This Black Tip shark was snapped leaping from the waves perilously close to care-free surfers in Florida earlier this month.

Kem McNair, 55, a surfer and amateur photographer who took the pictures on New Smyrna Beach, said: “I had just come in from surfing, grabbed my camera and walked to the water line with my friend Skipper Eppelin.

“I saw something in the background and I thought, ‘What was that?’ “I looked at the display on my camera and there it was - a spinner shark.

“This whole event happened in half a second - it was so quick.”

The six foot shark leapt from the waves, twisted and disappeared next to two surfers, who remained unaware. New Smyrna Beach is known as the shark bite capital of the world - twelve people have been bitten by sharks there this year.

“These sharks are very, very common in these waters but I have never captured pictures like these,” said Mr McNair, who has been taking photographs at the beach for the past 40 years.

“We see them all the time everyday if you ride a wave and the water is clear you may see two or three sharks in the length of one ride, and we see them jump numerous times a day.

“The surfers never saw the shark at all.”

source: Telegraph.co.uk

Monster crab with claws the size of a man’s hand captured off the British coast

It lurked in the wreck of an old battleship 160ft below the surface – a true monster of the deep.Diver Paul Worsley could hardly believe the size of the giant crab he found in Lyme Bay, off the Dorset coast. Careful to avoid its fearsome claws, he managed to get it into a bag and raise it to the surface.

For his efforts, he can congratulate himself on capturing what experts believe is the biggest edible crab ever landed. It weighed 17lb and had a shell width of 12in while each of its massive claws was as big as a man’s hand.The previous largest edible crab on record is in the collection of the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. Its carapace was 11in wide.

Mr Worsley, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, said: ‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.’

Andy Horton founder of the British Marine Life Study Society, said: ‘If anyone has found a bigger one could they let us know?’Unfortunately, Mr Worsley’s crab will not be displayed in any museum. A friend has eaten it.

source: dailymail.co.uk.

An outbreak of blue-green algae is seen on the coastline of Qingdao, the host city for sailing events at the 2008 Olympic Games, in eastern China’s Shandong province Tuesday June 24, 2008. The Qingdao government has organized 400 boats and 3000 people to help remove the algae after Olympic organizers ordered a cleanup. Experts say the algae is a result of climate change, and recent heavy rains in southern China, according to the Xinhua news agency.

See more pictures here….

A stunning picture of stingray migration. Anyone know more about it? And I thought I’ve seen it all on Planet Earth DVD’s.

After setting the mood with lighting and finessing, the Georgia Aquarium’s attempts to coax rare sea dragons to mate have finally worked — just in time for Father’s Day. The pregnant male weedy sea dragon is now only the third of its kind in the United States to successfully become pregnant outside of its natural habitat.

The sea dragon, found in nature only in the waters off southern Australia, became pregnant Tuesday when a female transferred her eggs onto his tail. Dennis Christen, assistant manager of animal care and husbandry, said that male sea horses, sea dragons and pipe fish all carry the eggs instead of the female.

Christen said that recently the staff took steps to try to assist in mating. They altered the mood by adjusting the lighting and thinning the plants, Christen said.

But so much is unknown about the creatures, including their mating routines, that a lot about the pregnancy remains a mystery, Christen said.

When the animals finally do mate, the sea dragons arch their tails and swim side by side until they latch onto each other before swimming vertically together during their version of a “date.”

“When they’re courting they do a really ritualistic dance,” he said.

What little is known about that dance could hold a key to problems with breeding the animals in small tanks similar to those at the aquarium.

“Some people think that problems are if the tank isn’t deep enough they don’t have enough time to swim vertically,” Christen said.

Of the 70 small pink eggs wrapped around the male’s tail, nobody knows how many are viable and could actually hatch. Christen said that they are relying on other experiences with breeding, where about 60 percent of the eggs survived, to estimate how things may go. At the Georgia Aquarium, children and teachers were abuzz about the pregnant dragon and circled around the tank trying to pick it out.

“Which one is the mommy?” one little boy shouted before a guide corrected him and said the male was carrying the eggs.

When the eggs hatch, Christen said they will essentially be miniature versions of the adults. And unlike many animals the weedy sea dragons will not spend their first days, weeks and months shadowing their parents to learn.

“They basically hatch and are on their own,” he said. “There’s no real parental training.”

The eggs are expected to hatch in four to six weeks

Read More…