Free Republic

Unsuspecting surfers and a kayaker had a brush with death when a man-eating Great White shark swam right below them as they waited to catch a wave. Drone footage shows the fearsome predator – estimated to be 10ft long - cruising among the group of seven who have no idea that a lethal attack could be just seconds away. The incident occurred on Tuesday at Plettenberg Bay in Western Province, South Africa, in just six foot deep water.

Because of our menacing great white shark and the seal overpopulation dilemma, Cape Cod is in an ecological, public safety and economic crisis. The exploding seal population is a consequence of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, which allowed for the rapidly growing seal overpopulation. Seals attract great white sharks, which feed upon them and ferociously attack humans. We once had a thriving fishing industry, kept healthy in part by a bounty system of predator control. That ended in 1972 with the passage of the protection act, which not only lifted the bounties on fish-eating predators like seals, but placed...

Since he started tagging great whites 11 years ago, DMF shark researcher Gregory Skomal has gradually filled in gaps in buoy coverage and this summer will have 100 buoys, encircling the Cape and extending north to Cape Ann, most of them within a quarter-mile of the beach. Over 200 sharks already have been tagged. “The larger ones show up first and stay the longest,” Skomal said, as their body mass and ability to regulate their body temperature allows them to endure the cooler extremes of the seasons.The season typically starts at the end of May, with detections focused on Monomoy...

A pregnant great white shark has swum more than 700 miles out to sea to escape amorous males, researchers have claimed. The 15-foot-long and 2,000lbs female, named Unama'ki, was tagged off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, in September last year. Since then she stayed close to the shoreline, taking seven months to meander down to the bay of Mexico. But in April the shark had a change of heart, and powered over more than 1,300 miles out into the Atlantic, at one point turning back on herself, before starting to circle around 300 miles off the coast of Nova...

Two Great White sharks have been captured in terrifying footage stalking a group of unsuspecting surfers. Friends, Rob, Adam and Trent were surfing at Tuncurry Beach on NSW's mid north coast this week and were completely unaware of the two beasts lurking beneath them. A man who was using his drone spotted the sharks and alerted the surfers who immediately rushed back to shore. The group managed to escape unharmed and even returned to the same spot for a surf just a day later.

A chilling photo shows the moment a large shark breached the water after attacking a French backpacker surfer at a popular Australian beach. Dylan Nacass, 23, managed to escape with minor lacerations after a shark latched onto his leg while surfing at Bell's Beach in Torquay, Victoria on Friday afternoon. The backpacker got away by punching the shark in the face twice. A photo taken moments after the attack shows Mr Nacass frantically paddling to get away from the shark as it lurks eerily close to the surfers.

Great white sharks have returned to 'shark park' located off of New Brighton, Seacliff and Manresa State Park Beaches in the Monterey Bay. More and more great white sharks have been spotted in the Monterey Bay since 2015.

An endangered whale shark was spotted in the Gulf of Mexico during a boating trip near Siesta Key, southeast Florida, earlier this week. Alexa Groat and her family chartered a fishing boat on Tuesday to celebrate her sister's birthday, when an unexpected guest gatecrashed the party. The group had taken the boat out to the Gulf of Mexico where they spotted the shark (Rhincodon typus) cruising near the surface of the water.

A 2,000-pound great white shark called Unama'ki appears to be heading away from the coastal waters of the United States and moving into the open ocean. The shark was tagged with a monitoring device by marine research non-profit OCEARCH in September last year, and tracking data shows that the 15 foot, five-inch-long female is swimming eastwards. It is currently not clear why, but OCEARCH speculates that one of the reasons could be that the animal is pregnant. "Very interesting! Take a look at @UnamakiShark's track. She is veering off into the open ocean. Could she be going out there to...

While Florida gains notoriety as the epicenter of the shark trade in the United States, state lawmakers there advanced legislation Monday that would ban the possession of shark fins. The Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee endorsed that proposal, as well as another bill that would stiffen penalties against hunters who kill black bears. Spurred by advocates, the committee voted to join other states in outlawing the sale and possession of shark fins, a prized delicacy in some cultures, and a lucrative one.

Barack Obama hates baby shark. And, mommy shark. And, daddy shark. And, ALL OF THE SHARKS!!! Which is why #44 rocked a shark deterrent anklet while paddleboarding in Hawaii! Check out the device on Obama's right ankle -- it's called a Sharkbanz and it claims to repel Jaws from snacking on you like a piece of chum!Look, shark attacks in Hawaii don't happen THAT often -- but they do happen -- and when you're a former President, you don't wanna go out like Samuel L. Jackson in "Deep Blue Sea." A company spokesperson tells us ... the band uses "patented...

CHATHAM – The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy wrapped up their tagging season a few weeks ago, but researchers still have a lot of work ahead. The winter months bring with them plenty of work to be completed and data to be analyzed. “The winter is actually an incredibly important and productive time for us,” said Megan Winton, a staff scientist with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. “Right now we are processing all the videos that we collected over the summer, we are analyzing tagging data that the Division of Marine Fisheries has been collecting over the past almost decade,” she...

A revolutionary new wet suit material has been developed in Australia to protect surfers from deadly shark bites. The new 'shark proof' material has extra-strong plastic fibres woven throughout that make it harder for teeth to penetrate the fabric. The team from Flinders Univesity in South Australia tested two different types of fabrics that combined very strong but lightweight fibres with the neoprene material used for wet suits. The new materials are more resistant to bites than a normal wet suit - even from a Great White Shark - researchers have discovered.

NORTH EASTHAM — Thursday night marked the first time the public had an opportunity to weigh in on a recently released report on shark detection, deterrence, exclusion and other alternatives intended to keep people safe, or at least safer, when they enter the water at Outer Cape Beaches. “There’s a lot of techniques out there, and none of them are all that perfect, that’s what it comes down to,” said Todd Morrison, an oceanographic engineer for the Woods Hole Group, which produced the Outer Cape Shark Mitigation Alternative Analysis. The report was prepared under a $50,000 contract paid for by...

Just 20 years ago, great white shark sightings were so rare in the North Atlantic that they were declared "vulnerable" and given protected status by the U.S. government. Now they are seen so often, and so close to shore, they are drawing a public outcry, particularly on Cape Cod. Bill Whitaker reports on the great white controversy for the 52nd season premiere of "60 Minutes" on Sunday, September 29 at 7:30 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. PT on CBS. It's true there are many more great whites now say scientists who study them. Whitaker saw them not much more than...

In Cape Cod, right-wing demagogues are using the politics of fear to demand a mass cull of sharks and seals. ..snip.. It turned out that the aftermath also fit the pattern of 9/11, demonstrating once again how statistically low-risk but viscerally alarming threats – especially when those threats come from perceived foreign elements or new arrivals – are ripe for demagoguery. Two days after Medici’s death, Howie Carr, a talk-radio host in nearby Boston, took time out from railing against the “Mueller witch-hunt” to warn of “the growing menace” on Cape Cod, being abetted by “environmental extremists.” a Cape radio...

SCITUATE — A minke whale carcass was found Monday afternoon in the surf at Humarock Beach, making for the fourth found in the region this summer. At the beach, New England Aquarium’s marine animal rescue team found the carcass of a 22-foot-long sub-adult. The whale is believed to have died within the last few days. The carcass had been significantly scavenged by sharks. A full necropsy couldn’t be performed because of the amount of tissue that had been eaten, but the good condition of the skin on the pectoral fins and back indicated that the whale had died recently. There...

(snip)“The signs are more ferocious,” Wellfleet Director of Community Services Suzanne Grout Thomas said. “We’ve got a scarier shark on the sign. It used to be couched in a little more friendly language. Now it’s basically, sharks hunt in these waters.”“This year, in terms of busyness level, is about the same as the last two years.” In previous years, researchers were only on the water about twice a week. Now, boats are out at least five times a week leading to more sightings, while the number of sharks may not have changed.(snip) In early August, Newcomb Hollow Beach debuted the...

A Florida man survived a shark attack this week after falling off his surfboard mid air and landing on a bite happy 6.5-foot shark. Don Walsh was surfing on Tuesday morning at New Smyrna Beach, Florida, when the incident occurred. Walsh, who is a chiropractor in Brevard County, had taken the day off from work and spent several hours that morning surfing.

When the US transport ship Cape San Juan was torpedoed in the Pacific, the survivors faced an horrific ordeal in seas full of sharks. Find out the horrifying story of the 'other' USS Indianapolis.Five minute video: