Lemon Shark in black and white

Sharks

Diving with Great White Sharks of Guadalupe Island

Great white shark, Guadalupe Island, Mexico.

“You’re crazy; I don’t get in the water with bitey things!” The announcement of my impending great white shark trip drew a variety of such responses from horrified friends. The undisputed bad boys of the shark world, great whites are the largest of all predatory sharks, reaching lengths of up to 6m and weighing in at over 2,000kg.

Wolfgang Leander has died

We instantly became friends.  Wolfgang was mild-mannered, pleasant and very knowledgeable.  At the time his body was already quite ravaged by several bouts of cancer but not his spirit or positive outlook.

Inspirational

Wolfgang's purist b/w photography of sharks, shot on film with his trusty and battered Nikonos V, was one of the few that truly inspired me to take my own photography a tad further. There was always such a raw but at the same time elegant aesthetic over his imagery which always appealed to me, and still does to this day.

North Carolina: Wrecks & Sharks

Sand tiger shark on wreck of the Atlas. Image by Olga Torrey

The waters off the coast of the US state of North Carolina are treacherous. Bad weather, rough seas, heavy current and inlets that are difficult to navigate are common. So why do underwater explorers consider this area to be a world-class dive destination? Because when you do get offshore, it is extraordinary.

Fifty-nine percent of the attacks worldwide involved board sports. French said this group spends a large amount of time in the surf zone, an area commonly frequented by sharks.
Fifty-nine percent of the attacks worldwide involved board sports. French said this group spends a large amount of time in the surf zone, an area commonly frequented by sharks.

2017 "average year" for unprovoked shark attacks

In 2017, there had been 88 reported unprovoked shark attacks worldwide. Although this figure is an increase from the most recent five-year annual average of 83, it is pretty much considered to be an "average year", according to Lindsay French, who manages the University of Florida International Shark Attack File (ISAF).

The ISAF is the world's only scientifically documented, comprehensive database of all known shark attacks.

Shark fishing makes pregnant sharks abort

The lead researcher, Kye Adams, a PhD student at the University of Wollongong, said that shark fishermen should be made aware of the danger of inducing abortions in pregnant sharks, rays, or skates. So far, the loss of the young aborted by fished sharks has been ignored by both science and fishermen.

Adams said, "It's quite prevalent across a lot of species and also seems to be not well known by both researchers and recreational fishers. "They don't realise these events are abortions, they think they are witnessing a natural birth."

American Effort to Ban Shark Dives

The initial purpose of the bill, called The Access for Sportfishing Act of 2016, was to prevent national parks from trying to protect fish in waters within state jurisdiction, and in June, Senator Bill Nelson, from Florida, added the ban on shark feeding diving in federal waters. The bill specifies that it is all right to feed sharks for the purpose of killing them, but not if you want to watch the shark. Thus it is the motive for the act of shark feeding, rather than the act itself, that is at issue.