By Matt Thomas

Will there ever be another Jacques Cousteau in the realm of pop culture science? The answer is probably not. The idea of an eloquent old man of the sea who speaks in poetics doesn't have that extra zing needed to grab people's attention in our media hyper MTV society.

The overfishing of large shark species off the eastern seaboard of the United States has upset the balance of marine life, a team of Canadian and U.S. scientists says.

"We're chopping off the top of the food chain," said Julia Baum of Dalhousie University in Halifax, co-author of a study outlining the huge decline in big sharks over 35 years.

Miami, Florida (Mar 29, 2007 13:31) Fewer big sharks in the oceans mean that bay scallops and other shellfish may be harder to find at the market, according to an article in the March 30 issue of the journal Science, tying two unlikely links in the food web to the same fate.

A team of Canadian and American ecologists, led by world-renowned fisheries biologist Ransom Myers at Dalhousie University, has found that overfishing the largest predatory sharks, such as the bull, great white, dusky, and hammerhead sharks, along the Atlantic Coast of the United States has led to an explosion of their ray, skate, and small shark prey species.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

Clinton Duffy, one of the country's leading shark experts, is warning beachgoers to beware after two boaties had close encounters with 300kg great whites.

The warning follows the dramatic rescue last Saturday of Zak Golebiowski, from Mt Gambier in Western Australia, by quick-thinking Kiwis Amy Worling and Pete Hickmott, who dragged the 15-year-old from the water and used a sweatshirt and extension cord as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding.

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia (Mar 24, 2007 17:00 EST) A rare and endangered shark, not scientifically reported for more than a century, is among marine creatures that have been discovered by University Malaysia Sabah researchers.

UMS vice-chancellor Datuk Dr Dr Mohd Noh Dalimin said that apart from the Borneo shark, scientifically known Carcharhinus borneensis, the university’s researchers have also discovered a new species of crab and ray fish.

by Ben Blanchard - Beijing, China

A group of wildlife experts and industry officials weighed into the increasingly acrimonious battle over shark fishing on Thursday, saying very few species were threatened with extinction as some activists charge.

Hitting back at what they said were misleading claims, they told Reuters that there was no targeted killing of sharks just for their fins -- a Chinese delicacy -- as most sharks are caught mainly for their meat.

By Ben Blanchard

Nov 8, 2006 — BEIJING (Reuters) - Declining fish stocks mean that in some parts of the world fishermen are increasingly turning their attention to sharks, where a lack of regulation further threatens many species' survival, an environmentalist said on Wednesday.

Sharks are caught not only for their fins — a popular dish at Chinese banquets — but increasingly for their meat, said Sarah Fowler, co-chair of the World Conservation Union's shark specialist group.

By Lee-Shay Collison

Sharks in Mexico are far larger than the sharks that have been scaring local beach-goers, according to local shark catcher and researcher Stephan Swanson.

Along with a team of Mexican scientists and documentary film-makers from National Geographic, Swanson travelled to Guadalupe Island off Mexico's coast in October, where he became the first person to successfully catch and fit a five-metre Great White shark with a satellite transmitter.

BAJA, Mexico (18 Oct 2006) -- In El Portugues, a small fishing camp in Mexico's Baja California Sur, moustachioed fishermen with tobacco-colored skin glide to shore in 21-foot panga boats and unload their modest catch of small sharks and devil rays.

It seems innocuous enough, given that most of the sharks, skates and rays (a class known as elasmobranches) are being harvested via small-scale, non-industrialized methods.

It might be a surprise that in the ICES area we have over 100 recorded species of sharks and their relatives. Sharks and their relatives are called elasmobranchs.

The term elasmobranch encompasses the group of fishes that is characterised by having skeletons composed entirely of cartilage. These fish have been around for a very long time, more than 400 million years. Though they appear to have evolved slowly since then, they have some remarkable features that we, as marine scientists, need to be aware of.

Cape Town, South Africa (Oct 26, 2006 09:05 EST) A tourist trade for people to watch sharks underwater using bait to attract them is blamed for a rise in attacks along the 300km of coast around Cape Town.

In the past four years, 13 have been recorded, three of them fatal. In the previous 42 years there were 17, one fatal.

Nearly all the attacks are thought to have been by great whites. In two recent fatalities — a woman swimmer and a spear fisherman — the bodies were never recovered.

The recommendation is likely to take years to work its way through the approval process at the federal level
By Tara Godvin
Associated Press

A federal council charged with regulating fisheries in the western Pacific Ocean has voted to ban "shark feeding" in federal waters off Hawaii, a move that could disrupt local shark tour operations.

Well, how dangerous was Stingray City before now? Is there the hidden trues and "big conspiracy" of the Cayman Islands nobody knows about???
It is plain amazing how the focus shifted from shark attacks to stingray "attacks" with one unfortunate accident of a guy who had it (excuse the harsh words) coming sooner or later anyway with his stupid stunts for tv shows! Come on, anybody with a micron of common sense should have seen something like that coming sooner or later. You dont wrestle crocs, play with highly poisonous snakes, tease sharks and whatever if you like to get old and grey in peace! It is like the Erich Ritter "Show" all over again! They are wild animals (sharks, rays, crocs etc.) and harm can be inflicted fast. The even more disturbing part are the lunatics that think that killing this animals in "retaliation"! Are they completely braindead? Why isn't that happen anybody get bitten by anything? Shouldn't we start a jellyfish holocaust because people get stung (and die!) or call a jihad on watersnakes when somebody dies (admitted - it's rare), why not poison the oceans to total extingtion of any live just to make sure that wont be happen again! Anyway - I am drifting off topic. Here the ideas and laws to make Stingray City in the Caymans "even safer" and keep the tourists coming / bring the 40% drop since nutter Irwin back to normal: