12 ft+ 1,400lb #WhiteShark Betsy pinged this morning in the Gulf of Mexico! Location quality=OK. We will be keeping an eye on this and waiting for a confirmation ping.

Is Genie heading back to the Cape? Is Katherine making Georgia her home? Where’s Lydia? Looks like some sharks might be working their way back to the northeast.

Challenge – look to see if you can locate where your shark is.

Do you notice any patterns in the direction the sharks travel?

How far has your shark traveled since it was first tagged?

Which shark do you think has travelled the furthest since last June?

 

Teachers from around the country had fun with Rocky and QR codes!  Approximately 1000 teachers circulated through the Elementary Extravaganza this past Friday during the national NSTA conference in Boston. Teacher’s were very impressed with the project and the  kid’s work! Nice job Mrs. Hoyt’s 5th graders!

Resources for NSTA/Boston (2014) Elementary Extravaganza: Follow That Shark – Making a Splash With Steam

Thousands join Western Australia shark cull protest.

AU 7 news reports “Protestors continue to gather on the beaches surrounding Perth. An estimated 6,000 people gathered at Perth’s Cottesloe Beach on Saturday amid nationwide protests against Western Australia’s catch-and-kill shark policy. The protests came after the second shark killed under the policy was pulled from a baited drum line off Leighton Beach on Saturday morning. The shark – believed to be a 2-metre tiger shark – was placed further offshore. The policy allows for great white, tiger, and bull sharks larger than 3 metres to be killed, while smaller sharks are to be released. A 2.3m tiger shark was also caught on Saturday morning on baited drum lines off Scarborough Beach, and was released 1.4 kilometres offshore.

The protest action kicked off at 4:30am (AWST) when a 19-year-old woman locked herself to one of the two fisheries vessels being used to set and monitor baited hooks off the Perth coast. The woman had to be cut from the vessel by emergency services, and activists from the Marine Response Unit say the protest delayed the boat’s departure by two hours.

“Rights, rights, rights for great whites,” the crowd chanted.

AU 7News,http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/21207700/wa-shark-cull-thousands-gather-at-cottesloe-beach-as-catch-and-kill-protests-ramp-up/

The first was a 1m tiger shark caught off Cottesloe, which was released by Fisheries Department officers because it was below the 3m catch limit. The second shark, a 2.6m tiger shark, was caught about 11.30am was later returned to the sea. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian.

“Surf Life Saving WA has advised swimmers at Cottesloe to exercise caution after the second shark was released 1km from shore by Fisheries officers.

This afternoon, the Department of Fisheries issued a statement, saying undersize and non-target species sharks would be released further out to sea. It read: “The Department of Fisheries has advised that where practicable, it will release any non-targeted species that is still alive further out to sea, having due regard to not compromising the survival of the shark and of remaining within state waters.”

Fisheries officers pull up a shark from the baited hooks off a Perth beach. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian

Protesters including the “marine response unit” – a team of activists who say they are determined to stop the drum line operation – are now considering how they will respond. Greens MLC Lynn MacLaren said the dropping of drum lines off popular Perth beaches this morning “goes completely against what the community wants and will be met with continuing resistance”.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/two-sharks-caught-just-hours-after-baited-drumlines-are-set-off-metropolitan-perth/story-fnhocxo3-1226814775021

As I follow this story in disbelief I can’t help but wonder 2 things:

Wouldn’t this behavior discourage people from coming to the beaches? I certainly do not want to see sharks caught and shot.

Wouldn’t returning wounded, bleeding undersized sharks and other organisms back to the ocean attract unwanted predators?

News is pouring out of WA relating to the practice of culling:

Fisherman sets WA’s shark catch and kill drumlines

Activists have footage of stingrays hooked on drumlines

Pro-shark activists remove bail from South West drumlines

Barnett ministers bombarded with protest emails

Catch-and-kill fisherman earns $5705 a day

Activists confront fisherman, backtrack on drum line sabotage

WA Govt shark website now live