Neptune's Defenders

In Loving Memory of Jose Wejebe

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:37:00 +0000

Fancy a bite? Brave scuba divers invite sharks to their tea party

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 05:01:00 +0000

Divers and Sharks Tea Party? Mirror

If you think a teddy bears' picnic is too tame how's this for a tea party with real added bite?
These brave scuba divers were seated at an underwater table in a tank filled with sharks.
The stunt marks the launch of a new display at the Sea Life London Aquarium, which aims to put an end to myths about the beautiful creature being a blood thirsty sea monster.
Deputy curator Jamie Oliver said: "We wanted to challenge the terrible - and undeserved - reputation sharks have as bloodthirsty killers.
"What better way of doing it than by joining all of them for tea.
"The team was very excited to throw the party and the sharks didn't blink an eye."
Don't fret if you've forgotten your wetsuit as the dry side of the five-metre long glass walkway allows visitors to see the creatures swim inches beneath their feet.

Illegal shark fishing in the Mediterranean on the rise

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:01:00 +0000

Illegal Shark fishing is still on the rise! Haaretz

Shark fishing is illegal in Israel since 42 percent of the 70 shark species in the Mediterranean Sea are in danger of extinction.
In the past three weeks, Israel Nature and Parks Authority personnel have netted three men who illegally caught sharks off Israel’s shores. In most cases the shark meat is sold to markets in the Gaza Strip, and in some cases shark fins have been found in Tel Aviv markets, where they are sold for the manufacturing of ‘alternative’ medicines.
Shark fishing is illegal in Israel since 42 percent of the 70 shark species in the Mediterranean Sea are in danger of extinction.

First Ever Photo of a Shark Eating Another Shark

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:01:00 +0000

WOW first ever picture of shark eating shark!!! Io9

If you're a shark, what could you possibly have to fear? You're the ultimate predator, the top of the marine food chain. You can swim around without a care in the world... unless another, even bigger shark is feeling hungry.
That's exactly what happened in this photo snapped by researchers from the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. It's the first known photo of a shark eating another shark, although at first glance it may look less like a shark-on-shark attack and more like the seabed coming alive and swallowing a shark whole.
That's because the predator in this situation is what's known as a tasselled wobbegong shark, which is a type of carpet shark. Just like their name implies, carpet sharks are generally flattened sharks with carpet-like patterns on their bodies that spend most of their time lying around on the bottom of the ocean. They generally dine on small fish or invertebrates, but the wobbegong shark can dislocate its jaw in order to chow down on something much bigger — in this case, a brown-banded bamboo shark.
Writing in the journal Coral Reef, the researchers describe their encounter with this shark-eat-shark moment

I scuba-do! American couple marry underwater in 'traditional Thai ceremony'

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:01:00 +0000

Married underwater? Mail Online

Six scuba-clad couples gargled an I do at Thailand's 16th annual Trang Underwater Wedding Ceremony Saturday.

The couples from both local and foreign countries dived 12 meters beneath the Andaman Sea to attend a traditional Thai wedding ceremony, mixed with obvious modern adaptations.

American Alexander James Nicholson with his Thai-US bride Sonya Sozanski, held up their laminated wedding certificate triumphantly among swirling bubbles while his wife formed an 'I love you' sign with her left hand.

A second couple from Thailand, Manit Kansadanpipob and his bride Nachakul Sirityoungkul were photographed removing their mouthpieces briefly for their first kiss as man and wife at the underwater alter south of Bangkok.

The now presumed Mrs Kansadanpipob doned a festive white bow on her head above her light pink goggles while Mr Kansadanpipob was decorated with a white starfish pinned at his collar.

Experts to cut up 40.1-foot long whale shark today

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:01:00 +0000

Over 40 foot giant whale shark caught in Pakistan! Tribune

The big fish that was on show for twenty rupees for a day is leaving behind a trail of controversies and tears as the Karachi Fish Harbour Authority (KFHA), tried to preserve its decaying carcass.
The whale shark has stirred quite an interest among wildlife experts, some of whom are on their way to Karachi from the United Kingdom to carry out an autopsy and figure out the cause of death.
On Wednesday night, officials from the KFHA came in and removed the tents around the fish. They claim that the fish was actually government property and could not be put on display. They added that Haji Qasim, the man who had bought the whale shark for Rs200,000 would be compensated. On the other hand, the fisherman, who had towed the sea creature in, said that he wasn’t compensated properly.
According to the director general of the Marine Fisheries Department (MFD), Shaukat Hussain, the whale shark was a 40.1-foot long female and weighed 15 tonnes. He said that this was the second largest fish to be found in Pakistan. The director general added that a 41.5-foot long whale shark was found off Karachi’s coast in 1947.
Nip and tuck
Wearing a white lab coat, Hussain said that they had planned to cut the fish open on Friday (today).
He insisted that there was no need to wait for foreign experts despite the fact that Hussain or experts at the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) or Sindh Wild Life department have never done anything like this before. “I have asked experts from the PCSIR, National Institute of Oceanography, Sindh Wild Life department and academics from the University of Karachi’s marine biology department to collect samples.”
When asked if they had ever worked on a fish this big, Hussain said that they had worked on large fish so it should be different or difficult. The MFD could not determine if the whale shark was pregnant.
They claim that it died a natural death as they could not see any marks on the body. Dr Pirzada Jamal from the Pakistan Museum of Natural History is planning to come to Karachi to see if the fish could be preserved and flown to Islamabad for an exhibition.
The body of the whale shark is currently being preserved in ice in a room at the deserted Natural History Museum.

Japanese Blast Sea Shepherd Activist Off His Jet Ski

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:26:00 +0000

Boom Boom Pow watch out!! Environment News Service

THE SOUTHERN OCEAN, February 11, 2012 (ENS) - Beck Straussner, 42, of the United States was hit in the chest with a water cannon and knocked off his jet ski today during a confrontation between a Japanese whaling vessel and whale defenders near Antarctica.

Captain Watson commands the Steve Irwin. This is the eighth consecutive year that he has taken ships to the Southern Ocean to fulfill his stated mission by exposing and confronting illegal activities on the high seas.

Straussner, from Maui, Hawaii, was in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica in his capacity as the 2nd Officer on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's flagship vessel, the Steve Irwin.

Established in 1977 by Captain Paul Watson to conserve and protect ecosystems and species, Sea Shepherd is an international non-profit conservation organization on a mission "to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans."

Watson maintains that what the Japanese call "research" whaling, allowed by the International Whaling Commission, is, in fact, illegal.

In a strategic battle at sea that began in December, the Japanese harpoon vessel Yushin Maru No. 2 had been tailing the whale defenders' ship for weeks.

Today, at 1700 Hours Eastern Australia Standard Time, about 580 miles off Marie Byrd Land, Captain Watson deployed three inflatable boats and the jet ski to interfere with the tailing vessel.

He says the maneuver was an attempt to force the Yushin Maru No. 2 to slow down and fall behind, allowing the Steve Irwin to escape.

He says Straussner was knocked off his jet ski into subzero Antarctic waters when he was struck in the chest by one of the water cannons on the Japanese harpoon vessel. The Yushin Maru No. 2 did not stop to offer assistance.

World-first hybrid shark found off Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:30:00 +0000

World's First Hybrid Sharks found in Australia...WOW!!! Yahoo

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world's first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.
The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.
"It's very surprising because no one's ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination," Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.
"This is evolution in action."
Colin Simpfendorfer, a partner in Morgan's research from James Cook University, said initial studies suggested the hybrid specieswas relatively robust, with a number of generations discovered across 57 specimens.
The find was made during cataloguing work off Australia's east coast when Morgan said genetic testing showed certain sharks to be one species when physically they looked to be another.
The Australian black-tip is slightly smaller than its common cousin and can only live in tropical waters, but its hybrid offspring have been found 2,000 kilometres down the coast, in cooler seas.
It means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.
"If it hybridises with the common species it can effectively shift its range further south into cooler waters, so the effect of this hybridising is a range expansion," Morgan said.
"It's enabled a species restricted to the tropics to move into temperate waters."
Climate change and human fishing are some of the potential triggers being investigated by the team, with further genetic mapping also planned to examine whether it was an ancient process just discovered or a more recent phenomenon.
If the hybrid was found to be stronger than its parent species -- a literal survival of the fittest --Simpfendorfer said it may eventually outlast its so-called pure-bred predecessors.
"We don't know whether that's the case here, but certainly we know that they are viable, they reproduce and that there are multiple generations of hybrids now that we can see from the genetic roadmap that we've generated from these animals," he said.
"Certainly it appears that they are fairly fit individuals."
The hybrids were extraorindarily abundant, accounting for up to 20 percent of black-tip populations in some areas, but Morgan said that didn't appear to be at the expense of their single-breed parents, adding to the mystery.
Simpfendorfer said the study, published late last month in Conservation Genetics, could challenge traditional ideas of how sharks had and were continuing to evolve.
"We thought we understood how species of sharks have separated, but what this is telling us is that in reality we probably don't fully understand the mechanisms that keep species of shark separate," he said.
"And in fact, this may be happening in more species than these two."

Deepest Volcanic Sea Vents Found; "Like Another World"

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Deepest underwater Volcano may harbor unknown creatures!!! NatGeo

Three miles (five kilometers) below the surface of the Caribbean Sea (map), great volcanic chimneys gush subterranean water hot enough to melt lead.

Found via robotic submersibles on April 6, these two-story-tall "black smokers" are the world's deepest known hydrothermal vents, scientists announced from aboard a research ship Sunday.

"It was like wandering across the surface of another world," geochemist Bramley Murton, speaking in a press statement, said of steering a submersible around the record-breaking volcanic vents.

"The rainbow hues of the mineral spires and the fluorescent blues of the microbial mats covering them were like nothing I had ever seen before," said Murton, who, like the rest of the team, works with the U.K.'s National Oceanography Centre.

The answer will have to wait. "We've only just started to study the marine life at this site and don't yet have a full picture of it," marine biologist Jon Copley told National Geographic News from aboard the James Cook. "It will then take more work to see how species here relate to those at other vents around the world.

"But once we have those results, these new vents should help to reveal what governs patterns of marine life at deep-sea vents," Copley said. "Those answers should also tell us about patterns of deep ocean life in general—and the deep ocean is our planet's largest habitat.

"Vents are great natural laboratories for understanding such patterns in that vast realm, just as terrestrial islands were for 19th-century naturalists."

Outrage as Japan ups whale hunt budget

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Uh OH Japan is upping WHALE WARS budget 54%!! Business Report

Japan plans to increase its annual “whale research” budget in 2012, officials said Friday, in a move that has outraged animal rights' activists, who argue that the country exploits the research proviso to bring whale meat to its market.

The Fisheries Ministry told dpa it had asked for additional funds in order to protect whaling ships from attacks by animal rights groups.

In 2011, the ministry set aside 715 million yen (or 6.95 million euro) for the hunt. In its most recent budget request, it asked for 1.1 billion yen for 2012 - a 54 per cent increase year-over-year.

Japanese Fisheries Minister Michihiko Kano said earlier this week that an escort ship would, for the first time, accompany the fleet when it sets sail for Antarctic waters in November.

Japanese boats ended whaling earlier than usual last season after having been hounded by ships from the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

New Zealand on Wednesday condemned Japan's announcement that it would resume whaling in the Southern Ocean this year.

New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said Japan was isolating itself from the international community by continuing to catch whales under its “highly dubious” scientific research programme.

Desperate operation to pump oil from stranded cargo ship begins off New Zealand coast as conservationists battle to prevent ecological disaster

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:48:00 +0000

Trying to STOP a potential disaster!! Daily

A race against time is taking place to extract oil from a massive container ship stranded in New Zealand due to concerns of a major ecological disaster.

The 775-foot Liberia-flagged 'Rena' struck the Astrolabe Reef about 12 nautical miles from Tauranga Harbour early on Wednesday, and has been foundering there since.

The ship has been leaking fuel, leading to fears of a major environmental disaster if it breaks up further.

Salmon wars return to Portland courtroom: Can at-risk fish and hydroelectric dams coexist?

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Fri, 13 May 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Salmon wars are back, watch out Oregan! Oregan Live

For the past eight years, the champion of Northwest wild salmon and steelhead has been an 82-year-old judge with a sharp pen and a willingness to use it. To date, U.S. District Judge James A. Redden has sunk two plans the federal government argued would allow it to operate hydroelectric dams in the Columbia River basin without jeopardizing the region's signature fish. In Portland on Monday, he holds what could be his last hearing in the salmon case, a final discussion of the government's third shot at a 10-year plan. He'll have to cut through the fog of fish numbers before handing down a decision with consequences for electricity ratepayers and farmers in four states. Helped by favorable ocean conditions and fishing restrictions, the numbers of salmon and steelhead returning to the Columbia have surged since 2001. Returns -- mostly hatchery fish -- hit post-dam-building highs for much of the past decade at Bonneville Dam, the first on an upstream journey that can run over eight dams and more than 900 miles.

'Godzilla' lionfish threatening Cayman paradise

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Wed, 11 May 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Lionfish threaten Caymen paradise with overpopulation! BBC

An explosion in the population of the predatory lionfish in Caribbean waters, where it has no natural predators, is posing a widespread threat to marine wildlife.

Just off the north shore of Little Cayman, I sink into the blue abyss.

No-one knows how the lionfish came to be in the Caribbean waters

I am descending the vertical coral wall at Bloody Bay Marine Park.

Straight ahead and straight down there is nothing but blue - a dizzying empty space where sunlight streams down and down into darker places well beyond my reach.

But up close, the wall of coral is covered in giant barrel sponges as tall as a man, bright purple vase sponges, green and red corals and creatures that creep, crawl and swim within and among them.

I spot a seahorse, clinging to a whip coral by its tail, a spider crab with legs almost 3ft (1m) wide and a baby hawksbill turtle rocketing to the surface for a breath of air.

Extreme Fishing, Chinese style: Flying fish leap straight into the hands of waiting anglers

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Tue, 10 May 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Check out this extreme fishing by the Chinese! Mail Online

Even Robson Green never landed such a remarkable catch. Instead of waiting hours for a bite, these Chinese anglers have the fish jumping into their hands.
Fishermen fishing the Xiannv Lake, Xinyu, Jiangxi province, eastern China, have brought a whole new meaning to catching a fish.
The spring weather has brought them a bountiful supply of fish eager to be hooked. Let's hope they don't jump out of the frying pan...

Pilot whales stranded off Lower Keys

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Mon, 09 May 2011 04:01:00 +0000

More than a dozen mammals found in shallow waters off Cudjoe Key! KeyNet

Marine mammal rescuers worked Thursday night to help 16 pilot whales stranded in shallow waters off Cudjoe Key.

By 11 p.m., one of the whales had been brought to a quickly constructed pen near the boat ramp at the end of Blimp Road on the island's bayside. Another two were en route, while at least three more would have to wait for high tide to be moved.

Two more whales were confirmed dead, according to Karrie Carnes, spokeswoman for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Reports came in a little before 7 p.m. that the whales had been found. The Key Largo-based Marine Mammal Conservancy and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers responded, along with dozens of volunteers, students from Florida Keys Community College and sanctuary staff.

Dr. Doug Mader, owner of the Marathon Veterinary Hospital, was on scene and said the outlook was grim. He said in addition to the stranded whales, another three nearby look to be in frail health and won't make it. The future of the confirmed stranded, at an area known as Tarpon Belly, also isn't good.

Three of the whales were close to Cudjoe's shallow mangrove shoreline, within sight of the ramp, while others — including a mother and calf — were further out, among the small mangrove islands. Rescuers raced the setting sun and dropping tide to find and assess the whales.

A couple of hours later, in scattered locations hundreds of yards from shore under a starry night sky, teams of volunteers were trying to stabilize the whales they found — monitoring their breathing, keeping them wet and walking them to deeper water when possible. Some were in water shallower than knee deep.

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Sun, 08 May 2011 14:38:00 +0000

Happy Mother's Day from Neptunes Defenders!!

15 dead sharks wash ashore in Manatee County

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Check out these 15 sharks washed up dead in Manatee county, which neighbors Sarasota's ND chapter! Baynews

A mystery is brewing on Manatee County's beautiful beaches -- researchers are trying to figure out why sharks are washing ashore dead.

Recently more than a dozen dead sharks were found on the north ends of Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island.

"There were no real indicators of what went wrong with them," Dr. Nick Whitney, Staff Scientist for the Center for Shark Research at MOTE Marine Laboratory said. "There are no obvious signs of damage from fishing or net damage or anything like that."

The species of sharks found were bonnetheads, blacknose and sharpnose.

Whitney said he's ruled out the possibility that the sharks died as a result of last year's oil spill.

"Oil spill is pretty unlikely because these animals tend to be coastal," said Whitney. "They move up and down coast, but they wouldn't tend to go off shore and in deep water where oil is."

For now, Whitney says what happened to these sharks remains a mystery.

Researchers have sent samples from the sharks to a different lab to try and see if red tide killed them.

However, they say this is highly unlikely since they have not detected any red tide in the area.

MOTE researchers say finding a dead shark now and then is not rare, but it is uncommon to find a group of them dead within a few days.

Study: 'Explosive' Evolution In Seen Pupfish, Changing Up To 130 Times Faster

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:44:00 +0000

Pupish in the news! Newstimes
DAVIS, California -- Two groups of small fish, one from a Caribbean island and one from the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, exhibit some of the fastest rates of evolution known in any organism, according to a new UC Davis study.
About 50 species of pupfish are found from Massachusetts to Venezuela — and they are all pretty much the same, said lead study author Chris Martin, a UC Davis graduate student working with Peter Wainwright, a professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis

eats other fish and another feeds on plankton. Sadly, these fish are now extinct in the wild and only found in labs and aquaria.
The pupfish evolved changes to their jaws to match their specialized diet, allowing Martin to construct an evolutionary map for the species.
If the evolution of all pupfish is like a steadily expanding cloud, Martin found that the San Salvador Island and Yucatan pupfish are like bursts of fireworks within it. They show explosive rates of evolution — changing up to 130 times faster than other pupfish, he said.
It's not clear why the pupfish in the two locations are evolving so fast. In both places, the lake water is hot and salty — but that's true in other places where pupfish live. And mosquito fish, found in the same two lakes, show no signs of rapid change.
Martin is continuing his research by taking lab-bred fish, including hybrids, back to the lakes to see whether they thrive. He hopes to see which fish succeed out of a spectrum of hybrids.

The research is published online in the journal Evolution. Martin is a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow.

A Fragile Empire

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 04:01:00 +0000

From tiny coral polyps grew a marvel: Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Could it all come crumbling down? NatGeo

Not far beneath the surface of the Coral Sea, where the Great Barrier Reef lives, parrotfish teeth grind against rock, crab claws snap as they battle over hiding spots, and a 600-pound grouper pulses its swim bladder to announce its presence with a muscular whump. Sharks and silver jacks flash by. Anemone arms flutter and tiny fish and shrimp seem to dance a jig as they guard their nooks. Anything that can't glom on to something rigid is tugged and tossed by each ocean swell.

The reef's sheer diversity is part of what makes it great. It hosts 5,000 types of mollusks, 1,800 species of fish, 125 kinds of sharks, and innumerable miniature organisms. But the most riveting sight of all—and the main reason for World Heritage status—is the vast expanse of coral, from staghorn stalks and wave-smoothed plates to mitt-shaped boulders draped with nubby brown corals as leathery as saddles. Soft corals top hard ones, algae and sponges paint the rocks, and every crevice is a creature's home. The biology, like the reef, transforms from the north—where the reef began—to the south. The shifting menagerie is unmatched in the world.

Time and tides and a planet in eternal flux brought the Great Barrier Reef into being millions of years ago, wore it down, and grew it back—over and over again. Now all the factors that let the reef grow are changing at a rate the Earth has never before experienced. This time the reef may degrade below a crucial threshold from which it cannot bounce back.

Officials respond to dead sharks

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Someone left it, as officials respond to dead sharks! Caymen

The Department of Environment says it appears as if someone caught a Caribbean Reef Shark, cut its tail off and left it on the dock. It was pregnant with four pups. DOE officials took measurements and tissue samples on the shark. It's estimated to have been between 6 and 6 and-a-half feet and 200 to 300 pounds. Marine Conservation International's Oliver Dubock says it's unfortunate because the population of reef sharks in the caribbean has declined significantly over the last 50 years.

Mr. Dubock says as far as DOE can tell, nothing illegal happened in this incident. He says it's only illegal to catch sharks if fisherman intentionally throw chum in the water to get them into a particular area. But he says killing a shark -- especially a pregnant one -- could be considered unethical.

Shark attack leaves photographer with ringside view

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 02:22:00 +0000

nzherald

Never Quit

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:08:00 +0000

Neptune's Defenders will be taking part in the Never Quit event, May 21st on Jacksonville Beach. Keep an eye on our calendar (coming soon) for up coming events.

Links for April 21, 2001

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:33:00 +0000

Gulf Oil Disaster One Year Later

Stories From the Gulf

Spillcam Was Game-Changer in BP Disaster Response

Gulf Oil Rig Owner Apologizes for Calling 2010 "Best Year" Ever

FDA claims no need to test Pacific fish for radioactivity

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:01:00 +0000

No need to test the Pacific for radioactivity! ADN

North Pacific fish are so unlikely to be contaminated by radioactive material from the crippled nuclear plant in Japan that there's no reason to test them, state and federal officials said this week.

Even with dangerous levels of radiation reported recently just off the coast from the Fukushima reactor complex, the ocean is so huge and Alaska fisheries so far away that there is no realistic threat, said FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey. The Food and Drug Administration has oversight of the nation's food supplies.

The state's food safety program manager, Ron Klein of the Department of Environmental Conservation, said the FDA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have demonstrated that Alaskans have no cause for worry.

"Based on the work they're doing, no sampling or monitoring of our fish is necessary," he said.

It's now a little more than a month into the nuclear crisis, and Japanese officials believe they have plugged the major leak that allowed tons of water containing highly radioactive isotopes of iodine and cesium to flow into the sea. Radiation levels went down after the alarming reports last week that they had risen to millions of times the legal limits, though on Saturday officials said the levels were rising again.

'Shark Man' roils waters with great white quest

noreply@blogger.com (Neptune) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:32:00 +0000

Sharkmen! MSNBC

Great white sharks, the largest predatory fish in the ocean, are supreme fodder for headlines. Yet in recent weeks, it is the humans who study them that have grabbed the spotlight among a circle of bloggers and advocates for the iconic species.

One scientist and his methodology for studying the sharks have been at the center of the controversy: Michael Domeier, a marine biologist whose quest to study great white sharks and outfit them with satellite tags has been documented over several years and two seasons on theNational Geographic Channel's "Shark Men."

Domeier seeks to learn the mysterious migration habits of the sharks, specifically the females. Where they go on their two-year wanderings and where they give birth is a big unknown for researchers — and key information if the species is to be saved, some say. Domeier is the first scientist to attempt to track mature great white sharks with satellite tags that can deliver that information.

Around the world, shark populations suffered precipitous declines in recent years, and although much is unknown about great white sharks' population status, they are considered a vulnerable species.

In order to gather the data he's after, Domeier uses blunted hooks to bring a shark alongside a boat, then lifts the fish out of the water for 15 to 20 minutes. A hose is put in the shark's mouth to allow it to breath, a wet towel is placed over the eyes to calm it, and Domeier gets to work, taking blood samples, checking the sex of the shark, and attaching a satellite tag to the shark's dorsal fin.