I found a new search engine devoted exclusively to the shark and ray family, Elasmosearch.com. I experimented with it and was quite pleased with the results–I’ll leave you to guess what species I typed in.

I’ll let the founder, Ryan Kempster, a shark biologist, introduce his site,  below: About ElasmoSearch

Welcome to ElasmoSearch, my name is Ryan Kempster, I am a shark biologist and the creator of the ElasmoSearch website. ElasmoSearch is a sister website of Support Our Sharks. The goal of ElasmoSearch is to provide a homepage search engine for shark and ray enthusiasts, giving easy access to the most relevant material current available online. I have always had a passion for protecting sharks, and so I am always looking for new ways to introduce people to sharks to inspire them and encourage more learning.

To do this I have embarked on a career in research to better understand sharks and communicate my knowledge to the general public in the hope that I can then inspire people to follow in my passion for protecting these amazing animals.  ElasmoSearch is an essential tool for anyone interested in sharks and for anyone interested in the conservation of species and the protection of the environment.

Here it is: http://www.elasmosearch.com/

Interview with Mark Thorpe, founder of iDive Sharks and, more recently,  the Global Shark Initiative:

I have been increasingly aware of the issues facing shark populations, insofar that their numbers are in free fall, decimated in some cases by in excess of 90% of their population levels in as little as 30 years.

The Global Shark Initiative was a concept I put together after the fiasco at the recent CITIES  convention which saw a perverse display of financial power games by certain Asian countries

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/3016606/founder_of_idive_sharks_and_the_global.html?cat=4

Check out this heartwarming story of two divers helping out a Nurse Shark which they found with a frisbee ring

around its neck.

http://scubadivergirls.com/blog/?p=3499

Porbeagle Shark

In the deep, clear waters of the Sargasso Sea just by the Bermuda Triangle, chunky porbeagle sharks are giving birth.

“In the fish world this is pretty exciting news,” marine biologist and shark expert Steve Campana said Thursday.

It’s exciting because until now researchers didn’t know where this smaller relative of the great white shark delivered its pups.

“We’ve been trying to find this out for 10 years,” Mr. Campana said.

See here for more: http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/9015086.html

MOOLOOLABA’s  UnderWater World is the focus of marine science scrutiny as staff celebrate the rare birth of a new baby.

He is one metre long, has fins and he is only the fourth of his kind to be born at the aquamarine centre.

Researchers around the world are celebrating the birth because he is a grey nurse shark, one of only five ever born in captivity, a species that may number a mere 500 in the wild.

See here for more: http://www.goldcoastmail.com.au/story/2009/09/27/grey-nurse-so-rare-so-vulnerable/

WASHINGTON – Nearly a dozen shark-attack victims — many of them badly scarred or missing limbs — pressed Congress on Wednesday to protect a sea creature they’d rather not run into again.

The group wants to strengthen laws protecting sharks from “finning,” in which fins are sliced from sharks for their meat, leaving the fish for dead. The growing market for fin meat, a popular soup delicacy in Asia, threatens many shark species around the world, they say.

“We bring pretty instant credibility,” said Chuck Anderson, a school athletic director from Summerdale, Ala., who spent 13 days in intensive care and lost most of his right arm after being attacked by a bull shark in 2000 while swimming off Gulf Shores, Ala. “I’ve yet to run into anyone who disagrees with us.”

See here for more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090715/ap_on_go_co/us_shark_victims_congress_4