The grey bamboo shark lives in the Indo-West Pacific Ocean. Dr. Vera Schluessel in Bonn Germany has been researching its intelligence and has made some very interesting discoveries. The shark, Chiloscyllium griseum, grows to a length of approximately 2 feet. A carpet shark often has a pattern reminiscent of an ornate carpet and feeds along the bottom of the seabed. Dr. Schluessel’s PhD student tested young sharks to gauge how long they could remember skills taught in cognition experiments. The first experiments worked with shapes. The sharks’ tank had images projected onto one of the walls. They were trained to identify the triangle by touching it with their nose, this resulted in a piece of food (reward) being provided. Half of the sharks were taught to identify a triangle, and half a square. The next test used circles with points cut out to imply the shape of a triangle or…

730km north of Sydney, in Shelly Beach, a Japanese man was killed by what witnesses describe as a huge shark. Despite surfer’s assistance in bringing him ashore, the man died. He had lost both legs and therefore a lot a blood. A reported increase in shark activity in Australia is concerning. Often, swimmers are evacuated from beaches when there is suspicion of a shark in the area. Beaches have recently been closed since an attack 30km north of this one. That attack was survived by Jabez Reitman, who reported a shark 7-10 feet in length. Despite a shark attack death in September of last year and a series of attacks in Western Australia, the government did not go through with its plan for a shark cull last year. A 13-week trial in early 2014 with baited drum lines along seven beaches killed more than 170 sharks. None were great whites,…

There is no doubt that being attacked by a shark is incredibly frightening and often deadly. The fear turns into anger as the public demands that something “be done” and officials somehow decide that going on a shark killing spree is the answer. It will get rid of a bunch of sharks and people will feel avenged, right? Well, maybe that’s true, but it doesn’t really do anyone… or any sharks… any good at all. A marine biologist, Carl Meyer, in Hawaii has been debunking shark myths for many years. He works at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology Shark Research Group and as an expert, he says that all of that killing is unnecessary. Meyer says that there is no evidence that sharks return to hunt at a beach after they’ve attacked there once. Meyer has used tracking equipment and cameras to record the shark activity around the islands…