So, I want to give three awesome books on sharks to the first three people that email me at chester@chestermoore.com and put “sharks” in the subject line.
PS: If you listened to the episode let me know what you thought. It was a fun one to put together. Learn more about sharks at my other blog Gulf Great White Sharks.
Chester Moore
Follow Chester Moore and Higher Calling Wildlife® on the following social media platforms
Ever heard of the real-like shark attacks that inspired “Jaws”?
Although they were very real there has always been something about a great white being blamed that seemed strange. This podcast is about dangers in the outdoors (lots of true crime and strange encounters) and on the episode that just dropped we talk about the infamous 1916 Jersey Shore shark attacks that inspired “Jaws”. I give several theories and give my reason why I am suspicious of it being a great white.
Plus, this is a positive show so I have a shark expert on talking about growing shark numbers in the Gulf, a segment on a shark bite prevention technology and even more.
If you listen past the credits I have a whole other episode’ with an interview with a researcher about cutting-edge mako research in the Gulf!
I use every chance I have to promote shark conservation and to get people’s attention on these topics.
Did You Get A Gulf Great Sharks Decal?
I posted a blog a couple of weeks ago saying if anyone subscribed to my Gulf Great White Sharks blog and emailed me they would get a free Gulf Great White Sharks decal. The response has been wild-in a good way! We now have nearly 500 subscribers!
The mail is slow ,so if you don’t have your decal within two weeks, email me at chester@chestermoore.com and I will get another one out to you.
If you follow me there and then send me a PM saying, “followed” I will put you in a drawing for a 16 X 20 Gulf Great White Sharks poster showing an awesome image of a great white shark beneath an oil rig. Just follow, PM me with “followed” and I will put you in for a drawing I will do April 25.
Chester Moore
Follow Chester Moore and Higher Calling Wildlife® on the following social media platforms
A shark attack that involved multiple people July 4 at South Padre Island has been covered by dozens of media outlets with stories shared via thousands of social media accounts.
On Monday morning, as I got my day started, I searched for updates and came across one that had some “interesting” details.
The article said that, “South Padre Island and Cameron County Parks officials harnessed the shark in order to move it towards the sea, according to Captain Dowdy from Texas Parks and Wildlife.”
I have heard many things in relation to sharks and shark attacks over the years but never any agency able to capture, handle and “harness” a shark in open water to “move it toward the sea”.
I reached out to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) officials, sending them a link to the story and asked if they could confirm or deny any such actions.
“I’m not sure where this article got that information from as we neither “harnessed” the shark nor were we able to identify the type of shark it was. I really don’t know where the “harness” comment came from,” said Meggie Berger,Public Information Officer for TPWD’s law enforcement division.
Besides the “harnessing” story, various outlets have reported TPWD have confirmed the attacking shark was a bull shark.
“My best guess on the identity of the shark is that one of our game wardens participated in a live interview on Friday alongside a shark expert. That shark expert, who is not affiliated with TPWD, identified the shark. We are unable to confirm if what he said is accurate or not.”
On July 4, 2024, several individuals were reportedly injured by a shark off the southern coast of Texas at South Padre Island according to a report from ABC News.
Here’s what we know about this shark attack.
*Four separate incidents involving a single shark were reported according to the ABC report.
*The ABC report said Texas Game Warden Capt. Chris Dowdy confirmed that the incidents included two bites, a grazing, and an injury while fending off the shark. A press statement from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) said details at this time indicate that two people were bitten and two people “encountered” the shark but were not seriously injured. What does an encounter mean? Was it indeed a grazing or a strike from fending off the shark?
And while you’re at it please subscribe to that blog. It’s where the bulk of my shark content will be placed.
Also, I recorded a special mini-edition of Dark Outdoors the podcast to go deeper. It has some exclusive info and I dig into other rare multi-victim attacks on the Gulf Coast.
“LeeBeth” might sound like the name of a girl who lived down the street in your youth.
The name certainly has an endearing quality, with a twinge of southern charm.
And that makes sense considering she first came to public awareness off the coast of South Carolina.
Incase you haven’t figured it out, “LeeBeth” isn’t the girl next door, but a 2,600 pound great white shark caught, fitted with a satellite transmitter and released by Capt. Chip Michalove of Outcast Fishing Dec. 8, 2023.
LeeBeth photo courtesy Capt. Chip Michalove.
Her journey into Texas Gulf waters over the next two months became a media sensation and not only brought attention to her kind but an organization whose sole focus is to educate and inspire people about them.
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC) based out of Cape Cod has set out to “support scientific research, improve public safety, and educate the community to inspire white shark conservation.”
“LeeBeth” made thousands aware of the group’s app, “Sharktivity”.
According to AWSC officials, the app was developed with input from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the Cape Cod National Seashore, and officials from Cape Cod and South Shore towns to raise awareness of the presence of white sharks off their coast.
The App sightings are fed by researchers, safety officials, and users that upload photos for confirmation. By enabling App users to report shark sightings and upload photos for confirmation, we are effectively crowd-sourcing critical data points on where sharks are spotted so as to reduce encounters and promote safety. Data from sharks with acoustic tags and Smart Position and Temperature Tags (SPOT) are also available on the App.
Public sightings submitted through Sharktivity will be verified by the New England Aquarium.
Additionally, through the AWSC and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), acoustic detection data for tagged white sharks off the coast of Massachusetts and a catalog of over 600 tagged and untagged individual Northwest Atlantic white sharks, identified by AWSC, can be explored through the White Shark Logbook.
AWSC also does educational outreach, special shark-centric eco tours and an important and often (in my opinion) missing factor in shark awareness-safety.
Let’s face it. Great whites sharks are the largest predatory fish on the planet and they do occasionally attack humans. Making people aware of them is important for both the sake of people and sharks.
For example, I had no idea there are purple flags that identify great white presence in an area.
“We love interacting with the public to raise awareness of these amazing creatures,” said AWSC research scientist Megan Winton.
“These are truly incredible animals and we want to help raise their conservation profile and to educate people about potential interactions.”
AWSC has been mostly involved on the East Coast but they are already helping the cause along the Gulf Coast where white shark sightings are on the rise.
This is proven by AWSC’s tagged sharks along with that of another research group called Ocearch.
“We still has much to learn about great whites and their movements and what we’re seeing in the Gulf of Mexico has been interesting to so many people, myself included. It makes us want to do more to raise awareness of these truly amazing animals,” Winton said.
The common blacktip shark is never listed in Internet and television lists of the most dangerous sharks.
Yet if you look at the raw numbers from the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), you will see they should be.
While blacktips were only positively identified in one unprovoked fatality they were responsible for 29 total attacks.
That puts only the great white, tiger and bull-the three species everyone recognizes as potentially dangerous above them. We wrote about this last year here but have some new insight.
The blacktip shark can easily be confused with other species. (Photo courtesy NOAA)
ISAF has a category for requiem and lamniforems-attacks linked to thosebranches but not to exact species and those are both higher than the blacktip. But when it comes to identified sharks biting people blacktips rank fourth.
Period.
This is not to implicate the blacktip as a creature to be feared. It is however to question some of the shark attacks identified as bull and to lesser extent spinner sharks (which have 16 attacks attribute to them.)
Spinner sharks are nearly identical to blacktips and bull sharks and big blacktips can appear similar especially in murky water.
The identification issue is noted by ISAF.
This list must be used with caution because attacks involving easily identified species, such as white, tiger, sandtiger, hammerhead and nurse sharks, nearly always identify the attacking species, while cases involving difficult to identify species, such as requiem sharks of the genus Carcharhinus, seldom correctly identify the attacker.
Blacktips are the most common large shark to be found in the Gulf of Mexico. They are highly abundant along many beaches and probably come into contact with people more than any other large shark.
The author in 1999 with a blacktip shark he was about to tag with Mote Marine biologist John Tyminski.
While the bull shark is common and sort of jacked up on testosterone, blacktips are even more abundant and frequently prey on schools of mullet, menhaden, pompano and other fish on the beachfront.
In my opinion some of the “bull shark” attacks on fishermen in particular are probably blacktips. Wade fishermen routinely carry belts with fish stringers and I have personally witnessed numerous blacktips hitting stringers. I have seen bulls circle anglers and have heard of one attacking a stringer but blacktips are far more often the culprit here.
Bulls have a bad reputation so they might be getting a little more blame on some of the attacks that do not involve fatalities and outright brutal attacks.
An interesting note from ISAF is that blacktips have been known to attack surfers in Florida.
Is it possible they are experiencing the same kind of phenomenon great whites do in seal-rich waters of the Pacific but instead of pinnipeds they relate it to the silhouette of sea turtles?
Blacktip sharks are amazing creatures that have the respect of anglers due to their incredible acrobatics when hooked. Most anglers catch-and-release them these days respecting their role in the ecosystem.
Perhaps with this knowledge they might respect them a little more-and be a little more cautious when toting around a stringer of speckled trout or pompano in the surf.
