A recent paper by Lopez-Martinez et al reports the frequent co-occurrence of whale sharks with cannonball jellyfish (Stomolophus meleagris) in the Gulf of California.
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The megamouth is one of the rarest sharks in the world. Surprisingly for an animal that can reach 7 meters in length, it was described only in 1983, and only ~100 specimens have been found.
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Images of a malevolent monster haunt our aquatic imagination and abyssal unconscious! Perpetuated by popular culture, this image transcends the real; transforming a 100-million-year-old fish into the contemporary emotionally, socially, and politically charged hyper-real monster we know as the Great White shark.
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The Shark Research Institute/Explorer’s Club Djibouti whale shark research expedition departs this week!
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Shark finning continues seemingly unabated, despite some gains in protection for threatened shark species. The scope of the trade is staggering, more than 70 million fins per year are thought to move globally. What species are targeted for these fins?
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Eat a shark and you won’t get cancer, or the cancer you have will be cured. Many sharks are killed for the supposed curative powers of their cartilage, among other health claims. Sharks do, of course, get cancer, and numerous examples of shark cancer have been documented.
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Multiple insults to shark populations - fisheries, habitat degradation, the fin trade, climate change - are believed to be interacting to cause steep declines in the numbers of many species. It is difficult, however, to accurately estimate the population size of wide-ranging pelagic sharks.
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Shark meat consumption is bad for sharks of course, millions of sharks are killed each year for the shark meat and fin trade, but it’s also bad for people. Shark meat has been shown to carry levels of toxic metals such as mercury that far exceed what is allowable for human consumption.
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This documentary reaches into the lives of 5 men and how they were touched by a shark as they also describe the nature of a shark and the issues the shark faces in today's environment.
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The current issue of Ocean Geographic magazine has an article on the CITES CoP17 conference written by SRI Director of Science & Research Dr. Jennifer Schmidt.
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We hear so much bad news about sharks – populations of many species have declined to historic lows, finning occurs in numerous countries, bycatch continues to threaten shark species, shark fishing tournaments are conducted for sport here in the U.S. When a bit of good news about sharks comes along it seems natural to be encouraged that perhaps the situation is turning around.
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We are heartbroken to report the death of SRI Advisory Board member Rob Stewart.
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Famed wildlife photographer Amos Nachoum donated a print of this award-winning image to the Shark Research Institute's Winter Auction to raise funds for shark conservation.
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A short post today to tell you about the long residency of an individual whale shark at the Ningaloo Reef feeding aggregation in Western Australia; Stumpy
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For many years it was believed that there was a single species of manta ray distributed globally in the oceans, Manta birostris, the Giant manta ray.
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Read the full statement translated from the original Japanese.
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Well, CITES is over....all shark and ray proposals were ratified without challenge.
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In a packed conference room yesterday, the CITES membership voted to continue to protect the African elephant and limit future trade in elephant ivory, but voting failed to move all remaining elephant populations to CITES Appendix I.
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Live from CITES CoP17, 10-3-16 CITES voted today on proposals to list silky sharks, all three species of thresher sharks and all nine species of mobula rays on Appendix II.
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This morning saw a highly contentious nearly two hour discussion of CITES Proposal #19, to move African grey parrots from the limited trade protection of Appendix II, to the full trade ban of Appendix I.
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