New Zealand bans shark cage diving
AUCKLAND (NEW ZEALAND)- The Court of Appeal of New Zealand has ruled shark cage diving is an offence under the Wildlife Act, a move being welcomed by paua divers. Divers and tourists are less happy. With the ruling ends a long legal battle between paua (abalone) divers from Stewart Island andContinue Reading
Shark tourism can change your mind about these much-maligned predators
OAHU (HAWAII)- Shark ecotourism can change people’s attitudes about sharks and make them more likely to support conservation projects – even after allowing for the fact that ecotourists are more likely to be environmentally minded in the first place. Michele Barnes, James Cook University and Sarah Ruth Sutcliffe, James CookContinue Reading
In search of great whites in Canadian waters
HALIFAX (CANADA)-Great whites in Canada? Yeah for sure. Research group Ocearch is starting a research expedition next week in Nova Scotia, the east coast province of Canada. The researchers are looking for name suggestions for the sharks they find lurking in these cold waters. Ocearch is famous for tagging andContinue Reading
New large shark species heading for the UK? That’s no cause for panic
SOUTHAMPTON (UK)- The climate is changing – and so are our seas. Warming sea temperatures have resulted in British cod moving north, benefiting Iceland. The English Channel has warmed during the last half century and the grey Atlantic triggerfish is now a year-round, rather than just a summer, resident inContinue Reading
Queensland drumlines killing endangered sharks
CAIRNS (AUSTRALIA)-Lethal drumlines off the coast of Queensland, northern Australia catch and kill hundreds of non-target marine animals in the Great Barrier Reef. Humane Society International and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) have released imagery of drumlines set off the coast of Magnetic Island showing the death of endangeredContinue Reading
5 Places to meet bull sharks
Of all sharks, the bull shark has always been one of the most intriguing to me. It is found thousands of miles upstream in rivers and lakes and is one of the fiercest species around. But mainly because I’ve never seen one. I have been out on dive sites expectingContinue Reading
New species of shark discovered in Belize
SARASOTA (USA)- Researchers from the Florida Institute of Technology, Oceana and Florida State University have discovered a new species of shark: Squalus clarkae or Genie’s Dogfish. They named the new species of dogfish after the famous shark researcher Eugenie Clark. She was a pioneer in shark biology, known around the world for her illuminatingContinue Reading