You're listening to Deep Dives With Sharks, the Shark podcast
focused on shark species. Sharks saved you both for you
and the sharks and news in the past couple weeks?
Sit back, relax. It's time to take a dive.
Hello, and welcome back, Shark. Here is to another episode of
Deep Dives with Sharks. I am the host here.
My name is Alex, and life decided to life again.
But here we are, finally getting this episode out to you guys
once again. I do appreciate all the patience
and support that you guys have had.
And I also wanted to mention that right now we're about half
the listeners are in the US and the other half are outside of
the US, but the US number's been dropping simply because we've
been gaining so many outside of the US Shark heroes, which is
amazing. You guys continue to listen,
share, support and it's it's been so amazing.
Also, in case you're wondering, Texas is still the most listened
to state, which has absolutely throttled me and is amazing.
So thank you guys so much for all that.
I am really close to reaching one goal that I set when I
started this, which was to have this podcast reach every state
and we're currently too short. We do have DC and and everything
like that, but we are currently missing both of the Dakotas.
So if you guys know anyone that lives in North or South Dakota,
just send it out to him, see if they'll listen.
Then we we can make that goal and I'll be sick.
But I also can't thank you all enough for how much you've
listened, how much you've shared, all the messages you
sent, any topics, any jokes, anything like that.
I've loved all of it. Also, people sending in
different sharks that they're wondering what they are and they
want me to help identify, which is kind of wild because I didn't
think I'd be in that position. I'd also know that I've done
this sappy bit before, but I really just can't believe that
this is where we are. It's been so nuts and I
appreciate all of you so much for listening and and being so
involved. It's been amazing.
But I'd also like to take a quick second to shout out
science saved sharks on Instagram.
They do great work posting shark information, interesting
stories, tips to help the environment and sharks as well
and also so much more. They also help me find other
shark podcasts and YouTube channels, which has been
amazing. So go out and give them a follow
it's science, under score saves under score sharks.
It's a great page to follow. Also, real quick, I'm stealing a
bit from John Oliver who when he started Last Week Tonight, he
said that he wanted to get a koala center named after him in
Australia and he succeeded in that.
So I had a kind of lifelong goal that anytime there's been a
shark that needs a name at an aquarium, I send in either my
name or one of the many nicknames that I've had.
So I want to see if there's a possibility that eventually a
shark gets named after me because of this podcast, which
would be absolutely nuts. So I have had a lot of nicknames
growing up. So of course, aquariums, if you
don't just want to name a shark, Alex, there's there's plenty.
Just hit me up, I'll give you many of those nicknames and I
will be more than happy to go to that aquarium and meet the shark
version of me, which would be so great.
But, you know, wishful thinking. We'll see if it happens, but of
course, follow along on Instagram at deep dives with
sharks or on Twitter at deep dive sharks to participate.
Ask any questions, send in suggestions, anything like that.
The shark that we're going to be doing for this episode is the
basking shark, and this one was requested by quite a few of you,
pretty much right around when people would listen to the whale
shark episode. I'd usually get suggestions on
either that episode or also on like DM's or just sending it on
comments, things like that. So this one's been a long time
coming and I was really excited to do this shark.
Also, I did realize that pretty much every episode I do say that
the shark is either very neat or I was very excited to do that
shark. So this one is par for the
course. But these are the second largest
shark. They measure in at around 26
feet long or about 7.9 meters, which comes in just behind my
personal favorite shark, the whale shark, which is around 40
feet or 20 meters. Now these guys have a lot of
names which include the bone shark, elephant shark, sailfish
and the sunfish, which is probably very confusing to
actual sailfish and actual sunfish.
For those of you that don't know what they look like, the sunfish
kind of looks like a big disc that swims to the ocean that
have fins on top and bottom. And sometimes seagulls landed
them land on their sides and will like Peck at the the
parasites on them and stuff. So it's a nice little
relationship there and sailfish are super fast, they have that
long fin on the back of them and they also like kind of look like
swordfish. I think they're they're very
similar, but I'm I know more about sharks than than sailfish
and swordfish, so I don't know if they're actually the same or
if there's very similar. But in Orkney the basking shark
is referred to as the home mother or Homer for short, which
means the mother of the picked dogfish.
Kind of adorable. You imagine basking sharks are
just dogfish parents, especially since dogfish are very small and
Orkney is just South of Scotland, for those of you that
do not know that myself previously included.
But basking sharks exist in most of the oceans outside of the
tropics and the Arctics. They like warmer waters, but not
quite as hot as the tropics and definitely not as cold as the
Greenland shark likes it. So the Arctic is pretty much
out. But to rattle off a couple
countries where you can find them, or at least find them
around, they're not typically in countries but the United States,
Canada, parts of Mexico, South America, just South of Ecuador,
all the way around the tip to about the South of Brazil.
So they're not actually in Ecuador or Brazil, just South of
those. From there you can also find
them in the continent of Africa, but minus the Central Coast, So
Northern Africa and Southern Africa, and also all of Europe.
Essentially there weren't many parts of Europe that they
weren't a part of. But to get a little bit more
specific on some areas, they were found around New Zealand,
Taiwan, China, Japan, Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom,
Ireland. The list continues on and on and
on. They get their name because
these sharks tend to hang out near the surface when feeding
and basking in the warmer water. So basking sharks like to bask
in warmer waters. They tend to stay at the
surface, but they can also be found as deep as about 2990
feet, or about 910 meters. So they do get to pretty deep
most of the time. They prefer temperatures around
9 to 14 1/2 degrees Celsius, or around 46.4 to 51.8 degrees
Fahrenheit. They have been observed crossing
the equator though during migration, so they can exist in
warmer waters, but they tend to stay near shores, around bays
and sometimes heading into brackish water, which is water
that has a lower salinity level than the ocean but isn't quite
fresh water. Basking sharks can often be
found following where plankton go as as their main source of
food. Historically, the size of
basking sharks was largely debated, as some links came in
around 40 feet or 12 1/2 meters around 1884 and 1905.
But these do not have good amounts of evidence to support
these claims and current lengths are about 26 feet or 7.9 meters,
so quite a bit less it's not. It is possible that these
species have shrunk over time, but there's not a whole lot of
evidence to support that. So it's a possibility, but not
concrete. These sharks sometimes are
confused as great whites though, which in my opinion they don't
look very similar, but I can see where the similarities lay.
So just to help, here are some factories that can help to
easily identify a basking shark versus a great white.
For one, basking sharks have massive circular shaped mouths
when fully opened and feeding, which is a lot of times when
you'll see them up in the upper columns of the water.
They also have a longer, more rounded nose which looks very
different from great whites which are definitely more
pointed and straight. So it kind of looks like a
basking sharks nose would be squishy, but great whites tends
to look like it'd be more firm. These sharks also have more
textured skin, smaller teeth, and they also look like they
have a severe overbite, so they do need to see an orthodontist.
These guys are also incredibly slow.
They only move about 2.3 mph or about two knots or 3.7
kilometers per hour. Now because that doesn't hold a
lot of weight for a lot of people.
Just for reference, Michael Phelps, the most decorated
Olympian of all time, also from Maryland.
But you know, whatever, it's fine.
He swam at about 6 mph. So if Shark Week would have put
Michael Phelps against a basking shark, he probably would have
won. Instead, they put him against a
great white, which was much quicker, and he lost.
So you know, whatever. But these sharks also have
massive livers that run the length of what would be their
abdomen or midsection, so that kind of like chest to stomach
area on a human. Researchers believe that it does
account for 25% of their body weight, and their total body
weight is about 4.58 long tons. These sharks greatly adapted to
filter feeding by having a massive mouth that is circular
in shape, unlike the whale shark, which has a flatter
mouth. These guys also have gill rakers
that help with filtering plankton from the water so that
the gills can process gases such as oxygen from the water without
getting all gunked up by plankton.
Whale sharks also have this adaption, and so do many filter
feeders. But unlike whale sharks, basking
sharks do not actively filter feed, meaning they can't suck
the water into their mouth and force it through their gills.
Instead, they do ram ventilation, which is where they
swim with their mouth open to collect the plankton that way.
Which whale sharks can do that as well.
But typically when you see them feeding, if they're sucking in
the water, spit it back out. They can filter about 450 tons
of water an hour, which equals a lot of plankton.
They did not give me an actual number, so we're going with a
lot. They have been seen in groups of
up to 1400 in the northern US around Maine during high
plankton blooms. They have some interesting
social behaviors as they typically are solitary animals
during the summer months, but during the winter when the
plankton are dense, they form groups of about 3:00 to 4:00
based on the gender of the sharks.
So males stay with males, females stay with females,
although some groups can jump up to about 100.
Now I know that that might be a little bit confusing since I did
just say they can be seen in groups about the 1400s.
So just for a little bit of clarification, you typically
find them in small groups about 3:00 to 4:00 based on gender,
but that can also jump up to 100, which is more common to
find three to four. Sometimes you find 100, but when
you get all those groups together around Maine and the
winter, then that's when you get about 1400 individuals there.
So the same way that whale sharks travel down to Cancun and
you see about 400 whale sharks around that area in like the
springtime, it's the same thing, but it's not all 400 whale
sharks just in a ball. Same way you're not getting all
1400 basking sharks just on top of each other.
They they're in the same area but there's there's space
between the groups in southern Canada, near New Brunswick in
the Bay of Fundy and the head brides around Scotland.
I am so sorry if I'm if I'm butchering these.
I've not been to these places and I I've never heard these
places said so I'm terribly, terribly sorry.
Basking sharks have been observed swimming nose the tail
in circles and scientists believe that this is a form of a
mating ritual which is actually rather neat because a lot of
sharks don't really have a mating ritual besides just
biting each other which is absolutely violent.
They do or they don't have many predators, but they have been
seen to have lampreys stuck to them, which is stuck to their
thicker skins. They're kind of like eel like
creatures that like the latch on whale sharks or sorry white
sharks feed on the remains of basking sharks and killer whales
have been seen feeding on them as well off the coast of
California. Another reason why orcas are
jerks. First they're eating 6 gill
sharks, livers, now they're taking out basking sharks.
So it's on site. Orcas I will lose, but it's on
site. They are O viviparous O Ovo Oh
my goodness, I cannot say this word to save my life again, Ovo
viviparous. There we go, my goodness.
Which means that the eggs develop internally until they
are ready to be born into the water, and this can take over a
year, maybe up to two or even 3 depending on the individual.
Mating begins in early summer and popping in late summer when
the mother moves into shallow waters.
Scientists do not have an accurate number of how many pups
are born at once, but they are often around 4 foot 11 inches to
about 6 foot 7 or 1 1/2 to 2 meters.
Easy enough. Now these sharks are listed as
endangered for a variety of reasons.
Being a larger shark, their fins are incredibly valuable to
certain people who are also lame as hell, but these sharks will
be caught and finned. They also are used as fish meal
oil from their liver, as the hide for leather, and they're
also used as medicine and as an aphrodisiac, which does not work
and to keep it PG. That is all I have to say about
that, but that is what I have about the basking shark for this
week, if you guys have any questions or anything like that.
One little fun fact that I remember from a couple years ago
but I couldn't find any update on was that basking sharks
around Maine had been observed breaching the water at about 5
meters a second, and scientists really weren't sure why.
If it was like to help get parasites off them or any
anything like that to this date, I believe it's still a mystery.
So if anyone has an answer for that, send it my way.
That'd be so sick to figure that out.
Finally, because it's been bounced around my brain for
years, it's like my one of my favorite shark facts to tell and
everyone's like, oh, you ever figure it out?
I I didn't. So maybe you guys can help me
out. That'd be kind of sick.
But of course. You guys have any questions?
Anything like that, send them over to me on the socials and
I'll be so happy to read about that.
But going on to shark safety now this week we're going to be
covering what to do if sharks are investigating you while
doing water activities and this is kayaking, paddle boarding,
surfing, etcetera. And this one comes from
surfline.com if you want to find the actual article.
I did take pretty much all of it just from there, but they said
something long line to like how to prevent sharks attacking you
while doing water sports, which I don't like the word attack so
I just switched the title a little bit.
But check them out, they're super helpful.
But a very common tip that you've heard probably every
safety section that I've done on this podcast is to avoid their
feeding times. Once again that is dawn and
dusk. I know it's beautiful and
getting that golden hour surf is so sick, but it's also when
sharks are most active and you are most likely to get bit.
So wait a little bit, head out when it's a little bit brighter
out. More visibility to you means
less chance something sneaks up on you.
You also want to keep your head on a swivel.
I know I've mentioned this a lot as well, but you want to be
observing your surroundings when you're on the beach the launch.
Before you even get in the water, you want to be looking
out for signs that sharks could be nearby.
Now typically sharks aren't going to sneak up on you in the
sand, but this is time to be looking rather than when you get
in the water. This could be literal signs that
people put there that tell you, hey, there's been a shark in the
water, dead prey on the beach with bite marks, maybe even a
bait ball or fresh fish frenzy. My goodness, that is not too far
from shore. Which for those that don't know
what that looks like, it kind of looks like the water's boiling.
These are signs that a shark is nearby and extreme caution
should be used. These things could also be from
other animals. Dolphins tend to stir up bait
balls quite frequently, especially out in Ocean City,
MD. I remember all the times we look
out and see a bait ball going crazy and you'd see a dolphin
jump up and it was really cool. So sometimes it's just dolphins.
But just because dolphins there, that doesn't mean sharks aren't
nearby. So just make sure you still keep
your head on the swivel. Don't let your guard down.
You would like to avoid deep channels.
If you're on a kayak or paddle board, remember that you're not
a cargo ship, so you can go into shallower area.
Shallower areas, That's a hard phrase to say, but without
worrying about scraping the bottom.
Do watch for oyster patches or smaller things that might scrape
the bottom of your kayak or paddle board, but you shouldn't
have to worry about those too much.
Especially if you're watching for sharks.
It's probably going to be a little bit deeper than that, but
sharks do like deep channels because fish often are forced
into a certain area in those channels so the sharks can hunt
so much easier. Just all they got to do is
pretty much is go chomp and they're done, so don't let them
confuse you for a fish here. You also want to watch for river
mouths, as that's another area where rivers dump into a larger
body of water and sharks hang out there because brackish fish
will swim right to him. So makes it easy hunting.
Sharks tend to go for the easy fish to get, and if you're just
going to swim right into their mouths, well they're going to
hang out right there. Now safety's in safety in
numbers is absolutely huge. Now, sharks don't often go after
a group of large prey, and humans would be considered to
look like large prey. We're not really pray for them.
They don't often go after us, but especially if they're going
for a bunch of seals, you you don't see him trying to get 4
seals at once, they're usually going for one eat one seal, one
tuna, not 12. So they go for the prey that's
isolated as well. So try not to venture too far
away from your group. Try to stay in the nice, not too
tight compact group, but stay together.
That way the sharks not going to try to get you if you're
isolated. Now this one was a funny title
for me, said don't wear a lure, which at first I was like, well,
yeah, who's going to tie a fishing line to their leg and
just dangle their foot in the water with the lure on the end?
That's that's kind of weird. But then I realized they were
talking about jewelry and so some lures do have shiny bits on
them that tend to catch the sunlight and mimic fish scales
to get other fish to bite. Your jewelry will do the exact
same. So smaller sharks may come and
investigate and determine that your finger, ankle and neck,
anything that has a shiny on it, is a tasty fish and you could
get bit. So try to leave all the shiny's
back on the beach. You also want to stay away from
Dead Sea life. First of all, it's gross, could
have germs or diseases on it to get you sick and you don't know
why it died, so just don't touch it.
But also, sharks do tend to eat dead stuff sometimes.
And if you're trying to use Mr. Dead Seal or Dead Fish as a
puppet, well, now you smell like fish or seal and a shark could
get confused and or think your ventriloquism is just terrible
and they'll bite you for that reason.
They're rather judgmental now. That of course, is a joke.
So they're not going to bite you because you do bad
ventriloquism, but just don't touch dead things.
It's just not a good idea. You also want to try not to
flail about. This one is one thing that if
you're falling and you're trying to regain your balance, that's
fine. You know, sometimes you got to
do a quick motion. You don't have to be methodical
the entire time, but also don't just start splashing your
friends left, right and center. If you feel like there might be
a shark nearby, that's not a great idea.
You don't want to slap the surface jolt around just for the
sake of flailing. This is one of the many ways to
alert sharks to come closer and see what's up.
It's cool if a shark swims by, but you don't want to do things
that actively attract them to you because once sharks are
nearby it's more likely you're going to get bit.
If sharks aren't in the area, they can't bite you, but if you
bring sharks right to you, they're going to try to figure
out what you are in one of those ways with their mouth and they
have really sharp teeth, so just got to be careful in that one.
Another tip is to gear up. Now this simply means that
there's ways to deter sharks. One of the ways that they
mentioned was giant eye stickers on the bottom of your board,
making it appear like a large predator which could confuse the
shark. There's also shark Billy's.
Now this one I would say is probably one of the best, which
is simply just a stick that all you need is you could really be
anything. I know that they've said before
that Shark Billy's could be even like an umbrella stand, like
something like that. That just keeps them away.
I think a lot of the ones that they use on Shark Week are like
kind of like reinforced like foam ones.
That way they don't hurt the shark either.
But it shouldn't be anything shark.
You're not trying to stab it. You're it should be very blunt,
just so that way you can push them away from you without
having to use your hand or your body, anything like that.
I know I talked about them in my rant, but looking more into
them, they actually seem incredibly useful.
I don't bring them with me to the beach because I usually
don't go out like past my hips, but probably wouldn't be the
worst idea and I'm I'm not. I don't think I'm just going to
be out there waiting and standing there with a stick.
So you know, just just something to think about.
But if you're going to go out deep or go diving or kayaking,
anything like that is something you can just leave on on your
board. Or on the kayak it it it'll be
helpful to keep the sharks a little bit away from you.
If they do start investigating now.
There are also devices that will put electronic pulses in the
water that keep sharks away. I'm not sure how expensive they
are, anything like that, but they do need more research.
So the article did mention that these need a lot more research
to see exactly how effective they are.
They've shown good results so far.
But also I know that sometimes if a shark sees eyes, it might
think, oh this is an easy meal and it might go for you at that
point. So maybe wait for more research
and hold off Maybe for now just go with the shark Billy, that's
probably going to be the best gear for you.
And also as I mentioned, not wearing the color yellow because
sharks can see that very, very well in the water and also not
wearing shiny things. So those those types of things
are like the the biggest ones that have been researched.
And of course lastly is to just get out of the water.
There's a shark nearby and it won't bug off and you feel like
you're going to get bit. Just head back to shore or the
launch or wherever you are. Just get out of the water.
It's totally fine to call it and try again.
I I know that it might be frustrating because you're on
vacation and this is what you thought was going to be such a
great experience and this is the time you allotted for that.
But it's also not going to be really fun if you get bit now.
You got to spend the rest of the day in the hospital and possibly
the next couple days. Like you want to spend your
vacation enjoying your vacation, not laying in a hospital bed.
So don't force an experience if it's unsafe, just that goes
across the board in general, not just for sharks but in anything.
So if you've signed up for para sailing and the thunderstorms
coming, you know, call it, just go, go do something else, play
mini golf, you know, something like that, you know, just don't,
don't go up in the that's a fear of mine.
So I know I am terrified of para sailing in general, but dear
God, do not get on a para sail when it's about to storm.
Anyway, that is what I have for the shark safety portion or
yeah, shark shark safety portion of the episode.
My goodness, that fell apart at the end.
But we're going to move on to Shark news.
And now this one. I do actually have one from a
country I haven't actually. Both of these I haven't really
talked about yet, which is really exciting.
I didn't realize that till right now.
That's awesome. But going into the shark news,
the first one is that diver spot quote blue shadow in Kenya.
Then amazing sea creature appears among sharks and this is
reported by the Miami Herald. Now this one comes from Kenya as
I mentioned, which I haven't covered a lot of stories of
sharks from Africa in general, so as a continent.
So I was pumped for this and if you guys have any other African
shark stories or want to hear more about those, please send
them over my way. I will be so happy to do them.
I'm trying to expand as much as I can hear.
Also haven't done too many Asian sharks so definitely should hit
some of those. When I hit alien sharks out in
Japan I've hit a couple so you know well.
Anyway, I digress, but a dive team was researching sharks in
the area when they noticed a large shadow in the water with
white spots and that's when they quickly realized it was a whale
shark, which I am also now just realizing this is a very whale
shark heavy episode. They said it was breathtaking
and a once in a lifetime experience.
And I know I've mentioned it on here so many times that I
snorkeled with whale sharks in Cancun and that's the best way
to describe it. It's just you're there and it's
so amazing to see these giant creatures just hanging out and
doing their thing, especially when you're in person.
In the video, the whale shark looks like it's a juvenile, but
the Ocean's also very vast, so it it could couldn't really
identify its size there. myself and I didn't see anything in the
article or the video that said how big it was, but it was just
hanging out, eating some plankton and enjoying its life.
And the divers were so excited to be around it.
They took some videos. The guy took a selfie with it,
which was sick. I wish I would have taken
advantage of that, but I was freaking out the entire time I
was swimming with him, so I didn't get to do that.
But yeah, it's really cool. I'm really happy to hear that
the whale sharks are just hanging out around Kenya and
people are hanging out with them.
That's pretty sick. Now of course, I will once again
mention that no matter what sharks you are hanging out with,
no matter how docile or how calm they seem, don't just start
touching sharks. There's oils on your hands that
can potentially hurt them. And of course, you don't want
them to get too comfortable around humans because some
people just have bad intentions when it comes to sharks.
And it's kind of the same way you shouldn't start feeding the
wildlife in a park. You don't want bears to get too
comfortable around humans, anything like that.
So don't go out trying to pet the shark, no matter how
pettable they look. I do agree that some sharks are
adorable and they look like a little puppy that just needs a
little boop, but they also have very sharp teeth and they might
take your gentle pat on the head, as is the threat, and
they'll bite you. So just be careful there.
But the other story that I have is South Africa's missing sharks
have been found and this is by Hakai magazine I believe.
I'm sorry once again if I mispronounced your name but this
one is really really cool. Now I I think this is the first
really really cool I've thrown out in the podcast but South
Africa was losing a lot of sharks, especially great whites
due to orcas which I am realizing with the Pasco.
I'm realizing a lot recently, but within the past couple
episodes this has been a very anti Orca podcast.
And if anyone who has an Orca podcast wants to have a
conversation or anyone who just likes orcas wants to come in and
change my mind, please let me know because I'm willing to have
a chat. But back on track, these orcas
would go after great whites, oil rich livers and leave the rest
of the body to either sink to the bottom or wash up on shore
and terrorize children because they're evil.
But Orcas Lander aside, they're crazy intelligent to be able to
figure out that this is the part of the shark that they like to
eat and that they all can just have the rest.
Now Great white numbers had declined greatly, and they seem
to disappear from the areas where they once dominated.
Thankfully they decided that the area had gone down the drain and
they wanted to move to nicer waters, which they wouldn't get
killed by orcas. So they moved further east and
set up shop there. Now the numbers have been able
to rebound, which has been great, but time will tell if
they're able to sustain these numbers or if orcas will drive
them out once again. So happy story for now.
Potentially more issues to come in the future, but that is what
I have for this episode. I want to thank you all once
again for listening. Of course, follow the Instagram
and the Twitter once again, that is at deep dives with sharks on
Instagram and deep dive sharks on Twitter.
I run polls, ask questions, I do stuff throughout the week.
Hopefully I try to keep you updated on what's going on in my
own life and when you should expect another episode.
And of course, I love to hear what you all would like to hear
as well. So send those my way, any
comments, questions, anything of that sort.
And of course, give us a rating on Apple or Spotify.
Share it with anyone who you think will listen.
Thank you all so much. You're all so amazing and I will
see you in the next one.