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How Shark Attacks Work · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to you stuff you should
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Speaker 1: know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome
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Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always
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Speaker 1: as Charles W. Chuck Bryant and uh, this is stuff
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Speaker 1: you should do. That's right. A Shark Week edition. Week edition,
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Speaker 1: Happy Shark Week, Chuck, Happy Shark Week. In honor of
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Speaker 1: Shark Week, I got you a little present. Wow. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: what is that? It's the jabber Jaw DVD box set?
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Speaker 1: Oh is it? That's awesome? Thank you. Yeah, I was
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Speaker 1: going to get you speed Buggy. Um. If I am correct,
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Speaker 1: then this should be coming out the Thursday before Shark Week.
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Speaker 1: Oh good time. Yeah. So Shark Week actually starts in
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Speaker 1: three days on Sunday. I'm so embarrassed that I give
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Speaker 1: you president early. That's okay, okay, we we like to
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Speaker 1: open on Christmas Eve. Here. Um, are you're doing okay?
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Speaker 1: You're feeling good? Yeah? I thought that we wouldn't be
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Speaker 1: able to find anything here to do on sharks, but
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Speaker 1: we never really covered specifically shark attacks. Yeah. I think
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Speaker 1: it's high time we did, because I think that, Um,
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Speaker 1: thanks to a growing, growingly, increasingly enlightened, populous, sharks are
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Speaker 1: losing a lot of the bad rap they had for many,
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Speaker 1: many years since. And I feel like we're here to
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Speaker 1: kind of help hasten that along a little bit and
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Speaker 1: strike fear into your heart. Well, yeah, it depends this. This
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Speaker 1: This is going to be kind of a roller coaster ride,
1:42
Speaker 1: because this article is a roller coaster ride. We're talking
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Speaker 1: about how shark attacks work, um, and we should say
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Speaker 1: first and foremost, right off the bat, that you can
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Speaker 1: make a pretty good case almost all shark attacks are
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Speaker 1: cases of mistaken identity. Yeah. I don't know if this
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Speaker 1: is a real stat but um, Gary Atkinson, who is
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Speaker 1: a diver more a big just big mistakes more usually
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Speaker 1: indicates not a real stat probably, but I bet it's
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Speaker 1: pretty high because, especially when it's contained in a book
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Speaker 1: that has an exclamation point in the title. Sharks don't
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Speaker 1: like people that were not fatty enough for them. They
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Speaker 1: don't seek us out, they don't like the way we taste,
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Speaker 1: and when they bite us, they probably think we are
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Speaker 1: a big turtle or a sea lion. That's just that's
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Speaker 1: what's going on. And when you look at the photo.
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Speaker 1: Was it bioluminescence we talked about looking up from the ocean. Yeah,
2:39
Speaker 1: and you see the silhouette, a dude on a surfboard
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Speaker 1: or a lady on a surfboard looks an awful lot
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Speaker 1: like a sea turtle or a sea lion. Yeah. If
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Speaker 1: you're interested, go to how stuffworks dot com and type
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Speaker 1: in how sharkitects working. On the first page, there's a
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Speaker 1: pretty cool little illustration of how a surfer looks like
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Speaker 1: a sea turtle or or a sea lion. I wouldn't
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Speaker 1: know what the spinning image. The point is is by
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Speaker 1: looks you, you may look like a sea lion. Once
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Speaker 1: the shark figures out that you're not, however, it's probably
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Speaker 1: going to leave you alone. The great white, we should say,
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Speaker 1: But of course it may be too late. At that point.
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Speaker 1: In between those two points, the sharks gonna bite you, probably,
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Speaker 1: especially if it's a great white. Um. That's pretty much
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Speaker 1: the number one reason for shark attacks, like we said,
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Speaker 1: is you are confused for another food source. Um. And
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Speaker 1: if it is a great white and you are bitten,
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Speaker 1: and it will probably leave you alone and not come
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Speaker 1: back right And depending on the severity of that first bite,
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Speaker 1: that test bite as they call it um, which a
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Speaker 1: could be um I think your food or be apparently uh,
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Speaker 1: there's a food chain of sharks. Even well they were,
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Speaker 1: they will like bite another shark to say, did get
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Speaker 1: away from me? And I know I didn't hurt you
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Speaker 1: that bad because your shark. But if you're human, all
4:02
Speaker 1: of a sudden your midsection is missing. That's another explanation
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Speaker 1: for shark at texts. Aggression. Yeah, if the sharks are
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Speaker 1: if they are just kind of messing around with one
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Speaker 1: another when they do it to you, that hurts confusion.
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Speaker 1: Um aggression. Hunger is another one too. And if you're
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Speaker 1: like say a spear fisherman, and you're just laying waste
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Speaker 1: to like a school of fish coco cocoon, cocoon, right, um,
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Speaker 1: and the fish are flapping around, they're bleeding, you have
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Speaker 1: two huge stimulus. There's a stimuli. Yeah, man, this whole
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Speaker 1: bailout just screw me up. Man. Um that the sharks
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Speaker 1: can pick up that are that they are specially designed,
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Speaker 1: if you believe in intelligent, designed to pick up um
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Speaker 1: blood in the water, and they can smell that stuff
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Speaker 1: for miles, dude, for miles, and I couldn't find any
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Speaker 1: actual real stat on that. I think I've seen like
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Speaker 1: another one of those sharks stats which are always a
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Speaker 1: little hinky, which is like they can smell blood, like
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Speaker 1: a drop of blood for five miles or something, right, Yeah,
5:06
Speaker 1: but they can they can they smell some blood. They
5:08
Speaker 1: can smell some blood. Yeah. The other way that they're
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Speaker 1: being attracted is the fish flapping around actually generates electrical impulses,
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Speaker 1: and the shark have an organ called the ampullae of
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Speaker 1: Lorenzini you should say this chuck, which is basically a
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Speaker 1: series of tubes that are connected that connect the exterior
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Speaker 1: of the skin with um electricity or electrical sensing cells.
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Speaker 1: That basically it's another way of sharks detecting movement prey.
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Speaker 1: It's on the snout. So when you have a bunch
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Speaker 1: of fish dying that it's going to attract the shark.
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Speaker 1: And if you're standing in the middle of it, the
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Speaker 1: shark is not really gonna care what you look like
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Speaker 1: or what you're doing. There's just so worked up it's
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Speaker 1: gonna bite you and confused. Maybe, uh, what I learned
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Speaker 1: from the sharkles you don't want to confuse the shark. No,
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Speaker 1: and you don't want to be standing in the middle
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Speaker 1: of their um, their prey, like a big massive their
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Speaker 1: prey um. And also too, I know we're pointed this
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Speaker 1: out before in the I think, how to defend yourself,
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Speaker 1: but the Apulia Laurentzen gonna bunch that one. It's in
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Speaker 1: the snout. So that's why they tell you to like
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Speaker 1: trying head butter, punch the shark in the mouth. Now
6:19
Speaker 1: you imagine get taking a sock right to the electrical cells.
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Speaker 1: I can't imagine delivering that punch, like having the wherewithal
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Speaker 1: to be like, oh, I'm supposed to punch you, now
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Speaker 1: I'm missing an arm. I think you. I think you
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Speaker 1: might surprise yourself. You just react. If you have a
6:34
Speaker 1: healthy ego, then you would. Yeah, you'd probably punch that shark. Um.
6:41
Speaker 1: I don't. You can't say that. You just haven't been
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Speaker 1: put in any life threatening situations yet. Okay yet, alright,
6:48
Speaker 1: so hold on, hold on, there's another good explanation for
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Speaker 1: why sharks attack defense. Oh they feel threatened, Yeah by humans.
6:56
Speaker 1: Oh the divers that tug on the nurse sharks. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: the nurse sharks a big one that likes to attack
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Speaker 1: when somebody pulls on its tail. Yeah, and why people
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Speaker 1: do this, I don't know, but apparently the nurse shark
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Speaker 1: is kind of funny and that it sort of will
7:08
Speaker 1: be still at the bottom of the ocean and it
7:12
Speaker 1: wears a wig and the old nurses cap because you're like,
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Speaker 1: I gotta push that thing around exactly. But apparently there
7:18
Speaker 1: are some divers who like, well like tug on their
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Speaker 1: tail because they think it's just some harmless game, and
7:24
Speaker 1: then they find out that the hand because the nurse
7:27
Speaker 1: shark is generous with its bite, right. Um, so because
7:32
Speaker 1: of jerks like that pulling in a nurse shark tails. Um,
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Speaker 1: there is a division in the statistics of shark attacks
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Speaker 1: provoked and unprovoked jerks and what the heck happened? Or
7:47
Speaker 1: stupid people and what the heck happened? Why do you
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Speaker 1: provoke a shark? Um? So let's talk about what goes
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Speaker 1: down with the shark attack. Okay, here's the fair warning part.
7:58
Speaker 1: We're going. Um, we has been climbing a hill, now
8:01
Speaker 1: we're about to go down the hill. There are roller
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Speaker 1: coaster ride Okay, okay, um, well what yeah, this is
8:07
Speaker 1: when you have fear? Should I read the Jaws thing?
8:10
Speaker 1: If you want, I might as well. Okay, all right,
8:13
Speaker 1: this is Quint from Jaws. The thing about a shark
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Speaker 1: is he's got lifeless eyes, black eyes like a dolls eyes.
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Speaker 1: When he comes at you, he doesn't even seem to
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Speaker 1: be living until he bites you, and those black eyes
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Speaker 1: roll over a white and then dot dot dot, Thank you.
8:33
Speaker 1: You're the rich little of this podcast. That was not
8:36
Speaker 1: a good Quint, but that's what it is. In my
8:38
Speaker 1: top ten, used to be in my top five all
8:40
Speaker 1: time movies. Jaws. Yeah what knocked it out? I don't know.
8:44
Speaker 1: Just over the years, you know, things built up. Jaws
8:46
Speaker 1: falls behind a little bit. Yeah what what knocked it
8:48
Speaker 1: out of the I don't know specifically what knocked it out?
8:51
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but Jaws circuits was what of it was? Um?
8:56
Speaker 1: I mean every time this movie is on, I will
8:58
Speaker 1: watch it and I do not get sick of It's
9:01
Speaker 1: one of my favorites. So here's where we scare the
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Speaker 1: crap out of you, because usually you will learn that
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Speaker 1: you are being attacked by a shark by getting run
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Speaker 1: into by a car, is what some people have said.
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Speaker 1: It feels like it depends again, it depends on the shark.
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Speaker 1: So we should point out The three most deadly sharks
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Speaker 1: are great whites, tigers, and bull sharks bulls. If you
9:24
Speaker 1: get hit by what feels like a truck, it's probably
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Speaker 1: a bull shark. If all of a sudden you're missing
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Speaker 1: an arm, it was probably a great white or possibly
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Speaker 1: a tiger. But it seems like bulls and tigers are
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Speaker 1: the ones that bump you first, and the great white
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Speaker 1: takes the test bite. Yeah, and bulls are known to
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Speaker 1: for being one of the more aggressive as far as
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Speaker 1: like usually a shark will bite you and then kind
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Speaker 1: of leave you right and the bull shark will is
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Speaker 1: one of the only ones that will come back repeatedly.
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Speaker 1: Or someone's trying to save you, they might attack them.
9:53
Speaker 1: They'll they'll hang around a little more than I'm comfortable
9:55
Speaker 1: with one are the other big problems with the bull
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Speaker 1: shark is that they attack in shallow water. Ye, so
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Speaker 1: if you see a bullshark, just run um. So what's
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Speaker 1: going on here with the test bite, Well, a could
10:09
Speaker 1: be a test bight b When they feed on like
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Speaker 1: a sea lion, they don't just go in there and
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Speaker 1: like feed on it like a frenzy until it's all gone.
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Speaker 1: They bite it and then let it bleed to death,
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Speaker 1: and then once the animal is dead, then they'll go
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Speaker 1: an inchow down. So pretty frightening if you're a person
10:27
Speaker 1: it is. So you're saying that, Um, it's like getting
10:30
Speaker 1: hit by a truck. Let's say it's a bullet shark attack. Um.
10:33
Speaker 1: That's a quote from Don Shauman, who was pregnant as
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Speaker 1: a lifeguard when she was attacked in Florida. Um. And
10:43
Speaker 1: she survived because she wrote a book about it. Another
10:46
Speaker 1: person who wrote a book, I believe uh is surfer
10:50
Speaker 1: Kenny doot doo u d t do. And he was
10:54
Speaker 1: doing his surfing thing in nineteen seventy nine in Oregon.
10:57
Speaker 1: I didn't know you surfed Oregon. Yeah, sure, surf Oregon. Well,
11:03
Speaker 1: I mean you got to have the wet suits. It's
11:05
Speaker 1: cold outher but it's cold in southern California too specific. Yea. Anyway,
11:11
Speaker 1: Kenny Do was surfing and all of a sudden, Um,
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Speaker 1: he was a shark. This is probably a great white
11:19
Speaker 1: because all of a sudden he was in the jaws
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Speaker 1: of a shark and it had it had him and
11:24
Speaker 1: his surfboard in its bite, and the surfboard probably saved
11:28
Speaker 1: his life because that shark was originally trying to like
11:32
Speaker 1: that because he couldn't get that full bite down. He's
11:34
Speaker 1: apparently very determined, and he kept trying and trying for
11:38
Speaker 1: about twenty seconds. By Duke's testament, dude was totally out
11:42
Speaker 1: of the water. He was pulled under the water and
11:45
Speaker 1: the shark couldn't get him under because again the surfboard.
11:48
Speaker 1: So he lived another day. He lived to see another day,
11:51
Speaker 1: although he said that the doctor who fixed him up
11:54
Speaker 1: um stopped counting his stitches when he reached five hundred,
11:57
Speaker 1: which is a pretty patient doctor, but also kind of lazy,
12:01
Speaker 1: like why do you get there and just be like, oh,
12:02
Speaker 1: you know what, forget it? He yeah, he took them
12:04
Speaker 1: all out at about two fifty because he forgot where
12:07
Speaker 1: he was and started over. And this is the guy
12:09
Speaker 1: that said he heard his like ribs breaking right, all right.
12:15
Speaker 1: You have to remember people, roller coaster. This is extremely rare. Chuck.
12:19
Speaker 1: We talked about how like the great white feeds bite,
12:24
Speaker 1: leave you to blie to death, come back and feed
12:26
Speaker 1: on you. Um. We talked about the bull shark. It
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Speaker 1: hits and then circles, hitching in circles, and then eventually
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Speaker 1: it's gonna bite you and like you said, like it'll
12:37
Speaker 1: attack somebody coming to try to rescue you. The tiger
12:40
Speaker 1: shark is um one of the deadliest ones, especially in
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Speaker 1: the deep sea. Um. Apparently they like to pick off
12:50
Speaker 1: the week and the wounded like um, and they'll circle
12:54
Speaker 1: for a while and then they'll bump and then they'll bite.
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Speaker 1: And there's this very famous story of the U S
13:00
Speaker 1: sus Indianapolis that was sunk in the Pacific in nineteen five.
13:04
Speaker 1: The story quintells, Oh, yeah, he was one of the dudes. Okay,
13:09
Speaker 1: this character Okay, not Robert Shaw right, um, although, man,
13:13
Speaker 1: that would have been some serious would it be method
13:17
Speaker 1: or character? I don't even know real life? Yeah, I
13:21
Speaker 1: guess it's not even acting. Um. So in in nine
13:26
Speaker 1: Indianapolis Thanking, a thousand crew members survived the sinking, but
13:31
Speaker 1: by the time the rescuers showed up a few days later,
13:34
Speaker 1: there were only three seventeen men left thanks to shark attacks,
13:38
Speaker 1: and these tigers were just circling them and like, according
13:41
Speaker 1: to quinn story, which is pretty accurate, just like you know,
13:44
Speaker 1: you'd be talking to a guy and all of a
13:45
Speaker 1: sudden he's gone and you're just waiting, and it didn't
13:49
Speaker 1: get called in because it was wasn't it They were
13:51
Speaker 1: delivering the bomb? Oh right, yeah, is that right? They
13:55
Speaker 1: were delivering the bomb, which is why it was such
13:57
Speaker 1: a top secret operation. And because it was top secret,
14:00
Speaker 1: it didn't get called in and reported missing for like
14:02
Speaker 1: a couple of days. Even so, it was pretty scary stuff. Yeah,
14:06
Speaker 1: all over, So that means that there's a undetonated nuclear
14:10
Speaker 1: bomb at the bottom of the Pacific. Actually, I don't
14:14
Speaker 1: know that part. I would guess. I mean, if they
14:15
Speaker 1: were delivering it and it was sunk, I have to
14:18
Speaker 1: look into that or maybe that. I don't think Steven
14:20
Speaker 1: Spielberg made that up. I think that's real. Yeah, it's
14:24
Speaker 1: definitely in the movie, though Steven Spielberg is not known
14:26
Speaker 1: for making things up. What there's like aliens et s.
14:32
Speaker 1: So you did say something kind of important here about
14:34
Speaker 1: um Finally, tiger sharks out in the deep sea are
14:38
Speaker 1: a little more dangerous. Most people get attacked closer to shore.
14:43
Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean you should be afraid because close
14:46
Speaker 1: to shore is dangerous. It's just because that's where the
14:48
Speaker 1: people are. Yes, you know, so most people don't swim out,
14:52
Speaker 1: you know, in the the middle of the deep blue ocean. Yeah,
14:54
Speaker 1: this guy wouldn't know. Well, that's the that's part of
14:57
Speaker 1: the point. Um so um, back down another another hill.
15:02
Speaker 1: It's a little bit a little bit scary now because
15:05
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about what happens during the shark attack
15:08
Speaker 1: or what the shark attack does to your person. Well,
15:12
Speaker 1: one surgeon who operated on a teenage surfer in Australia
15:16
Speaker 1: said that when her leg was lopped off, he described
15:19
Speaker 1: as guillotine like. So it can be very swift in
15:23
Speaker 1: the case of a limb, and very clean, and all
15:26
Speaker 1: of a sudden there's just no arm there anymore. Forty
15:30
Speaker 1: pounds of pressure per square inch with his teeth, the
15:33
Speaker 1: size of a shot glass. If you listen to Richard Drynus,
15:39
Speaker 1: that's what he says in the movie. I okay, have
15:41
Speaker 1: you ever seen johs Okay, I don't know if I
15:45
Speaker 1: if it was ever in my top ten, it's like
15:47
Speaker 1: up there for sure, it's such a great movie, But
15:49
Speaker 1: I don't okay. I can recognize when you say things
15:53
Speaker 1: like quint and size of a shot class, shot class,
15:57
Speaker 1: and okay Cooper and all that stuff. Do you remember
16:00
Speaker 1: what Roy what's his name? Yeah, what his character was,
16:06
Speaker 1: Chief Brodie he dream brody uh noady Um. So if
16:13
Speaker 1: you don't lose a limb, you're probably gonna get like
16:17
Speaker 1: a large piece of your flesh removed, like from your thigh,
16:20
Speaker 1: from room mid section or something like that. Yeah. Usually
16:22
Speaker 1: if you're getting a type by a good size great white,
16:24
Speaker 1: it's gonna get you in your midsection. Like you said,
16:27
Speaker 1: uh and uh. You may end up like a guy
16:30
Speaker 1: named Rodney Fox who was a spear fisherman who was
16:32
Speaker 1: attacked near Adelaide, Australia, nineteen sixty three and basically he
16:37
Speaker 1: was bitten from shoulder to hip and a lot of
16:40
Speaker 1: them was missing after that. Have you seen pictures of
16:43
Speaker 1: that guy? Yeah? I did when I researched the shark
16:45
Speaker 1: stuff a couple of years ago. It's like a shark
16:47
Speaker 1: bite missing from him. Yeah, like a little crescent and
16:50
Speaker 1: out of the side of him. I don't know if
16:52
Speaker 1: little is the right word. Well, yeah, it's not little. Yeah,
16:54
Speaker 1: that's a pretty startling time life photo. I think you're
16:59
Speaker 1: probably gonna die by bleeding to death because you're gonna
17:02
Speaker 1: be suffering from massive amounts of blood loss at this point,
17:06
Speaker 1: and by the time you get into shore and get
17:08
Speaker 1: someone there to help you, it's maybe too late. So
17:12
Speaker 1: having someone on shore that can stop the blood is
17:16
Speaker 1: like really key to your survival. Um. And there's a
17:20
Speaker 1: kid who was attacked off Cape sam Blasts in two
17:22
Speaker 1: thousand five who was saved because the doctor and a
17:25
Speaker 1: nurse happened to be on shore on vacation and they
17:29
Speaker 1: stopped the bleeding by putting pressure on this leg, which
17:34
Speaker 1: I assume was where the shark bit him. Yeah. Um,
17:38
Speaker 1: but if you're in cold water, you actually have something
17:41
Speaker 1: in your favor and that the cold water is going
17:43
Speaker 1: to slow down your physical processes, so including your blood loss,
17:47
Speaker 1: so you'll you won't waste as much time in the
17:50
Speaker 1: trip to shore, right, So I guess the Pacific Ocean
17:53
Speaker 1: would be a little better in Oregon surf Oregon. Um.
17:59
Speaker 1: And then another thing, you're gonna run into his infection
18:01
Speaker 1: because you just got bitten by a shark and you
18:03
Speaker 1: rolled around on the beach and people were touching you,
18:06
Speaker 1: and um, you know they're teenagers and lifeguards and stuff
18:11
Speaker 1: like that, and they're all dirty and you might get
18:14
Speaker 1: an infection from it. That seems like it could be
18:17
Speaker 1: the least of your worries. But can you imagine though,
18:19
Speaker 1: like surviving the sharks pipe and then dying from an
18:21
Speaker 1: infection from it, especially in this day, and it's very sad. Okay, So, um,
18:28
Speaker 1: we've got the We talked about the three deadliest types
18:32
Speaker 1: of sharks, um, the tiger, the bowl and the great white.
18:37
Speaker 1: Well there's a reason, um, And they're actually like they
18:41
Speaker 1: kind of fly in the face of the idea that
18:43
Speaker 1: they're deadly because they want to kill you and your
18:45
Speaker 1: whole family and they would come into your house at
18:47
Speaker 1: night if they could, which is the prevalent view of sharks,
18:50
Speaker 1: where it wasn't at least until about five years ago.
18:54
Speaker 1: But these things are extremely widespread. You can find them
18:58
Speaker 1: all over the world. Um. They're big enough so that
19:02
Speaker 1: a human, which is a pretty good sized animal itself ourselves, um,
19:06
Speaker 1: can look like prey, which is something they're interested in. Um.
19:10
Speaker 1: They're powerful enough that that initial test bite can kill you.
19:15
Speaker 1: Even though the shark was like, oh this is gross,
19:18
Speaker 1: like a little reef shark, You're gonna have a little
19:20
Speaker 1: bit of troubles, but you know, you could probably get
19:23
Speaker 1: over that. I think the worst thing that can happen
19:25
Speaker 1: to you underwater, besides losing your life, is one of
19:28
Speaker 1: those little fish swimming into your urethra. What yeah, that happens? What? Yes,
19:41
Speaker 1: all right, I'll show you later man. Really yeah, man,
19:44
Speaker 1: in the I believe the Amazon. What does it do
19:47
Speaker 1: exactly what I just said? Yeah, but I mean after
19:50
Speaker 1: that feeds, once it's in there, it feeds. Good lord.
19:54
Speaker 1: So the other, the other um factor that makes those
20:00
Speaker 1: three the deadliest sharks is that they're at the top
20:02
Speaker 1: of the food chain, which means that they're not afraid
20:05
Speaker 1: of humans. If it knows you're a human, it's not
20:08
Speaker 1: going to be like, oh god, human, It'll be like,
20:11
Speaker 1: you know, want to feel a little hiky today. Uh
20:15
Speaker 1: So those are the why those three are the most dangerous.
20:18
Speaker 1: But like we said, um, hammer heads, makos, nurse sharks,
20:21
Speaker 1: reef sharks, black tips, they can all bite when threatened
20:26
Speaker 1: or by mistake. It happens. Um. I remember when we
20:30
Speaker 1: swam in the Georgia Aquarium, hammer head sharks were in there,
20:34
Speaker 1: and I wasn't super worried because people do this all
20:37
Speaker 1: the time, but it's still at one point I did
20:39
Speaker 1: look down and see that hammer head shark, you know,
20:42
Speaker 1: ten feet from me, and think, all right, well, there's
20:44
Speaker 1: a shark, and this is as close as I've ever
20:46
Speaker 1: been to one, and it is so weird looking. Actually,
20:49
Speaker 1: not as close as as someone in a wave when
20:52
Speaker 1: one time when I was in the ocean. No, just
20:55
Speaker 1: a shark like jetting through a wave that was crashing
20:58
Speaker 1: over me and he just flew by. I saw, like
21:00
Speaker 1: the silhouette. The wave is like Nature's aquai. Yeah, And
21:04
Speaker 1: I told the guy the lifeguard was like, dude, I
21:05
Speaker 1: just saw a shark, like really close to me. He said,
21:07
Speaker 1: how big was it? Said? About three ft long. He's like,
21:10
Speaker 1: what was he doing? Said, he sort of just surfing
21:12
Speaker 1: through the wave. He's like it's fine. He's like, we
21:15
Speaker 1: see him out here all the time. And he was
21:16
Speaker 1: probably saying it's fine because the shark was probably long
21:19
Speaker 1: gone by the time you talked to the lifeguard. It's
21:21
Speaker 1: a good point. They don't like to stay in one
21:23
Speaker 1: place for very long. And there's even a school of
21:26
Speaker 1: thought that multiple shark attacks in the location are not
21:30
Speaker 1: the result of a single shark. They are pretty much
21:34
Speaker 1: coincidence or there's something that's going on around there that
21:36
Speaker 1: we're not aware of that's attracting sharks. But it's not
21:40
Speaker 1: just one shark a rogue shark, and I just made
21:43
Speaker 1: air quotes which may or may not exist. Yeah, that's that.
21:46
Speaker 1: They have a couple of shark myths in this article
21:48
Speaker 1: and the the human um I desire human flesh rogue
21:53
Speaker 1: shark they think, I mean, they can't prove that that
21:56
Speaker 1: is not the case, but they certainly think that's de
22:00
Speaker 1: only not in the case. You know, like they can't
22:03
Speaker 1: say there are no rogue sharks anywhere. Um, but it's
22:06
Speaker 1: it's not like it is in the movies where there's
22:08
Speaker 1: like this one shark named Jaws and he just loves
22:11
Speaker 1: people and he loves hanging out in the same spot
22:13
Speaker 1: and just feeding on folks because idiots, Yeah keep coming
22:18
Speaker 1: out here. Why wouldn't they. But they do do weird things,
22:21
Speaker 1: um like go way out of their range, like as
22:23
Speaker 1: far north as New England or way upriver to like Chicago. Um,
22:28
Speaker 1: that's crazy. And they said if a shark was like
22:31
Speaker 1: sicker injured, you might could get some pretty unpredictable behaviors.
22:35
Speaker 1: Well that's truth. Any a cow, you don't want to
22:37
Speaker 1: be around a sicker injured cow. You know, it's just sad.
22:40
Speaker 1: It's a big animal and you don't it could do
22:43
Speaker 1: damage to you. Um, So shark at text. Like we said,
22:48
Speaker 1: there there are statistics and actually the University of Florida
22:51
Speaker 1: is the keeper of shark attacks statistics. Yeah yeah, um,
22:56
Speaker 1: which is just like boo, I know. Um, but there's
23:00
Speaker 1: between thirty and fifty unprovoked attacks every year worldwide, worldwide,
23:04
Speaker 1: the United States, um has the most. Typically in Florida
23:10
Speaker 1: has the most. So Florida is the shark attack capital
23:13
Speaker 1: of the world. But even still we're talking about thirty
23:18
Speaker 1: seven a year maybe, and that's at the top end. Yeah,
23:21
Speaker 1: ten to thirty seven. And millions and millions of people
23:24
Speaker 1: go to these beaches. But uh, these statistics show that
23:28
Speaker 1: shark attacks are increasing, and it's because of what you're
23:31
Speaker 1: just saying. Millions of millions of people go to these beaches,
23:35
Speaker 1: and more people are going to the beaches, so they
23:37
Speaker 1: don't think that sharks are getting any more aggressive. There's
23:39
Speaker 1: just more people out on the ocean. Makes sense, It
23:42
Speaker 1: does make sense, um, And there's this is kind of
23:45
Speaker 1: supported in a certain way by um. If you look
23:48
Speaker 1: at San Francisco, right, there's tons of sea lions or
23:51
Speaker 1: sea lion habitats in San Francisco, which means there's tons
23:54
Speaker 1: of great white sharks in San Francisco, but there's not
23:56
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of shark attacks in San Francisco because
23:59
Speaker 1: people stay away from the sea lions. Yeah, and I
24:02
Speaker 1: don't think San Francisco Bay is like not a lot
24:05
Speaker 1: of people are swimming in that on a regular basis.
24:07
Speaker 1: That's true too. That's the other way you can look
24:09
Speaker 1: at it is be like, well, nobody's getting in there,
24:11
Speaker 1: so how can there be shark attacks? Plus, people in
24:13
Speaker 1: San Francisco is smarter than most people. But that kind
24:16
Speaker 1: of that raises Ah, that raises a pretty good point
24:21
Speaker 1: if you ask me, Like when you look at shark statistics,
24:25
Speaker 1: when you hear about a shark attack in the media,
24:27
Speaker 1: it's just by nature, it's sensational um And the author
24:33
Speaker 1: of this article of The Grabster took pains to point
24:37
Speaker 1: out that there's this thing that happens when something sensational
24:40
Speaker 1: is reported in the media, it becomes it seems to
24:44
Speaker 1: be much more prevalent than it actually is. What that's
24:47
Speaker 1: called an availability heuristic, and that's basically surmising that something
24:52
Speaker 1: is prevalent or around or exists just based on limited
24:56
Speaker 1: available data. Rather than all of the facts. So a
25:00
Speaker 1: pretty good example is like this idea that, um, you
25:03
Speaker 1: are more likely to be struck by lightning, it could
25:06
Speaker 1: be attacked by a shark. But the thing is is,
25:09
Speaker 1: if you are anywhere or a thunderstorm is you can
25:12
Speaker 1: be struck by lightning, But you have to go to
25:14
Speaker 1: the ocean to be attacked by a shark. That's a
25:17
Speaker 1: terrible comparison. It is if like my grandmother went to
25:21
Speaker 1: the ocean for the first time when she was like
25:22
Speaker 1: in her eighties, the probability of her dying from a
25:25
Speaker 1: shark attack was zero exactly. She never touched the water.
25:29
Speaker 1: But have she had your grandmother read a newspaper report
25:34
Speaker 1: about a shark attack, she probably felt like that was
25:36
Speaker 1: a threat to her even though she had a zero
25:39
Speaker 1: chance of being attacked by a shark. Or if my
25:41
Speaker 1: grandmother was a surfer in Florida, a that would have
25:45
Speaker 1: been pretty cool and be um heard. Chances of a
25:49
Speaker 1: shark attack would be much greater than like dying from
25:53
Speaker 1: a coconut hitting your head, which apparently does not happen
25:57
Speaker 1: ahead and spill the beans there. Well, that's another shark
25:59
Speaker 1: myth that one of the media reports shark attack frequency
26:03
Speaker 1: is often compared to death by coconuts dropping from trees.
26:07
Speaker 1: I've heard that. Everyone's heard that, right, I had not
26:09
Speaker 1: heard that. One haven't heard that. Um. I think they
26:12
Speaker 1: knew it was so asinine they didn't try that out
26:14
Speaker 1: on me. Um. But the apparently there's out of all
26:20
Speaker 1: reports of coconut injuries, there's never been a coconut fatality.
26:26
Speaker 1: And there's like been maybe a couple of reported coconut injuries,
26:29
Speaker 1: not a year like ever. So the this whole statistic
26:32
Speaker 1: about coconut deaths is totally made up, urban legend, totally
26:37
Speaker 1: urban legend. But the point is is that yes, there
26:41
Speaker 1: are sharks out there. Most likely they're not going to
26:44
Speaker 1: attack you. But if you are in the ocean where
26:48
Speaker 1: sharks are, your chances of being attacked are increased. Just
26:53
Speaker 1: take some precautions if you are a salt life person,
27:00
Speaker 1: assault life person. Uh. Plus, we should also point out
27:03
Speaker 1: that even if you do get attacked, chances are you
27:06
Speaker 1: going to live? Like, how many fatalities out of the
27:11
Speaker 1: out of the provoked the taxis year, ten are fatal
27:15
Speaker 1: that's statistics five to ten statistically speaking to five to
27:19
Speaker 1: ten worldwide a year people die from shark attacks. That's way,
27:23
Speaker 1: way low. And another another way to point this out
27:26
Speaker 1: to um about how there's lies, damn lies and statistics
27:30
Speaker 1: is that most shark attacks take place, you know, in shore,
27:34
Speaker 1: within a hundred yards of shore, Like you were saying,
27:36
Speaker 1: it's because it's where everybody is sure, Like if everybody
27:39
Speaker 1: swam two hundred yards off shore, maybe there'll be more
27:42
Speaker 1: shark at texts, maybe there'll be fewer. We don't really
27:44
Speaker 1: know because this is all very limited data. Well, yeah,
27:49
Speaker 1: they're really hard to study in the wild. Like, as
27:51
Speaker 1: much as we know about sharks, there's a lot we
27:53
Speaker 1: don't know, alright, So we tell people how to not
27:56
Speaker 1: get bitten by sharks. They recommend the experts don't swim
28:02
Speaker 1: at donn or dusk. They feed more and the water
28:05
Speaker 1: might be a little harder to tell what you are
28:07
Speaker 1: during the dimly lit hours. For the same reason, you
28:11
Speaker 1: shouldn't swim in murky water. Yes, and don't just stay
28:15
Speaker 1: out of murky water. That's my advice really, because there's
28:18
Speaker 1: a lot of murky water out there. Yeah, but why
28:20
Speaker 1: do you want to get in it when there's nice, clean,
28:22
Speaker 1: clear water. Not all of us have the time or
28:25
Speaker 1: the money to go to like sugar beaches. Chuck. Okay,
28:30
Speaker 1: don't swim with open cuts and some people say even
28:34
Speaker 1: menstruating uh women probably shouldn't swim the ocean. Yes, that
28:38
Speaker 1: might be taken a little too far, but avoid sandbars
28:41
Speaker 1: and sea mountains and drop offs because this is where
28:44
Speaker 1: you're gonna find a lot of wildlife marine wildlife, which
28:47
Speaker 1: might mean there might be sharks nearby. It definitely means
28:49
Speaker 1: the sharks don't wear contrasting colors. This can confuse the shark,
28:54
Speaker 1: and a confused shark is not good to be around.
28:56
Speaker 1: That's just um, contrasting but really bright ones to remember beachwear. Man,
29:01
Speaker 1: I know, um, I remember when we were training to
29:04
Speaker 1: Scooba Dive, my sister of my dad and I. The
29:07
Speaker 1: guy was talking about how sharks love really bright colors
29:10
Speaker 1: and like it's almost impossible to find like a black
29:13
Speaker 1: bathing suit, right, Um they call it yellby yellow. Yellows
29:17
Speaker 1: called Yebby yellow because apparently sharks like that one more
29:19
Speaker 1: than others. I'm looking for some some tope swim trunks.
29:24
Speaker 1: Can you help me out here? Some drab all of green,
29:28
Speaker 1: really short ones. Um, don't wear shiny jewelry. Uh, you
29:31
Speaker 1: shouldn't have your jewelry in the ocean anyway, if you
29:34
Speaker 1: asked me. But that reflection can like might look alluring
29:39
Speaker 1: to a shark. You never know, which is why you
29:42
Speaker 1: want this is swimming bricky water. That's a good point.
29:46
Speaker 1: Don't swim with a bunch of sea lions and seals.
29:50
Speaker 1: Pretty brainless right there, don't you think. Yeah, totally. I'm
29:55
Speaker 1: surprised that was even on the list. Don't thrash around.
29:58
Speaker 1: I think even in the movie Jaws, they talked about
30:01
Speaker 1: how that kind of thrashing and splashing that you get
30:04
Speaker 1: on the fourth of July as might attract sharks. So
30:07
Speaker 1: don't listen to thresh metal in the water. Um, I
30:11
Speaker 1: don't think you're safe just because you're like knee deep
30:14
Speaker 1: in water. Yeah, those bullsharks like shallow water and they're aggressive,
30:18
Speaker 1: So yeah, just be terrified in shallow water too. And finally,
30:24
Speaker 1: if you're fishing while in the ocean, like standing up
30:27
Speaker 1: to your waist, don't have your bait and a little
30:32
Speaker 1: sack tied to your waist floating there next to you.
30:35
Speaker 1: That's a bad idea. You want to keep your bait
30:38
Speaker 1: out of the water. You want to keep it. And
30:40
Speaker 1: I would imagine some sort of drift drift or drip
30:43
Speaker 1: proof container so that there's no blood just dripping into
30:47
Speaker 1: the water right in the water. Yeah, uh and um.
30:50
Speaker 1: Even if you're taking those precautions, you don't want to
30:52
Speaker 1: stay in the same place or too long. Yeah, I
30:54
Speaker 1: would fish from the beach. That wasn't the last when
30:56
Speaker 1: The last bit of advice is don't swim when there
31:00
Speaker 1: are sharks of the water. Yeah, because you can see
31:03
Speaker 1: them sometimes. Yeah, And if you do see them, don't
31:05
Speaker 1: go swimming. That's what I would do too. But if
31:07
Speaker 1: you're ever in a shark attack, fight back. People who
31:10
Speaker 1: punched them shark in the old ampule a um, or
31:16
Speaker 1: bite the shark, or head butt the shark, or do
31:19
Speaker 1: anything they can to beat the shark up have been
31:23
Speaker 1: successful in chasing sharks off. Especially I get the impression
31:26
Speaker 1: great whites are kind of wosses. That's grabs. Are called
31:30
Speaker 1: them whimps, like they don't they don't like to fight back,
31:34
Speaker 1: all right, I guess they don't like to get punched
31:35
Speaker 1: in the ampule of Lonncini. So I guess since we
31:40
Speaker 1: mentioned jaws a few times, we should finish up with
31:43
Speaker 1: the famous um Jaws effect as it's known, which was
31:47
Speaker 1: a big deal in with the book first UM and
31:52
Speaker 1: then the movie about a people being scared of the
31:55
Speaker 1: ocean for the first time and be uh, these rich
32:01
Speaker 1: jerks all of a sudden going out with high tech
32:05
Speaker 1: equipment and like killing as many sharks as they can
32:08
Speaker 1: just so they can have a big jaw to hang
32:10
Speaker 1: on their walls. They had like whole trophy UM tournaments, Yeah,
32:14
Speaker 1: called monster fishing, I think is what it was called,
32:16
Speaker 1: where you're just catching kill as many sharks as you could.
32:19
Speaker 1: And they still have these tournaments. They're all that catch
32:21
Speaker 1: a release now. UM. But before there it was unfettered
32:25
Speaker 1: sharks slaughter. UM, because directly because of Jaws. Yeah, and
32:32
Speaker 1: so much so that I think Peter Benchley even UM
32:34
Speaker 1: expressed regret later on that something he wrote, you know,
32:39
Speaker 1: led to this like slaughter of these innocent animals. He
32:42
Speaker 1: actually became a conservationist. I'm not surprised. I wonder what
32:47
Speaker 1: Spielberg thinks about all that. UM. I don't know, but
32:49
Speaker 1: you did find this article written by a marine biologist,
32:54
Speaker 1: UM who said, yes, this is true. Jaws did have
32:59
Speaker 1: this terrible act, but it also had a verily positive effect,
33:03
Speaker 1: and that it totally opened people's eyes to sharks period,
33:08
Speaker 1: and even the ensuing slaughter that came afterward woke the
33:12
Speaker 1: shark community people who were studying sharks up and said, whoa, whoa,
33:16
Speaker 1: We don't know enough about these animals for everybody to
33:19
Speaker 1: be running around killing them. We need more funding. So
33:22
Speaker 1: funding went into it because there was public interest, and
33:25
Speaker 1: there was a whole generation of shark biologists that were
33:27
Speaker 1: inspired to become shark biologists thanks to Matt Hooper. Yeah,
33:33
Speaker 1: and this guy himself said that he wanted to be
33:35
Speaker 1: Matt Hooper. This like the only guy in Jaws that
33:39
Speaker 1: was like really smart and really knew a lot about
33:41
Speaker 1: what he was doing. Like Brody obviously was a sympathetic character,
33:44
Speaker 1: but he didn't dream. He didn't even like being in
33:47
Speaker 1: the water. But Hooper comes along and with a shot
33:51
Speaker 1: classes and his beard and all his high tech equipment.
33:56
Speaker 1: The shark shark You go on the cage plage, goes
33:59
Speaker 1: in the water. Sharks in the water. So great. Hey,
34:02
Speaker 1: Plus he looks so cool with his rolled up jeans
34:05
Speaker 1: and his blue kads. Go Matt Hooper, what a great money.
34:10
Speaker 1: If you want to learn more about sharks. We have
34:12
Speaker 1: a ton of stuff out of this site. Um, and
34:15
Speaker 1: you can type sharks into the haydy search bart house
34:18
Speaker 1: to works dot com. Don't forget the type of how
34:20
Speaker 1: sharks work. And on the page zero, it'll bring up
34:24
Speaker 1: that cool image that shows what you look like to
34:26
Speaker 1: a shark. What do you always here for? You look
34:28
Speaker 1: like a sea turtle? Yeah, um, I said search part
34:31
Speaker 1: of the you did that means this type of the
34:33
Speaker 1: listening to mail. That's right, Josh, I'm gonna call this um.
34:38
Speaker 1: But what do you know we have French listeners. Oh yeah,
34:41
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read one and then I'll read off the
34:43
Speaker 1: names of the other French cheese who wrote in because
34:46
Speaker 1: we mentioned in the recent show that we never get
34:49
Speaker 1: email from French listeners, and we got emails from French people,
34:53
Speaker 1: and then we got angry emails from people saying whoa
34:55
Speaker 1: are they supposed to learn English just so they can
34:57
Speaker 1: listen to your show? Yeah? Yeah, And I was like, damn,
35:00
Speaker 1: what I met? Everybody take a chill pill, all right,
35:02
Speaker 1: everybody's listening to the Draft Mettle. Yesterday I was heading
35:05
Speaker 1: back home after work. I listened to one of the
35:07
Speaker 1: latest episodes about Lemoss. I guess it's the Musketeers in French. Yeah,
35:15
Speaker 1: I was joined listening and all of a sudden, out
35:18
Speaker 1: of the blue, you mentioned that you wondered if there
35:20
Speaker 1: were any French fans voila, which means here I am
35:25
Speaker 1: the la oh sorry, voila. My name is Sylvain and
35:31
Speaker 1: I'm a French fan. My brother Pierre Eve yeah y
35:37
Speaker 1: v E s like st L. Thank you. It is
35:42
Speaker 1: surprised we don't have worth place listen to this with
35:44
Speaker 1: the beautiful uh. We first listened to the Zombie podcast
35:49
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago in the city of Lyon,
35:51
Speaker 1: and he and I were simply amazed by this awesome
35:54
Speaker 1: technique of yours to spread knowledge through legitimate data while
35:58
Speaker 1: still having fun. Sure it's d of our show. We
36:02
Speaker 1: have told many friends to listen to your brilliant podcast
36:04
Speaker 1: and they did as far as I know. Pierre Hula,
36:07
Speaker 1: who now lives in Paris or Perrys, make sure to
36:12
Speaker 1: check out every new one that comes out. As for me,
36:15
Speaker 1: I first moved to New York a year ago as
36:18
Speaker 1: an exchange student and recently moved to Minneapolis after graduating
36:21
Speaker 1: and got married to my lovely wife Jill. The Old
36:24
Speaker 1: Paris to New York to Medeapolis exactly. Um he met
36:28
Speaker 1: Jill in France. When he points out that Jill as American,
36:31
Speaker 1: I had the privilege of introducing her to your podcast
36:33
Speaker 1: and we've been following the guys that were since. Anyways,
36:37
Speaker 1: thank you guys for all the hints to French things
36:40
Speaker 1: throughout your podcast. Is delightful to hear you try and
36:43
Speaker 1: pronounce these difficult French names, but you are doing fantastique.
36:47
Speaker 1: I never thought that I would actually write in but
36:49
Speaker 1: it would be a privilege if you read this out loud,
36:51
Speaker 1: wild privilege, that's right. The friends of how to talk
36:54
Speaker 1: to us, I know, man uh in short, Josh and Chuck,
36:57
Speaker 1: you are great. You made my transition to living in
36:59
Speaker 1: the US, a new and different country much easier. Avec
37:05
Speaker 1: de mom to you with all the affection of the world.
37:10
Speaker 1: I really could you look at at a time that
37:13
Speaker 1: was from Sylvain past, and we also heard from Sophie
37:19
Speaker 1: and uh m Undine and Eve and Pauline, and some
37:24
Speaker 1: were French Canadians somewhere from France living in America. And
37:28
Speaker 1: I think a couple of them were from France proper
37:31
Speaker 1: like living there and they is no English, and I
37:34
Speaker 1: think we're pretty good. Awesome, thanks for listening, guys, Thanks
37:38
Speaker 1: to everybody for listening, but right now, thanks especially to
37:41
Speaker 1: all of you freend cheese for listening to us. Viva
37:43
Speaker 1: la France. Yeah, nicely done. Let's see if you want
37:47
Speaker 1: to send uh some sort of information to Chuck and I. Uh,
37:51
Speaker 1: it can be information about anything, secret information, public information,
37:57
Speaker 1: a recipe for something, flat outlies. Okay, now if they're
38:02
Speaker 1: good only whoppers and home diggers accepted. Um, you can
38:06
Speaker 1: tweet to us at s y s K podcast. Seriously,
38:09
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Go follow us? It's awesome. Uh,
38:13
Speaker 1: Facebook is awesome, Facebook dot com, slash stuff you should know. Yeah, yes,
38:17
Speaker 1: and before you give our email address, we finally want
38:19
Speaker 1: to encourage you to go check out Shark Week. H
38:23
Speaker 1: oh nice Chuck, you know company guy, that's why we
38:26
Speaker 1: do this. This Discovery channel, animal Planet, they've all got
38:29
Speaker 1: some good stuff going on. Yeah, well, keep in our
38:31
Speaker 1: beloved science it's a Shark weeknd Um, let's see. Yeah. Okay, Well,
38:35
Speaker 1: then uh you can email us too at Stuff podcast
38:40
Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com for more on this and thousands
38:48
Speaker 1: of other topics. Does it How stuff works dot com
38:58
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39:01
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