Saturday, April 26, 2008

Strange Sharks-Photoshop? No Way!

We get quite a few emails from blog readers each week. Some with images like this one, others with offers for cheap V!@gara delivered to your door.

This particular image was sent in from Sarah who lives in the U.K-wanting us to identify this unlikely looking critter.

At first we said "Unicorn Shark?"

Then it occurred that this critter had to be a deep water species, and if there's anything we know about deep water sharks (we know a fair bit) anything is likely down there.

Here's what we found out about this shark:

Almost nothing except about 300 posts, arguments, half stories, wild rumors and the like. Seems this critter has generated a lot of talk and is perhaps from Japan.

Whatever this critter is, we hope it gets to be about 20 feet long and shows up on our chum line one of these days. If that happens we'll probably need a handful of that cheap V!@gara.

Shark Attack in San Diego

This tragedy while unfortunate is the result of life off the California coast.

These waters are sharky, and perhaps more sharky than anyone cares to admit.

It's also a testament to the white sharks ability to not choose humans as a prime prey source. After observing these animals for over 6 years now I have come to realize they will spend a lot of time "watching and observing" suspected prey items before attacking-most often they choose not to.

Off the shores of Nor Cal I often meet surfers who say they have never seen a white shark. My response is always "that's not to say they have not seen you".

White sharks very rarely make mistakes. This particular set up, with a swimmer in a black wetsuit, in the morning, along the shoreline, lagging behind a pack of other swimmers met more than one criteria for this shark to make a tragic mistake.

It is sad anyway you look at it.