For your first day of SHARKFEST 2013, I have some funny photos and stunning facts for all those out there who love sharks.
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| MC HAMMER, you are history. People, meet MC HAMMERHEAD. |
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| Well, it might not be true, but these poor sharks really are misunderstood. |
DID YOU KNOW?
That the pressure of a dusky shark's bight is
the equivalent of being crushed beneath ten
average weight cars!!
SERIOUSLY!!??
The dwarf lantern shark is the smallest shark
known to man. A full grown male is about
sixteen centimetres long, roughly the length of a
ballpoint pen!!
COR BLIMEY!!
The basking shark filters roughly half a million litres
seawater through its mouth every hour!!
DAY 2, 2013
We are on the second day of SHARKFEST 2013, and today I have the stunning and sad story of the true Jaws to tell you.
In July 1916, the most popular beach resort was Beach Haven in North America, just South along the coast from New York. Back then, sharks were little known about creatures and had no presence whatsoever in the Northern Hemisphere. This was because no one had been attacked in the Northern Hemisphere at the time, all the shark attacks recorded were in Australia or South Africa. All that changed on the second of July 1916.
Charles Vansant, an employee of Folwell Brothers Brokering Firm in Philadelphia, was swimming at the beach resort of Beach Haven, when he reportedly started floundering in the water and screaming. A lifeguard rowed out to him and found blood mingling with the froth around him. Vansant was breathing deeply and groaning. The lifeguard rushed him to hospital, but he died before he could receive treatment. But he did have enough time to tell the lifeguard that he had been attacked by a shark. The lifeguard told the city council and the city council refused to act. They said that there were no sharks in the Northern Hemisphere. That way, all the local business men could keep rolling in the money and paying the council to keep their slots on the beach. All the business men used the popular beach as a money-spinning attraction.
Five days later, on July the fourteenth, a hotel bellboy called Charles Bruder was fatally attacked at Spring Lake beach, another money-spinning seaside attraction for the business men. He died in hospital, just like Vansant before him, but, again like his shark attack predecessor, told the people gathered around him in hospital that he had been attacked by a shark. The city council again dismissed the reports. They said it had to be a large mackerel fish or a giant turtle. Some even suggested that his legs and torso had been slashed by the propellor of a German submarine from the war in Europe.
Then, what is possibly the saddest attack of all, came on July the twelfth in the Matawan Creek, ten miles inland from the seashore. Twelve year old Lester Stirwell went swimming in the creek when he started floundering and yelling. He was dragged underwater and resurfaced just under a minute later, screaming that there was a shark. Watson Stanley Fisher, a lumberjack, saw the boy and leapt into he water to save him. The shark attacked him too, and although he managed to emerge from the water, he died on the bank. The people who had flocked around to see what had happened heard him whisper his last word: "Shark." Captain Thomas Cotterel recovered Lester's body the next day. Fisher is buried in a small graveyard by the Matawan Creek, only a few feet away from the boy he tried to save.
The same day, a fifth attack took place a few hours later, about a mile further inland. John Dunn was attacked by the same shark that killed Lester and Fisher. He survived but lost a leg in the attack.
Two days on, Captain Thomas Cotterel captured and killed a great white shark in Raritan Bay, just South of New York. The shark had human remains in it's stomach and the remains fitted the bodies of Charles Vansant and Charles Bruder. The shark that attacked Lester, Fisher and Dunn was never found, but identified as a bull shark. The only dangerous shark that can swim in fresh water. This is the story of the true Jaws, the film that framed the shark is based on a true story, and oh what a horrific, devastating story it is.
DAY 3, 2013
Today I have more funny pictures and some truly stunning photographs of sharks just outside your doorstep.
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| How true can this be? |
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| This basking shark was spotted off the shore of England in the Bristol Channel. |
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| This wonderful basking shark specimen was found in the Irish Sea. |
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| This glorious, streamlined blue shark was recently found in a large shark school off Penzance |
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| Another blue shark in the school off Penzance, and the truly stunning photo can only flatter its powerful, graceful body. |
DAY 4, 2013
Today, I have more facts and another story to tell. But this one is of a shark that solved a mystery, saving a family in the process.
Lieutenant Huger Wylie was in charge of the shipping control force in Jamaica, 1799. His job was to stop French ships trading with the jamaicans. To make his job harder, the American traders were helping the French traders too. England had stretched its forces as it waged war with the French and tried to control the American revolution so their forces in the Carribean were small. The French had taken advantage of this and were sending in more trading ships than ever. One day, he stopped a ship he believed to be French called the Nancy. The ship's captain claimed to be Dutch but had no proof. Huger Wylie took the captain to court to stand trial. In the court, the captain produced Dutch shipping plans and won his case. But, he had been carrying a valuable cargo of spices which had gone of during the three day trial at Port Royal. The captain sued the lieutenant for £3,000 (which in those days was worth a few hundred times more than it is today). The lieutenant was a poor man and had nothing to sell but his home, which would cover less than a third of the costs.
Two days later, a midshipman named George Tilson caught a shark near where the Nancy was first stopped. He had it cut up to feed the sailors on board his ship, the Sparrow, and found a parcel lodged in its throat. The parcel was full of French sailing orders for the Nancy. Huger Wylie and his family were saved. The court arrested the captain and Mr. Wylie received the vast sum of £5,000 for his hard work.
So the lieutenant and his family were saved, just because sharks bight once and then swallow, rather than chew there food, and they eat lots of the waste that is dumped into the sea.
SHARK CRUELTY FACT 1
On the 1st of July 1916, the Allied forces fought the Huns at the battle of the Somme. Sixty thousand men died and hundreds of thousands more died in the weeks that followed.
On the 2nd of July 1916, a man was killed by a shark whilst swimming in Australia. The humans were outraged and called sharks evil beasts that should be killed.
There is no poetic justice to justify that.
SHARK CRUELTY FACT 2
The average number of humans attacked by sharks each year is 100. Of those attacks, roughly thirty five people die.
The average number of sharks killed by humans each year is 100, 000, 000. Many millions more die from eating the waste we put into the sea, or from water pollution caused by illegal sewage pipes.
SHARK CRUELTY FACT 3
Of those sharks, only a few are killed to protect human lives. The rest are killed: their fins, with the rest of the shark thrown away, unused. Others are killed in spear fishing competitions merely to show off at killing defenceless sea creatures. And many millions are killed just for the fun of it, because foolish people see sharks, not as the fascinating creatures they truly are, but as mindless killing machines that are evil.
How could any of that be right?
DAY 5, 2013
Today I will show you how to recognise what family of sharks a shark comes from.
DAY 6, 2013
The day before last of SHARKFEST 2013, I have more funny shark pictures for you.
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| Do not listen to what other people say about sharks, it is just because they are scared. |
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| Is it possible? |
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| Too right it is. |
DAY 7, 2013
I can not believe it came so fast. The last day of SHARKFEST 2013 is here, but I am going to make it worth while waiting for. Today I have some exclusive stats from inside the blog, some more cool facts, some more superb photos and
This is the amount of views SHARK NEWS has had since it started in its top ten countries for views. If your country isn't there, then view more!!
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This is the amount of views SHARK NEWS has had since it started in its top ten countries for views. If your country isn't there, then view more!!
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546
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DID YOU KNOW?
That a whale shark's skin is 100 millimetres
thick.
DID YOU KNOW?
That people all around the world eat shark
without realising it? When people buy rock
salmon and chips, they do not realise that it
is another word for dogfish and that dogfish
are sharks.
DID YOU KNOW?
That shark's eyes glow in the dark like a cat's?
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| What a glorious shark a blue shark is. Just look at the divine colour on its back. |
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| Can you spot the shark? |
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| How beautiful can one shark be? This wobbegong shark is one of the most beautiful. |
DAY 1, 2014
Welcome, everyone, to SHARKFEST 2014!! Today, I have more funny shark photos
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| Shark News reporting... |
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| Harrison Ford faced stiff competition for his acting role as Indianna Jones. |
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| Another great misunderstanding. |
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| It took seals a long time to find a way of escaping sharks. |
DAY 2, 2014
Day two of SHARKFEST 2014. Who wants a few fun facts?
DID YOU KNOW?
Whale sharks have been known to live for 150 years!
DID YOU KNOW?
Female blue sharks can give birth to 135 pups at a time!
DID YOU KNOW?
Some Arctic people eat the skin of the greenland shark, which is poisonous. To avoid poisoning, they boil it several times first, but still feel very drunk afterwards!
DAY 3, 2014
Three days into SHARKFEST 2014. Sharks forever!
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| Three for the price of one! |
DID YOU KNOW?
Smoothhound sharks are the only known shark species of which some specimens are albino.
DAY 4, 2014
The fourth day of SHARKFEST 2014 and I havefound two excellent blue shark videos for you, both courtesy of www.arkive.org.
http://www.arkive.org/blue-shark/prionace-glauca/video-08b.html
This first one is of a blue shark gorging itself on squid, which have come up to feed at night in their hundreds. An opportunistic shark such as this will eat its fill, before absorbing the nutrients and deliberately being sick just so it can eat again,as chances like this are rare.
http://www.arkive.org/blue-shark/prionace-glauca/video-08c.html
This second video is of a blue shark hunting. It is in slow motion. Be sure to note how the cartilage above the shark's teeth rolls back to reveal a stunning set of fangs. This can be about 20 seconds into the video.
DAY 5, 2014
How quickly SHARKFEST 2014 has gone! For its last day in 2014, I bring you more videos, more pictures and more facts!
http://www.arkive.org/silvertip-shark/carcharhinus-albimarginatus/video-00.html
An excellent video of a silvertip shark, again by www.arkive.org. This not only portrays the silvertip shark, but the classic signs that a reef shark such as itself is feeling anxious and threatened. At around 1 minute into the video, there is discernible thrashing of the body. thirty seconds later, violent thrashing of the tail is notable.
Please be sure to register the silver tips to the petorcal fins, which make it easy to tell apart from the whitetip reef shark, and the dorsal tip, which is alike to those of whitetips.
DID YOU KNOW?
Sperm whales have twice been witnessed attacking megamouth sharks.
DAY 4, 2014
The fourth day of SHARKFEST 2014 and I havefound two excellent blue shark videos for you, both courtesy of www.arkive.org.
http://www.arkive.org/blue-shark/prionace-glauca/video-08b.html
This first one is of a blue shark gorging itself on squid, which have come up to feed at night in their hundreds. An opportunistic shark such as this will eat its fill, before absorbing the nutrients and deliberately being sick just so it can eat again,as chances like this are rare.
http://www.arkive.org/blue-shark/prionace-glauca/video-08c.html
This second video is of a blue shark hunting. It is in slow motion. Be sure to note how the cartilage above the shark's teeth rolls back to reveal a stunning set of fangs. This can be about 20 seconds into the video.
DAY 5, 2014
How quickly SHARKFEST 2014 has gone! For its last day in 2014, I bring you more videos, more pictures and more facts!
http://www.arkive.org/silvertip-shark/carcharhinus-albimarginatus/video-00.html
An excellent video of a silvertip shark, again by www.arkive.org. This not only portrays the silvertip shark, but the classic signs that a reef shark such as itself is feeling anxious and threatened. At around 1 minute into the video, there is discernible thrashing of the body. thirty seconds later, violent thrashing of the tail is notable.
Please be sure to register the silver tips to the petorcal fins, which make it easy to tell apart from the whitetip reef shark, and the dorsal tip, which is alike to those of whitetips.
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| Proof the sharks were just trying to help. If only more people spoke shark... |
Sperm whales have twice been witnessed attacking megamouth sharks.
DID YOU KNOW?
If young porbeagle sharks find an object floating on the ocean's surface, they
will toss it around between each other. This is probably to practice hunting.
"The basking shark filters roughly half a million litres
ReplyDeleteseawater through its mouth every hour!!"
Nearly as much as Mum and Dad filter wine!!