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There Are Sharks On And Off LA's Sunset Boulevard

Since summer is over, we naturally assume that shark season is over. But of course not, since these beautiful beasts of the sea frolic and hunt close to some coasts throughout the year, and southern California is just as pleasant a vacation for them as it is for those of us who head to warmer climes in winter.

Thank to an excellent photo capture by Randy Wright on Surfline, of a white shark (not a Great White, just a white) breaching along an LA beach, we realize that it's not only visor-wearing tourists who flock to Sunset Boulevard; this shark jumped near the end of Sunsert Boulevard, at Sunset Beach. The road goes from the sharks of Hollywood to actual sharks, it seems.

If you find yourself tempted to swim in the waters here, but are deathly scared of seeing a fin emerge from the water near you, then we might suggest a little activity on dry land, like the nearby Getty Villa. Once you turn on the Pacific Coast Highway from Sunset and head north, it's only one mile further up in Malibu. Keep in mind that the museum is closed on Tuesdays and requires advance ticket reservations, which you can make here. Tickets are free!

Related Stories:
· White Shark Breaches In LA [Surfline]
· The Getty [Official Site] · Sharks coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Surfline.com]

Tags: Dangerous Travel / Wild Animal Travel / Sharks / Cape Cod Travel / Beach Travel / → All Tags

Late-Summer Arrival To Cape Cod Beaches: Sharks!

After a quiet summer, the sharks are taking their revenge: The normally bucolic beaches of Cape Cod have been cruised by up to 20 sharks looking for a delicious seal dinner and scaring the living daylights out of the last summer's swimmers.

There has not been a fatal, unprovoked shark attack in U.S. waters since last year, and no attacks recorded this year in Massachusetts at all. But a seal colony in the town of Chatham, Mass. has caused the city to close their beaches indefinitely since Labor Day because great whites can't resist those baby seals—and both species are protected, so they can't be moved from their habitats anyway.

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Sharks Close Down Cali Beaches, But Not On Porpoise

For those planning to splish splash with their flippy floppies this weekend in Santa Cruz, the plans have changed. Apparently Shark Week just doesn't want to end, but instead of it being in high definition, it’s being played out for real off the coast of the Golden State.

This week, a hungry shark proceeded to nom nom nom on a porpoise. The poor porpoise washed ashore, and researchers are trying to figure out what kind of finned critter exactly was responsible for the attack. Obviously with beach visitors spotting sharks off shore, people are being kept out of the water.

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Tags: Summer-Vacations-With-An-Edge / Sharks / South Africa Travel / SCUBA / Scuba Dives / → All Tags

Summer Vacations With an Edge: Great White Cage Diving In South Africa

Are you forlorn because Shark Week is over? Do you need to get your Great White fix? Do you have between $150 and $3,700?

If so, UnrealDive has an extreme summer vacation for you. The South African expeditions company offers a series of one day outings and extended shark diving expeditions for adrenaline junkies and ecotourists alike. Great Whites are surface feeders so simple boat watching is always an option, but UnrealDive puts customers inside cages for eye-to-eye viewing.

The company boasts a 12 year track record without a single incident; no small achievement given that South Africa has some of the densest shark waters on the planet.

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British Sharks Forced To Take Lessons In Mealtime Etiquette

We're sorry, sharks. It turns out we've been misunderstanding you all this time. You don't want to attack us – you just want a big hug.

At least that's the theory the keepers at British aquarium Sea Life are working on at the moment. They believe that sharks can be trained to feed one by one when the keeper tells them, and even to roll over and have their belly tickled. With a Pavlov's-dog-style repetitive training system, they say the smarter sharks will get the idea within three months.

There are quite a few advantages of such a system, not least that the keepers are less likely to be gobbled up by the sharks they're meant to be taking care of. Experts also say that it should improve "shark welfare" and make them happier in captivity.

And it could even make feeding time a whole lot cuter for us aquarium visitors. They plan to try banging a gong as a sign for the sharks to queue up for dinner time. We'd pay a bit extra to bang the gong ourselves.

Related Stories:
· Sea Life [Official Site]
· Sharks To Be Trained Like Dolphins at Sea Life [news.com.au]
· Shark Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Wang-Qian]

Tags: Animals / Aquariums / Sharks / Adventure Travel / Swimming / Scuba / Snorkeling / → All Tags

Where to Swim with Whale Sharks and Downward Dog with The Fishes

When the Animal Overlords take over, we can rest assured that our own Shira Levine will be safe from persecution.

We're going to try to be more thoughtful the next time we eat sushi and just stick with the faux crabmeat after indulging in peaceful day at the Georgia Aquarium. This the only place in the world where you can swim in a giant fish tank with a couple of 23-foot long whale sharks.

The Atlanta fish farm hosts "Swim with Gentle Giants," swimming and diving tours in their football field-sized, eight-million gallon Ocean Voyager tank. To say the underwater experience is thrilling is an understatement.

These fish (which include massive manta rays and sting rays, guitarfish, zebra sharks, cownose rays and wobbegong sharks) are as friendly as puppies and kitties. They like to swim up really close and skim along your body before darting off into the faux deep blue.

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Badass Diver Kills 12-Foot Tiger Shark

The Year of Animals is soooo on!

When our new animal overlords take over, Craig Clasen will be the first up against the wall. The diver fought a 12-foot tiger shark for 2 hours before finally killing it on a fishing expedition. Oh, he's got it coming to him all right.

Clasen was hunting tuna with some buddies in the Gulf of Mexico off New Orleans when the shark began circling his filmmaker friend, cutting him off from the rest of the group. The spear fisherman nailed the shark 7 times and even tried to drown it (?!) before stabbing it in the gills and head.

No one was hurt except the shark, but we expect the sharks of the world to quickly take their bloody end. Remember: Aim for the gills!

Related Stories:
· Moment of Tooth: Diver Kills Shark After 2-Hr. Battle [New York Post]
· Where to Placate Our Future Animal Overlords [Jaunted]
· Bad Idea Travel: Unprotected Swimming with Sharks [Jaunted]

[Photo: Fame Pictures via NY Post]

Tags: Animals / Zoos / Sharks / Chimpanzees / Animal Travel / → All Tags

When Animals Start Acting Like Animals

Once again, humans are outraged that animals have begun acting like...well...animals. It all started in Australia in the Sydney Harbor last week when a navy diver was attacked by a shark. The following day a surfer at Bondi Beach nearly lost his hand to a shark. Yet despite this, shark numbers are not increasing in the waters of New South Wales. And in an effort to convince people the water's fine, Sydney is still going ahead with its Harbour Swim Classic on March 1.

Then this morning, folks in the tri-state area were roiled to hear that a pet chimpanzee brutally attacked a friend of its owners in Stamford, Conn. The chimp was acting so crazy that eventually police shot him in self-defense. For reasons unknown, the 4-feet-tall, 200-lb, chimp (who does have a case of Lyme disease) got aggressive but usually he's very "normal."

The chimp liked watering flowers, wine, expensive steak, brushing his teeth and even watching baseball games on TV. Neighbors also said he liked to pretend to drive his owners' cars - including a pink Cadillac convertible.

We think it's insane that you want to keep a chimpanzee as a pet in your house. However, allowing a three-month old chimpanzee fly on a commercial airline on his way to the Frankfurt Zoo is perfectly acceptable.

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Australia Looking Out For White Pointer Sharks

Despite the fact that Florida has way more shark encounters in a given year, it's Australia that's on high alert now, after three non-fatal attacks in the past 48 hours. Those come just weeks after a man disappeared near Perth, on December 27, in what authorities say was a deadly attack by a white pointer, which is another name for a great white.

The three latest incidents are scattered elsewhere around the giant continent. The first happened near Fingal Head in northern New South Wales on Sunday, when a surfer was bitten on the thigh. That same day, in Binalong Bay in Tasmania, a 13-year-old girl was attacked and rescued by her cousin while a shark circled below.

A third assault was also in NSW, in the tidal Lake Illawarra. A swimmer fended off what's believed to be a bull shark by punching it in the nose. (Eye gouging, you'll recall, is also a good way to fight off fish.)

Luckily, the fear of shark attacks is much, much bigger than the actual chances you'll fall victim to one. (Thanks, Spielberg.) The Florida Museum of Natural History, which obsessively tracks such things, says just 71 "unprovoked attacks" occurred worldwide in 2007, 32 of which happened in Florida. How reassuring!

Related Stories:
· Shark Rampage in Australia [Time]
· Anderson Cooper, Shark Tourist [Jaunted]
· From May 2008: Australia's Latest Shark Attack [Jaunted]
· Killer Beaches 2008 Map [Jaunted]

[Photo: ruminatrix]

Tags: Silver Foxes / Sharks / Animals / Diving / Videos / → All Tags

Anderson Cooper, Shark Tourist

Emoting anchor Anderson Cooper will host a "Planet in Peril" special on CNN tonight spanning 11 countries on four continents that, among other things, will focus on shark tourism and cage diving off the coast of South Africa. To report the story, A-Coop went swimming with sharks himself--and dove in at least once without a cage.

After getting an OK for the stunt from CNN's president, Cooper's local shark experts gave him some advice:

They say to project confidence. I'm not sure how one does that through SCUBA gear.

They actually tell you to hold your breath when a shark comes toward you. But my heart was beating so fast I couldn't actually hold my breath.

He managed the dive without any incidents, which isn't to say going without a cage is completely safe: We didn't have any trouble swimming with sharks off Andros Island recently, but early this year a man was killed off the coast of Florida diving without protection in shark-infested--and chummed--waters.

Related Stories:
· Anderson Cooper Dives in for Shark Story [Hollywood Reporter]
· Cage-Free Swimming with Sharks [Jaunted]

Tags: Andros Field Trip / Islands / Diving / Sharks / → All Tags

Cage-Free Swimming With Sharks

Lost Girl Jennifer Baggett continues her Andros Field Trip...

I was standing on the edge of a pontoon boat as a dozen Caribbean reef sharks circled below, watching, waiting, ready to feast. I popped my regulator into my mouth, adjusted my mask and lept fin first into the killer fish-infested waters.

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Oman's Daymaniyat Islands, Where The Sharks Are Friendly

Marketers at the tourism board of Oman keep talking up the country in a way that makes us want to go there, and the latest attraction is the Daymaniyat Islands, a bit more than an hour by boat from Muscat.

We already knew that sea turtles are a big deal in Oman, but apparently near the Daymaniyats you can also find hawksbill turtles, clown fish, stingray, moray eels and barracuda. With dive tourism just starting up the locals are advocating "hands-off" interaction with the local wildlife:

Most notably with moray eels, sea snakes and sharks that inhabit the waters (though the sharks do not attack humans).

No wonder Oman has such great tourism potential--they've even trained their sharks not to eat us. We're on our way with our tanks and flippers.

Related Stories:
· Oman Ministry of Tourism [Official Site]
· Oman's Beautiful Daymaniyat Islands [eTravel]
· We Love Oman, Because You Can See Sea Turtles [Jaunted]

[Photo: boens]