Warning sign at a Cape Cod beach. Credit: Carlos García-Quijano, CC BY-ND By Carlos G. García-Quijano, University of Rhode Island Interactions between people and animals offer insights into human culture and societies’ core values. This is especially true with respect to large predators – perhaps due to a collective memory of our evolutionary past as hunted […]
Researchers use tooth DNA to identify shark involved in NY bite
University of Florida researchers used DNA extracted from a tooth fragment pulled from the leg of a shark bite victim to identify the species involved in an incident involving a 13-year-old boy off the coast of New York. “We’re as close to 100 percent sure as we can get that this shark was a sand […]
Shark bites man off coast of Florida
An elderly man was severely injured after a shark bit him on the leg in the waters of Fort Pierce Inlet State Park, according to the St. Lucie County Fire District. The unidentified man was surfing near the inlet on Friday when he was bitten. “Our lifeguards said it was a pretty significant-sized bite below the knee […]
New 3D printing technology could aid shark bite survivors
University of Nebraska–Lincoln researchers—including Ali Tamayol and Prahalada Rao—are working on a technology that could enable 3D printing of tissue that could aid the recovery of shark bite survivors. “Today, if you lose a leg, shatter a knee or break a bone, we can print custom replacement implants,” said Rao, assistant professor of mechanical and […]
Shark safety tips: Sorting out fact from fiction
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. By Alison Kock, South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity There are more than 500 species of shark and only three of them pose a significant threat to humans. These are the great white, bull or Zambezi and tiger shark. The probability of being […]
New York has first recorded shark attacks in seven decades
A New York beach has reopened this weekend after two children were bitten along the shores of Fire Island on Long Island’s south shore. A 13-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were bitten within an hour of each other on Wednesday less than five miles apart from each other at Atlantique and Sailor’s Haven beaches, respectively. They were […]
Culling sharks won’t protect surfers
By George Burgess, University of Florida The warm and productive waters of La Réunion, an island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, are home to many types of tropical sea life, including apex predators such as sharks. Eight fatal shark attacks on humans have occurred there since 2011. After a body boarder was killed […]
Instagram model acts stupid, gets bitten by shark
Karma finally jumped up and bit an aspiring Instagram model. Katarina Zarutskie’s artificially idyllic existence got a dose of reality when an approximately five foot nurse shark clamped down on her arm as she tried to use a school of feeding sharks as props for a photoshoot for her Instagram account and its 36,000 followers. […]
Tourist in Australia learns painful lesson about feeding sharks
Just a friendly reminder that you should never but your fingers near the business end of a shark, even if it is typically docile species such as nurse sharks. Melissa Brunning found that out the hard while on vacation this week in Dugong Bay off the coast of Northwest Australia. Brunning was attempting to hand feed […]
Public accuse the media of deliberately fueling shark fear
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. By Peter Simmons, Charles Sturt University and Michael Mehmet, Charles Sturt University Are you scared of sharks? If you never read or watched the news, would you still be? Last year’s Senate inquiry on shark mitigation and deterrent measures heard evidence that media […]