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The Shark Wasn't the Real Story. the Ocean Mystery Was. · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  Question I have for you today is, why are people acting like a great
• 0:03
  white shark suddenly appearing in the Mediterranean Sea is such a huge
• 0:06
  thing when scientists have known that they were there for decades?
• 0:10
  This is the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, your weekday ocean news update.
• 0:13
  If you care about staying informed about the ocean every single weekday,
• 0:18
  Monday to Friday, hit that follow button on your favorite podcast app
• 0:22
  because we are going to be talking about some great things today.
• 0:26
  So let's talk about a recent underwater video of a great white shark in the
• 0:29
  Mediterranean has gone viral, but that shark itself isn't actually the story.
• 0:34
  The video itself is.
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  Because today I wanna explain why scientists are excited for the video,
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  and why the public is so surprised, and why this moment tells us something
• 0:44
  important about ocean conservation.
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  So here's what we know of what happened.
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  So divers that were removing ghost nets from the organization called Healthy Seas,
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  they were removing ghost net fishing gear.
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  They recorded a great white shark.
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  Now, if you haven't checked out Healthy Seas, I'm gonna put it in the show notes.
• 1:01
  I've had actually people from Healthy Seas on before.
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  They specialize in removing ghost nets, but not just any regular ghost netting.
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  A lot of the times they specialize in removing aquaculture ghost nets.
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  That's right.
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  The people will start an aquaculture business, open pen
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  anywhere in the Mediterranean.
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  So a lot of the times they've been doing…
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  When we had them on, it was in the Greek Islands.
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  And somewhere in the Greek Islands, they would eventually
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  just abandon that aquaculture net, and it would just sit there.
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  And all the infrastructure that goes with the mechanics of the nets would
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  actually just dissipate into the water.
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  And you'd be floating plastic and styrofoam and all this
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  stuff, and it was awful.
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  And so Healthy Seas actually works to get rid of all of that stuff,
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  all that junk that's in there.
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  And so they were also getting rid of ghost net fishing gear when they
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  came across this great white shark.
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  Because they video everything so that they can tell a story, which
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  by the way, if you are not into communication for your nonprofit,
• 1:55
  that is the key to getting stuff like this as well as your own story out.
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  So they video everything.
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  They record everything.
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  And the footage captured, in the Strait of Sicily, a great
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  white shark in the Mediterranean.
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  That's amazing.
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  And of course, outlets treated it like it was a major
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  discovery, like the first ever.
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  But great whites have been seen in the Mediterranean for decades.
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  And that's something that I feel like, sometimes it gets caught up.
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  And scientists were excited because it was underwater footage, and getting
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  underwater footage is incredibly rare, especially in the Mediterranean.
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  But we've known that there have been sightings.
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  There was a paper in the 1960s that said, "Hey, you know what? There are
• 2:31
  great white sharks in the Mediterranean." There were sightings in the 1980s.
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  But they've never actually had a recorded sighting, like a video recorded sighting.
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  And this great white, if you watch the video, I highly recommend you go
• 2:42
  on the Healthy Seas YouTube channel.
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  They'll have it there.
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  If you watch the video, it's amazing.
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  Like, you get to see this beautiful shark.
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  It looks like it's in great health.
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  There's a bunch of remoras and other fish that are swimming along with it.
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  And it's really exciting to see that there are great whites in the Mediterranean.
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  But it's not something that should get blown up and we're sort of like,
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  "We've never seen them there before." Because fishers have seen them for
• 3:03
  a long time and we just see this.
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  Now, it is something to talk about.
• 3:07
  We gotta talk about how social media reacts to wildlife sightings, because
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  it's all in the frame of reference.
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  I was talking to my colleague and good friend, Dr. David Ebert, who
• 3:17
  I co-host the Beyond Jaws podcast.
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  And we talked about it.
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  I said, "Hey, did you hear about this news that a great
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  white was videoed and things?"
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  He's like, "Yeah." But he's like, "That's not really news.
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  We don't see them often.
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  They are rare, but that has been seen before." And I think when you talk about
• 3:29
  the frame of reference in where all this is going, I think you're looking at areas
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  where we're saying, "Hey, you know what?
• 3:36
  Like, just because a shark is there doesn't mean it hasn't been seen
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  before." We tend to just look at the last 10 years or even in social
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  media times, like even months or even days in some, in like news cycles.
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  And whatever's gonna get the clicks, that's gonna get the clicks.
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  And of course, the headlines that come out, they wanna make it as
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  desperate or as urgent as possible so that you're gonna click on there.
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  And like I said, I don't wanna take away from what this is, you know, the first
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  video that we've seen in a long, long time, if not ever, of a great white shark.
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  Healthy Seas did a fantastic job in getting it out there, and I'm
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  sure they know that, hey, this is news, and this is good news to
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  see that great whites coming back.
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  That means there's food there, possibility and that kind of stuff.
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  But just 'cause every time a shark shows up somewhere, people
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  act like it's a huge invasion.
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  Some people are like, "Great white sharks shouldn't be there." It's not
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  just following our assumptions, right?
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  Just 'cause we don't see something doesn't mean it isn't there.
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  The ocean is a huge place.
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  The Mediterranean is a huge place.
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  And there are a lot of different things that happen.
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  It's very clear, so you can see a lot of stuff, but there's probably a lot
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  of things that we don't know that are in there, new species and so forth,
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  that we just haven't discovered 'cause we haven't gone exploring enough.
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  You know, a lot of times, great white sharks, marine mammals, any other
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  type of sharks, sometimes the fish and stuff, we see them because we either
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  fish them out and when they get caught in fishing nets, or we see them on
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  the surface every once in a while.
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  I'm thinking more marine mammals, we'll see them as they…
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  'cause they have to come breathe.
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  Sea turtles have to come breathe, breathe air at the surface.
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  So we see those a little bit more often.
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  But just 'cause, like, great white sharks aren't seen all the time or
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  other fish aren't seen all the time doesn't mean that they aren't there.
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  And I think that's something that we need to really look at how
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  we view these types of things.
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  I was just out in Halifax this past week.
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  The great whites were being talked about all over the place.
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  We probably already had great whites out there for a number of years.
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  But when more people are out on the water and more people are actually looking for
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  these sharks, we're starting to see more.
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  So the public perception of these sharks have just shown up.
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  Maybe there's a little bit more because of the population increase
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  along the East Coast and maybe, the one in the Mediterranean is
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  interesting 'cause it's endangered in the Mediterranean and in that area.
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  But, like, on the Atlantic Coast, we're starting to see this boom of
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  great white sharks along the East Coast, even along the West Coast.
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  And that's a great thing.
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  That's a conservation success.
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  So the fact that there's more sharks out there, we know that they're coming
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  more north because maybe it could be a cumulative impact of climate change
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  being warmer up north, but also the fact that they're doing better, so
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  they need more territory to hunt and so forth, is really a great thing.
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  And I think we're starting to see that perception of, hey, great whites
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  being shown in the Mediterranean.
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  It's actually fun.
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  It was actually a good news story, not a scary story, and I think
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  that's really great to see, and we need to see more of that.
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  So that's something that I'm interested in, it's kinda good and that's where this
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  story really gets interesting, is when the shark wasn't really expected to be there,
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  and I think that's really cool to see.
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  And what was unexpected really was getting such a clear look at an animal
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  that scientists rarely get to see, especially in the Mediterranean.
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  The video is on point.
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  So like I said, check out the Healthy Seas YouTube channel because I'm
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  sure it's on there, and it's gonna be something that's really good.
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  Mediterranean great white population is thought to be really, really small.
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  And because of the fishing pressures, especially along the southern border of
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  the Mediterranean, we don't really see a lot of them because they've disappeared in
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  the past, they've been caught in the past, and they just haven't replenished as much
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  as we thought they would have or as much as we thought we weren't affecting them.
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  So, there's only potentially a few hundred animals that remain in the
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  area, and they're very difficult to study because we can't really see.
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  So visual evidence will create this type of public excitement
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  and even scientific excitement.
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  Scientists are coming out being like, "Hey, this is not a huge
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  deal, but it's a pretty big deal, but it's not like the biggest…
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  It's not that we've never seen them there before," right?
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  But rare species often receive a lot of attention only when there's footage.
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  But, beyond the news cycle, like, probably by the time you hear this, it's probably
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  gonna be a little past this news cycle.
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  But the fact that we've seen it, does it now or should be spurring on studies
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  to look more for these types of species,
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  because I think that's gonna be really important.
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  So I'd love, like, what was the last ocean animal that you were surprised
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  or you learned that lives somewhere?
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  I would love to hear that.
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  Let me know.
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  If you're on Spotify you can hit me up in the comments, or if you wanna hit me up,
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  just look at my socials in the show notes.
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  But I think that's really important 'cause, like, how many people think
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  great whites only live in South Africa or in California or off Cape Cod.
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  Even Cape Cod, If you go on Ocearch, the organization that tags these sharks,
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  you'll see where they go around the world, and you see that they're in much
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  more places where I think people realize.
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  But because of the way media covers it, not necessarily the fault of
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  media in this case, but the fact is we know there are great white sharks.
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  Where there used to be a lot more great white sharks in South Africa, but we
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  now we know there's some in California.
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  There's a bunch in California.
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  There's a bunch on the Atlantic coast, and we're gonna see probably
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  more and more as we move along and great whites can be seen in Hawaii.
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  They can be seen all over the place.
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  But there's still so much of the ocean that remains unseen, and
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  this video makes it exciting.
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  And even if you look at organizations like Ocean Census that go out
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  and are looking for species, they're looking for biodiversity.
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  I think they just named a bamboo shark, which we should cover on
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  this on How to Protect the Ocean.
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  I should have Dave on because he talked.
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  David Ebert also was part of that discovery.
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  This is why video matters more than scientific reports sometimes for public
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  awareness is because we need to be able to see what's out there as citizens, not
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  just scientists and conservationists.
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  We need to see what's out there so that we can be like, "Oh yeah, there's proof."
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  We can actually see that's happening.
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  When you look at a video and you compare it to, like, a scientific paper, the
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  scientific paper may get read by hundreds of people, but really the viral video
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  will get seen by millions if not more.
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  And I think that's where, when we start to talk about communication,
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  I said at the beginning of the show, the fact that communication is such an
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  important part of the ocean and of ocean conservation messages, I think this
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  is really important to me as a science communicator because it's frustrating
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  when you have a scientist who's like, "Oh, I m- made this major discovery.
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  I'm gonna publish on it, so let's wait till we talk about it, like,
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  publicly until we publish on it.
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  But I wanna publish on it first, so we can talk about it in public after." Which
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  is great because they want more people to see their paper, but let's be honest,
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  other than people that live in the science world, and maybe the conservation world.
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  One, people don't have access to their papers, but they also wanna hear about it
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  because the discovery, the paper may not come out for months or even years after
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  the discovery's made, but the discovery can make news right then and there.
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  Maybe it's even in the news cycle if it goes viral and maybe not very long.
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  But then your paper can come out after and be like, "Yeah, look forward to the paper
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  for all the other scientists." Because waiting for other scientists to read it is
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  not the same as waiting for every people to see it and people to understand it
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  and people to actually allow it to either go viral or even have a discussion on it.
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  That's really important because most likely, most of those people are not
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  going to read the scientific paper.
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  So I think it's as a scientist, I get people… , it's
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  important that people publish.
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  It's important that scientists publish because that's their incentive.
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  That is how they are marked or they are evaluated as a scientist.
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  Are you published?
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  I'm a published author.
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  Well, not necessarily a book, but, I'm a published author in
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  the science journals, which is important to contribute to science.
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  But let's be honest, the message needs to come out a lot faster.
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  If you think about it, like imagine this.
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  This project that's being done, say it was part of a scientific
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  paper, and this discovery happens.
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  Well, you can have that go out to the public with that
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  video of the great white shark,
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  and be like, "Hey, this is an ongoing project, and let's learn what the
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  scientists and the conservationists were doing." And then people can start
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  following along on their journey.
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  That's an opportunity for great communication strategy of
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  like, "Hey, you saw that great white shark video that we have.
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  We may or may not get that again.
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  We don't know.
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  But we're working on this project.
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  It'd be really cool for you to follow us along on this
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  journey." Imagine having that.
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  You finish the project like years later.
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  You publish on it.
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  It does really well in the science magazines.
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  Plus you probably had press on it, so you might get into a better paper or a
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  better journal, like a higher standard journal or whatever they call it.
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  They have all these ratings for it.
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  But that's something that's really cool.
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  I feel like that's something that you could really build upon and
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  maybe help with funding, 'cause let's be honest, funding is kinda crazy.
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  You need to really build up the publicity to get more funding.
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  I think that's something that's really important.
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  So communication strategy is something that is huge.
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  And I just wanted to let you know, like I am part of a consulting firm
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  now called Pisces Oceans, and I'm the ocean communications manager.
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  And we are looking to partner and collaborate with groups who want
• 11:40
  to build on their communication.
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  They may not be able to pay us out of their own pocket, but if you partner
• 11:45
  on proposals and include Pisces Oceans as a collaborator to do their
• 11:49
  communications, help with their grant management and project management,
• 11:53
  you can get your stuff done faster and probably more efficiently and be
• 11:58
  able to get a bigger, no pun intended, bigger bite so that we can actually get
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  this out into the public a lot faster.
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  So if you have any questions around that, you can get ahold of me.
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  Just reach out to me through my socials, or you can go to piscesoceans.ca
• 12:12
  and you can sign up there and be happy to help in any kind of way.
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  Or you can just hit me up on LinkedIn and just message me.
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  But let's get back into the episode because I think it's something really
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  interesting, this story, because, like,
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  What happens next?
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  Now that this video went viral, what happens next?
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  Scientists will still have major questions about this small
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  population of great white sharks.
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  Are, like, are there nursery areas that remain poorly understood?
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  Do we know if there are nursery areas?
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  Do we know even the population size?
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  Maybe this is a chance that questions start to get asked.
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  We saw one great white shark in video.
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  Are there ways to get others?
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  Can we start putting stations, like these BRUVS, these baited, like, cameras
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  where you can see if there's any sharks that come around and maybe study more?
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  This is a way to really understand the population size because
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  it does remain uncertain.
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  And conservation depends on the understanding of where these sharks
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  spend their time every single day.
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  And we got estimates of this population, but it'd be a great
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  opportunity to get more estimates.
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  I think that's something that could be done in the future.
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  Because look, Conservation starts with knowing a species exists.
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  We know great white sharks exist.
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  We don't know their full extent to where they go.
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  We have some historical sightings, we have some historical papers.
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  We don't know what's affecting… We may know some things that are
• 13:23
  affecting the great white sharks from living in this area, maybe a
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  lack of fish, maybe fisheries getting caught up in bycatch in some places.
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  But there's a lot of studies that can happen.
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  You can do social science studies, where you can talk to fishing
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  communities in and around.
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  Like, there's so many fishing communities along the Mediterranean, have like a huge
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  project that looks at sharks, and other sharks that are around there too, not just
• 13:40
  great whites, but look at other sharks.
• 13:42
  Like, I am always surprised, and people are surprised when I tell them,
• 13:45
  we know very little about sharks, like very, very little, especially
• 13:48
  the coverage around the world.
• 13:50
  We know very little about the ocean in general.
• 13:52
  I was just talking to people about seagrasses and eelgrass , along
• 13:55
  the coast of Nova Scotia.
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  We just don't even know where they are.
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  And so mapping is important just to know where they are.
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  The baseline discovery system is so disconnected and underfunded that just
• 14:08
  understanding habitats and species is a huge thing, especially coastal
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  ones, is a huge, huge need, and we can build on that in the future.
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  So I think that's something that's really a great opportunity in the future.
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  This is the best part of why I love science.
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  This is the best part of why I love conservation, is because we can
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  actually have these conversations, we can actually have these
• 14:28
  discoveries, and then explore more.
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  That's what I think is really important.
• 14:32
  And I think this, this is the reason I got into marine biology is because the ocean
• 14:35
  still surprises us each and every day.
• 14:37
  There's so much that remains unknown.
• 14:40
  Exploration is really one part of this whole conservation tool,
• 14:43
  but curiosity is, like, the biggest tool, is to say, "Hey, we need to
• 14:48
  conserve these species, but we need to know what's out there so that we need
• 14:50
  to conserve and protect the ocean." I think that's really important.
• 14:53
  And that's the most important part of the story.
• 14:55
  It isn't that the great white shark was found in the Mediterranean, because
• 14:58
  scientists already knew it was there.
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  The important part is that a critically endangered population is still surviving
• 15:04
  in one of the busiest seas on the planet.
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  And sometimes just a single video can remind millions of people that the ocean
• 15:11
  still has mysteries worth protecting.
• 15:14
  And I think that's really the message here when we talk about this great white
• 15:17
  shark, this sighting in the Mediterranean.
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  It's an opportunity to learn more.
• 15:22
  It's an opportunity to satisfy our curiosity.
• 15:25
  And it's an opportunity to follow people on this journey.
• 15:27
  Researchers out there communicate to the people about what you're doing and why
• 15:31
  you're trying to find these sharks, and maybe you'll see how this story develops
• 15:34
  into a lot of different branches and maybe having institutes where sharks
• 15:39
  are studied in the Mediterranean.
• 15:41
  That's it for today's episode.
• 15:43
  If you want to follow this podcast, you just discovered it or you haven't
• 15:46
  followed it yet on your favorite podcast app, hit that follow button right now.
• 15:50
  We are providing an ocean weekday update, Monday to Friday.
• 15:54
  And this week is all about ocean news.
• 15:56
  I'm just back from a trip, so I haven't done an interview.
• 15:58
  I've got some interviews that I'm working on right now lined up, and
• 16:01
  we're gonna get to go for that.
• 16:02
  So stay tuned, but follow this podcast so that we can help expose the
• 16:07
  podcast to everybody else who wants to learn about the ocean, and plus
• 16:10
  you'll never miss another episode.
• 16:12
  I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode
• 16:15
  of the How to Protect the Ocean.
• 16:16
  I am your host, Andrew Lewin.
• 16:18
  Have a great day.
• 16:19
  We'll talk to you tomorrow, and happy conservation.