Sharks

Just who do those deadly looking fins slicing the waters off Huntington Beach belong to? Rumors of great white shark sightings along the Southern California coast in recent weeks are the buzz of the beach, leaving a few surfers spooked. Tom Larkin is convinced that a shark jolted his surfboard and left what looks like a bite mark on the back end while he waited for a wave in the waters near Bolsa Chica State Beach earlier this month.

A major pro surfing competition begins today at Lower Trestles near San Clemente, just four days after a fatal shark attack occurred 30 miles down the coast. But for many in the field of 192, there will be too much at stake in the Trestles lineup to be concerned about what lurks below. The 6.0 Lowers Pro, sponsored by Nike and running through Saturday, is an $80,000 Assn.

Vikas Chinnan stood over a tank at the world's largest aquarium, peering down at the world's largest fish species. He was wondering what it would be like to jump in and frolic beside the whale sharks. The creature approached, eerily quiet. It was longer than a Ford Expedition, impossibly elegant as it banked into a turn at the tank's edge, flexing its gray, massive, mottled form into a parabola of living flesh.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to be known as the greenest governor in America. But his eco-record this year was at best "mixed," according to report cards from the Natural Resources Defense Council and other major environmental groups.

An abalone diver was being treated for severe cuts to his head, torso and left arm after using a chisel to fend off a 10-foot shark. A shark expert said the animal, believed to be a great white, probably mistook the diver for a seal. A witness said the shark grabbed Eric Nerhus, 41, by the head, crushing his face mask and breaking his nose, before coming back for a second bite that engulfed his head and torso. Nerhus said he clubbed at the shark's head and eyes with an abalone chisel.

The church founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon will pay $500,000 to restore damaged habitat -- and avoid prosecution -- in the case of a pastor who poached hundreds of baby sharks from San Francisco Bay, federal prosecutors said Monday. The Unification Church's payment -- part of a "non-prosecution agreement" with the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco -- will go toward a $1.5-million fund to undo the environmental damage inflicted by the pastor's bizarre scheme.

A woman snorkeling off Maui was bitten by a shark Monday, about an hour after a nearby beach was closed because of a shark sighting. The woman, believed to be in her 60s, was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center. The injuries were to her foot and calf and were not life-threatening, said Maui County spokeswoman Mahina Martin. Authorities did not identify the woman. The attack occurred off Keawakapu Beach in Kihei. It was reported by a bystander. The size and type of shark was not known.

Female sharks can fertilize their own eggs and give birth without sperm from males, according to a study published Wednesday in the British journal Biology Letters. The joint Northern Ireland-U.S. research analyzed the DNA of a shark born in 2001 at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. Analysis of the baby shark's DNA found no trace of any chromosomal contribution from a male. Shark experts said this was the first confirmed case in a shark of parthenogenesis, or "virgin birth."

Losing one whale shark may have seemed a misfortune. But when another of the rare fish at the Georgia Aquarium died Wednesday, there was talk of carelessness: It was, in short, a public relations crisis. Norton, a 23-foot juvenile whale shark and one of the stars of Atlanta's super-sized aquarium, was euthanized after he had slowly spiraled to the bottom of his tank.

A surfer was attacked Tuesday morning off Monterey by what initially was described as a 20-foot great white shark. Hours later, a younger, much smaller white shark was put on display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in an ongoing attempt "to change public attitudes and promote greater protection for these magnificent and much-maligned ocean predators." The irony was not lost on those at the aquarium. They knew their timing was poor and presumed the attack would be sensationalized.