By Michael Bear

In October of 2009, I began hearing reports of encounters between local San Diego divers and Sevengill sharks [Notorynchus cepedianus]. Having been diving locally since 2000, I thought this unusual, since this was the first I had heard of these encounters in nearly a decade. Between 2000 and 2006, almost no reports were documented. But in 2008, that all changed and they began appearing the dive lists, one here, two there, until it was obvious that something was happening.

See here for more: http://scubadivergirls.com/scuba-diving-2/the-amazing-sevengill-shark/

Note: the Scuba Diver Girls have been instrumental in providing much of the high quality video of Sevengill sharks for the Sevengill Shark Sightings website:

http://sevengillsharksightings.org

See under Sevengill Videos section

San Diego diver John Huber was able to video both a Sevengill shark (Notorynchus cepedianus) and a Tope or Soupfin  Shark (Galeorhinus galeus) the other day at La Jolla Cove.

The Sevengill shark is seen almost immediately in the video here and the Soupfin or Tope shark is seen at timestamp 0:15.

Continue reading on Examiner.com here: http://www.examiner.com/scuba-diving-in-san-diego/san-diego-diver-videos-a-sevengill-and-a-tope-shark-at-la-jolla-cove#ixzz1r8egV1KD

Researchers have discovered is that the killer whales off of New Zealand prefer to eat sharks, while those off the Pacific Northwest prefer salmon and those off of Antarctica prefer seals & penguins.

Project organizer Michael Bear is the Science Diving columnist for California Diver Magazine and an AAUS (American Academy of Underwater Sciences) Science Diver with 1000 cold-water dives in California. Bear says that sevengill sharks did not start appearing in the San Diego area until 2008, but that the population has since grown steadily. The Shark Observation Network is looking for citizen scientists and experienced divers to help them study sevengill sharks by contributing data, videos and photos to an online database.

See link below for more:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science/project.cfm?id=shark-observation-network

View more videos at: http://nbcsandiego.com.

Note: this and other recent sightings have been logged onto Sevengill Shark Sightings.org as well as the Shark Observation Network at: www.sharksonline.net