Andrew is a post-doctoral researcher in North Carolina focused on population and conservation genetics in hydrothermal vent communities.
Junior the Great White shark, before and (long) after being caught by Dr. Domeier's team. Image courtesy FijiSharkDiving.Blogspot.com
Several months ago, still photographs showing an injured great white shark surfaced. The shark in question was previously captured by a shark research team lead by Dr. Michael Domeier on the TV show “Shark Men” – and the capture of this shark didn’t go as planned. These still images were taken from a video, and in response to the ensuing controversy, Dr. Domeier’s team claimed that when the full video is viewed, you can see that the injury comes from another shark and not from capture injury. No clear sharkbite injuries are visible in the original still image.
I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the full video, which had been in the possession of NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries pending an investigation.
Here, for the first time available to the public, is the full video from which the above images were taken.
This is the entire video that NOAA sent me, I have not edited it in any way. The first 45 seconds show Junior completely uninjured before he was captured by Dr. Domeier’s research team. The rest, taken much later, shows the injury seen in the image above.
The latter part of the video also shows Junior with numerous injuries near the wound on his jaw. These injuries are clearly bites from other sharks, and were not visible in the previous still image.
Still from the full video. Arrow points to sharkbite injuries
Still from the full video. Left arrow points to clear sharkbite injury, right arrow points to originally seen jaw injury
Still from the full video. Left arrow points to clear sharkbite injuries, right arrow points to originally seen jaw injury.
The full video clearly shows that Junior’s injuries are caused by intraspecies conflict and not a direct result of the capture method. The concern that the tagging method seriously injured this shark is not supported by the evidence at hand.
Dr. Domeier’s team was able to attach a satellite tag to Junior during his original capture. Data from that tag shows that Junior is still swimming.
UPDATE: The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary has posted the video on their website along with some background information. This was done partially in response to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by myself and others.
Sean, who is blaming you for leaking the image? I thought I was very clear on that when I asked “Sean, did you get the pic from someone at TOPP and then leak the altered image? I am NOT accusing you, be clear. I am trying to rule you out. It’s been suggested you have motive due to your radical stance on the issue and grudge with Dr. Domeier. It’s a valid question and you do have ties at TOPP. Motive and possible opportunity. So can you help rule yourself out?
I did not accuse you of leaking the image. I was clear on that.
Now you’ve said you didn’t release the altered information and accomanying text. Ok. Help find out who did.
TOPP has not issued any statements at all that I’m aware of other than they can not get invloved as they have to stay neutral. It is their footage though.
Who says the footage was going to be released as a matter of course? No one I’d spoken with at TOPP or GFNMS. At least not up until about April 13th when I’d spoken to Maria, there was no mention of the video going out as a matter of course.
The vid grab was misleading and malicious as it deliberately showed a very small area of the animal. Why just that part rather than a full screen shot showing all the multiple injuries? That could only have been deliberate. All the video editing software I’m familiar with first shows the entire screen shot and the operator has to selectivley crop down to get that little a piece. It was particularly bad as it was accompanied by text implying that the injury was the result of the foul hooking. So, selectively manipulated image plus text placing blame out of context. Equals a malicious intent.
Meanwhile, Junior is still swimming around and it will be interesting to see if he’s back this fall and his condition when he arrives.
Greg Barron
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Wow.
A producer. Really. He knows me how? Which show or movie or play was it that I made something for? Who is he, I’ll call him and let him know you said hi. I don’t have a claim to fame and don’t care. Yup, I did make a couple bikes for the movie jackass 2. My total involvement in that film was telling your jackass buddy that I wasn’t gonna give him my bikes for free, he thought I should, getting payment, and sending him 2 bikes. Took about 15 minutes except for when I had to call back the next day because their credit card wasn’t good. But since you bring it up I’ve also made bikes for the New York City Ballet, The Norweigian National Opera, The Tour de France, All the worlds Disney Parks, All the Universal Studios parks, Busch Gardens, Sea World, Ringling Bros and other circuses. The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and other national and international museums. Lots and lots and lots of films other than JackAss2. Casinos, restaurants, bike lovers, history buffs, designers, decorators and artists. It’s a living.
This applies to the topic how?
Your work causes spasms of desire? Wow, do you actually read the stuff you write? What a delusional, megalomaniacal jackass. And yes, you are stupid apparently if you think people have spasms of desire for what you do. Spasms? Of desire. really? That’s really, really hysterically funny. Spasms.
It is my business, as much as it is yours and any other memember of the public concerned with the issue of misuse of our public resource. You don’t share the outrage that many of the people offended by the unethical acts regarding the situation have. Ok. Next are ya gonna stick out your tongue at me and say nanny nany boo boo.
Greg
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everyone gets what Greg is talking about Sean. You are apparently the only one who cant see what is wrong in releasing a cropped image of a shark when the WHOLE image clearly shows it was attacked by another shark. Who knows why that shark got attacked-thats speculation. but the image was released to imply that the mouth wound was directly caused by Mike Domeier.
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I’m smelling what you’re steppin in Ed. Wish I could do something more.
Greg
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Is that all you’ve got?
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See how people spin things around just to fit what they want to think….Sean, you should call your self a spin Dr. Get your fact straigh. You guys are not playing nice and getting way off topic. Greg…your bikes sound amazing.
But back on topic…
Sean does not seem to think the leaking of the images was unethical, or out of the ordinary. The images were cropped so that the “big picture” shark bites could not be seen and they were sent distributed with text that pointed a finger at Dr. Domeier. The images belonged to the Block lab at Stanford and they were also stamped with dates that could only have come from that lab; information no one else had. Now, can you see how the deliberate effort to mislead the public while discrediting Domeier can be considere unethical?
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Thanks Gillian. Just something I do.
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Hello
This thing has become a bit of a feeding frenzie. Just want to make a few quick comments.
1. Yes, we extracted blood from free swimming white sharks while working on a project with Akron university, Ohio. We were looking at leptin in white sharks. We extracted by way of a modified syringe on a tether, with a barbed needle and the other way was to guide the animals in and physically extract from right above the gills. This requires a high level of experience, especially on the part of the shark wrangler.
2. I have personally observed thousands of individual white sharks and while we do see some nasty bite wounds, its not common. A significant number carry scars but not gaping wounds as in the case of junior. I suspect its the same situation in all white shark abundant regions. As I have mentioned in a previous post, from my observations, these sharks try not to bite one another. It happens, however, there is usually a good reason behind the combat.
3. I thought I should mention that I have been communicating privately with Michael Domeier. We have discussed issues surrounding this debate and while I stick with my reservations concerning hooking white sharks, I have to say that Michael comes across as a serious researcher, trying to do good work. He enlightened me to a number of aspects I was not aware of.
Craig
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He sold me too Craig. Probably the same way he sold the body that issued him his permit. He knows he has a couple things that need improvement and is working to that end. I am looking forward to the solutions and the unprecedented data that will be gathered on the animals.
Greg
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Junior pinged in today. Use our Facebook page to continue getting Junior reports: link to facebook.com
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That’s a rather intellectually and morally bankrupt view of the world. You’d rather just sit back with your fiddle and watch Rome burn than even try to figure out what’s going on?
Pathetic. Lose the blinders kid and maybe you might just learn something. Does that scare you?
As for Timothy Treadwell, while there is no doubt that he was eccentric in the extreme, he also spend 13 years living among grizzlies in Alaska before his unfortunate death, during which time he made several important discoveries regarding Grizzly Bear behavior, and his NGO “Grizzly People” is one of the leading bear conservation groups in the US, with a tremendous track record of outreach and public education.
And no, nothing is sacred, nothing has ever been sacred, and as soon as you realize that your not some deity’s special little man, the better off we’ll all be.
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Ok, sine things are getting tense, here’s a moment of levity.
So, in Alaska. I’m told that in Gris country you’re supposed to wear little bells to announce to the bears that you’re there and so they won’t be surprised cause they hear you coming.
Well, the question posed is, how do you know you’re in Gris country?
The answer is, look for piles of poop with little bells in it.
And yah, Jorillo’s comment is a bit off but we all gotta realize that there’s plenty of folks out there with that tude. As I see it, all we can do is try and help that attitude to change as best we can with patience and outreach and education.
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Hey, self-proclaimed white shark expert…why don’t you stop your jealous sqabbling, quit pouting and collaborate your findings with Dr Domeier if you are truly a shark researcher? By the way, what credentials do you have to back-up or make such presumptuous assumptions on his tagging methods? You seem to keep attacking him for no good reason. If his methods were wrong, why would Nat’l Geographic show the world what he is doing to protect the species?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Sean, this is getting absurd. No one has claimed that “TOPP researchers ‘doctored’ or altered an image”. No one. That’s all coming from you. The term you’re looking for is ‘strawman‘.
Regardless, after 100 comments everything has been said and y’all’re repeating yourselves. Since Dr. Domeier was at the center of this controversy, it’s only fair he get the final word. This thread is closed.
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I suspect no one is even reading this anymore; it’s painful. For those that enjoy the pain here’s a junior update: link to facebook.com.
I would also like to ppoint out that I was a pioneer in the application of electronic tags for the study of mortality in fishes after catch-and-release. If you’re really interested you can scroll down to 2003 and see the paper: link to marinecsi.org. Since then there have been several similar studies. These studies (conducted on billfish,not sharks)demonstrated that post-release mortalities take place within days. Junior was captured and released 19 months ago and the newly released video was shot 7 months ago. As seen in our above Junior update…he’s still kickin.’ His first offshore migration (2009-2010) was perfectly normal. This year’s migration is very unusual but interesting, perhaps influenced by the attack he was subjected to in 2010? This attack did not happen while he was being captured in 2009, so suggestions that this was the case are silly.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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