Sixty-Seven

Many animals that formerly lived on earth have modern analogs, animals living today that look and behave very like those ancient animals, though they might not be direct descendants. It’s as though the giant cats, bears, wolves, and sharks of the world recur again and again, slightly reconfigured each time. One ancient mega-tooth shark, Megalodon (mega for big, odon for tooth) has a small analog in the great white shark.

Great white sharks are big as predatory sharks get today, growing to 20-feet long, weighing up to 4,200 pounds (2.1 short tons). Some older records of much larger great whites are based on inferences of size and not direct measurements. Body shape and weight of these sharks help estimate the size of fossil Megalodon skeletons. Compared to Megalodon, they are in the second tier for size: Megalodon grew to 67 feet long, and a weight of 114 short tons.

A King Is Born

A comet sailing through the inner system make its closest approach to the sun and will be at its brightest at sunset tonight, but the glare of twilight may make it tricky to see.

Pan-Starrs will be 28 million miles (45 million kilometres) from the surface of the sun when it swings around the star today, and should be bright enough to see without the aid of telescopes or binoculars, weather permitting. But the comet is also appearing low on the western horizon at sunset so some planning is needed to spot the celestial wanderer with the naked eye tonight.

"Look too early and the sky will be too bright," said Rachel Stevenson, a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Look too late, the comet will be too low and obstructed by the horizon. This comet has a relatively small window."

Rottnest

Two years ago, a sport fisherman caught a pair of rare sharks off Rottnest Island in Western Australia. The duo, a male shark about 3.3 feet (1 meter) long and a pregnant female about 3.9 feet (1.2 m) long, looked different from the sharks that normally prowl the Australian waters. The female was carrying 22 pups.

The fishermen gave the sharks to ocean researchers at the University of Western Australia. After analyzing the sharks' DNA, the team concluded that the sharks were mandarin dogfish sharks, which are normally spotted only in the waters off Indonesia, Japan and New Zealand.

Extinction

Sharks risk being driven to extinction due to overfishing, with almost 100 million killed each year, scientists have warned.

Many species of shark need better protection to prevent their extinction within coming decades, researchers warned in advance of a global conference on the trade in threatened species.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) will consider greater protection of vulnerable sharks, including porbeagles, oceanic whitetip and three types of hammerhead to preserve their populations.

Sharks are caught for their fins for use in shark fin soup, a delicacy in Asia. The fins are cut off with the dead carcass being thrown back into the sea. Sharks grow slowly and take years to reproduce, which makes them vulnerable to overfishing.

The researchers estimated that global reported catches, unreported landings, discards and sharks caught and thrown back after their fins were cut off – a process known as finning – added up to 97 million fish caught in 2010.

Summit

DELEGATES from around the world have gathered in Thailand to work out a mechanism to restrict trade in wildlife and save endangered animals, including sharks, manta rays, polar bears, elephants and rhinos.

About 2,000 delegates from 178 member nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora are in Bangkok for the 16th CITES conference, held every three years.

The delegates are to consider dozens of proposals on increased or decreased trade protection for endangered species by listing them on Appendix I, which prohibits all traffic in a species, or Appendix II, which restricts trade to ensure it is sustainable.

Conservationists are calling on Australia to take a stand to protect several shark species threatened by the multi-million dollar shark fin trade to Asia, especially China.

Guilty

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The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) welcomes the guilty verdict and stiff sentence handed down to Leon Bekker in the Mossel Bay Magistrate’s Court last Friday afternoon, 1 February 2013.

Bekker, who caught, landed and disturbed a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) – a protected species on 11 March 2011 in the Mossel Bay area, was found guilty and fined R120 000 or months imprisonment, suspended for 5 years.

What makes this case so remarkable is the fact that this is the first great white shark case and conviction in any South African court as South Africa is also the first country to impose legislation in protecting Great White Sharks.

  

Mandarin

A rare shark couple found for the first time off the coast of Australia may force a rethink of the species' range.

Two years ago, a sport fisherman caught a pair of rare sharks off Rottnest Island in Western Australia. The duo, a male shark about 3.3 feet (1 meter) long and a pregnant female about 3.9 feet (1.2 m) long, looked different from the sharks that normally prowl the Australian waters. The female was carrying 22 pups.

The fishermen gave the sharks to ocean researchers at the University of Western Australia. After analyzing the sharks' DNA, the team concluded that the sharks were mandarin dogfish sharks, which are normally spotted only in the waters off Indonesia, Japan and New Zealand.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/rare-sharks-found-in-australian-waters-for-the-first-time-2013-3#ixzz2MKSaK2gI