3:45 p.m. on Nov. 5 before a whale washed up on shore. "While the whale was still alive, bite marks were seen on the mammal," the city said in an alert posted on social media. The young whale was beached near lifeguard tower 22. "As is the City’s policy when aggressive shark behavior is witnessed, the shoreline...

An Australian surfer is presumed dead after he was dragged underwater by a shark in an area known to be frequented by great whites earlier this week, authorities said. Tod Gendle, 55, was paddling in the water with a group of surfers near Granites Beach near Streaky Bay when he was knocked off of his surfboard by a shark around 10:20 a.m. local time Tuesday, witnesses told ABC. “The guy just caught a wave and started paddling back out. He got knocked off his board by the shark and then it circled back around and grabbed him,” onlooker Jack Martin...

For decades, huge bundles of cocaine have washed up on Florida beaches, having been smuggled from South and Central America. Hauls are often dumped at sea (both to give to smugglers and evade law enforcement), and currents and tides push them to shore. In June, the U.S. Coast Guard seized over 14,100 pounds (6,400 kilograms) of cocaine in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, with an estimated value of $186 million. With so much cocaine entering the waters, Tom "The Blowfish" Hird wanted to find out whether the thousands of sharks off Florida were ingesting the dumped narcotics, and —...

Until this past weekend, Nadia Baranchuk, MD, an emergency medicine physician at Northwell Health on Long Island, had never treated a shark bite victim -- or even seen one -- in her 10-year career. But this July 4, she treated two shark bite victims in a single afternoon. Luckily, both patients could walk and didn't need an ambulance to bring them to the emergency room. While shark attacks remain exceedingly rare, Long Island makes up a significant portion of East Coast cases. Last year, there were five bites in a 2-week period, and this weekend, there were at least two...