Perth police have called off search for Paul Millachip, 57, saying it is apparent that attack was fatal
The wife of a man who is believed to have been killed by sharks off Australia’s west coast has paid tribute to a “wonderful father” .
Paul Millachip, 57, who is understood to have been from the UK, was last seen in the water on Saturday by two teenagers who witnessed what they believed was a shark attack off Port Beach in North Fremantle, Perth.
Continue reading...Number of species of sharks, rays and chimaeras facing ‘global extinction crisis’ doubles in a decade
A third of shark and ray species have been overfished to near extinction, according to an eight-year scientific study.
“Sharks and rays are the canary in the coalmine of overfishing. If I tell you that three-quarters of tropical and subtropical coastal species are threatened, just imagine a David Attenborough series with 75% of its predators gone. If sharks are declining, there’s a serious problem with fishing,” said the paper’s lead author, Prof Nicholas Dulvy, of Canada’s Simon Fraser University.
Continue reading...For those aboard a recent whale watching cruise off Cape Cod, the decomposing carcass of a year-old humpback calf floating in the waters of the Stellwagen Bank national marine sanctuary made for a heartbreaking sight.
Related: Experience: I was attacked by two sharks at once
Continue reading...The great white swiped for my head, but missed, because another had got there first
It was a warm winter’s day in South Africa and I planned to go surfing at Nahoon Reef. I was 15 and had just finished my first day back at school after the winter break. The reef is famous among surfers for its powerful waves and popularity with sharks. If you see lots of birds diving into the reef or notice a strong fishy smell in the air, you should not surf there.
But on that day in July 2000, the waves were perfect, just over head high, and there was no wind. The water was warm for winter, too. The conditions were too good to resist.
Continue reading...Never mind that the Hollywood star has never encountered a great white – this documentary has Thor, his perfect jawline … and flirting so full-on it could crack the camera lens
There are only three reasons why you would watch the new documentary Shark Beach With Chris Hemsworth: you love sharks, beaches or Chris Hemsworth. Hopefully it’s the latter, because that’s clearly what the producers have anticipated.
The opening scene sees the Hollywood actor gazing out to sea at sunrise, surfboard under his arm, blue-steeling the horizon. “There’s nothing quite like the ocean at first light,” he murmurs, as if auditioning for an aftershave commercial. Waves crash. Hemsworth smoulders. A didgeridoo blows.
Continue reading...From giant clams to zebra shark, marine biologists want to replace lost and vanishing species at sea but face unique obstacles – not least rampant overfishing
Kneeling on the seabed a few metres underwater, I pick up a clam and begin gently cleaning its furrowed, porcelain smile with a toothbrush. It’s a giant clam but a young one and still just a handful. Here in Fiji, giant clams or vasua as they are known, were so heavily overfished for their meat and shells that by the 1980s they were thought to be extinct locally. Australian clams were imported to start a captive breeding programme, and subsequent generations of their offspring have been released on coral reefs across Fiji. They’re still vulnerable to fishing and poaching, but if carefully guarded the giant clams do well and have become symbols of healthy corals reefs inside well-managed marine protected areas.
A key to their early survival is rearing them in cages to keep them safe from predators until they’re large enough to survive by themselves. However, the cages also exclude herbivorous fish, so the clams can easily get overgrown by seaweed, which is where the regular toothbrushing comes in.
Continue reading...The apex predators show preferences for certain individuals and avoid others, according to new research on sharks in Fiji
They reach 3.5 metres long, weigh more than 200kg and are an apex predator. But even apex predators need friends. And, according to new research, bull sharks may be capable of making them.
A recently published study from Fiji shows that bull sharks develop companionships – with some sharks showing preferences for certain individuals and avoiding others.
Continue reading...Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development says woman emerged from water with bleeding foot
A surfer has reportedly been attacked by a shark in ocean off the south-west of Western Australia.
A spokesman for the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development said the woman, 46, emerged from the water with a bleeding foot at Cowaramup Bay Beach, Gracetown.
Continue reading...Weaker sharks are less effective hunters, which can upset the balance of the ecosystem, say authors of study into impacts of hotter oceans
Baby sharks will emerge from their egg cases earlier and weaker as water temperatures rise, according to a new study that examined the impact of warming oceans on embryos.
About 40% of all shark species lay eggs, and the researchers found that one species unique to the Great Barrier Reef spent up to 25 days less in their egg cases under temperatures expected by the end of the century.
Continue reading...Creatures that patrolled the oceans 3m years ago were about two metres long at birth, researchers find
Enormous megatooth sharks, or megalodons, which patrolled the world’s oceans more than three million years ago, gave birth to babies larger than most adult humans, scientists say.
Researchers made the unsettling discovery when they X-rayed the vertebra of a fossilised megalodon and found that it must have been about two metres (6.5 ft) long when it was born.
Continue reading...Man, 29, says shark bite at Kangaroo Island’s D’Estrees Bay was ‘like being hit by a truck’
Paramedics have hailed the “remarkable” survival story of a South Australian surfer who swam back to shore alone and walked 300 metres for help after suffering “extraordinary” injuries from a shark bite at a remote beach.
Paramedic Michael Rushby said the man had “serious” lacerations on his back, backside and leg “consistent with quite a large shark bite”, but managed to haul himself to safety.
Continue reading...A man has been killed while swimming at the beach in Broome, according to reports
A man was killed in a shark attack at Cable beach in Broome in the north of Western Australia on Sunday morning.
The attack occurred approximately 1.5km north of Cable Beach Surf Club.
Continue reading...Transmitter attached to dorsal fin of shark with Twitter following had not sent a definitive message for a year and a half
Katharine, a 14ft-plus great white shark with a Twitter following, appeared again off the US east coast this week. A transmitter attached to her dorsal fin had not sent out a definitive message for a year and a half.
The transmitter that was attached off Cape Cod in August 2013 is roughly half the size of an iPhone and is meant to ping whenever the shark breaks the ocean surface.
Continue reading...Town beach closed after 13-year-old bitten and taken to hospital in a stable condition
A 13-year-old boy has been bitten by a shark at Port Macquarie on the New South Wales mid north coast.
NSW Ambulance says the attack happened just before 6am at Town Beach.
Continue reading...La Niña’s possible influence on feeding considered as Western Australian surfer’s death takes 2020 toll to highest in 86 years
More Australians have been killed in unprovoked shark attacks this year than in any year since 1934.
But the total number of shark bites is in line with the annual average over the past decade. It is prompting experts to consider whether the La Niña weather event, associated with cooler sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific, may be affecting where sharks search for prey.
Continue reading...A lack of awareness and ever-increasing competition among fishing boats threaten one of the sea’s most vital species
The temperature is cooling down in the fish market in Monastir, Tunisia. Still, the suffocating smell of the fish guts that have sat through the full force of the day’s heat hangs heavy in the air. The stallholders have left now, but on the floor amid the detritus is the unmistakable shape of a severed shark’s head.
Nearby, in a skip, the bodies of two guitarfish rays lie discarded, stripped of meat to the cartilage.
Continue reading...Tuesday’s fatal incident has reignited the debate about the efficacy of nets and drumlines in protecting beachgoers from shark attacks
Gold Coast surfer Nick Slater was paddling in barely waist-deep water when he was attacked by a shark and the 46-year-old may have died before he was helped to the shore, witnesses have said.
Tuesday’s incident was the first fatal shark attack at the tourist destination’s beaches since 1958 and it has reignited the debate about the efficacy of nets and drumlines.
Continue reading...UK study shows dorsal fin of prehistoric mega-fish was similar height to adult human
The enormous size of a prehistoric mega-shark made famous in Hollywood films has been revealed for the first time in its entirety by a UK study.
Previously only the length of the Otodus megalodon had been estimated, but a team from the University of Bristol and Swansea University has determined the size of the rest of its body, including fins as large as an adult human.
Continue reading...President said he’s ‘not a big fan of sharks’ at Pennsylvania event while in 2011 Daniels claimed he said ‘I hope all the sharks die’
Donald Trump has reaffirmed his well-known hatred of sharks, telling supporters he is “not a big fan” of the oceanic apex predators.
Related: Fox host blames ‘deep state’ for Bannon arrest – Bannon says that's for 'nut cases'
Continue reading...Man punches shark repeatedly until it lets woman’s leg go in attack off Shelly Beach
A woman is in a stable condition in hospital as authorities hunt the juvenile great white shark that attacked her on the NSW mid north coast.
The 35-year-old was rushed to Port Macquarie Base Hospital with serious leg injuries after she was mauled off the city’s Shelley Beach about 9.30am on Saturday.
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