Shark Babies Born in Bite

Quick-thinking teen thwarts New Zealand shark attack

(NEWSER) - A 14-year-old New Zealand girl managed to fight off an attacking 5-foot shark armed only with a boogie board. Lydia Ward was attacked after stepping on a "big, gray, slippery thing" in waist-high water off the southern city of Invercargill. The shark wrapped its jaws around her waist but let go after she whacked it with the board, she tells the New Zealand Herald. More»

(NEWSER) - Tiger sharks are known for eating anything—including metal junk, other sharks, and people—but the Long Beach Aquarium seems to have landed the world's choosiest one, the Los Angeles Times reports. The new arrival, one of very few tiger sharks in captivity in the US, regularly turns up its snout at restaurant grade steak, tuna, and lobster, causing headaches for staffers trying to choose from more than 30 menu items. More»

(NEWSER) - British aquarium managers are going to begin training sharks with rewards and even hugs after US scientists have discovered that certain breeds of the toothsome fish enjoy human cuddles, reports the Telegraph. "Zebra sharks will even roll over to have their tummies scratched or allow themselves to be lifted from the water without any kind of struggle," said a spokesman for Sea Life Centres. More»

Virginia aquarium blacktip got pregnant without need for shark sperm

(NEWSER) - A blacktip shark at a Virginia aquarium got pregnant despite not having been around a male of her kind for a decade, the Virginian-Pilot reports. Scientists have long suspected that sharks, like some smaller vertebrates, could reproduce asexually but this is only the second confirmed case. Tests showed the baby shark had genetic material purely from its mother. More»

But no deaths occurred in US: new report

(NEWSER) - Shark attack deaths saw a significant spike last year, reaching their highest number in almost 20 years. None of the deaths, however, occurred in the US, which has seen decreasing shark attack numbers in recent years. A new report tallies 75 shark attacks around the world in 2011, and notes that fatalities reached 16%. That's double the percentage of shark attack deaths in 2010; for the past decade, the fatalities have averaged less than 7%, LiveScience reports. More»