Hello and welcome back Shark. Here is to another episode of
Deep Dives with Sharks. My name is Alex.
I am the host here and I cannot ride my bike with no handlebars.
I just end up falling, you know, kind of like the song Handlebars
by Flow Bots. You know, we're off to a good
start. So a quick update, my caseload
at work doubled in size and I now essentially am trying to
help about 100 patients across an area that is roughly 40 miles
across and 50 miles long. So it's rather time consuming
and tiring but I'm trying to manage that on top of planning
another move keeping up with my mental health.
So it might be a little bit more sporadic.
Again with posting, I have been live on Saturdays on Twitch and
YouTube playing games and talking sharky things with the
shark Kieras. So feel free to tune in there
for weekly content. I may do some more filler
episodes in between like movie analysis or aquarium reviews,
but I want to try to keep it as shark focused as possible and
not get too sidetracked doing a lot of the shark related but not
actually shark things. So we'll try to limit those as
much as possible. Now I do also want to give a
quick heads up to anyone that is heading to Florida for spring
break or over the summer or traveling anywhere.
Tropical sharks are also migrating through these waters
back to the Northern hemisphere. So just keep an eye out as the
seasons change because they're usually moving through the
water, so you might encounter some.
So once again, back to the safety side, just keep your head
on a swivel. Just make sure you know what
you're jumping into, ideally not a school of fish and you should
be fine. Now I do want to try something
just a little bit different. Don't worry, we will in fact get
to the sharks. But I myself have felt rather
stressed recently. I've been working, podcasting,
spending time with friends and family, and a lot of current
events going on could use a little break and I feel like
everyone could as well. So get ready for some guided
meditation, you stressed dorks. Now I'm going to take a second
here to switch into calm Alex's voice.
And what I want you to do is we're just going to start by
taking a deep breath. Just breathe in and then breathe
out. Just let the air fill your lungs
slowly and then exhale. You want to try pausing on the
breathe in just to let your mind clear and then breathe out.
Feels nice, right? Just keep breathing in.
Feel that tension leave out of your neck, out of your
shoulders. Just keep breathing.
Now I want you on this next deep breath to give your legs a
little stretch. You know, you've been sitting
for a while. Stretch your feet out and
breathe out and breathe in. Then notice that your shoulders
and arms are going to feel a little little relaxed too.
And then breathe out. And then I want you to keep
doing that. By these next few breaths, I
just want you to focus on your favorite shark.
Just having a swim, chasing some fish, doing a nice breech, you
know, kind of nice. And finally, one last breathe in
and then breathe out. Hopefully you're feeling a
little bit better. Appreciate you being here with
me on that. Sharing that moment with me
always feels nice to breathe for a little bit.
Just get through everything there.
Things might get a little rocky, might seem scary, but in the end
it's going to turn out all right.
So of course, if you all want to do more of this in the future,
I'm definitely down to do that. Let me know in the comments or
anywhere on social media as well.
I am pretty good in the field of mental health and it's as
important as the physical health as well.
And I'd love to help the shark. Here's with an area that I know
a decent bit about. Well, also sharks, clearly.
But Speaking of the sharks, we should eventually get into this
episode. So to stay up to date on
everything Deep Dives with Sharks, hit the follow button on
Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube, Amazon Music,
or anywhere else that you get your podcast.
And of course, you can follow along at Deep Dives with Sharks
on any of those. Feel free to ask any questions,
share any comments or any shark related content on the social
medias and in the comments. Now I know that I just said
we're going to get to the sharks, but a while ago I did
ask you guys for some of your favorite shark facts and jokes
and I did get a couple of them. So we're going to go over those
now. A really cool shark fact that
was shared by a shark themselves, That was that sharks
are considered vertebrates despite being made of cartilage
because they have a vertebral column, which I did know that
they were vertebrates, but I'd never considered the fact that
they don't actually have vertebra, which is rather crazy.
Isn't that vertebrae? I don't even know how I'm
supposed to pronounce that. I'm not very good at science if
we can't tell. But I did get some great jokes
from Francis, which they were too good not to share.
So the first one, of course, is what a sharks and computers have
in common. It's megabytes, you know,
because like data and like biting.
I'm expressing this for the younger shark here is don't
judge me. And of course, the other one
that we have is unfortunately that a shark went to court.
We're not quite sure for what though, But the judge asked him
what his plea was and he replied he was not guilty.
That's fun. I like that one.
I don't care what you all say. That's pretty great.
I do love that. So feel free to send more that
way. But finally, without further
ado, we are actually going to get into the shark for this
episode. I think that was probably one of
the longest intros I've done. But anyway, so to get started,
we're going to be going over the Gray reef shark today.
Now there are 5 species of reef sharks and those include the
black tip reef, Gray reef, white tip reef, Caribbean reef, and
the Galapagos shark. The Galapagos is a little bit
different. It does not have the reef name.
The largest of the reef sharks are the Galapagos shark and the
Caribbean reef shark, both coming in at average length of
three meters or 9.8 feet. The smallest are the white tip
and black tip reef sharks coming in at 1.6 meters or 5.5 feet.
So I decided since everyone else is buddied up, we're just going
to go with the Gray reef shark because sometimes when people
say reef sharks in general, they're usually thinking about
this one. And I would like to quickly
apologize to the shark here that requested all the reef sharks.
But I want to make sure I do these sharks well.
And if I try to put five in an episode or even the remaining
three, I normally end up missing a lot, crossing up information
or squishing it all together in a jumbled mess.
And I wrote this paragraph like weeks ago, and could you imagine
how bad this would be if I tried squishing everything into the
one shark that I did this time? So yeah.
The good news is though, that that does mean we do have two
other reshark episodes we can do, the Galapagos shark and the
white tip reef shark in the future.
I've already done the black tip reef shark in episode 34 and the
Caribbean reef shark in episode 15.
So if you want to learn more about them, you can always check
them out over that way. Now Gray reef sharks grow to be
about 1.88 meters or 6.2 feet long, which is just bigger than
the black tip and white tip reef sharks.
They were first discovered in 1856 by Peter Bleecker who was a
Dutch. It's theologist, which I just
learned. It's theology is the branch of
zoology that studies fish, which I'd be honored if anyone ever
mistakenly called me. And it's theologist as I do not
consider myself one since I simply look up sharks online and
watch them on TV. I don't really conduct studies
or look into them much further, but I do like seeing them.
So I feel like I'm disqualified though, but it works.
I'll go with Fanatic now these sharks are known by a few other
names around the world, including the black V whaler,
the graceful shark, Fowler's whaler shark, graceful whaler
shark, Gray shark, Gray whaler shark, school shark, long nose
black tail shark, and the short nose black tail shark, which
some of those are rather contradictory.
I don't know how you're both long nose and short nose, very
confusing there and also some are just mean because if someone
calls me long nose I'm a be upset.
But the Gray reef shark is a rather normal looking shark
which makes it hard to describe since usually I focus on what's
different about them. So I'll kind of do my best here.
They do have a longer face with a blunt nose that sticks out
further than their lower jaw and they have big eyes that sit
above their mouth. Their gills are further back and
they have 5 gill slits similar to many other sharks.
They are Gray on top and white on their bellies with a clear
line in between the two. They have a tall dorsal fin,
somewhat sickle shaped pectoral fins, and they also have caudal
and anal fins. Now their tail is slightly
longer on top than on the bottom, as similar with many
reef sharks as well, and their fins also sometimes have white
or black tips on them, but often will be Gray.
Now this differentiates before between the white tip and the
black tip because all of their tips tend to be the same color.
Gray kind of gets a little bit of all of them.
If it wants to, it's, it's, it's not a phase, it just does what
it wants. Now these sharks can be found
all over the world and this is one of the longest lists I have
seen, which is not uncommon of other reef sharks as well.
I'm also going to apologize in advance if I completely butcher
a pronunciation as I did try to go through and get the
pronunciations right beforehand and I guarantee I'll still have
some wrong. But they can be found in the
Indian and Pacific Oceans, including around South Africa,
Madagascar, India, the Red Sea, Maldives, southern China, New
Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Gulf of Thailand,
Indonesia, the Chagos Archipelago, American Samoa,
Easter Islands, the Cook Islands, Christmas Island, the
Marquesas Islands, Guam, the Tuamoto archipelago.
I feel like I'm pronouncing that wrong.
I've tried very hard. Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, Micronesia. New Caledonia, the Marinas
Islands, Pulao, Samoa, the Pitkarian Islands.
I think I missed that one. Up to the Solomon Islands, the
Hawaiian Islands, Tuvalu and Vanitou.
I'm not going to lie, I cannot pronounce most of them or point
to them on a map. Mostly the Hawaiian Islands.
Clearly that's a joke. The American education system
likes to teach us about us and not much else.
Evidently because I'd be able to pronounce them otherwise.
But you know, it's fine, whatever.
But these sharks like staying in shallower waters, typically
about 200 feet, 60 meters or less, but they do go real deep,
as far as going 3300 feet or 1000 meters, which is rather
crazy deep. Now these sharks will be found
around reefs of course, but they enjoy resting facing Leeward,
which means they face away from the direction of the current, or
at least being on that side of the reef.
They have been found in the open ocean though, because they too
want to see some whale sharks. They just look so cool.
Now I would like to point out that there is no evidence that
the Gray wee reef shark actually goes out to look at whale
sharks, but I can dream. Now, the Gray reef shark is kind
of a jerk as being slightly larger than other sharks, they
will force other sharks out of their preferred locations.
Some sharks will work together and live together and that
sounds like they are making a shark city or something.
But what I mean is that they can inhabit the same areas and will
even both benefit from their hunting methods.
Gray reef sharks aren't really about that, they just forced
everyone out of the quiet hilltop where it sings when the
sun hits it just right in order to build Cusco Topia.
Shout out to anyone that enjoyed that Emperor's New Groove
reference. They do vibe with black tippery
sharks though, but only a little bit because they will allow
black tips to inhabit the shallow flats, but they'll stay
in the deeper waters so there's still that degree of separation
between the two. Now there is one shark that
stands up to these guys and that is the Mighty All Feared.
So scary you cry with a second you see him.
Sandbar shark, Now that is clearly an overhyping of sandbar
sharks. As many aquariums have sandbar
sharks as they are about the size of a sand tiger shark and
they're not very temperamental, but they eat a similar diet to
the grey reef shark. So if you're hoping to see both
in the same area, it's probably not going to happen.
Usually if there's an abundance of one, the other will be
elsewhere. Now this doesn't mean that if
there's one around that the other one won't because they
might be able to in smaller numbers, but I didn't see
anything that said that one way or another.
On top of that, these sharks do have a positive relations with
some fish such as rainbow runners.
They will rub against the sharks to get parasites off their skin
which would damage the parasite instead of giving it to the
shark, which is rather cool. There have been rare occur
occasions where the Gray reef shark will swim with marine
mammals or pelagic fishes like sailfish.
A group of Gray reef sharks were once observed following a pot of
dolphins and silky sharks were also along for the fun I guess,
not quite sure why. And then a silver tip was also
just hanging out, which I'm guessing it was just a nice
little party or their ulterior motives, which we'll discuss in
a minute. Now there is always a bigger
fish and the bigger fish in this case would be great hammer heads
and silver tip sharks because they enjoy feeding on Gray reef
sharks. So they were most likely waiting
for any of those Gray reef sharks to stray away from the
group and then they would go in for the kill.
Now Gray reef sharks have a smaller diet compared to a lot
of other sharks, possibly why there is competition between
them and sandbar sharks. They like eating cephalopods,
especially squid and octopus, and crustaceans such as crabs
and lobsters. But they also will sometimes go
a little bit further to get some snapper.
And if there's a group of them around, they can sometimes also
take down another shark. But their teeth are kind of
small, but they can still do damage.
It's just more of a hunting in numbers mentality.
Now, this shark is viviperous, which means that they give live
birth instead of laying eggs or having them hatch internally.
Their pups are about 45 to 60cm or 18 to 24 inches long.
So they're still pretty big because that's two feet, which
that's for the Americans like myself, who cannot do
conversions like that because I do not know.
I can't visualize how long 60 centimeters.
And even though I just met said it, but if I say, oh, it's 2
feet and then someone goes, yeah, that's 60 centimeters.
My brain just did, there's a wall.
I can't do it. I don't know why.
Now unlike many other sharks, these sharks are active at all
times of the day, but they do have peak active hours at night.
Kind of how some people work night shift but the majority
work day shift. This shark typically works night
shift but has some that work in the day shift.
That's really dumb analogy but I mean I think y'all got it so
that's great. They're also one of the few
sharks that don't like traveling far from home as they tend to
stay within a mile or kilometer of home.
Many sharks like migrating like white sharks and Makos that will
travel up and down the East Coast of the US depending on the
season, but the Gray reef shark just doesn't do that.
They stay pretty where they are. Now.
I mentioned earlier that they don't like other sharks.
They do like each other though. So they will congregate the
other and exhibit very social behaviors, which is I guess
sharkist in some type of way, but they don't include them.
But I mean, shark on a shark I guess.
But they have seen hunting, they have been seen hunting along
white tip reef sharks. So I guess they do have some
diversity, but it's very odd to see this in sharks as typically
sharks prefer solidarity. They'll remain solo and those
that are social will work with a variety of sharks, or at least
what I've come across so far while researching.
These sharks are curious of divers and will come rather
close if to examine you, but they get bored if they seen you
before so you got to give them a little razzle dazzle to get them
to come back. I've seen people use water
bottles that are empty to crinkle them to get them to come
nearby, but I recommend you be experienced if you're going to
try that. Now there is risk when they're
hunting or if you are around their food, which is why you
should not spend time in a school of fish or with a group
of crabs because the sharks hungry, they won't care if
you're there or not. They're going to get that fish
or crab and even if it's a crab rave, they're not going to care.
They're going to still get you. Now unfortunately these sharks
are endangered as they are caught commercially for shark
fin soup and fish meal, which are two of the dumbest things
that they could be used for. Their numbers are also declining
due to coral bleaching caused by global warming and climate
change, which fun fact will come up later.
But that is what I have for the Gray reef shark.
If you guys have any questions or anything like that, please
feel free to reach out on any of the ways I mentioned before,
social media comments, anything like that.
Now, the safety bit that I have for this week is kind of more
focused on how to keep shark safe.
So I want to look at how to help a shark that you feel is not
receiving proper care in captivity.
And this one I got a lot of information from the ACA website
which is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Now firstly, dear God the amount of pages I found that describe
zoos and aquariums as prisons that only exist to torture
animals is just insane. Now I don't believe that every
animal is appropriate for captivity unless further
research is done into properly keeping them.
Two examples would be great white sharks and basking sharks.
There have been a few examples where great whites have been
kept for a few days up to a few months before they either died
or were released back into the wild.
But the last attempt was in 2011 I believe, and marine biologists
realized they need to do a lot more research before they could
capture these guys and have them in a in an aquarium.
Basking sharks as well. They did want to do that, but
then also after all the issues with the whale sharks realized
that they don't know how they're going to get them somewhere and
if they does come a case where they need to release them, how
are they going to get them back out?
Plus, these sharks require a lot more depth than the whale sharks
do, as whale sharks tend to like to be more towards the surface
and basking sharks tend to migrate down in the water
throughout the night. So it's kind of hard, but there
are a lot of shark ologists, which is not currently a
recognized field of marine biology.
But a shark here mentioned that they wanted to become one in the
comments, and I support that very much.
They mentioned that it's not something that could happen
currently and it's something that they want to continue to
look into, to eventually do down the line.
But for right now, they don't know how to do it.
They're going to have to look more into it now.
Many zoos and aquariums aim to provide the best possible care
for their animals within their facilities and spread awareness
and promote conservation efforts for these animals.
Of course, there were Brad bad practices over the years and
there are still zoos and aquariums that do not treat
animals the way that they should.
So that's why we're hitting on this topic.
The first step I always recommend is to look into what
type of care that animal would require, same as you should with
any pet. If you have questions regarding
the care of an animal in an aquarium or zoo, you can always
ask about it. Sometimes animals require less
care. It's kind of like taking care of
plants. Some need more.
Cactuses don't need a whole lot. If you give a cactus too much
care, it's going to be over watered and die.
Sun animals do not need a lot of space, nor do they want it.
Crabs, for example, do not require a lot of space or an
abundance of food. They kind of make do with hiding
in different areas and also kind of get in the scraps that are
leftover. Although aquariums will also
have some food for them as well. So they're not really really
running a marathon. A lot of them don't need a whole
lot of space to run around. They just kind of need a little
place to hide in their content. It is always good to ask
questions because sometimes a quick conversation makes a lot
of sense. When I saw the dolphin exhibit
at the Georgia Aquarium, I saw that there were a lot of columns
and decorations in the tank, and I wondered why Baltimore's was
essentially a giant pool. So I reached out to my friend
that worked there years ago, and in a short text she said because
they're usually more in the open ocean and they don't really
interact with reefs, My brain went, Oh yeah, makes a lot of
sense. So speaking with keepers is a
good way to see what's going on and what care they require.
Now if you know something is off and you're still sure that
they're not caring for the animals properly, you can
contact the Aza through their website to submit concerns.
This of course is not the nail in the coffin that will shut
down the aquarium or zoo, so you don't have to worry about
submitting anything that actually isn't an issue.
But also try not to be submit crazy.
I'm sure they get messages from PETA and some Karen's that all
the time claiming abuse when none has occurred.
So worst case scenario they don't really do much about it
and best case you were right and they get something to change.
Of course, do not harass staff, cause a scene, or try to get the
crowd to join against the exhibit.
You're just being a jerk at that point, and trying to start an
uprising right there is not going to be helpful really at
all. Another thing is if you're
getting all your information from this podcast, I need you to
look into it more. I've said it a million times, I
have a degree in social work and I do research for the podcast,
but I am not the final say in anything.
And I swear if I get an e-mail from the Aza saying yo too many
of your listeners are submitting reports and all your info is
wrong, I'm putting you all in time out to think about what
you've done. But a few things to look for
would be if a shark is acting erratically such as swimming
rapidly with sharp movements, hunting tank mates, or trying to
leap from the tank. Now there is a small disclaimer
with this as well because there was a leopard shark in an
aquarium, which I cannot remember which one, that would
get really excited when he'd see his keepers that he tried to
jump out of the water like a dolphin.
But he wasn't being abused because he wasn't doing that
when the keepers weren't around was soon as they'd show up he'd
be so excited to go see him that he jumped towards them.
But he just liked his keepers a lot, which was adorable.
Now if an animal has open cuts or wounds or is missing feathers
or looks like they have some sort of disease, it's also not
always the aquarium or zoo's fault.
They might have rescued the animal and they're currently
helping it. Plus some animals are just
accident prone and might get injured more easily.
I mean, pandas are built like tanks because these goobers fall
out of trees and look like they're trying to swanton bomb
themselves from the top rope. But it's mostly self-inflicted.
They're just kind of dumb sometimes.
So the first steps always conversation.
And also a lot of these animals that are healing or have been
rescued are usually behind the scenes first.
So you're not usually going to roll up on him and see some
animal looking diseased and decrepit.
But I mean, right now there's a a Panther at the zoo Tampa.
I believe it's Michael is his name, but he he doesn't put any
weight on his front right paw. I believe it is.
And that's just how he's always been.
That's how they got him. But they can't do anything to
fix it at this point. So he's just going to be hurt
and he's OK with that. He gets around fine.
He's happy. He celebrates his birthday every
year. It's adorable, which I have the
same birthday as one of the Panthers.
I can't remember who it might be Michael.
We'll find out. I need to look at the pictures
again. But anyway, that's what I have
for the safety bit of this episode.
We're going to go on to the news now.
I will give you a little disclaimer first.
This section is definitely getting political this time.
I may get a little bit heated. I've tried to keep politics out
of the podcast as much as I could, but two dumb things
happen related to sharks in the past week and I'm going to talk
about them. So here we go.
You've been warned. But the first news story that I
have is a federal shark attack alert quote Lulu's Law and quote
named after Mountain Brook Teen. And this was reported by 1819
News, so I want to be very clear off RIP.
My critiques of this bill or law are not at any victims of shark
bites and they should not be seen as the aggressor or the
villain in this situation. In many cases, they are simply
swimming and a shark bit them because they were looking for
food, didn't know what they were.
The water was murky. Who knows?
There's a whole bunch of reasons why it could have happened.
But I'm not here to bash any victims or anything like that
and I don't want anyone to as well.
I'm also not completely familiar with Lulu's incident other than
I remember the time frame and thinking wow that was a lot of
bites in a short period of time. But other than that I had to
look more into it. But anyway, on to the article.
This teen was bitten by a shark in June of 2024 along with two
others on the same day. And when I looked further into
it, I remember that these bites were less than two hours apart,
which is incredibly close, close together, which is also why
people are trying to claim it was the same shark despite this
not being confirmed. Now, a shark can cover a lot of
distance within two hours. I don't know why anyone would be
in the same area biting people over and over again.
It's not impossible though, as there was the bull shark that
swam 25 miles up the Delaware River biting people about 100
years ago. So it's possible.
But the area is so big, especially here in Florida, and
it's the shark bite capital of the world.
There's quite a few sharks down here.
It's not just one shark putting up those numbers.
That'd be nuts. So I don't believe that this is
the action of one shark. I feel goes back to Jackson
Hooton's density problem that he described to me as a lot of
people in the water with a lot of sharks.
So you're going to get a bite or two.
Now, what this bill aims to do is it would allow for an
emergency alert to be sent out after a bite or when shark bite
conditions are present, which let me tell you, a spring break
and throughout the summer, your phone's going to be blowing up
about it. Which shark bite conditions is
just wild because they're literally, Are you in a tropical
area with water connected to the ocean?
Congrats, there's a shark nearby.
Have you gotten bit? No, Congrats.
That's usually how it goes. If you did get bit, it's usually
not how it goes. Sorry about that.
Now, I am very much for trying to have protective measures in
place, but right here, this is not like it's not going to do a
whole lot. The best protective measure is
providing education and giving people the tools to know what to
look for. Kind of like how I have a whole
safety section constantly reminding you to keep an eye out
if you notice a lot of fish or wearing something shiny or if
you're trying to feed fish in the water, which you shouldn't
do because all those things attract sharks.
But I feel like these alerts will mostly just cause fear and
panic and lead people to advocate for shark hunting.
And then we've kind of just circled back to Jaws, which now
we're back in the 70s and that's like almost that actually is 50
years of of science and research just completely down the drain.
Those were 50 years ago. That's crazy.
Anyway, another big issue that I have is that in America
currently, the Republican Party has been spreading the message
that they are protecting children and families, but doing
things to directly hurt them while pushing for things like
this that really do little to nothing.
Sure, these alerts will keep some people out of the water,
but others will still still go in and can still get bit.
There will still be sharks in the water and that's where they
live. They're being driven closer to
shore due to changing conditions.
If we wanted to make real change to protect, people could push
for climate change, protect protections to allow the ocean
to recover and sharks to return more offshore.
Now not every shark lives offshore and bites have not
increased from year to year. But as things continue to trend
the way they are, they're going to start getting closer, which
creates a bigger density problem, which is going to be a
rise in shark bites. So instead of addressing the
real issue, they're solving a non issue currently while
screaming. We protected them and the other
side didn't, which is just really, really frustrating.
And unfortunately, this brings me to the next article, which
this one's probably going to be where I get real heated, but
we'll we'll see. So far I'm calm crazy, but the
Trump administration rolls back dozens of environmental
regulations in landmark shift. And this is by semaphore.
Now I'm going to apologize now because I feel like this one's
going to be the one of the two stories that gets me rather
angry because it is about one of the two things I support the
highest and that is LGBTQ plus rights and the environment.
And this administration is actively going after both.
So I'm rather angry these days, but it's fine, we're working on
it. Now the head of the EPA, which
is just an oxymoron currently is planning to rollback all Biden
era environmental protections on emissions, water, and the fossil
fuel industry. Now this is the dumbest idea
I've ever heard as the goal is to drive down prices of cars and
homes but I can leave a great way to do that without touching
regulations but I'll leave that out for right now.
But also real quick, Canada's not going to be the 51st state
you absolute gremlin. Anyway, in 2024 for the first
time in the history of recording climate change numbers, the fail
safes that helped limit the amount of carbon left in the
atmosphere failed. Coral reefs and sub aquatic
vegetation along with other plants throughout the world were
not able to take the amount of carbon in the air and keep it at
a minimum or keep it right where it was.
Now this is kind of catastrophic as it means that temperatures
will continue to rise, sharks will be further displaced
putting them closer in contact with humans leading to more
bites leading to the more stupid alerts that won't really do
anything other than just freak people out.
Now the regulation rollbacks will most likely not 'cause
prices to drop as even when they do go into effect, a lot of CE
OS like the pocket that money and then still complain that
they can't do anything to raise minimum wage or anything like
that. But I do want to give a quick
shout out to Costco, Dick's and Arizona Ice Tea Company as their
CE OS have kept their diversity, equity and inclusion and also
kept prices where they are and they've looked out for the
consumer a lot. I do remember one of my favorite
stories I ever read is that Costco CEO even threatened a
board member that he would kill him if they ever change the
price of the dollar 50 hot dog. So that's just hardcore and I'm
with it. But anyway, little tangent
there, but Costco's great. Now, I've already written to
lawmakers in Florida, as I know many have down here, but they
don't really seem to care about who they represent right now or
what we even really want them to do.
But yours may listen a bit better.
So there is still hope. And thankfully, many other
countries are putting forth efforts to protect the
environment. But please, of course, write
your local lawmakers or call them, protest, whatever you need
to do to get the message through to these regulations that they
need to be upheld. If we continue this trend, the
effects will become irreversible and there won't be any time left
to help. But right now, we still have
time. Now, of course, is not all doom
and gloom. I may have gotten upset about
this and I may have said some things that upset some people,
and I mean, that's just kind of the state of the world right
now. But one thing to help calm you
down a little bit if you're worried about it is that there's
thousands, if not millions of scientists working on reversing
climate change and everyone doing anything they can to help,
such as recycling, walking or biking instead of driving, not
using AI to look things up. You can simply Google which, fun
fact, AI was found to be wrong about 60% of the time and uses
like 10 times the energy. So you know, just just Google
it, it's better. But all these things and any
effort you make to help the environment will make a
difference. So don't let that discourage you
from being an eco warrior. It's going to be fine.
We're going to work this out, but something's got to give.
But that's what I have for this episode.
Thank you for letting me go, all my little tangents there and
everything like that. And thank you all for listening.
I appreciate y'all hanging out and being here as you always
are. And you can always comment or DM
your favorite shark fact because of course I want to throw more
at the beginning there. Follow along on social media,
send in any comments, questions, anything like that.
And of course, give us a rating and send this to someone you
think would like to listen to it.
And I'll see you in the next one.
Bye.