Humpback whales and great white sharks are surging in numbers in the waters around New York City this summer, in a wildlife bonanza that is delighting naturalists, environmentalists and fishermen – if not necessarily bathers.Off New York and New Jersey, some of the largest creatures in the ocean are being spotted in greater abundance than has been the case for decades. Paul Sieswerda, head of the Gotham Whale[1] volunteer marine wildlife tracking group, believes the increasing abundance of whales around the Big Apple is largely prompted by cleaner waters that have encouraged huge rises in the populations of fish which the whales eat. Sieswerda takes boat tours to locations where giant humpback whales can be seen feeding – with the iconic Manhattan skyline in the background.“I would say it’s only about four miles from the Statue of Liberty,” he told the Guardian.Gotham Whale counted 29 whales, all humpbacks, in New…

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. WEST END, Grand Bahama, has been ranked among the top 10 most shark-infested beaches in the world. There have been two fatal shark encounters in the area – the most recent last month - at Tiger Beach, which is a renowned location 20 miles northwest of West End. According to TheRichest.com, Umhlanga Rocks, South Africa, is ranked number one in the world, with West End coming in second. Grand Bahama has several shark diving sites, but Tiger Beach is perhaps the most popular. Bahamian and US dive operators conduct group dive expeditions there. There are a high concentration of sharks, from tiger sharks, hammerheads, blacktips and bull sharks. Tiger Beach has been described as a “veritable condo association of tiger sharks that scares away even the most experienced professional divers”. The International Shark Attack File (ISAF) Report for 2014 indicates that of the…

UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO (KATSUFUMI SATO)/UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII (CARL MEYER) Scientists love to research sharks, probably because they're the badasses of the sea. But despite decades of analysis, some basic behaviors of Earth's most infamous predator remain a mystery. How do sharks move when pursuing prey? Do they avoid other shark species? So a team of biologists from the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and the University of Tokyo's Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute decided to try an approach that's popular with extreme athletes: strap on a camera and see what happens. Scalloped hammerheads and a sandbar shark caught by a fin-cam near Oahu. With the help of Japanese data-logging company Little Leonardo, the researchers built a device that captures video and movement information (with a triaxial accelerometer-magnetometer like a flight-data recorder) but is small enough that it won't interfere with a shark on the move. They secure the camera to…