Category: HammerHead Shark

Protected hammerhead shark pulled onshore in Florida

Kevin McMurray
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Updated 02/21/18 Video showing a protected hammerhead shark being pulled onshore in Florida has been shared on social media. The video filmed February 8 on Singer Island shows a group of fishermen with a large hammerhead shark. Leigh Cobb spotted the group from her boat and began filming the encounter. “I was screaming at them to get it back into the water because every second that shark is not in the water, that shark is dying,” Cobb told WPBF television. “You could see them trying to get the hook off…

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Sharks filmed off beaches in Panama City, Coco Beach and Gulf Shores

Kevin McMurray
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Several videos of sharks coming near the beaches in Panama City and Coco Beach, Fla., and Gulf Shores, Ala., have been shared on social media. The first report comes June 1 from Alicia Dufrene, who was on her balcony in Panama City when she spotted a hammerhead shark swimming in circles near shore.  She was able to film the 4- to 5-foot shark as it left the shallows, about 20 feet from the beach. Dufrene shared her video with the shark reporting app Dorsal, and said the shark “zig-zagged in…

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Second shark bite of 2017 for New Smyrna Beach

Kevin McMurray
2017-Shark_attack_bite_New_smyrna_beach_florida_Melanie_Lawson

The second shark bite of 2017 for New Smyrna Beach, Florida reported on April 4. Melanie Lawson was in four feet (1.2m) of water around 1 p.m. near the Esther Street Beachfront Park when she was hit hard on the side and knocked into the water. The 51-year-old woman from Georgia was bitten on her thigh by a five foot hammerhead shark. The shark had left bruises and part of its tooth in Lawsons leg, who was taken to a local hospital for treatment. She said she will go back…

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Video: Hammerhead shark investigates divers

Kevin McMurray
Christian_Torres_hammerhead_shark_florida

Video has been shared showing a hammerhead shark as it investigates divers off the coast of Florida. The video was posted to Facebook February 3 and features an extremely inquisitive shark. Leigh Cobb and Christian Torres were scuba diving with Calypso Dive Charters when the large great hammerhead came in for a closer look. At first the shark bumps into one diver’s brightly colored fins. It may have been curious about the highly reflective orange fin gliding through the water. However, after the diver’s fin brushed it away, the shark…

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Fisherman Charged after Punching a Hammerhead Shark?

Kevin McMurray

A fisherman has been charged with a misdemeanor after allegedly landing and punching a hammerhead shark in Florida. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officer Nicole Basford was patrolling Saint Andrews State Park (SASP) in Panama City October 24, when she was contacted by a concerned citizen. The citizen, Robert Petty, told her “there was a guy who had caught a great hammerhead over at the SASP pier and that he had punched the shark on the gills, brought it ashore, took pictures of a boy on top of…

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Shark Research Videos from Global Fin Print

Kevin McMurray

Global Fin Print is a research initiative designed to acquire international data on the number of sharks and rays across the globe. Teams in the western Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, the Coral Triangle and the Pacific Ocean use baited remote underwater video (BRUV) to conduct surveys on the numbers of sharks and rays. According to their website, the initiative is “the largest survey of the world’s reef-associated sharks and rays that has ever been attempted. The analysis of these data will tell us what features of a reef influence the…

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Have Hammerhead Sharks Been Killed by Fisherman?

Kevin McMurray

Have Hammerhead sharks been killed by fisherman? Three adult females and one male hammerhead shark have washed ashore this week in Sarasota County, Florida.  The species is protected in Florida but, unfortunately, fishing gear was attached to one adult female hammerhead’s body. Attached fishing gear gives rise to one theory of how the sharks might have died, but is there another? Hammerhead sharks suffer from delayed mortality.  This means sharks cannot handle the stress of being caught. The circumstances of the four hammerhead shark deaths is complicated because hot, summer…

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