Shark attacks now account for more than half of washed up dead ottersTrend is mysterious as great whites prefer usually hunt fat-rich sealsOtter deaths started rapidly rising in 2003 and show no sign of relentingOlive the otter who was rescued from an oil slick among those to be killedBy Jack Millner For Mailonline[1] Published: 10:54 EST, 18 August 2015 | Updated: 22:06 EST, 18 August 2015 Great white sharks are attacking and killing otters off the coast of California, leaving scientists baffled about why they appear to be preying upon the endangered creatures.The development is a puzzle because sharks do not usually eat the small furry mammals, preferring the much fattier flesh of seals.Biologists say more than 50 per cent of dead otters that wash up on California's coastline bear the marks of great white shark bites. California's sea otters (like the one pictured) are endangered and the shark attacks…

The Discovery Channel had some dicey programming last year during shark week. Some things were presented as fact when they were actually more sensational theories or maybe even guesses… or Sharknado. No, actually it was Megalodon. And no matter what Discovery tries to imply, they are extinct and have been for millions of years. I was disheartened when it was exposed that so many of Discovery’s discoveries were sensationalized junk. So this year, when I heard it was Shark Week, I told my son and he said, “After last year? Who cares?” Yes, the Megalodon did us in. By hinting and “reporting” about this “monster shark” that was actually only as real as Sharknado, we lost our taste for a good bite of shark facts… because they might end up being fictional. Discovery actually used actors instead of scientists. It used Photoshop. It used fake video. It even called the…

For the first 30 minutes, Joseph Trucksess didn’t want to stand up. His knees were shaky, his heart pounding as he tried to balance his stand-up paddleboard in the water off Sunset Beach. What if he fell off and one of the juvenile great white sharks circling around him decided he wasn’t invited to the party? As word spreads about the resident sharks – about 10 have been hanging around just where the water breaks for the past few months – curious beachgoers like Trucksess are heading to the area to get a first-hand look. The San Clemente paddler, along with friend Courtney Hemerick of Aliso Viejo, traveled to Sunset Beach Friday morning with a mission: to see the great whites up close and get a few selfies with their new sharp-toothed friends. “I’ve always been into water and into wild animals,” said Trucksess, who noted that he began to…