PTG Classic: How Did Sharks Get Such a Bad Rap?

it's the calm Sharks down. Have you heard this? It was back in two thousand eleven there was an Australian tour operator, his name was Matt Wall already started playing music from underwater speakers and what he realized was that when he played back in Black or You Shook Me All Night Long, that the sharks started to become much less aggressive. How strange. So instead they actually became calm and inquisitive, and they started nuzzling up to the speaker

and rubbing up against it as they moved past. And I can't say this is my reaction to hearing a CDC, but this is what they did. I love that like sharks dig a C d C and not other bands, you know, But do you have any idea why they like it so much? No? And honestly, this guy was baffled as well. So, as Waller told Time Magazine, quote, sharks don't of ears, they don't have long hair, and they don't headbang past the cage doing air guitar. But they do seem to like the particular vibrations that a

C d C casts off. In fact, it works so well he stopped using bait to draw the sharks near his diving cages, and instead he just calms them down and lures them close with a C d C. It's like they go into this hard rock trance. So today show is all about sharks, like why are we so afraid of shark attacks? Why do they need so many teeth? And why is punching a shark in the nose a terrible strategy if you want to avoid being eaten? So let's dig in. Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part

Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Manges Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof glass wearing yet another one of his classic shirts. Every week I think there's no way he can top the last one, and then he somehow does. And so today's it just says live every week like it's shark week, and I have to bet I don't know exactly what that means, but I feel like it's so deep and it's something that we really need to

learn to live by. These words. I'd actually put it right up there with the Golden Rule, even though I'm not acent sure what it means. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. So after about a year of working here, I tend to get all my moral advice straight off of Tristan shirts. I feel like he's basically a walking Confucius well, and from what we hear from our listeners, I think a lot of people are doing this too. I really don't think he knows the impact he has

in this world. But you know, in this case, we're taking his advice to heart. Because today's show is all about sharks. That means we'll be taking a deep dive into the surprising science behind some of their unique characteristics, as well as a few reasons why it's in our own best interest to eat the ocean shark friendly. And I know for a lot of people, the idea of protecting sharks is going to sound like a terrible idea.

That's part of the reason we wanted to do this episode, so with summer just around the corner, it felt like the right time to take a close look at the animals responsible for so much of the world's beach side dread.

But rather than just perpetuating that old idea that sharks are ravenous and man eating monsters, even we're actually going to try to make a case for why sharks should be feared a little bit less and and actually admired a whole lot more So, we have these animal plates at my house, and they've got foxes and owls and

all these other cute creatures and bow ties. They're all kind of dressed up, and I always end up eating off the shark plate, Like the kids always go for the cute animals, and I am tired of eating off the shark plates. For me. That's what's fueling this episode. But that's great. But I do think a good place to start is noting that while they're nearly five unique species of sharks in the world, only thirty or so

have been definitively linked to unprovoked attacks on humans. So while this idea of sharks immediately conjures up, I don't know, like scary ideas of tiger sharks or great whites. In people's minds, those kind of human hungry peak predators. They're really the exception for sharks species and not the rule, right,

And you know you've actually said human hungry. But but even that is not really the case when we talk about these species as well, because you know, I remember hearing that even these highly predatory sharks, they don't really care for the taste of human Yeah, I mean, I guess we can't really compete with the taste of free range blue fin tuna. Um Sharks obviously don't typically hunt

humans for food at all. In fact, the majority of shark bites are considered exploratory bites, which is basically the sharks just kind of taking a little taste to see if what it's caught is food or not. And after that first bite, most sharks decide, you know, they aren't in the mood for humans and don't go back for seconds. Of course, none of that means that a single shark bite can't be devastating on its own. Usually a nibble

is all it takes to lose a limb. Yeah, I mean, you know, setting aside the unlikely hood of an attack and the intention of the sharks themselves, it is easy to understand why so many people are scared of these creatures. And even a bite that leaves a person's organs and tacks still puts them at risk of, you know, significantly bleeding from that. And at the end of the day, some sharks definitely do attack humans, and when it happens,

the results tend to be pretty horrifying. So you know, you figure that has to color the way the average person looks at sharks, even if the friendlier species do far outnumber the killer ones, right, I mean, as good a drummer as jabber Jaws was on that cartoon, it didn't change our impressionive sharks. Yeah, and he was a very very good drummer, to be honest. But I mean it's partially because, like, the only reports we hear about sharks are terrifying, and that makes it tough for people

to think about them as anything but a threat. But the weird thing is that those feelings have persisted even as a lot of media outlets are improving how they handle shark attacks. In the news like now, reporters will often give a little perspective on the attacks by mentioning how rare shark attacks are overall, Yeah, and that true. I feel like the line always here is how you have a greater chance of being struck dead by lightning

than killed by a shark. I think the odds of dying from a shark attack or something like, you know, one in three point seven million, whereas the odds of dying from lightning are I think one in a hundred and sixty two thousand, So it is a pretty significant difference. Also, I think Martha Stewart has claimed to have been struck by lightning three times, and she's also never been eaten by a shark, which supports that data. That definitely supports

that if that's true. Does she actually claim to have been struck by lightning three times? Yeah? I think once was in her bed once wash dishes. Yeah, she has a little frame bed apparently. Oh that is some bad luck. Well, there are plenty of other examples too. I think I think, you know, you have higher odds of being killed by beastings or squashed by unstable vending machines, which weirdly is kind of a fear of mine, or at least it was when I was a kid, or or even crushed

by falling coconuts. Those are all things that are more likely to happen to you than being eaten or bitten by a shark. Well, I mean, no matter how you want to measure it, the point is that sharks aren't nearly as big a threat to humans as we give them credit for. But that's still a tough prospect for most of us to believe. All right, So I'm curious, like, why do you think that is? Like, if we know grizzly shark attacks are really, really rare, then then why

are we so unnerved by them? I Mean, I think part of it is just the sense of otherness that people get from sharks, because I mean, if you think about other animals that prey on humans, you're thinking about like lions or tigers or wolves, there's still some sense of familiarity there. Like the characteristics and mannerisms we see in those predators kind of remind us of cuddly cats

or the dogs we keep his house pets. And it's similar with other occasional human killers like grizzly bears and gorillas, Like sometimes their behavior makes it seem like they're almost human, which causes people to underestimate the threat that they pose until it's too late, right, And you know, if you think about those animals, they're also pretty cute and playful

when they're just baby. So I would think that kind of furthers the the empathy that you're talking about, definitely, And like, none of this happens with sharks, right, I mean, baby sharks are called pops, but we don't see them as cute like puppies. So when when most people look at sharks, they see something completely unfamiliar to them, and and humans tend to have a tough time grappling with the unfamiliar, all right, So it sounds like most of

us probably won't ever really empathize with sharks. But but I feel like we can at least admire or even respect them a little bit more than we currently do. So keeping that in mind, I know, we both found a ton of surprising, you know, non threatening reasons to be pro sharks. So I feel like maybe the best way to do this is just kind of have a back and forth and and and maybe we can help these guys out on the pr front. I don't know why we're doing this, but but let's give it a shot.

Yeah for it? So I'm gonna start us off with the fact that sharks are way more social than we'd always thought. And this news actually comes from a group of Delaware based researchers who spent nearly a decade tracking the movements of more than three d San tiger sharks.

So this group tagged the sharks with these mobile transmitters, and then they logged how often members of the group cross paths with fellow sharks in the wild, And in the end, they found that sharks hang out in groups that shrink and grow in size depending on the time of year and the location, which is actually something we see mostly in mammals like elephants or chimps and dolphins. Yeah, that's not something I'd heard before, so just trying to

understand this. So, like in the spring, the sharks might go off on their own to mate, but then they like group up again later in the year to hunt together. Is that is that how it works exactly? But even when they travel alone like these San tiger sharks still seem to socialize with passers by. Like the researchers who tagged all these sharks recaptured two of them at one point, and when they downloaded the data from their trackers, they found that just these two sharks had interacted with more

than three fifty fish. Oh wow. And were they mostly bumping into other sand tiger sharks or what? Yeah for for the most part, but they also ran into seven other different species, including a few other kinds of sharks and some plain old fish. But here's the really wild part. These encounters weren't just chance meetings with strangers like the tag. Sharks actually interacted with the same individuals over and over again.

And this would go on throughout the year. And in fact, some sharks bumped into the same fish more than twenty times. That's so bizarre. So do the researchers know what's going on with that? Like, are they really forming these little friend circles or family groups out in the out in the ocean. I mean, it certainly seems that way, but

the truth is we aren't actually sure yet. Like we'll still have to keep following sharks around until we figure it out, But so far, there's actually reason to think that sharks are much friendlier and also better at staying in touch than we ever thought before. Well, I want to congratulate you on on finding both a way to boost the public perception of sharks and your home state. Don't think I've noticed the mention of Delaware in there.

That was well done. But you know, while the social lives of sharks might bear some similarity to our own, I am sad to say they put us the shame in one category and I'm going to go in a very different direction here. But I did find this interesting, and that's dental hygiene. I bet you didn't see me going there now, But if you look at it, sharks actually can't get cavities, And to be fair, that's actually true of most animals, since their diets don't contain anywhere

near as much sugar as that of humans. But sharks actually have a really unique ability here are really unique feature rather, and that's that their teeth are completely coded and fluoride. And that's not an exaggeration. There was this research I was looking at. It was published in the Journal of Structural Biology that both makos and tiger sharks have teeth with outer coatings made from a hundred percent fluoride. So there's reason to think the same is true for

other shark species as well. That's really incredible, but it also reminds me, do you remember when we were coming up with bad ideas for T shirts at Mentalphlass, and one of our friends was desperately trying to get us to make a shark shirt, like a T shirt of a shark smiling, and it said too many teeth, too little time. I do remember that. I still have no idea what that means. It made no sense. I know,

I'm kind of surprised we didn't make it. But you were saying, basically, cavities are an issue for sharks because of their diet, but it also sounds like they don't have much of a problem with tooth togay, like if their teeth are basically encased in this toothpaste. Yeah, that's true. And and not only that, but because the mineral that coat shark teeth is less water soluble than the stuff that coats mammal teeth, they're they're actually perfectly suited for

that underwater life. So then one thing I'm actually curious about is why are there so many loose shark teeth floating around? I mean, if their teeth are so protected, why are they always falling out? Well? See, that's the thing, and this is actually another point of overlap between us and sharks because you know, it turns out that shark

teeth are just as weak as human teeth. And so this was discovered by that same German team of researchers who were studying the fluoride coating on their teeth, and what they found was that despite the added strength from the fluoride, shark teeth aren't any better than ours when it comes to resisting cracking or breaking. So shark teeth actually fall out all the time, you know, whenever they

break or get too worn down. And this is made especially easy because shark teeth are actually only attached at their jaws by this soft tissue, So unlike ours, they're they're they're not nestled in these like tight fitting sockets that we see in you know, in human teeth. But do they have uh, never ending supply of shark teeth as well. I mean, I feel like any time you see a picture of a shark's mouth, it just looks like endless rows of teeth. Oh yeah, I mean, these

guys are like tooth making machines. And in fact, it it only takes them. And this was one of the craziest stats that I saw. It takes most sharks about twenty four hours to produce a replacement tooth, and over the course of an average, say like twenty or thirty year lifespan, a single shark can go through literally thousands of teeth, So anytime you have a tooth falling out, there's always another one just to row behind, and it's just ready to move up and take its place. So

it's pretty remarkable. Yeah, I love that shark dentist isn't a profession any sharks should go into. I feel like there's no money in that, So this is also dumb. But I wonder if anybody's ever knocked out a bunch of sharks teeth, Like you know, how if you're ever faced with an attacking shark, they say your best bet

is to punch in the nose. You know, it's weird because I've heard that too, and so I decided to actually look into it, and it turns out that punching a shark in the face is just about the worst advice you could give a shark attack victim, which honestly, I feel like should have been pretty obvious from the start.

And I really don't know how this rumor caught on, but I found this interview with a wildlife filmmaker, and I wanted to include this quote because he has the best name of just about anyone we've ever talked about. His name is Andy Brandy Cassa Grande the fourth. Is that not such an amazing name? It's pretty amazing. I feel like he deserves his own episode. Anyway, he explains why socking a shark is such a dumb idea. So here's what he says. The reality is that sharks are

pretty durable. Plus water magnifies images, so shark's nose might look like it's six inches in front of your face, but in reality it's nout as further away. So when you punch and miss its nose, your punch trajectory will go slightly downward, right into the shark's mouth. And here's his advice, don't put your arm in a shark's mouth, which just seems like pretty sound advice. Yeah, it is. And it seems like even if someone did knock a sharks teeth that they probably weren't around to talk about

it afterwards. Yeah, I mean, I think you'd better go ahead and just take that socking a shark thing off of your bucket list, Mango. But you know, since we're back on talking shark attacks, there's a side of them I do want to talk about that actually might be another reason to be pro shark strange as that may sound, So let's take a quick break and then I'll tell you what I mean. You're listening to part Time Genius

and we're talking about the signs of sharks. Okay, well, so I'm super curious where you're going with this one. Tell me what's the upside shark attacks? All right? So it's tragic as shark attacks undoubtedly are, it's it's possible they also provide a kind of paradoxical benefit to humans. So this comes from a well known theoretical physicist and mathematician.

His name is Freeman Dyson, and according to Dyson, for every swimmer killed in a shark attack off the coast of San Diego, there are a ten drowning desk prevented due to fear of going in the water. So here's how he writes about it. He says, every time a swimmer is killed, the number of deaths by drowning goes down for a few years and then returns to the normal level. The effect occurs because reports of death by shark attack are remembered more vividly than reports of drownings.

So you know, the ideas here that after a shark attack, people are either more cautious in the water or they just avoid it altogether, and in the process of that that's effectively saves people from drowning. Now, to be clear, Dison's yet to show enough solid evidence to back up this claim, but but it kind of makes sense if you think about it, and you know, it's a nice reminder that protecting sharks could wind up benefiting in all

sorts of kind of weird ways. Well, one thing we can definitely thank sharks for is the summer blockbuster, though I guess Steven Spielberg gets some credit for this too. Well, this is something of a tangent. I I do want to take a little time to talk about not only how Jaws has impacted the public image of sharks, but also how it revolutionized the movie industry as a whole. You know, I've read before how monumental this move you was in terms of building this excited audience, like it

caught so many people's attention when it was released. I guess it was what came out and it actually became the first movie to ever pass the hundred million dollar mark at the box office, which, if you think about it, not too shabby. This was this was really just a B movie about these three scruffy guys waging war with this largely unseen sharks. So it's pretty incredible. Yeah, And you know, the sellar box office wasn't the only way

that Jaws was a game changer. I mean the way the movie was advertised and also merchandized also fed into its success, and it established this new formula for Hollywood blockbusters. I mean, it's what Hollywood blockbusters still do today. And it's weird to think about, but prior to Jaws, there were actually no wide release summer event films, like the tradition of luring movie goers into theaters with these big budget thrillers, especially during the hottest months of the year.

It's a practice that really began with Jaws and was cemented two years later with the release of Star Wars. So obviously, I know you looked into this a bit more than I and I'm curious what made Jaws such an outlier. Like if you look back and movie history, there were so many movies released in the summer months before Jaw. So why didn't any of these others catch on as the world's first blockbuster? Well, largely because at the time, the summer months were this unspoken dumping ground

for all the studios worst movies. So while today movies that studios have no faith in typically come out in like January or September, back then, the thining was that most people were too busy going on vacations or enjoying the outdoors, you know, to bother with going to the theater in the summertime. Wait. So, so, looking back at this,

so universal had assumed Jaws would flop. Kind of yeah, I mean, the original plan was to release it in Christmas in n but when this production schedule just was so troubled and it dragged on for more than a hundred days over schedule, the studio had no choice but to push it back for a summer release the following year. By the way, I don't know if you realize this,

but Spielberg wasn't actually the movie's first director. It actually got offered to a number of people, including this guy Dick Richards, who got fired because he kept referring to Jaws as a whale. If you're directing the movie, it feels like you should learn the animal your ship. That seems like a pretty critical mistake there, but after you know, so many of these setbacks along the way, Universal probably didn't have that much faith in Jaws finding an audience.

But for whatever reason, a movie about people being torn apart by a shark is exactly what people wanted to see that summer. The Universal really just looked into the success. It sounds like, and you know, since this is a Shark episode, we should probably take a couple of minutes to talk about the star of Jaws, which, of course is this mechanical shark puppet that the crew referred to

as Bruce. And as a real quick aside here, the shark's namesake is actually Spielberg's long time and still current lawyer. His name is Bruce Raymer. That there was a funny quote from him when he was asked about this by the Harvard Law bulletin. He just says, they never paid me a royalty and that's all I know, which is

spoken like a true lawyer. But speaking of Bruce, I I know that three mechanical sharks used during production, where this constant headache for the crew, and in fact that that was a big part of the movie's delays, not to mention it's ballooning budget, which wound up a full

five million dollars over budget. But apparently it was one nightmare after another with a shark like it was constantly slipping off its platform or I guess it's foam skin would actually blow from all the water and then would just sink to the bottom of the ocean before filming could begin, and then like these scuba teams would have to go down to haul it back up. And of course the other problem was that even when the shark worked,

which was rarely, it didn't look very convincing, much less frightening. Well, I mean, I have to think that this was a real challenge for Spielberg, and this was actually only, like, I think, his third theatrical film. But you know, I've actually heard that this malfunctioning shark turned out to be more of a blessing and disguise than anything, because what it did was it for Spielberg and his crew to focus on building this suspense rather than just kind of

looking at the carnage created by the shark. So you know, for instance, early versions of the script gave the shark prop a lot more screen time in the movies third act, but since Bruce was rarely working as needed, the production team really had to improvise, and instead they used these barrels to show where the shark was in the water, and a Spielberg once put it, he said, I had no choice but to figure out how to tell the story without the shark, which is such a tough spot

to be in when you're making a movie about a shark. Obviously he pulled it off. And it's just like hitchcockis today, right, Like it's what we don't see, which is truly frightening, which makes a lot of sense. But it does matter what we hear, as this movie proved, you know, in the case of Jaws, of course that's John Williams iconic

two note theme. And I know we talked a little bit about this back in our Weird Government Investments episode, and we were talking specifically about how the use of suspenseful music and shark films has really contributed to the public's negative view of sharks. But I still can't help but marvel at how much dread they managed to squeeze out of just repeating that done. Uh, you know, and this was all done on a two. But I mean, it really takes some talent to make the tubas seem

that threatening, don't you think? I think so. But Williams was spot on when he later said that the theme worked because it gave the quote effect of grinding away at you, just as a shark would do. Instinctual, relentless, unstoppable. Yeah, obviously the music played a pig part in making this as suspenseful as it was. But you know what's strange while the film plays like fiction, that there was definitely a real life series of shark attacks that sound like

they might have inspired Jaws. Really, I've actually never heard this before, and I do want you to share this story. But first let's take a quick break, all right, mango, So get us back on the topic of the non mechanical sharks, and and I want to hear more about this real world Jaw story that you you mentioned before

the break. So this is something that started in the summer of nineteen sixteen with a shark attack at the Jersey Shore and it was a twenty year old man who died after being bidden by a great white on July one, and then just five days later, another guy was killed by the same great white about forty five miles to the north. And I mean, this was super strange, right, because shark attacks don't typically happen in quick succession like that, and it's especially rare for the same shark to go

on multiple attacks like that. But the nineteen sixteen attacks didn't stop with the second victim, and this is where it gets really weird. On July twelve, eleven days after the first attack, the shark struck again another thirty miles to the north, but this time the shark didn't attack along the shore. Instead, it traveled sixteen miles inland through the Mattawan Creek to claim it's third and fourth victims.

The shark's fifth and final attack happened just half an hour after the fourth, but thankfully the victims survived this by and made it out of the creek alive, which is just such a nightmare when you think about and I can definitely see how Peter Benchley might have been inspired to write his Jaws novel after hearing about all this, And it actually goes right along with that whole idea about there being so called rogue sharks that just I don't.

I guess they developed this taste for human flesh and then they just go on the hunt for other people. Yeah, and that rogue shark theory has actually pretty much been debunked at this point, like most shark researchers now consider

attacks to be kind of a one off thing. In fact, the majority of shark attacks are isolated events, and they're either provoked, which means the shark was speared or hooked by a human who drew first blood, or else the shark attack because if you'd the human as a thread or as a competitor for food, well, what about those

nineteen sixteen attacks. I mean, I get that multiple attacks from a single shark is unusual, but it feels like there still had to be some reason why this happened then, right, But even now, it's hard to say exactly what that reason was. Like, the best I came across was that the shark might have been injured or deformed in some way, which could have caused it to lash out at humans nearby whenever it's pain peaked. And though it's kind of

sad to think about, it's not a bad theory. We already know that some other animals like Elephants, for example, have been known to attack humans because they have I don't know, like an injured foot or maybe a rotten tooth. So it's pretty reasonable to think that something similar might

happen with sharks, which makes sense. But I'm curious though, like what happened to the shark after its fifth attack and in nineteen sixteen, Well, it was caught soon after that last attack, and the shark's body actually wound up on display in the New York shop where the owner made I guess a fortune just charging people admission to see it, which you know, in itself has a very Jaws feel to it if you think back about the characters.

I could easily see the movie Stevie Mayer like getting on board with some sort of scheme like this, Yeah, totally. And if you already think this all sounds a lot like Jaws, wait till you hear this. So I was reading an interview with a scientist named George Burgess, and he's actually the curator of the International Shark Attack File. It's this amazing archive that keeps case files on over five thousand attacks that took place between sixteenth century and today.

And he said that the public's response to the nineteen sixteen attacks was the same reaction observed in cases all throughout the world. It also happened to sound quite a bit like what happens in Jaws. So listen to this, and this is how Burgess told it to Smithsonian quote. I see a common pattern around the world when shark attacks occur. There's obviously shock. Then the second phase is denial, denial that it was done by a shark. It has

to be done by something else. The third phase is the feeling that if we shuffle it under the rug, maybe it will disappear. The fourth phase is realizing that none of those things are working and that we probably need to go kill some sharks. Then in the fifth phase, the reality sets in finally that that's not the solution and we probably ought to bring in a scientist that knows what's going on. Wow. I mean, it feels like that's scene for seeing what the townspeople try in this movie.

When you think about those different stages, you know of shock and denial, cover up machismo, and then you know, lastly reason though that doesn't work out quite as planned either. Yeah, and that denial phase is particularly interesting to me, Like I always thought it was ridiculous in the movie when the mayor tries to convince everyone that the woman was

killed by a boat propeller and not a shark. But people in New Jersey in nineteen sixteen proposed even weirder explanations, like apparently someone pitched this idea that it was a school of sea turtles that was coming in and biting everybody, despite the fact that you know, turtles don't tend to school like fish or bite off people's limbs like sharks. You have to admit, though, I was skeptical at first with this, but I think you've sold me on this.

I mean, he's nineteen sixteen attacks. I don't know. It feels like they have to have been the inspiration for Jaws, at least to some degree. I mean, that's the thing. Peter Benchley has gone on record saying they definitely weren't the inspiration for the novel or the movie. It's spunned. I mean, of course, there are plenty of people that shark researcher I mentioned included who don't buy that denial well, and I can see why. I mean, there's an awful

lot of crossover between the two stories. But I can also understand why Benchley might not want the public to think his work was actually rooted in reality. And that's because years later, you know, after the massive success of Jaws as a movie, Bnchuley came to deeply regret his role in shaping public perception, at least that perception of sharks as these man eating beasts. And you know, he actually spent decades trying to convinced people that sharks weren't

the villains that have been portrayed in the film. And for instance, that there was a two thousand two interview he did with nat Geo and here's what Benchley said there. He said, the theory that sharks target humans, that they are man eaters, nothing could be further from the truth. Every time you see on TV people surrounded by sharks, the chances are that the sharks have been baited, and it gives a false impression because by nature, sharks will

stay away from people. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of amazing to see someone do a complete one eighty like that, but I also think it's pretty laudable in this case. And actually that reminds me. You want to hear my favorite fact about Peter Benchley. So when Discovery started hiring host for Shark Week beginning in the seventh season, the first m C they ever got was none other than

the Jaws author himself. I mean it seems appropriate, you know, especially since Shark Week has also been accused of misrepresenting the ferocity of sharks. But you think about this, To be fair, the event has gotten more and more educational over time, and even functions as a fundraising drive for

somebody I think pretty reputable shark conservation efforts. Now. So I didn't realize this, but two eighteen is actually the thirtieth anniversary of Shark Week, and in honor of that, they've got Shacked to host, which, of course that makes perfect sense. It makes a lot of sense. But uh, I feel like they've had enough time to find that sweet spot between entertainment and education. Well, and if nothing else, I do give the producers credit for drawing some much

needed attention to shark conservation. And like we said at the top of the show, it's hard to wrap our heads around the idea that sharks are in need of saving, you know, probably because we're so used to thinking that we're the ones in danger from them. But when you look at the numbers, it really tells a very different story. So, I mean, the sharks have survived for four hundred and fifty million years on the planet, including no less than

five mass extinction events. And so for the first time, I started looking like the survival of sharks could be in jeopardy. And you know, I say that because today about a quarter of all shark species are threatened with extinction and the main culprit behind their dwindling numbers is I'm sad to say us and and just looking at

the numbers, it's pretty crazy. So more than a hundred million sharks are killed by humans every year based on most reports, and that number is staggering enough, but there's some sources that say the number could be as high as two hundred and seventy million. But you know, either way, when you consider that shark attacks account for only about five human deaths on average each year, it's obvious who

the most dangerous predators really are. Okay, so just to sum this up, don't punch a shark in the face, don't judge a shark by its creepy eyes, and do appreciate how great a movie Jaws is. Well, let's not forget Tristan shirt Live every week like it's shark wa right that most of all? Okay, then I guess that's everything, well everything except for how we like to close the show. We gotta we gotta have the fact off. Are you ready? I'm ready? Yea. So it is pretty amazing to think

how long sharks have been around. I know you mentioned that they've been here for over four and fifty million years, but that's two hundred million years before dinosaurs. And in fact, they're even older than trees, Like how can anything be older than trees? Are? We talked earlier about how much

more dangerous humans are to sharks than vice versa. But it's even more sad when you realize what a waste it is when sharks are just killed for their fins, you know, because shark carcasses are bulky and worth a lot less than their fins. Because of these luxury items things like shark fins soup, which actually can go for something like a hundred dollars a bowl. A lot of times their fins are removed and the rest of the shark is just thrown overboard, and this is known as

shark finning. And in these cases only about three percent of the actual shark is being used. So I'm fascinated by a shark reproduction. Uh. The very unusual ghost sharks, which are named this because they live so deep and are rarely spotted, have these really weird retractable sex organs on their heads. Like the organs actually have these hooks and use them to grab onto female ghost sharks during mating.

And on top of this, the females have a unique ability to store the sperm for years until just the right time for conception. That's so strange, you know, And you see so many cases of significant aggression on the part of males and several sharks species during mating. And because of this, it's actually not surprising that the skin on female sharks typically is found to be a good bit thicker than that of males, because the males actually

often bite during mating, so that that thicker skin is needed. Well, that might explain why some sharks have figured out how to reproduce a sexually. They're basically cloning themselves now. Well. One of the first cases of scientists seeing this came in two thousand one, when a female hammer head at a zoo in Nebraska gave birth without the assistance of a male. This process is called parthenogenesis and it's where

embryos are created without outside fertilization. Oh that's so cool. Well, I think we may have talked about this before, but in the book Grunt, the Terrific Science, writer Mary Roach writes about this top secret project during World War Two. And in this project, the U. S Military was trying to use sharks to deliver bombs. So the sharks were equipped with this headgear and then they would use electric shocks to keep the sharks on track before they would

deliver the bombs to these very specific locations. And it was a project that ran for a couple of decades, I think from the late fifties to the early seventies, and then it was discontinued without much fanfare because it turned out this was not really an effective way to deliver bombs. And I feel like we're always trying to harness animals like pigeons or sharks or whatever, and it's always a bad idea. It never is better. But Uh, there's this other feature that I'm so fascinated by, and

it's what goblin sharks can do when they're hunting. So they had this ability to do what scientists called sling shot feeding. And this is where they use these elastic ligaments that are attached to their jaws to basically catapult their mouths forward by almost ten percent of their bodies. Lent what yeah, and then they could do this with like impressive speeds. So this is basically the equivalent of a person being able to sling shot his or her mouth about seven inches in front of it to snag

food in front of its nose. That is so strange, So it's called it's called sling shot feeding. You said, wow, I have to say, you mentioned ghost sharks, and now you've mentioned goblin sharks. I feel like you have to win today's fact off, so I'm going to give you the trophy today, Mango. Thank you so much, well, and thank you guys for listening. I'm sure we've forgotten some terrific facts about sharks and because of that, we would

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