Shark Week shark stories feature tattoos, orange shark and camera bite
UPI marked Shark Week with five odd shark tales, from 106 tattoos to a great white filmed feeding off Rhode Island.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
The latest Shark Week shark stories rounded up by UPI's Odd News put the spotlight on a bright orange nurse shark, a record-setting tattoo collection, a camera-chomping great white and more finned weirdness.
UPI published the roundup July 31 as Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week programming block was ending, collecting five shark-related items that had surfaced in its Odd News coverage.
What shark stories made Odd News during Shark Week?
One entry involved Kayla Ross and her paddleboarding partner off Santa Barbara, Calif. According to UPI, the pair went out in June hoping to find a shark that had already been reported in the area.
A drone video recorded by Ross' uncle later showed a great white shark trailing the paddleboard in the water while the paddleboarders searched for it, UPI reported. Ross told UPI the encounter did not sour her on paddleboarding and said she hoped to see a larger shark later.
Another tale came from Maine, where Emily Morrison, described by UPI as a shark biologist and owner of a shark fossil diving tour company, was recognized by Guinness World Records for having the most shark tattoos on a female body.
Guinness World Records said Morrison, known as “Shark Lady Emily,” had 106 distinct shark tattoos when the organization counted them in May, according to UPI. The record-keeping group said her interest in sharks began when she watched Jaws at age 8, and UPI reported that her ink led to an appearance on Discovery Channel's Shark Week special My Strange Shark Addiction.
What is xanthism in sharks?
Xanthism is a pigmentation condition that can give animals yellow or gold coloring in their skin, scales or fur, researchers told UPI. In the Costa Rica case, researchers said it produced a bright orange shark.
That shark was a 6-foot, 6-inch nurse shark caught by angler Garvin Watson near Tortuguero National Park in August 2024, according to UPI. Researchers said the catch was the first documented case of total xanthism in a shark.
The roundup also included a Southern California shark encounter involving filmmaker Carlos Gauna, who posts on YouTube as The Malibu Artist. UPI reported that Gauna was kayaking in late April while using several cameras and a drone to film sharks when a great white approached one of the cameras and bit at it.
Gauna told UPI the shark did not get away with the camera, although the bite cracked the protective dome around the equipment.
The fifth item came from Rhode Island waters. UPI reported that Atlantic Shark Institute Executive Director Jon Dodd and Sarah Callan, manager of animal rescue for the Mystic Aquarium, were looking for a humpback whale carcass spotted off the coast in late May when they filmed a great white shark.
The Atlantic Shark Institute said the shark was feeding on the whale carcass and might be the first great white ever captured on camera in Rhode Island waters, according to UPI.
Together, the five items show how sharks keep turning up in odd-news form: as marine predators, record-book muses, rare-color curiosities and occasionally very expensive camera critics.
This story draws on original reporting from UPI.