Hello and welcome back, Shark. Here's to another episode of
Deep Dives with Sharks. I am the host here, my name is
Alex and I appreciate your patience.
While I was absolutely just missing, I'd also like to
apologize a little bit if I sound a little bit raspy today.
I did just spend the weekend at a rock music festival called
Welcome to Rockville, so that was a really great show, which
was fun, but I might sound a little raspy because of that and
I apologize. But I do appreciate your
patience and the messages and all your support.
Once again, when life got hectic, I was doing an
internship Monday through Wednesday and then working
Thursday through Sunday. Plus I had a class on top of
that so I'm impressed. I still got an episode out now
even though it was months apart, which I apologize for, but it
was very hectic and it should slow down a little bit coming
up. I will still have my internship
starting back up after next week, and then I will also still
be working Thursday through Sunday.
But I shouldn't have another class unless something went
wrong, in which case I'll have to take another class, which
we'll work it out, don't worry. But I do still want to try to
get episodes out to you guys, and these episodes do take a lot
of research. So I was toying with the idea of
trying to do sort of like an AMA style or Ask Me Anything,
Although we do have to keep it PG because A my mother listens
and B there's lots of young shark.
Here's that listen as well. So we're going to keep things PG
and just ask hopefully Shark related questions, but you can
also ask other related questions, things like that and
I'll see if you guys want to do that or not.
So keep an eye on the Instagram. So that way I can put a pull up
for you guys and we can see if that's something you guys would
be interested in hearing. But I'm also got a couple ideas
I'm toying with. I'll probably reveal those a
little bit later depending on how consistent these episodes
come out, because if I'm not, if I'm still at this rate, then
there's no reason to try to push more, but we will see.
I'm also going to finally put out those episodes where I
review a couple shark related movies, which please keep
sending in those suggestions as well.
I do have notes done for two of them.
I just need to organize them so that way I can get those.
I was waiting to see if we are going to do a collaboration with
another pot, but that one is currently on hiatus.
So I was kind of waiting to see if they were going to come back
together. And it's looking like for right
now they're going to stay gone for a little bit so we can add
them in a little bit later. For right now, I'm probably
going to release those somewhat soon.
So that way we have a little bit of a makeup for while I was
gone. Also I do graduate in August so
then I should just only be working which will be very nice
and I will have more free time once again and should be able to
push these out a little bit more consistently which would be
incredible. But I also would like to give a
shout out to River W and his dad Peter who are out in Perth who
many many, many months ago they sent me a very very lovely voice
message through the app formerly known as Anchor.
Now it is Spotify for podcasters and it was an amazing way to
start out that day. I was so excited.
Also, I'm starstruck over you so River, you are incredible, Sir.
It's amazing to have an eco warrior such as yourself as one
of the shark heroes. I consider that an absolute
honor. And also all the many amazing
shark heroes that are out there. Just each and everyone of you
are so incredible. And it is amazing that I've got
people that listen to me all around the world.
And I'm absolutely honored that you were starstruck quote UN
quote that you were able to talk to me, which is rather wild
because in my eyes, I am a person who just owned a
microphone and an Internet connection and found an app that
I could talk about sharks. So it's pretty awesome.
I'm very happy to do that. Of course, please feel free to
reach out whenever you guys, any of you can do that as well.
And I am more than happy to try to reply as fast as I can.
And I appreciate all the interaction I've had with you
guys. You all are so incredible now.
This intro is a little bit longer than usual, but we got
through and we're going to get on to the sharks.
But of course if you have any questions, comments, anything
like that, reach out to me on any of the social media over at
deep dives with sharks on Instagram or on Twitter and X it
is at deep Dive sharks. So one thing that I wanted to
add to the correction corner or kind of just a fun fact that I
want to remind everyone of, is the fact that whale sharks are
considered carpet sharks. Not necessarily because of the
fact that they lay on the bottom like other carpet sharks do,
such as the wobi gong or the Angel shark, but more just
because of how they're put together, if that makes sense.
So their fins are more off to the side rather than angling
down like a great white shark. So kind of just the way that
they're built makes them a just gigantic carpet shark, which is
wild and for all we know they could lay at the bottom.
We don't really observe them too too often.
So a neat thought, but going on to the shark that we have for
this week, it is going to be the Bramble shark.
Now the shark here is have impressed me once again as there
are many sharks that I've at least heard of, but this is the
second shark that was suggested that I didn't really know
anything about beforehand. The first one that was mentioned
was the Angular rough shark, So please keep sending in your
suggestions 'cause there's so many sharks that I might not
have heard of and probably don't know a whole lot about.
And I'm always incredibly excited to learn more about any
type of shark out there, even if it's ones I thought I already
knew a lot about. Please keep sending them my way.
But going into the Bramble shark, it's a rather round boy.
Some might even say they're thick, as they have a
cylindrical body that has a short head with a blunt nose and
it's not as wide as their mouth. They have two small dorsal fins
just before their tail and a short pectoral fins, but they
have a longer square shaped pelvic fins, so they're kind of
just haphazardly thrown together.
It's wild. They really look like someone
started molding a shark out of clay and substituted the parts
of the shark they couldn't remember with other fish, and
then proceeded to drop it on its face.
Tried to salvage it because the project was due in 5 minutes and
we ended up with the Bramble shark, which I absolutely love
them. Their eyes are a little
different than other sharks as they do not have nictitating
membranes, which nicotine membranes are a third eyelid
that many animals have to help protect their eye while
maintaining vision can see. Some sharks have this When it
appears, their eye moves deeper into or out of their eye socket.
When they close or open the membrane so it's clear, you can
see through it and you'll see. Sharks and other creatures like
frogs use this sometimes I think frogs have it.
They might not, I'm not sure. But other sharks for sure.
When you're watching shark, we go see their eye either set
further in or further out of their head, and that membrane
will protect it in case they move it further in.
But to go to many sharks, these sharks will have 5 gill slits,
but their fifth pair is their longest.
They have a brownish blackish color to their backs and sides
that have a purplish hue due to how their denticles line up with
a pair underbelly. Now nurse sharks also show off
this purplish hue in certain settings.
You look closely at them in captivity.
Usually the light catches their denticles just right to show off
that hue. I'll also compare the sharks to
nurse sharks a little bit more down the line as they share many
similarities. But yes, I will also post a
picture of that hue as the last time I was at the Baltimore
aquarium there was a nurse shark right up against the glass and
it had a beautiful purple hue coming off it with the light
hitting and it was great. I'll post a picture of it, don't
worry, check the Instagram for that.
They have a layer of mucus on their skin that is said to smell
absolutely foul, so that mix with their almost haphazardly
spaced denticles with some containing thorn like
structures, the shark has earned a free spot on the list of
sharks I'd rather not pet. Sounds like it wouldn't be very
fun and they'd probably bite me, so probably just don't pet
sharks at all. It probably wouldn't be the the
best idea. Now, these sharks tend to grow
to be about 10 to 10.2 feet long or 3.05 to 3.1 meters, and can
weigh up to 440 lbs or 200 kilograms.
The Bramble shark can be found across Europe down to
Mozambique, including the Mediterranean Sea, but a handful
have been found around Massachusetts, North Carolina,
and Louisiana, just to name this couple states.
In the US, we also have Brazil, Tobago, Argentina, Oman, Japan,
South India, southern Australia and New Zealand.
So they're kind of all over the world, but more peppered about
rather than being actually everywhere, which is
interesting. They enjoy depths of around
656.2 to 2952.8 feet or 2000 to 900 meters, so a huge range
there. And Oh my goodness, the feet are
really specific. They like continental shells as
well as deep waters that can produce cold water up wells that
can create a lot of nutrients leading to more food
availability. Similarly, I discussed how whale
sharks were becoming more active in the northern Gulf of Mexico
in previous new segments due to the upwelling of colder water
from a trench bringing many nutrients and fish to feed on
these nutrients. Well, sharks will show up to get
those nutrients and of course other fish will in other areas,
which then brings the Bramble sharks closer to shores with
that upwelling. In some cases these sharks will
come even shallower waters. Yeah, even shallower waters.
Sorry to follow up, follow these upwelling cold waters, but can
also be found to migrate to shallower waters during the
summer and around some European countries.
They have a smaller diet that includes crabs, smaller sharks
such as spiny dogfish and small Bony fish.
They have a rather large pharynix which is a muscular
tube in their throat, which has LED researchers to believe that
they hunt using suction, similar to a nurse shark would.
Suction feeding is a rather useful tool when you are a
bigger shark, especially if you don't move very fast.
But I imagine dying via suction feeding would be absolutely
horrifying, but also kind of hilarious to imagine.
You're just going along and all of a sudden a vacuum sucks you
up and spits you out a bunch of times.
Absolutely crazy, but overall these sharks have been described
as sluggish in nature which would help to have a suction
feeding style to trap their prey and Bramble.
Sharks give live birth and give birth to anywhere from 15 to 52
pups at a time. Females have two uteruses or
uteri, which I looked both up and they are correct, but that
is just wild words to pronounce in general.
But having multiple do help to facilitate high numbers of these
pups cause 52 is absolutely just mind blowing.
It's crazy, but these sharks do pose a threat to humans as they
are often caught as bycatch or by sport fishermen in the
eastern Atlantic. And when they are in shallower
waters, they can encounter humans much more, which leads to
more bites. It's kind of like we don't have
a whole lot of bites among sharks that are in the deep,
deep ocean, as there's not too many humans that are down there,
or if there are, there's submarines and things and they
tend to not bite those as much. But we don't see the deep sea
sharks very close to shore. We see a lot of humans close to
shores. Sharks close to shore equals
more bites. But these guys are also using a
variety of products including fish meal, some oils for
medicine and other oils to coat boats, which it's rather wild to
me, like I'm just going to go oil up my canoe or kayak with
shark oil real quick, don't mind me, but I, you know to each
their own I guess. But that is what I have for the
Bramble shark. If you guys have any questions,
comments or feel that any messed anything up and you'd like to
correct that, please send that over my way and I will be more
than happy to add that to the next correction corner.
But going into Shark Safety this week, we're going to be looking
at how to respect sharks in captivity, and this one came
from a couple shark years. I think the two that sent them
to me did not want any credit for that.
So you remain anonymous and if you did, I very much apologize.
Feel free to reach out to me and send in more suggestions, and I
will be more than happy to shut you out on that one.
But the information I got here is from sharktrust.org, so if
you'd like more information you can go over there and check them
out. But this has been a highly
debated topic from the dawn of time, it seems like, and that's
if sharks should be kept in captivity at all.
And I personally feel that seeing sharks in an aquarium
from a young age sparked my love for them more than seeing them
on TV or in a book would be able to do.
But I believe that zoos and aquariums have become more
responsible and reliable when it comes to animal care and
longevity for them. We can learn so much from
animals in captivity that we would not be able to if we only
encountered them in the wild, and especially it's hard to find
some specimens in the wild. Whale sharks are rather abundant
around Cancun, especially around this time of year, but it's kind
of hard to keep track of them. Plus, even if we do put trackers
on them, who's to say that something's not going to happen
to that shark and we're not going to be able to collect any
more data? Plus, we can't observe behaviors
and things like that, and it's just it doesn't have the same
weight to it. But thanks to organizations like
the Aza, which is the association of Zoos and
aquariums that ensures that animals are not being mistreated
and will shut down zoos or aquariums that are not up to the
proper standards in order to protect animals in captivity.
Now just because a zoo is not Aza credited, this does not mean
that they are abusing animals or that they are a bad zoo.
So for example the Salisbury Zoo in Maryland is a free zoo that
students at the local university by alma mater by the way let's
go go goals but those that live around the area or anyone
passing through can visit. So if you're on the Eastern
Shore, definitely recommend it. But they were easy accredited
when I was down there in school and shortly after lost their
accreditation not due to not being able to afford.
I believe it was a $6 million building for quarantine and
husbandry for animal purposes, but they've been taking steps to
regrain their accreditation and especially being a freeze you.
A $6 million building is a hefty, hefty ask, but I believe
they were working on getting that in and doing different
upgrades to the zoo the last time we had visited.
But this zoo and similar zoos treat their animals well but
require more assistance and growth to gain the
accreditation. On the opposite end, many
believe that zoos and aquariums are animal prisons and that take
animals directly from their natural habitat and can cut
their life drastically. Now I can't see this is 100%
false. Is there definitely zoos in the
world that have acquired their animals by illegal methods and
would support the argument that zoos are not great, but everyone
is entitled to their own opinion and are more than welcome to
disagree with me and never step foot in a zoo and aquarium.
And I'm not going to force you to do so nor tell you you're
wrong as evidence will always be changing and for all I know,
everything I know could be wrong and could change tomorrow.
So all I ask is just to respect everyone's opinion on the topic
as we all come from different backgrounds which will affect
our opinion on it. But getting back on track, How
can you respect sharks that are in an aquarium?
Most listening are not. Aquarium curators are not in
charge of how your local aquarium sources their animals.
So in this case, all you can do is your research.
Now this means that you're going to have to look into which one
is AZ accredited and which ones are not, and also look into what
they're doing in order to get accredited, or if they don't
want to get accredited, what they're doing to take care of
their animals. Case of the Salisbury Zoo they
had still they still followed Aza guidelines I have been
working with. Others use nearby to care for
their animals without interruption and gain insight on
care that should be added now. Things to look for include how
they source their animals, their animals, food, increase, their
education for the public support captive breeding programs,
contribute to conservation and how they treat special species
as I call them now. Special species would be
something like a white tiger that are not naturally occurring
species as it is a tiger with albinism that was bred with
another tiger with albinism to ensure that this quote UN quote
rare breed would continue. But now they've been inbred so
much that their skull is to break for their head, their eyes
are almost always crossed and they can have a slew of medical
issues. You can also encourage your
local aquarium to conduct further research on animals if
that they want to acquire if they have been issues with them
in the past. Georgia Aquarium received
pushback when announcing they had acquired whale sharks and
we're at one point one of two aquariums in the world that
house them. When they were looked into
further, it was determined they could hold more whale sharks
than they currently had. And they were conducting so much
research to advance the understanding of this relatively
unknown species and promoted education among the public to
understand that species. So to make it brief and
succinct. Research institutions that you
want to visit and support and encourage the advancement of
animal care in any setting by asking keepers questions.
Supporting institutions that meet the standards of the animal
care that you feel are necessary for the animals.
Now sidebar. When talking to keepers,
remember to be respectful. They can't control the quality
of of care decisions that higher ups make.
If they tell you something surprising, you can ask For more
information. But do not take frustrations out
on them. Ask them to speak out against
their higher ups or accuse them of mistreating the animals.
They're trying to do their same their job the same way that the
rest of us are going back to the Georgia Aquarium a little bit as
well. They also got their whale sharks
from what would have been a fish market.
Given the two options, would they rather be in captivity or
food? I personally would rather be in
captivity, you know, I'd rather not be eaten.
And many zoos and aquariums are still working on these
accreditations and even if they don't have them, are treating
their animals well. Accreditations are constantly
changing and evolving. This one also give a shout out
to Zoo Tampa. I believe they just reached 25
years of accreditation, which is incredible.
ZA works all around the world. They've also worked to shut
down. I believe it was there was like
a aquarium over on the eastern side of Florida.
I can't remember exactly where it was.
I think it was somewhere in Miami.
They they shut that one down or they helped to get public outcry
to shut it down because they were really doing not great with
taking care of their animals. And thankfully, I believe all of
them would rehouse somewhere. Another one that gets a lot of
Flack is SeaWorld. Now, I myself have never been to
SeaWorld, and of course some horrible, horrible things have
occurred there. But there are many things that
are going on to try to increase the care that that is given to
animals there. Some of you may never want to
step foot in SeaWorld and may feel that you hate it.
I'm not going to push your decision one way or another.
I myself have not been there. I'm curious, but I'm not sure if
I'm going to go. There's many different things to
play here. Another thing as well, the
Baltimore Aquarium as well, just to talk about them for the 8
millionth time. But they are currently building
a sanctuary out in the Bahamas for their dolphins, I believe I
saw. And they're eventually going to
take all their dolphins and put them out over into the Bahamas,
back in the wild, which is great.
And they're going to make sure that they have an area where
they'll still be safe and monitored.
So that way they're not just going to throw an animal that
was bred in captivity back into the wild because they tried that
with I believe it was Tilikum back and not the Baltimore cram.
I I think it was seaward if someone did that with Tilikum
way back years ago and they ended up dying in the wild
because they didn't know how to hunt or anything like that.
So there are instances where aquariums are going to be more
helpful than they are going to be hurtful.
So that's just something I want you all to consider and once
again, I don't have an answer. Our aquariums good, Are they
bad? I feel that they're good.
I feel that we should keep going to them, but I also don't have
answers to, well, what about breeding and captivity and
things like that. Those will be things that we
have to look into, but respecting the animals is going
to come down to looking into each institution that you want
to visit individually. Of course there's going to be
some you get excited and go to, and usually you're going to find
they're doing a good job anyway. For the most part.
Many zoos and aquariums do want to do a good job and keep these
animals safe and healthy, but as I mentioned, there are many that
do not, so there's going to be different things to look into.
Just try to look into it before you get there.
If it's not very great, one of the things you can do is voice
your complaints to wherever their comment box is.
Sometimes, unfortunately, that's a paper shredder and they don't
care. But trying to cause a big stir
in public outcry isn't always the best idea.
Sometimes it's just alerting the proper organization reaching out
to the Aza. Things like that might be the
most helpful, but that is also something to look further into.
But that is why I had for the shark safety portion.
It wasn't a whole bunch of safety.
One thing I'll add is, of course, don't try jumping into
the tanks at the aquariums and stuff like that.
Usually they won't bother you because they're not hungry, but
also the same time. Like don't just jump into the
tank. That's weird.
Don't do that. Another thing, if you don't feel
like an animal is being a touch tank, talk to the person working
there. They might be able to tell you
something different. So ask questions, do research,
and that is the best way you can respect animals that are in
captivity in general. So there we are, but if you guys
have any questions, comments, I'm personally not going to
debate anyone hardcore on whether or not they're good or
bad. You are more than entitled to
have that opinion, and if you want to talk more about it, I'm
more than happy to. But I'm not looking to argue
with anyone is my main point there.
But of course you guys have any questions, anything like that,
feel free to send them over on the Instagram or the Twitter.
Slash X. Now going on to the shark news
now there are a couple ones that came up that people sent to me.
So the first one is going to be the latest update on the
pregnant North Carolina Stingray who shared an aquarium tank with
sharks. And this one came from George on
Instagram. And this one also I got my
information from The Charlotte Observer.
Now a lot of you may have heard about this.
So to fill in those who have not, a round Stingray in a North
Carolina aquarium was pregnant with five pups despite not
sharing a tank with a male in over 8 years.
There are however 5 male sharks in her enclosure and she did
have bite marks which could indicate mating.
Could also indicate that she spooked a shark and got bit out
of a reaction which can also happen.
Now this really blew up because TikTok went wild with this one,
with some users claiming that there will be a new shark ray
breed while others are saying that we have the first Ray Jesus
God I love that app which is not sarcastic.
It eats up too much of my time, but experts have stated that the
DNA is not close enough to allow species to successfully breed
together. What is more likely is what
bamboo sharks have done in the past, which is it would be
stored the male reproductive needs for long periods of time
and fertilize the eggs at a later date.
Now the babies have not come yet as of last check, so I might
need to double check that again. So we do not have a deaf a
definitive answer, but it's looking like we're just going to
have ray babies. Experts could be wrong though,
we could find out something completely new.
As I mentioned earlier, information and research is
always changing. For all we know, there could be
some species that can interbreed.
We'll find out. But going on we have the great
white sighting may reveal a Holy Grail of shark science.
And this was sent to me by Zion. I hope I'm saying your name
right. Sorry if I am not, but I got
this information from CN. Now a 5 foot great white shark
was spotted off the coast of California a few weeks ago.
Probably now a couple months ago.
As some of you may be thinking, OK cool, why is that important?
And I'm glad you asked because we see great whites all over
there now. Great whites also grow to be
pretty freaking big. Some can get up to 16 to 24
feet, so a 5 foot shark is a tiny one.
It's also very pale in color, which most Gray whites are, Gray
on top and white at the bottom. They can eat embryo white in the
womb and milk secreted from the mother.
So this shark was also shedding a white layer, which could have
been the embryonic coating, meaning it's a fresh newborn.
But why is that so exciting? Because it hasn't happened
before. This will be the first filming
or maybe even sighting of a newborn great white.
This could also simply be a case of a white sorry, just having a
shark with a skin disorder, but the size and location of a known
popping ground for pregnant great whites indicates could be
a newborn. Now this is currently being
debated by shark experts at some say it's purely speculation,
while others say it's incredibly fascinating.
No matter what, it's still really cool to see and the fact
that it's even a possibility is just amazing.
And This is why I love looking to sharks.
But that is what I had for this episode.
I want to thank you all for listening once again.
Follow the Instagram for more updates at Deep dives with
Sharks or Twitter slash X at Deep Dive Sharks.
I run polls stuff throughout the week, see what y'all would like
to hear, send any comments, questions or anything of the
sort. And lastly give us a rating on
Apple Spotify. Share with anyone who will
listen and not sure when I'll be back.
I'll do my best to keep interacting with everyone.
I'm just going to send out the next couple episodes of the next
couple weeks. So that way we'll have the movie
reviews, things like that. And I'll see if you guys want to
know a little bit more about me. So we'll find out.
But you all take care, be kind to each other and I will see you
in the next one.