georgia aquarium | Southern Fried Science

3 sharks that were on twitter before being a shark on twitter was cool

Posted on January 3, 2014 by David Shiffman

Recent plans in Western Australia to place acoustic tags in sharks and have them tweet their location when they approach a beach have resulted in a sharknado of media coverage. The plan has been covered by internet technology news giant Mashable, Fox News, NPR news, Popular Science, and NBC news (which, with “sharks with frickin’ tweets,” has what I believe to be the best headline. That one also interviews me.) When a tagged shark approaches the beach, a tweet like this results:

I can understand why a project involving both sharks and twitter caught the media’s eye… and why about a billion of you e-mailed or tweeted the news to me. However, these aren’t the first sharks to be on twitter!

Ethical Debate: Captive whale sharks

Posted on March 19, 2010 by David Shiffman

WhySharksMatter beneath a whale shark

Following the deaths of two whale sharks in 2007, many animal rights activists harshly criticized the Georgia Aquarium for keeping these animals captive in the first place. I recently visited the Georgia Aquarium for blogger day, and the aquarium’s Chief Science Officer Dr. Bruce Carlson agreed to answer my questions about their whale sharks. I know that many of you have strong opinions about shark issues, but I wanted to provide the Georgia Aquarium’s side of the story.

Blogger Day at the Georgia Aquarium

Posted on February 18, 2010 by David Shiffman

I will be attending “blogger day” this Saturday at the Georgia Aquarium this Saturday. I’ve heard some good things about the aquarium and their “Planet Shark: Predator or Prey” exhibit, and I’m excited to finally check it out. The last time I was in Atlanta was literally one week before they opened.

I’ll have a detailed review of the exhibit online sometime next week. In the meantime, does anyone have any questions that they would like me to ask the staff at the Georgia Aquarium? Is there anything in particular you’d like me to report on? Will I see any of you there?

~WhySharksMatter