shark week

In honor of the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week", check out these shark cams. National Aquarium Reef Shark Cam: Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream SHARK FIN CAM: Video taken from a camera strapped to the dorsal fin of a shark: Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream If you have not yet tuned in to Discovery Channel, there are still a few days left of shark week!
There is a lot of debate in the shark biology community about the ever popular Discovery Channel yearly event "Shark Week." On the one hand, it's an intense, interesting week of programming which draws a lot of viewers and attention to the animals that shark biologists hold near and dear to their hearts, the impressive Elasmobranchs themselves. But many biologists argue that the portrayal of sharks by the Discovery Channel is wrong - that they jazz up the death, blood and gore to produce what is nicknamed "Shark Porn" : Creative activity (writing or pictures or films) of no literary or…
I'm sitting in the keynote speaker session listening to Nigel Martin, host of Prehistoric Park, Penguin Safari, Shark Week and other Discovery/Animal Planet shows, discuss the parallels between his job and that of zoo and aquarium employees. He offered a number of examples including figuratively transporting people to places and introducing them to animals they could never have met otherwise. Without knowing these animals, viewers and visitors won't support conservation efforts, so the logic goes. Listening to him speak, I could not help but also notice contrasts between his work and that of…