great white shark – Page 3 – Southern Fried Science

The Snicker’s great white commerical: Harmless humor or dangerous anti-shark stereotypes?

January 21, 2011January 21, 2011 David Shiffman 17 Comments

Last year, I was extremely critical of a Nicorette commercial that featured a man so distracted by thoughts of cigarettes that he didn’t realize a shark was chewing on his arm. This led to a spirited discussion about where sharks fit in to our popular culture, and resulted in more than a few people calling me overly sensitive. One person called me a member of the “apocalyptic legion of killjoys who battle against fun and innocent symbolism all over the world” (one of my standard comebacks is “I’ve been called worse” but I’m not sure if that’s true in this case).

Snickers recently unveiled a new commercial featuring sharks:

Shark Science Monday: Barry Bruce discusses great white shark behavior

January 17, 2011January 17, 2011 David Shiffman

Science

In this week’s edition of Shark Science Monday, Barry Bruce of CSIRO (the Australian government science agency) discusses great white shark behavior. If you have a question for Barry, please post it as a comment below and I’ll make sure that he gets it.

Great Migrations of the Ocean

November 3, 2010 David Shiffman 3 Comments

Popular Culture, Science

National Geographic’s Great Migrations, a seven part series which premieres November 7th, calls itself a collection of “the most moving stories on Earth”. It focuses on some amazing animals from around the world and the incredible journeys they take to survive. This series was a massive undertaking, with the National Geographic crew spending 2 years traveling more than 420,000 miles over 20 countries. The end result is visually spectacular, full of fascinating science and rich in never-before-told stories of animal behavior. The series itself is an great educational resource, and the website has plenty to offer teachers (particularly the Science page and the Teacher Resources page).

While many of the best-known migrations involve land animals or birds, some marine migrations are also pretty darn great.

Sharks are not to blame for increases in California Sea Otter deaths

September 17, 2010September 17, 2010 David Shiffman

Science

Deaths among California’s sea otter populations have been increasing in the last few years. The last few years have set records for dead otters washing ashore on beaches throughout central California. The real reason for this was recently discovered (and covered earlier today by Andrew here), but I wanted to stress what was NOT responsible. … Read More “Sharks are not to blame for increases in California Sea Otter deaths” »

Expedition Great White: A response from Dr. Michael Domeier

June 14, 2010November 16, 2011 David Shiffman 9 Comments

Conservation, Popular Culture, Science

Last week, I wrote about National Geographic’s Expedition Great White. In that post, I mentioned that the practice of removing great white sharks from the water for research was controversial, and that I would ask the lead scientist in the show about it. Here are answers to my questions from Dr. Michael Domeier and his colleague Nicole Lucas. They also wanted me to point out that their website has an FAQ page about this technique, which can be found here.

Check out “Expedition Great White” on the National Geographic Channel!

June 4, 2010November 16, 2011 David Shiffman 6 Comments

Conservation, Popular Culture, Science

“How do you study one of the world’s fiercest predators in the wild?” the cover of the “Expedition Great White” DVD screener that National Geographic sent me asked. I was delighted to discover that my sarcastic answer of “very carefully” is exactly what the back cover of the DVD case read! I knew I was going to like this show from that point on, and I was right.