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Monterey Bay Aquarium’s white shark summer Photo

Monterey Bay Aquarium’s white shark summer

Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sea Notes reports that this summer, as well as tagging great whites accidentally caught in commercial fisheries, the aquarium will use a different technology to try to prove if sharks seen and caught on both sides of the border are in fact part of the same population. They plan to use special acoustic tags, as used in tracking salmon, that each have a unique signal that is recorded by a receiving station as tagged animals pass it. Six sharks are to be fitted with these tags this summer.

The recent confirmation, achieved by DNA sampling, that the Californian great white has a unique genetic identity different to other great whites reinforces how crucial it is to understand these apex predator’s behavior and movements.

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Fujifilm launches FinePix REAL 3D W3 Photo

Fujifilm launches FinePix REAL 3D W3

FineFilm has launched FinePix REAL 3D W3, an update for the previous model, the W1. The W3 offers the same dual 10mp CCD sensors and lens, but adds a few new features including a big 3.5” LCD screen, auto 3D function and stereo sound. It is also the world’s first 3D HD camera to be able to shoot HD (720p) in 3D. The camera will be available in September 2010.

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EOS 7DSV (Studio Version) DSLR and barcode solution Photo

EOS 7DSV (Studio Version) DSLR and barcode solution

Canon has officially announced the EOS 7DSV (Studio Version) DSLR and an optional barcode solution. The 7DSV is targeted for professional school and event photographers and features four levels of “locking” camera controls for studio environments. The Canon barcode solution links customer data directly with the image file so that it can be maintained throughout the entire workflow process.

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Scientific American on today’s sharks Photo

Scientific American on today’s sharks

Scientific American has published an article titled: Today’s Sharks: Smart, Tagged and in short supply. It highlights the race that scientists face with studying the shark before it is fished out of existence. The article also contrasts the high-tech research methods currently employed, including satellite tracking, genetic analysis and HD cameras, with the available technology in 1987 when Discovery first launched their Shark Week series. Amongst the results is a growing realization that sharks are very intelligent:

“Many sharks have good learning capacity, which is one way we measure intelligence,” says Samuel Gruber, a marine biologist at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS), who discovered in 1975 that lemon sharks could learn a classical conditioning task 80 times faster than a cat or rabbit. “I was shocked to find that they could learn so rapidly,” he says. Gruber’s National Science Foundation–supported Bimini Biological Field Station in the Bahamas, known as Sharklab, is now planning to start a doctoral research program on shark cognition.

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Nikon releases View NX2 software Photo

Nikon releases View NX2 software

Nikon UK has announced the release of version 2 of its View NX software. The updated software has image editing abilities as per the earlier version, but now incorporates video editing abilities for footage shot with Nikon DSLR’s. It also has an enhanced user control panel, and incorporates easier sharing options.(via dpreview.)

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10 Bar releases housing for Sony NEX-5 Photo

10 Bar releases housing for Sony NEX-5

10 Bar has released a housing for the Sony NEX-5 camera. The housing has an aluminum front, an acrylic back, and is recommended to 60m. It features mechanical controls for all functions, and will be supplied with a standard dome port and lens ring, suitable for the Sony NEX 18-55mm lens. Lastly it will allow for TTL strobe exposure via fiber optic cables.

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Solmar V gets even greener Photo

Solmar V gets even greener

The owners of the Mexican based liveaboard Solmar V have raised the bar for dive operators by agreeing to offset the boat’s carbon emissions as a standard practice. They are probably the first dive boat to do so, and will offset against the use of the boats diesel engine. In effect, this means that a portion of each passengers fees will be used to help reduce global warming. Many traveling divers now choose to offset the carbon effects of their airline travel, but until now there has been little or no opportunity of offset once “on the ground.”

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Wetpixel Expedition: Ambon Night Safari, Nov/Dec 2010 Photo

Wetpixel Expedition: Ambon Night Safari, Nov/Dec 2010

Wetpixel still has spots left for our Ambon Night Safari this coming Nov 7-16, 2010!

Photographers Eric Cheng and Tony Wu will lead the trip, which goes to one of the best critter spots on the planet. The humble shoreline at Laha is where the Maluku frogfish (Histiophryne psychedelica) was found a couple of years ago. This year, the elusive frogfish resurfaced, and we’re hoping they will still be there when we arrive.

Read the full details for more information on what to expect – we’re looking forward to the trip!

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Sony releases firmware upgrade for EX1 Photo

Sony releases firmware upgrade for EX1

Sony Europe has announced the release of a firmware upgrade for European model PMW-EX1 XDCAM cameras. The new firmware is version 1.20 and is:

In response to users’ requests for additional choices in recording media for XDCAM EX, this user-upgradeable firmware update offers compatibility of the current family of XDCAM EX products with the new Sony Media Adaptors: MEAD-MS01 (Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX) and MEAD-SD01 (SDHC memory card)), as well as the SxS-1 series media cards.

The Media Adaptors allow the use of Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX and SDHC cards in XDCAM EX equipment.

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Group sues Brazilian exporter over shark fin export Photo

Group sues Brazilian exporter over shark fin export

Business Week has reported that the Brazilian environmental group, Environmental Justice Institute, has sued exporter Sigel do Brasil Comercio over claims that it has illegally exported over 25 tonnes of shark fins since 2009. In Brazil, it is illegal to separate shark fins from the carcasses, and in May government agents reported finding 3.3 tons of shark fins during a single raid on the company. Cristiano Pacheco, director of the group said:

“This is an extremely serious situation and represents only a fraction of the sharks that are illegally killed off Brazil’s northeast coast.”

Pacheco’s group filed its suit for $790 million against Sigel do Brasil Comercio in a federal court in the Amazon jungle city of Belem.

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