Shark settles turf war by swallowing rival whole in Seoul aquarium

A man and a woman are seen in silhouette as a shark swims near them as they pause to talk while visiting the aquarium in Barcelona November 21, 2015. — Reuters picSEOUL, Jan 30 — Visitors to a giant aquarium in Seoul yesterday were presented with the gory aftermath of a territorial dispute between two sharks, which left one dead inside the mouth and gullet of the other.

Staff at the COEX aquarium said the fight between a 2.2m-long sand tiger shark and a banded hound shark half its size broke out on Thursday evening.

Size and power won the day, and by the time the aquarium opened yesterday, only the tail of the smaller shark was visible — poking from the jaws of its larger female tank mate.

“The sand tiger shark’s instincts are to attack if its territory is threatened, especially during breeding periods,” a spokesman for the aquarium said.

The shark appeared to have swallowed its victim whole, and the spokesman said it would probably regurgitate the hound shark after failing to digest it.

“But that could take up to a week,” he added. — AFP

Shark settles turf war by swallowing rival whole in Seoul aquarium

NY Aquarium discovers shark nursery ground in New York waters

Scientists and veterinarians working for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) New York Aquarium in Coney Island have discovered something noteworthy in the near shore waters of Long Island’s Great South Bay: a nursery ground for the sand tiger shark, a fearsome-looking but non-aggressive fish. 

The discovery was made by researchers who have collected a wealth of information on sharks in local waters over the past four years through the use of acoustic tags, devices that enable scientists to remotely track marine animals as they swim through their environment. The data have helped the scientists confirm the existence of the nursery in Great South Bay, one of the rich estuaries found along Long Island’s southern shore. Only a handful of sand tiger shark nursery grounds have been identified, one of which is in the waters of Massachusetts.

“The discovery of a shark nursery is fantastic news for local conservationists seeking to learn more about sharks and other species in the New York Bight,” said Jon Dohlin, vice president and director of WCS’s New York Aquarium. “Through field projects and outreach efforts by the New York Aquarium and other organizations, we hope to raise awareness about our local marine environment and the need to manage our natural wonders.” 

The team received the first indications of a potential nursery ground in Great South Bay in 2011 when one of the scientists received a picture of a dead juvenile sand tiger shark from one of the marinas. Follow-up conversations with local anglers and boaters revealed that people had been catching these small sharks in the bay for years. The scientists then initiated the tagging study using acoustic transmitters in Great South Bay and have been catching and releasing only juvenile sharks since that time. Ten of the 15 were individual sharks tagged this year, and five individuals tagged in previous seasons returned to the same section of the bay, a behavior known as “site fidelity.” 

Data gathered from the sharks’ movements are helping scientists learn more about the migratory behavior of sand tiger sharks and their habitat needs. The discovery of the Great South Bay shark nursery in particular is important because the sand tiger shark has been heavily depleted by fishing and is listed as a “Species of Concern” by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service. Fishing for sand tiger sharks has been prohibited in state and federal waters since 1997. The species has a low reproductive rate — a female shark gives birth to only one or two pups every two years — so it will take this sand tiger shark population many years to rebuild. Protecting the nursery will help promote sand tiger shark recovery in the coastal waters of the eastern U.S.

Growing up to 10 feet in length, the sand tiger shark is widely distributed and found in the temperate water and subtropical waters of many of the world’s coastlines. Although it is not known how many sand tiger sharks remain, the species is listed as globally “Vulnerable” on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, while populations in parts of Australia and Argentina are classified as “Critically Endangered.” The NY Seascape program is collaborating with WCS shark scientists from Argentina to improve the understanding of sand tigers in the Southwest Atlantic, which have been severely depleted by overfishing. 

The work is part of an initiative by WCS’s NY Seascape program based out of WCS’s New York Aquarium to study and protect sharks and rays in the New York Bight, the region between Long Island’s Montauk Point and New Jersey’s Cape May that extends out to the continental shelf and over the Hudson Canyon. More than 40 species of sharks and rays are known to occur in these waters. 

In addition to the sand tiger study, NY Seascape researchers attached archival satellite tags to two blue sharks in the waters south of Long Island in 2015.  These tags will gather data for six months before they are scheduled to pop off and begin broadcasting archived location data back to the research team. They also tracked three juvenile shortfin mako sharks and one blue shark tagged with near real-time satellite monitoring tags in 2014. 

Sharks will be the central focus of “Ocean Wonders: Sharks!”, a 57,000-square-foot exhibit building currently under construction at the New York Aquarium. The building will house more than 115 marine species, including sharks, skates and rays.

 
-Information from the Wildlife Conservation Society

NY Aquarium discovers shark nursery ground in New York waters

Ute Perkins Students Take Field Trip To Shark Reef

By MAGGIE MCMURRAY

Moapa Valley Progress

Perkins students (seated l to r) Priseis Ryder, Brylin Eastman and Seth Leavitt get their picture with a diver during a field trip at the Shark Reef aquarium at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

It is not often you can interact with sharks in the desert. But that is exactly what happened recently to one local school group.
The Ute Perkins Elementary School kindergarten and first grade classes got to experience sharks up close and personal on Wednesday, October 23, when they took a field trip to Mandalay Bay Shark Reef Aquarium.

This was an expensive field trip and normally out of the range of most classrooms, especially for younger kids. But Perkins kindergarten teacher Cheryl Sobrio really wanted her students to have this experience. So in August she entered them in a Mandalay Bay drawing for a free field trip. The date for the announcement of the winners came and went and Sobrio was disappointed because she didn’t get a call.

“I contacted Mandalay Bay in August and gave them all of our school information, but then I never heard from them so I assumed we did not win,” Sobrio said. “Then, about three weeks ago I got a call from the aquarium asking me if I was still interested!”
There had been a cancellation. So they offered the spot to Sobrio’s class.

But there was a catch. She still needed to raise $400 to pay for the bus to transport the students.
“I sent out a text to all the parents,” Sobrio said. “Within 20 minutes I had the money.”

That money came from generous donations from Nevada politicians. Someone had contacted Assemblyman James Oscarson who was more than happy to donate $200 towards the buses. A few minutes later Senator Pete Goicoechea also donated the other $200. And, just like that, the group was ready to go.

Sobrio explained that the kindergarten and first grade classes won’t actually study their unit on ocean life until March. But she was excited because of the huge opportunity this trip gave her kids.
“When we get to our ocean unit the kids will be able to reflect back on this trip and remember the hands on activities that they got to do,” she said.

The field trip had the kids engrossed in marine life from the moment they stepped off the bus., Sobrio said.

The aquarium staff started off the tour with a bang: immersing the kids in a rainforest setting complete with alligators, piranhas, and giant fish. The kids also got lessons about all the marine life they were viewing along the way.

The staff taught in an interactive way that included the students in the lessons. For example, when they were looking at the lizard exhibit, the staff had the kids help them locate the lizards by having a lizard hunt.

After the rainforest, the kids went to the ocean touch room where they got to actually touch rays, horseshoe crabs and other marine life.
From there they went on to what everyone was waiting for: the sharks. At first the kids looked at the sharks and sea turtles swimming over their heads and all around them in the shark tunnel and were thrilled. But then several divers entered the pool and began interacting with kids, making them laugh, showing them neat things, and posing for pictures with them.
“I loved the sharks!” said kindergartner Aidyn McClean, 5.

His classmate, Anthony Salvato, also 5, had a different favorite, though. “It was so awesome because I got to touch a stingray for the first time!” he said.
“I just really want to thank Assemblyman Oscarson and Senator Goicoechea and the staff of Mandalay Bay for being so kind,” Sobrio said. “I don’t know how many schools get to go in this program, but we were so lucky to be chosen.”

Ute Perkins Students Take Field Trip To Shark Reef

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Better get it done snappy! Man who spends seven hours a day cleaning a shark tank surrounded ...

• Matt Martin, 35, spends hours cleaning shark tanks at Blue Planet Aquarium


• Armed with just a wet suit and brush, he swims among deadly tiger sharks 


• The biggest tiger shark weighs a massive 650lb and is more than 12ft long


• Mr Martin has undergone rigorous training to ensure he is safe with sharks   

By
Emma Glanfield for MailOnline

Published:

09:33 GMT, 2 September 2014


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Updated:

10:24 GMT, 2 September 2014

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For many, diving into a shark tank and spending hours every day among the deadly creatures would be a terrifying thought.




But for one man, spending up to seven hours a day swimming with more than 10 sharks is just part of his daily work schedule.




That’s because Matt Martin, 35, is a professional shark tank cleaner at the Blue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire and heads up a team which takes more than 1,000 dives in the 3.4million litre tank every year.








Matt Martin, 35, is a professional shark tank cleaner at the Blue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire and heads up a team which takes more than 1,000 dives in the 3.4million litre shark tank every year to carry out maintenance









Mr Martin, armed with just a wetsuit and a brush, spends up to seven hours every single day in the shark tank









He is a highly-experienced diver and has undergone rigorous training to ensure he is safe in the shark tank





With just a wet suit and a brush, Mr Martin and his team bravely spend up to seven hours a day in the depths of the tank which is home to an array of shark species including nurse, zebra, bamboo and six deadly sand tiger sharks.




The biggest of them all is a sand tiger called ‘Storm’ who weighs a massive 650lb and is more than 12ft long.




Mr Martin said: ‘I was petrified of sharks as a kid mainly because of the Jaws films and they are large potentially dangerous animals.




‘We wear wet suits, mainly to stop hypothermia and to prevent grazes. The way we train minimises the risk to us in the tanks.




‘The times when the sharks can be potentially disruptive to our dives is during mating season, that’s when there is a lot of sexual energy around and they can be unpredictable.




‘Storm is the biggest shark we have, she’s a sand tiger and about 300kgs and 12-feet nose to tip, and could be a bit longer.




‘In the wild, there have been a fair few incidents with sand tigers responsible for attacks, mainly in shallow waters in accidents when people have irritated them or with spear fishermen.




‘There’s always an element of danger.’








One of the biggest sharks in the tank is a Tiger shark called Storm which weighs 650lb and is more than 12ft




















Mr Martin, who has worked at the aquarium for the last two years, said there is ‘always an element of danger’ with his job but has been trained to recognise and understand the sharks’ behaviour so he knows when to stop





But Mr Martin – who has worked at the aquarium for the last two years – said rigorous training minimised the danger to him and other divers.




The have all undergone a specially-adapted training plan, which takes up to six months to complete and teaches them how to dive among the animals and recognise and understand the sharks’ behaviour.




Blue Planet Aquarium curator David Wolfenden said each shark tank cleaner is a highly-experienced diver who has undergone specific training and medical checks.




He said that while there is the potential dangerous threat to divers, the hazards are minimalised by their extensive training and the fact the sharks are used to people being in the tanks.




He said: ‘It can be potentially quite dangerous but if it is done properly it’s actually a pretty safe job. It’s all about recognising the behaviour of the sharks and knowing how to dive safely.




‘The divers always have a safety diver with them and a dive supervisor at the top of the tank, as well as intercom to talk to each other.








He said: ‘We joke that cleaning the tank is a bit like cleaning the Forth Road Bridge, it’s continually ongoing’









The sharks are said to be used to the divers and tend to go about their business without any cause for concern





‘But the sharks aren’t that interested in them to be honest, the sharks are used to people being in the water.




‘We have divers in there every single day. We take members of the public in there every week so there’s someone in the tank pretty much all day every day.




‘They get very well fed so it’s not like they’re going to get peckish.




‘There is always the potential when you’re doing that kind of job of being bitten if you’re careless or if they are excitable but part of the training divers have is recognising those behaviours and knowing when to stop if necessary.




‘Sometimes we do stop all diving and underwater cleaning and maintenance if the divers feel things are getting a bit lively in there.’




Mr Martin added: ‘We are in there for about 1,000 dives a year, we joke that cleaning the tank is a bit like cleaning the Forth Road Bridge, it’s continually ongoing.’ 









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Better get it done snappy! Man who spends seven hours a day cleaning a shark tank surrounded ...