The smalleye stingray (Dasyatis microps), a giant of the sea, has been filmed for the first time. According to BBC, “The elusive creature, first discovered in 1908, has only ever been seen alive off Tofo in southern Mozambique.” This rarely observed stingray has been “collected from the estuary of the River Ganges . . . [and it's] caught very rarely by the demersal tangle net fisheries operating in shelf waters.” More images of the smalleye stingray can be found at Fishbase.org.

Via BBC

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Image by Greg Skomal via Flickr and Dot Earth Blog

Two great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) were recently tagged off the Massachusetts coast by Division of Marine Fisheries biologist Greg Skomal and fisherman Bill Chaprales. In the western Atlantic Ocean, great white sharks are found from “Newfoundland, Canada to Argentina,” so finding great white sharks in Massachusetts’s waters isn’t unusual.

Furthermore, dramatic sightings of great white sharks aren’t unknown to the Bay State. In 2004, a female great white was found swimming in a shallow salt pond on Naushon Island (see images and videos of the magnificent beast below).

Great white sharks are a cosmopolitan species, so they’re not restricted to the Atlantic Ocean. For instance, a female great white that was tagged in South Africa “completed the first known transoceanic trip for an individual shark, traveling farther than any other shark known, more than 12,400 miles (more than 20,000 kilometers) to the coast of Australia and back again . . . in just under nine months, the fastest return migration of any swimming marine organism known.” Consequently, despite being well known in popular culture, there are still a lot of unknowns associated with great white sharks, so tagging these sharks is important to yield much needed data on the species.

The recent Massachusetts shark sightings has “prompted a swimming ban for the rest of the Labor Day weekend at some oceanside beaches in Massachusetts.” Earlier in August, “two kayakers reported that they saw what they believe was a great white shark attacking a seal off Chatham over the weekend, saying they observed a large black fin slicing through the water near a seal in distress.” More on the most recent great white shark sightings from the Boston Globe:

A local harpooner working with a state biologist placed electronic tags on two great white sharks today off the coast of Chatham.

“He did it in one shot,” said state biologist Greg Skomal, referring to harpooner Bill Chaprales, a fisherman from Marstons Mills who tagged the sharks. “We don’t swing the bat unless it’s a strike.”

The tags, which will use satellite-based technology to record the sharks’ travels, should give scientists information to help them better understand their migratory patterns.

Skomal and his team set out to identify the species of five sharks reported off the waters of Monomy Island Thursday and determined that at least one was a great white shark then. Today, they identified two more great white sharks.

Skomal, who heads the Division of Marine Fisheries shark research program, said Chaprales tagged the first great white around 9 a.m. near the southern tip of Monomoy Island and the second about a mile north of there at about 3:30 p.m. Chaprales estimated that the sharks weighed about 1,000 pounds apiece.

White sharks are not uncommon off the Massachusetts coasts, state officials said, and they urged swimmers and boaters to use caution.

In other news mentioning the great white shark, the Monterey Bay Aquarium recently supplemented its collection of marine creatures with a great white shark—the fifth since 2004, according to the Los Angeles Times:

It’s a female measuring only 5 feet 3 and weighing just 80 pounds, but she boasts the classic great white look and manner.

She was obtained off Malibu with the help of a spotter plane and commercial purse seiners and it’s hoped those who visit the aquarium to view the shark will come away with a greater appreciation for the embattled species.

The four previous white sharks, which were viewed by an estimated 2 million people, were tagged and released after stays of various length. Scientists tracked them as part of an ongoing monitoring project that also involves other white sharks that were tagged and released without spending time in captivity.

The last captive shark was released from the aquarium after only 11 days and tracked to the Channel Islands area. The previous shark, released after a five-month stay, was followed for an extended period as it swam to and past Cabo San Lucas, then up into the Sea of Cortez off Baja California, where it remained for weeks before its tag life expired.

Some videos and images from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries of the 14-foot female great white shark found in a Cape Cod salt pond during 2004:

done

More great white shark images, videos, and press releases can be found at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. All images and videos are from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries

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I remember when I came across my first lumpfish (or lumpsucker) while working on a trawler that was fishing out on Georges Bank. Before as a fisheries observer, I had been working exclusively on boats in the mid-Atlantic, but after some time, I volunteered to work on fishing vessels in the northeast. While working in the north, it was immediately apparent that the species composition found in the trawl nets up north was much different than I had observed down south—and the lumpfish was a species that I had never seen in southern waters.

The lumpfish are oddly shaped—like a ball—and these fish have strange looking tough feeling skin with rows of tubercles. Furthermore, they have a sucker visible underneath the ventral side that helps them attach to substrate. The roe of the Atlantic lumpsucker (Cyclopterus lumpus; see image above by Joe Kunkel) is a popular and “affordable alternative to the sometimes wildly expensive caviar produced by sturgeons.” C. lumpus is common in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean.

It seems like lumpfish are fairly smart too.

NewEnglandAquarium’s “Training Lumpfish Behaviors” video:

More lumpfish images:

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Photo source for attribution here, here, and here. The authors or licensors of these images do not endorse my work or me and their images are protected under an attribution license.

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The Bush Administration recently made controversial changes to the Section 7 consultation process of the Endangered Species Act, and I believe these changes will actually result in more litigation. From the Seattle Times, United States:

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne described the change as a “clarification,” of Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. Instead of consulting independent reaction from the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to assess consequences, it would be up to an agency’s own self-serving discretion.

Hard-earned experience has taught the environmental community this is a bogus approach, and they filed suit in federal court to challenge changes they view as illegal.

The Interior Department is also trying to change language that covers the breadth of a designation of endangered status. In the past, listing bald eagles as endangered meant all bald eagles were covered. The administration wants to narrow the definition by qualifying and limiting descriptions of a species’ range and territory.

Another last-minute flurry of activity is under way with the Bureau of Land Management, which wants to open 51,000 acres of oil and gas leases near Arches, Dinosaur and Canyonlands national parks.

Environmentalists are upset, appropriately so, and so is the National Park Service, which sounds like it was blindsided by the sales. They are none too keen about the prospects of drilling trashing up treasured and protected views and vistas.

In spite of his environmental crimes, Bush is being hailed as a champion of ocean conservation, although the vast majority of the Bush Administration’s policies have exacerbated environmental degradation; and certainly these anti-environmental policies of the Administration negate any pro-environmental policies taken by the Administration. Undoubtedly, Bush protecting ocean environments in such a big way will help infuse his legacy with some good. Otherwise, it’s a perplexing and contradictory presidential move for Bush. Nonetheless, something is better than nothing. From the Los Angeles Times:

Laura Bush does not have a halo, and, as far as we know, Dick Cheney doesn’t wield a pitchfork. Yet it’s hard not to see the two as the angel and the demon on President Bush’s shoulders as he ponders whether to protect vast stretches of pristine ocean habitat in the remote Pacific.

For months, Bush has been considering the creation of two sweeping marine reserves, a move that would make him the most ocean-friendly president in history. Bush had already achieved distinction when, in 2006, he approved a 140,000-square-mile marine national monument in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. But the new plan would dwarf that, potentially protecting up to 900,000 square miles around the Mariana Islands and around a series of tiny, U.S.-controlled territories stretching from the Line Islands to the Rose Atoll in American Samoa

Image Found Here

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A commercial fisher netting in shallow Tuggerah Lake, Australia, claims to have netted a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), which may have been around 21-feet in length.  To estimate the size of the supposable great white, the commercial fisher’s boat is 18-feet in length, and he claimed the shark was larger than his boat. The fisher reported taking the shark in nets “he had cast off Canton Beach, at the northern end of the lake.” Despite the fisher’s account, some shark experts strongly doubt the encounter.

However, great white sharks have been recorded swimming in shallow saltwater lagoons. In 2004, a “1,700-pound female shark” was found swimming in a saltwater lagoon on Naushon Island, which is located near Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The 14-foot female great white shark “swam in circles in a shallow area filled with smaller fish,” but the shark was eventually coaxed into deeper water. Additionally, Tuggerah Lake has been visited by great white sharks in the past. From The Central Coast Express Advocate:

It is the second great white found in Tuggerah Lake since 2005. It comes on top of three other shark sightings in the lakes system in as many years. Experts fear the great white may be trapped in the lake unable to reach the sea because The Entrance channel is too shallow.

But the channel has been open to the ocean since last year’s June long weekend storms and after recent king tides others, including senior NSW Fisheries staff, believe large sharks could come and go as they pleased.
Most agreed it would have entered the lake chasing schools of fish, probably mullet which were in abundance until recently.

The commercial fisherman, understood to have been a 20-year veteran, was in hiding from the media yesterday.

But his story prompted Tuggerah Lakes police to issue a public warning to lake users.

Chief-Insp Tim Winmill said the fisherman was known to NSW Fisheries as a “reliable witness” and regarded the tale of his encounter as believable.

Chief-Insp Winmill said the fisherman reported the shark was caught in his net off Canton Beach.

He said the fisherman dragged the shark’s head out of the water in front of his 5.5m boat and looked back to see the tail extend well past the back of the boat.

He estimated it at 7m long.

Tuggerah Lakes Volunteer Coast Guard commander Grahame Bissaker spoke to the fisherman.

“He said he was very frightened and he had to cut his nets to let it free, there was nothing else he could do. He said the shark bumped his boat and he thought it was going to roll it.”

“Everyone needs to know there is a shark in Tuggerah Lakes and to stay out of the water,” Mr Bissaker said. “Even if you are in a canoe or kayak if the shark hit those, you’d be gone.”

It follows a shark sighting in the same area in January 2006 when people saw a large fin in the water about 200m offshore.

This was not far from where a baby 2m great white shark was found tangled in nets in September 2005.

Furthermore, in spite of the title from the TIME magazine article: “Attack of the Freshwater Shark?,” which highlights the recent Tuggerah Lake encounter, Tuggerah Lake is brackish, since both freshwater and saltwater flow into the coastal lagoon. Furthermore, it has been reported that the fluctuations of salinity influences the species composition of the lake. Freshwater shark attacks are most likely to occur from bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas), because their physiology allows them to enter freshwater for long periods of time. From TIME:

It was around 4 degrees Celsius on the lake at 5.30 am on Wednesday, making it the coldest morning of the year in these parts. Wrapped in several layers of clothing, the fisherman was startled by splashing noises coming from underneath his craft, then alarmed by a recurring thudding sound, as though something were striking it. Having rushed to one side of the boat, he peered down to see a gigantic fish trapped in a net….

“He said it was bigger than his boat,” reported local Chief Inspector Tim Winmill. “He’s got an 18-ft. boat and he said it would have been 21 ft. (6.5 m.).” Winmill said police had no reason to doubt the fisherman’s story: he was known to local authorities as a responsible member of the industry. As a result, police have issued a warning to anyone using Tuggerah and two smaller, connected lakes to take extreme care. Though the water at this time of year is numbingly cold, it’s school holidays in New South Wales until the end of next week and some children won’t necessarily be deterred from swimming or other activities.

How would the ocean-going monster have gotten into a freshwater lagoon? Tuggerah Lake is connected to the Pacific Ocean through a tidal channel called The Entrance. It is 12 km long and 4 km. wide, with an average depth of 6-7 m, roughly 20 feet. “It’s not a big lake,” said Chief Inspector Winmill, “but it’s a bloody big shark — if it’s true.”

Some images from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries of the 14-foot female great white shark found in a Cape Cod salt pond during 2004:

More images, videos, and press releases can be found at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and you can read more of The Conservation Report’s Shark Week here.

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