When the writers of the movie “Shark Attack 3: Megalodon” decided they needed a book on sharks to set the stage for their newest b-flick, they didn’t make up a phoney professor and write the necessary lines on their own. Instead, they used a very real book written by a very real Manhattan based marine conservationists – and slipped in fake pages to make it sound as though the writer of this 1991 bestseller believes that C. megalodon is still around. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t sit well with shark expert Richard Ellis who disliked seeing an adulterated version of his book “Great White Shark” turning up on the big screen. Ellis is now suing the film’s distributor Lions Gate Entertainment, asking for a halt to the film’s distribution along with $150,000 in damages.

Who is C. megalodon?
Megalodon was an enormous shark that died out long ago. The oldest known remains of this species are about 18 million years of age and the shark is believed to have gone extinct in the Pleistocene epoch, probably about 1.5 million years ago. It is the largest carnivorous fish known to science. The maximum size of this prehistoric shark is a controversial subject, but most experts agree that it could reach a length of at least 18 metres (59 feet) and weigh at least 70 metric tons.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Order: Lamniformes
Family: Disputed; either Lamnidae or Otodontidae
Genus: Disputed; either Carcharocles or Carcharodon
Species: C. megalodon

American fishing captain Linda Greenlaw, best known for her depiction in the book “The Perfect Storm” and the film on which it was based, has been convicted of illegally entering and fishing in Canadian waters.

Greenlaw and her boat the Sea Hawk was spotted by a Canadian fisheries patrol plane last September, with fishing lines running five miles (roughly eight kilometres) into Canadian waters.

According to Greenlaw, she had mistakenly entered Canadian waters without realising it while searching for swordfish.

“This line, which is drawn on a piece of paper, you can’t see it when you’re fishing and working on deck,” Greenlaw said outside the provincial court of St. John’s. “There’s no fence. There’s no blinking lights.”

Judge Joe Woodrow said he believed that Greenlaw had made an honest mistake, but that it was a mistake a reasonable skipper would not have made, because she should have checked her GPS equipment. Greenlaw was therefore convicted on counts of illegally entering Canadian waters and illegally fishing there.

The Crown wants Greenlaw to be fined $50,000, while her lawyer is recommending half of that amount.

Greenlaw provided key information about a fatal 1991 storm in the Atlantic for the book “The Perfect Storm” by journalist Sebastian Junger. When the book was turned into a movie starring George Cloney and Mark Wahlberg, Greenlaw was portrayed by actor Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.