The government, no doubt panicking over the effects of recent shark attacks on tourism, is destroying the delicate ecological balance in the coastal regions of South Sinai, as well as hurting tourism, Sharm experts and divers have charged.

Some leading figures in the Sharm El-Sheikh’s diving community are now pointing the finger at the government, accusing them of going on a witch hunt, albeit for sharks, which is indiscriminate and involves more shark massacre than was ever publicly announced.

The divers have gone so far as to even launch their own Facebook group, complete with online petition, calling on the support of everyone in stopping authorities from engaging in shark genocide.

“They killed eight sharks in an area of 10 square kilometers,” director of the Aquamarine Diving And Water Sports Club, Dr. Amr Aboulfat’h, commented to Ahram Online. “Four were killed by the National Park Authorities, and four were killed by the National Institute for Oceanography and Fisheries (NIOF).”

Another source, who has requested to remain anonymous, has shed some additional light on the subject, saying that four of the sharks have been seen on Travco Jetty, and were later given over to Alexandria’s NIOF this past Monday.

The government doesn’t have much to say on the subject, except to deny any and all allegations about the shark massacre. The killing has to stop, but no one is taking responsibility.
“Who decided that it was one shark initially, and then two? And now more? And how come an authority that is responsible for protecting marine life assume the responsibility of such slaughter,” exclaimed a disdained Dr. Aboulfat’h.

Only time will tell what will become of the poor sharks.

A marine biologist from Sharm El Sheik has blown a conspiracy theory out of the water involving sharks. It appears that some people believe that some shark attacks last week oof the South Sinai resort of Sharm El-Sheikh were orchestrated by the Mossad, in a bid to try and ruin the tourist industry in Egypt. (far fetched isnt it)

A professor of marine biology with the Suez Canal University, Mahmoud Hanafy, has reported to Ahram Online that it is “sad” that an Egyptian national TV station has helped to spread such ludicrous accusations.

Captain Mustafa Ismail, a famous diver from Sharm El Sheik, was seen speaking on “Egypt Today” – a popular public TV show in the area – commenting that the sharks who were involved in the attack were normal ocean sharks and do not reside in the waters of Egypt. He was seen as posing the question then of how the sharks got there.

He went on to comment that they received a report from an Israeli diver in Eilat saying they had discovered a small shark which was implanted with a GPS device. Then the idea was posed these devices were used to track the sharks while they were attacking Egypt.

Hanafy rebutted these accusations, commenting that the Oceanic White Tip – which has been blamed for the attacks – does actually reside in the waters of Egypt. He also added that the use of GPS devices is quite common amongst marine biologists to help study the life in the sea.

It should also be pointed out, that while you can track using a GPS device, you would not be able to “control” the sharks in the same manner..

So, was it a ploy? Not likely. It looks like someone is going to have egg on their face come morning….

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