Mark Coghill was relaxing Monday afternoon, fishing on his vacation on Fort Myers Beach, but a shark changed all that.

Coghill, from Greencastle, Ind., said another fisherman, who was fishing on the other side of the pier, hooked a 6-foot blacktip shark and didn’t let go. The shark pulled him off the pier into the water.

“The shark was kinda pulling him around,” Coghill said. “It was pretty exciting.”

The man, whose name Coghill never got, didn’t speak English very well, but motioned to onlookers that he couldn’t swim.

“No one helped,” he said. “I said, ‘I guess that’s my cue.’ ”

The News-Press: Local & State

Neighbors Richard Doornbos and Al Embry have stumbled upon numerous mysteries of the Mojave Desert, but never anything like this.

Last week, while walking in a large vacant field across from Sultana High School near G Avenue, the two found a 4-foot-long and ominously unmistakeable shark. The fish, which appeared to have been dumped just hours before, bore large spotted markings.

Neighbors discover 4-foot shark while on daily desert walk – Hesperia Star

Basking sharks have been spotted swimming along the Cornish coast, attracted by the warmer seas.

Also known as the bone shark, they are the second largest fish after the whale shark and can reach a massive 36 feet in length.

But swimmers can stay in the water, as the sharks only feast on tiny marine animals and it is rare that they come so close to the shore.

Heatwave attracts Basking sharks

A shark expert says there’s no reason for the public to be alarmed.

“It’s their ocean basically,” says John Naughton, Pacific islands environmental coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service. “People if they use common sense they should minimize the chances of encountering sharks.”

Recent shark attacks and sightings no cause for alarm says expert

A new type of hammerhead shark has been discovered in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, marine scientists say.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | New shark discovered in US waters

When it comes to sharks, researchers say Hawaii waters are teeming with tiger sharks. In 10 years of diving the South Pacific, film maker and free diver Kyle Nakamoto has had many close encounters with sharks, tigers included. He knows the warning signs.

Sharks Not Biggest Threat for Divers

A massive, hooked and tied female tiger shark attacked an inflatable boat Saturday during shark-tagging operations off this remote reef.

No one was injured, and the rigid-hulled inflatable was damaged but not disabled.

15-foot tiger shark gets mouthful of boat – The Honolulu Advertiser

It’s getting so you can swim with sharks in virtually every aquarium – or so it seems. Bangkok’s new aquarium came complete with a swimming with sharks feature, which I mentioned a few months ago – and now Kuala Lumpur’s Aquaria is offering you the chance to get up close and personal with our toothsome friends. There is a article from the Malaysia Star newspaper that describes a non-diving journalist’s experience of trying to dive in the shark aquarium tank – unfortunately he couldn’t get below the surface as he kept panicking. Oh well, at least he got to see the sharks from above if nothing else.

Swim With Sharks In Kuala Lumpur Aquarium – divehappy.com: Scuba Diving In Thailand and South East Asia

Grand-prize winner Michael M. Herrmann from SharkDefense — a research company in New Jersey — beat out more than 80 other contenders for the Smart Gear prize with an original idea that uses a shark’s ability to detect magnetic fields as a way to protect them. Herrmann found that placing strong magnets just above baited hooks on a longline repels certain shark species, averting potential harm to the shark or the fishing gear. He was awarded $25,000 to further test and develop his idea.

Shark-Saving Magnets Pull in $25,000 Prize for American from International Smart Gear Competition

Sometimes tough choices have to be made.

“The reality is the nets and the current program is the safest option available at the moment,” Mr Beattie said.

“I know that there will be some in the conservation movement who are not going to be happy about what happens to whales and to other marine animals like turtles, but the Government has to make a choice.

“It is an ugly choice between people and marine animals and we have chosen people.”