The Tennessee Aquarium is unveiling a brand new exhibit this Sunday… the Peter Gimbel shark cage!

Peter Gimbel custom designed this cage to film great white sharks. The cage was used while filming the first-ever underwater documentary about sharks, “Blue Water, White Death”. The bars are still bent where a great white attacked the cage.

Aquarium visitors will be able to go into the cage and have their pictures taken with an image of a great white shark in the background.

I suggest wearing your swimsuit and dousing yourself in water before entering the cage for a more authentic picture.

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The July, 2008 episode of Shark Conspiracies is ready for your skeptical little ears.

This episode takes us from Florida to Fiji, to North Carolina and Mexico, and from the beaches of Brazil to a coroner’s table in San Diego, focusing on the reporting practices and tactics of the International Shark Attack File. It also features an interview with surfer Mark Healey, who talks about his encounter with a Hawaiian tiger shark.

Have a listen at sharkconspiracies.net.

Folks are now allowed to swim or dive with whale sharks and thousands of other fish as part of a new program at the world’s largest fish tank at the Georgia Aquarium. Swimming with the “gentle giants” will set you back $190 per person or $290 per person to dive.

There will only be a maximum of six swimmers and six divers a day. Each will be allowed in the water for 30 minutes. The program is open to anyone 12 years old and older, but those under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. And divers must be certified. Videos of swim/dives are available for participants for $50.

Already, 1,500 people have signed on through 2008 and for the next three months it’s almost completely booked.

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The Georgia Aquarium is offering a guided eco-tour to Mexico that will allow visitors to swim with whale sharks in the wild.

The “whale shark experience” trip will have participants diving with the whale sharks at the aquarium one day and swimming with them in sunny Mexico the next.

The five-day trip, which includes five-star accommodations at hotels like the Ritz-Carlton, costs $3,170.

This year’s trip will start out small — just 10 people — but more will be invited next year if it proves successful.

The trip, planned for Aug. 7-12, begins with a behind-the-scenes tour of the aquarium. The spaces will be filled on a first-come basis.

You won’t find me waiting in that line…

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Scientists conducting a survey of New Zealand’s Antarctic waters found some pretty big stuff down there, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish!

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Steve Kessel, who’s spent the past three years working at the world-renowned Shark Lab, in the Bahamas, thinks sharks be catching on to human techniques for tagging them.

Traditional methods of tagging sharks have involved putting bait on a long line, then implanting a transmitter once it bites. But according to Steve, the sharks seem to be getting smarter aren’t fooled by the bait anymore.

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Mike Rutzen, aka the Sharkman, demonstrates how he can induce “tonic immobility” in sharks. It’s a natural state of paralysis created by turning them on their heads and massaging their snouts, close to the eyes.

The effects last for around 15 minutes. Better get outta there quick…

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Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… shark attacks are on the up.

According to experts, the number of worldwide shark attacks rose in 2007. However only one attack - in the South Pacific - was fatal.

The number of shark attacks increased from 63 in 2006 to 71 in 2007, continuing a gradual upswing during the past four years, said George Burgess, director of the university’s International Shark Attack File.

About half the world’s attacks typically occur in U.S. but the number was greater last year at 50 US attacks.

Australia was No2, with 12 attacks.

Florida’s Volusia County continued its dubious distinction as the world’s shark bite capital with 17 attacks, its highest yearly total since 2002.

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With 117 unconfirmed shark sightings in New Zealand since Thursday, one of the country’s only shark experts listed in the Yellow Pages was asked by the mayor to assess the dangers and offer some solutions…

First, he suggests closing down all the beaches. Smart man. Then he offers some excellent advice on what to do if you actually are attacked by a shark.

Well, the first thing to do is to try to ascertain what sort of shark is attacking you. A great white will attack you in a different way than, say, a mako or even a bronze whaler, even a silver whaler for that matter, so it’s important to recognise the signature moves of these ocean predators.

Great whites tend to come at you from below and at pace, and they will attempt to consume you in four mouthfuls or less. It would be like us eating a mixed kebab with only three or four bites.

The mako, on the other hand, tends to be more of a nibbler, starting with the loose bits like legs or testicles.

It would be like eating a kebab with lots of small bites and having absolutely no regard for the structural integrity of the kebab itself. Obviously this is effective but it is also very messy, as chilli sauce and yoghurt are likely to go everywhere.

Once you are fairly sure what sort of shark is attacking you, you will want to take some action to prevent the attack continuing.

Prevention is obviously the best cure, and the best way to avoid most shark attacks is to stay out of the water entirely….

Let’s assume that you actually want to go in the water this summer. I would suggest swimming in a shark cage. These can be expensive to buy, so you might want to lease one.

The latest American research suggests that if you cover your torso in tinfoil much like a kebab it can prevent many sharks taking a second bite, as the foil will irritate the many rows of sensitive teeth. Those large disposable oven trays will also do the trick but there is always the chance that your body will now take on the properties of a giant fishing lure, inviting the initial attack.

Let’s assume you are in the water and for some reason you are not wrapped in tinfoil or have disposable oven trays strapped to your torso, and you are attacked by a great white - what do you do?

If you are expecting me to say don’t panic, you are wrong because that’s exactly what you should do as this is a very serious situation. You must try to stick your fingers into the fifth gill down, on the right side of the shark (that’s your right, not the shark’s). This starboard gill is the “master” gill that controls all the other gills. Damage this and the rest will shut down and the shark will drown in brine.

Remember this approach won’t work for makos or bronze whalers, as they are mammals and are actually more closely related to seals and dolphins than great whites - not a lot of people know that….

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