From aspiring professional surfer to amputee, Mike Coots relives the shark encounter that turned into a life-long passion for sharks.
Shark Week’s Luke Tipple welcomes professional photographer Mike Coots, who lost his leg to a tiger shark attack when he was only 18. But after his horrific injury, he came to love sharks, and became a lifelong advocate for their safety. Luke and Mike discuss his career, his love for photographing sharks, and how to positively approach the big life-changing moments that can happen to any of us.
Find episode transcripts here: https://shark-weeks-daily-bite.simplecast.com/episodes/from-shark-bite-survivor-to-shark-advocate-mike-coots
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:13:12
Speaker 1
Today, we're going to meet a professional photographer who became an advocate for sharks, despite and perhaps even because he lost his leg to one. And then we'll close out with a brand new discovery. The surprising thing that you have in common with hammerhead sharks.
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Unknown
You’re listening to the Shark Week Podcast
00:00:22:15 - 00:00:24:23
Unknown
00:00:25:01 - 00:00:42:05
Speaker 1
G’day everyone. Welcome to the brand new season of shark week, the podcast. I'm your host, Luke Tipple, and I'm excited to announce that this year we're doing things a little bit differently. We're going to start each episode with a question, and our goal in the podcast will be to answer that question conclusively with the help of the foremost minds in their field.
00:00:42:12 - 00:00:58:05
Speaker 1
We're going to dive into topics related to sharks and everything in on or under the water. And I'm going to do this all in about 30 minutes or less. Now, before we get too deep into things, please make sure to subscribe to this channel like the video and ring that little bell so you never miss another episode of our weekly podcast.
00:00:58:12 - 00:01:22:22
Speaker 1
Now, I've been fascinated with sharks for as long as I can remember, and my connection with them came from a love for the ocean, and I've spent most of my adult life pursuing close experiences with sharks and a deeper knowledge of sharks. But I'm not afraid to say that even with all this experience, sharks constantly surprise me. You know, most of the behavior we see even on Shark Week and stuff, most of that behavior is fairly chill.
00:01:23:00 - 00:01:47:18
Speaker 1
You know that just checking things out, swimming around. But when they decide to turn on the power and turn on the predatory nature of being a shark and it might only be 2% of their lives that they spend doing this, but when they do, it can be staggeringly surprise and really kind of scary. I mean, the speed and power and ferocity of these animals are capable of is absolutely incredible.
00:01:48:13 - 00:02:09:00
Speaker 1
Now, I want to ask you a question. Even if you're a massive shark lover, if you were to be subject of that ferocity, if a shark were to come up to you when you surfing or swimming or diving or something, and you were unlucky enough for that shark to want to see if you were food, whether it be a test bite or an intentional bite or, you know, we can have that discussion at another time.
00:02:09:08 - 00:02:30:12
Speaker 1
But regardless, there's a shark chomping down on your leg and taking it off. How do you feel about sharks after that? Do you say, Oh, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or do you suddenly have a massive fear for that animal in the ocean and want to campaign against it? Well, today I'm talking with a shark bite survivor who has very much experience the power of these animals up close and personal.
00:02:30:16 - 00:02:50:07
Speaker 1
In fact, he lost his leg to a tiger shark when he was just 18 years old. Now he's turned this horrible experience into a lifelong mission to protect sharks and to better understand them. Now, where other people might have spiraled into depression or decided that they hate sharks, Mike Coots has become a champion for sharks and is with us right now.
00:02:50:12 - 00:03:00:10
Speaker 1
Mike, I want to thank you for your time and joining us here on Shark Week, the podcast. Now, let's go straight to that day. Talk me through about the day when you paddled out and your life was forever changed.
00:03:00:20 - 00:03:26:13
Speaker 3
Yeah, Aloha Luke, I was born and raised in Hawaii. Love the ocean from an early age and was an avid a Waverider and had high hopes of making it a living and joined a surfing team in my teens. And right after my 18th birthday, we saw an amazing swell. This was late in the fall of 1997 and it was on the western shore of the island and got up really early like most surfers do, got down to the beach, and as we pulled up, the waves are going off and we opened the car door.
00:03:26:13 - 00:03:44:16
Speaker 3
And I remember a distinctly stinky smell in the air, but the waves were so good, nothing was really stopping us. And in hindsight, I probably should have taken that as maybe something was amiss and slow down, but paddled out. My friends all got really good rides right off the bat and I saw a beautiful wave coming and I started paddling for it.
00:03:44:16 - 00:04:01:15
Speaker 3
And right as I made an initial motion to catch the wave, I had been sitting motionless, probably for a good 2 minutes between waves and my fingertips brush the surface of the water. And as that happened, a large tiger shark came up from underneath me, grabbed onto both my legs. I felt no pain whatsoever. Just an incredible amount of pressure.
00:04:01:15 - 00:04:20:02
Speaker 3
It happened really fast. It almost felt like it was happening to somebody else. I was watching it like in a movie, like almost an our body experience. I don't know if that makes sense and I just didn't know what to do. I stuck my right hand in its mouth to get my legs out. That did it work. It lifted me out of the water and started rag-dolling me back and forth like a dog would with a piece of meat.
00:04:20:20 - 00:04:42:00
Speaker 3
I felt that swaying like really slow but really calculated and knew I better do something else with my left hand. I punched it in the nose and I must have punched it two or three times. And that worked. I felt that pressure release. I got back on my board. The shark slipped back in the water and as I got to my board, I looked at my right index finger and it was split open like a baked potato.
00:04:42:00 - 00:04:56:06
Speaker 3
I could see sort of, you know, all the stuffings of a big potato. It was my bone and blood and guts. And I knew I was hurt. And there was a surfer next to me that was a complete stranger. What did it come to the beach with us that day? And I looked at him and he was white as a ghost.
00:04:56:06 - 00:05:12:05
Speaker 3
He was just completely pale and I didn't know what to do. I yelled, Shark, go in, you know, And it was very obviously just saw me get attacked. But I just I didn't know what to say at the time. And he started paddling as fast as he could to the beach. And I started paddling behind him. And when you're paddling, you're in a prone position, lying on your board.
00:05:12:05 - 00:05:27:17
Speaker 3
You don't see what's behind you. And maybe a 10 seconds into my panel to the beach, my right leg started doing this crazy, uncontrollable spasm like this shake that I had never felt before and thought, you know, that's got to be the the tiger shark finishing me off. And I looked over my right shoulder expecting to see a huge set of Jaws.
00:05:27:17 - 00:05:44:19
Speaker 3
And it wasn't that. It was my leg just completely severed off. The shark did an incredible job of amputating my foot off that that morning and big squirts of blood were squirting out every time my heart beat and didn't really have time to process all this. It just happened so fast. Fortunately, a little tiny wave came. I wrote it on my stomach all the way up to the sand.
00:05:44:19 - 00:06:02:06
Speaker 3
I tried standing up without a foot. You can't stand. So I fell down. My friends saw was happening. They rushed to my aid. My friend Kyle took my leash and made a tourniquet with it. I later found that saved my life. They threw me in the back of a pickup truck. We hold back to the emergency room. I spent about two days or so doing surgeries and things like that.
00:06:02:06 - 00:06:19:04
Speaker 3
I came to a day later with my family around me and in our hospital, and it was a bit of a somber moment. I hope my parents didn't realize that. I knew my leg came off and once I let them know that I that I'm going to be fine, it was more I just happy to be alive and spent about a week in the hospital, about three weeks bedridden.
00:06:19:04 - 00:06:25:01
Speaker 3
And once the doctor said I could get back in the water and the risk of infection was gone and they took out the staples, I was right back in the water.
00:06:25:07 - 00:06:31:06
Speaker 1
Well, that's a pretty wild story, dude. You said it grabbed both your legs. Yeah. Was that damage to the other one as well?
00:06:31:07 - 00:06:50:19
Speaker 3
Yep. So I have I have three really good sized scars. I lost a lot of blood, actually, from that leg as well. Was close to losing it. They're going to they talked about doing skin grafts and things, but fortunately I didn't lose and didn't have to do skin grafts. And you can see my foot. The the different layers of the shark have, you know, different teeth layers.
00:06:50:19 - 00:07:10:19
Speaker 3
And you can see those scar marks on that foot. It's on my left ankle. And then I had to get surgery on my right finger. The shark cut through the nerves, so I had nerve surgery on my right index finger. And I am a photographer. That's my trigger finger. And it still feels numb to this day when I take a picture, I don't have complete feeling on the fingertip.
00:07:11:12 - 00:07:16:18
Speaker 1
So you're a photographer before this? I kind of thought that there was something you took up after the event.
00:07:16:18 - 00:07:34:19
Speaker 3
Yeah, it was. It was sort of the months after the after the shark attack. My coach had a lot of camera gear, and I fell in love with photography band. And a lot of my friends are professional surfers and it wasn't as much. My photography was great. It was just they were really good surfers and I was able to get magazine, you know, published in surf magazines and things, and it just grew from there.
00:07:35:13 - 00:07:37:08
Speaker 1
So this happened at 18. How old are you now?
00:07:37:14 - 00:07:38:09
Speaker 3
I'm 43.
00:07:39:06 - 00:07:41:06
Speaker 1
So it's been years of telling this story.
00:07:41:08 - 00:07:42:16
Speaker 3
Over half my life. Yes.
00:07:42:23 - 00:07:51:10
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's that's crazy. Do you kind of identify now as a survivor of a of a shark attack or a shark incident or how do you think of it?
00:07:51:10 - 00:08:08:12
Speaker 3
Yeah, I guess it's so just who I am. I've just become part of the shark world. I don't really see myself as an amputee because I'm fortunate to have such good prosthetics that I walk around. And most days I don't even realize I'm missing a leg. As a shark attack survivor, I still pretty much do exactly what I did prior to the shark attack.
00:08:08:12 - 00:08:22:13
Speaker 3
I'm in the water every day. I just learn to adopt a little differently with a prosthetic. So I don't really identify much. I mean, I am a shark attack survivor, but I'm also just I don't know, like, just life goes on and I'm more, I think, as a photographer and a shark advocate than anything else.
00:08:23:05 - 00:08:39:23
Speaker 1
Can you actually think back to being 18? And, you know, people go through these experiences in life and, you know, any time there's a very radical change from a car accident or a shark attack or losing a loved one, it's such a traumatic thing that just switches people off or on, you know, how did you take it?
00:08:40:04 - 00:08:55:08
Speaker 3
Yeah, when I was in the hospital and I came to the day after the shark attack and my eyes flickered open and saw the light come in, sort of like you do in the movies. I was happy to be alive. I honestly thought I wasn't going to make it. And it and at that time I wasn't scared of dying.
00:08:55:08 - 00:09:12:00
Speaker 3
I just it was sort of like, this is what's going to happen. And to wake up with my family around me. And even though I was limbless, I was alive and felt grateful to be alive. And I felt like I was on borrowed time. And the few days after the attack, as I laid in the hospital, my mind starts processing, okay, well, how am I going to get back in the water?
00:09:12:00 - 00:09:28:01
Speaker 3
How am I going to do life? And everything was revolved around a wheelchair. I had never in my life seen an amputee before. I had never seen a prosthetic, and it was probably day four in the hospital. A guy came to visit me, had a lot of people in the community come to say hi, and he was only there for 2 minutes and I just thought he was another person.
00:09:28:01 - 00:09:40:02
Speaker 3
The community, you know, a lot of love was being shown and he was wearing pants. And as he left, my mom was like, you know, he's got a prosthetic leg. That's what you're going to have. And it was like, wow, Well, there's something out there that's going on. And then your mind starts processing, okay, well, this is how I'm going to live my life.
00:09:40:02 - 00:10:03:17
Speaker 3
It's going to be with this prosthetic. And it's been, you know, an incredible sort of recovery in a way. I've been very fortunate, don't have any bad dreams. I've not had any flashbacks, no hatred for the shark at all. And being an amputee, it's had its challenges, but it's also been incredibly rewarding, like learning how to run again, learning how to drive a manual stick vehicle, just learning all these little things.
00:10:03:17 - 00:10:22:17
Speaker 3
You build on it and it gives you not only does it, you know, it's kind of like this reward system and you think you can't do something and you you get this sort of you just enjoy the process of doing it and then enjoy. Okay, well, I can build on this and build on this. It's also just in a way like surfing with a prosthetic leg, you feel like you're on the forefront of something and doing something different.
00:10:23:00 - 00:10:33:02
Speaker 3
I'm fortunate to have a really good carbon fiber prosthetic legs, and my hope is one day, you know, to have a leg that's better than a regular leg, to have an ultimate. Kelly Slater surfing in a way.
00:10:33:13 - 00:10:50:03
Speaker 1
I'm actually really curious to see the real risk that a surfer undergoes in paddling out in Hawaii from shark attacks. So I introduce our research to Sierra here. Sierra, could you look up for me the chances of a surfer getting attacked by a shark in Hawaii and see what you come up with?
00:10:50:20 - 00:11:07:01
Speaker 4
Yeah. So since 1837, there have been 1596 shark attacks. And of them, Hawaii is the state with the second highest at 187.
00:11:08:02 - 00:11:09:20
Speaker 1
And that's behind Florida, right?
00:11:09:22 - 00:11:10:19
Speaker 4
Yep. Florida.
00:11:11:01 - 00:11:11:08
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:11:11:11 - 00:11:29:11
Speaker 4
Yeah. Florida's up there at 912. But considering people who only only the people who go to beach as a person's chance of getting attacked by a shark is one in 11.5 million. So that's not everybody in the world that's of beach goers. It's only one in 11.5 million.
00:11:29:12 - 00:11:39:03
Speaker 1
Yeah, I think I saw a stat where it was something like, you know, of surfers in Hawaii particularly that number dropped to something like one in 40,000. Maybe you could fact check me on that.
00:11:39:03 - 00:11:48:22
Speaker 4
Yeah. So that's that's actually for Western Australia. The chances of a surfer being fatally bitten by a shark is one in 40,000. But actually for scuba divers, it drops down to one in 16,000.
00:11:49:09 - 00:11:50:13
Speaker 1
Wow. Really?
00:11:50:20 - 00:11:51:22
Speaker 4
In Western Australia.
00:11:52:04 - 00:12:08:06
Speaker 1
So as well, scuba diving. You know what that is? That's probably people going after abalone in cages and stuff. That's a dangerous job. Yeah, obviously more dangerous than surfing. So, you know, pretty good surfing. Do you think of yourself as lucky?
00:12:09:11 - 00:12:16:06
Speaker 3
Yeah, I think of myself as very lucky, very blessed. And I do think I'm put on this earth for a reason. And I didn't die that day for a reason.
00:12:16:13 - 00:12:36:13
Speaker 1
Yeah, I if I could relate a story that I wasn't actually planning on sharing at all with this podcast, but when you said something about the, you know, the guy who walked in and walked out and you realize that, oh, that, that could be me, I have that hope. When I was when I was very young, I, um, I was burnt very, very badly.
00:12:37:07 - 00:12:59:18
Speaker 1
Site almost two years old. And I remember those old flip top kettles that are now banned. You know, they're ceramic, they've got those black tops and they, you know, they flip out and you say all those evil little heating elements in there. Yeah. I pulled one of them on myself when I was a kid and burnt like, I think it's like 70 or 80% of my body, 30%, 33rd degree burns I was in hospital for a couple of months is all pretty bad.
00:12:59:18 - 00:13:16:20
Speaker 1
I will bandages for like four or five years. You can't really see it now. It's just all that tanned and scarred and whatever. But I've got a lot of scars. And I remember when I was a kid, I thought I, you know, I was really, really unlucky. And then my mum took me in to see, I think I was six at the time, six or seven at the time.
00:13:17:09 - 00:13:41:23
Speaker 1
And my mum took me in to see a little girl. Her name was Gemma and I saw her in the hospital and she sat me down and said, Hey, I want you to talk to Gemma's mum because you're lucky. And other times that I'm not lucky. And I said, Well, see how you feel after this. And I talked to Gemma, who'd done the exact same thing at five years old, and she poured onto her face and I was like, she was distraught.
00:13:42:01 - 00:14:00:06
Speaker 1
You know, if, if Gemma's out there, I hope you live in a beautiful life. But my shape, she was going through it, and she'll be Scott forever. And I looked at that and thought, Yeah, I'm lucky. So I kind of made it a mission to go and talk to, not burn victims and stuff. For a long time when I was younger, I kind of went off on a tangent there, but it just.
00:14:01:22 - 00:14:10:20
Speaker 1
Do you think there's an obligation for people who go through these experiences and perhaps have thought better on the other side or have learned something on the side to share that with people?
00:14:11:04 - 00:14:40:02
Speaker 3
Yeah, I do. You know, and it's not everybody's calling. I feel like in my journey, I feel a sense of responsibility, whether it's somebody else that gets attacked by a shark or a lot of times in what you like myself or Bethany Hamilton or go together, she's another shark attack survivor. We'll go visit them in the hospital or even people that are in traumatic incidences and lose limbs just because, you know, the doctors and nurses are there to help, but sometimes to be in the same situation and to be able to relate on that same level is powerful.
00:14:40:02 - 00:14:53:22
Speaker 3
And like I said, the guy that visited me in the hospital, it was so fast, but it was such a monumental event in my life. And to be able to pass that forward is, you know, it's life short. It's like, why not go and do that and be that person?
00:14:54:10 - 00:14:59:00
Speaker 1
So if life so short, why are you spending it protecting sharks after the damage they did to you?
00:14:59:05 - 00:15:19:18
Speaker 3
Great question. It was really watching Shark Water. Rob Stuart's documentary. Yeah I YouTube. Yeah I after the attack was really curious so I got attacked in which the library read a lot of shark attack books shark attack files and was just trying to find out, you know, why me? And I really didn't find any answers. And I knew a heck of a lot of what sharks are doing to people like myself.
00:15:19:18 - 00:15:35:18
Speaker 3
And I really had no idea what were doing the Sharks. And I was watching his documentary Blown Away. And I felt, I guess in my unique situation, compelled to to do something and was involved in some legislation nationwide. And also here in Hawaii. And during this process, I got invited on a shark diving trip and brought a camera.
00:15:35:18 - 00:15:55:18
Speaker 3
And at the time I was shooting people and was studying photography in college and one to shoot girls in bikinis and being underwater with a great white for the first time, I was like, This is the greatest subject on earth. And yeah, this is better than any, you know, any swimsuit photography shoot. And since then, I've just I've really, really enjoyed shooting sharks.
00:15:56:21 - 00:16:01:21
Speaker 3
Like, it's kind of what I eat, breathe, sleep, you know, think about is photographing sharks.
00:16:02:03 - 00:16:07:23
Speaker 1
Is it kind of your full time career? I mean, I know you shoot a lot of different things, but is it kind of more of a passion for you or is it a living now?
00:16:08:03 - 00:16:26:09
Speaker 3
It's a living a very fortunate to see that. And I do shoot other things. I try to shoot mostly stuff in the water. I love shooting waves and and being in the ocean, but I feel very fortunate to be able to go and spend a lot of time throughout the year on shark diving trips. And it's like you're looking at a living dinosaur in a way underwater.
00:16:26:10 - 00:16:44:09
Speaker 3
You're looking at a, you know, something that shouldn't even be here. It's survived mass extinctions. You're looking at something. It's so powerful and it's as a photography subject, it's very elusive. It's difficult technically, and I think that's what the draw is. It's it's the beauty and it's also the technical difficulty side of it. And like, let's say you want to shoot great whites.
00:16:44:09 - 00:16:51:02
Speaker 3
There's only a couple places in the world you can really go to photograph them. So as an elusive animal, there's that appeal as well.
00:16:51:11 - 00:17:01:08
Speaker 1
And how do people respond to your, you know, request to come out and work with them or, you know, to to sell photos? Is the attack always part of your story or is your art and works down on its own?
00:17:02:14 - 00:17:23:15
Speaker 3
A lot of times people don't realize I'm a shark attack survivor until they baby it through on social media. They dig deeper into my story. I don't tell a lot of stories about the shark attack itself. I try to let the sharks speak on their own in a way, and I also try to balance it's really easy on social media to portray imagery of sharks and their jaws and their eyes roll back.
00:17:23:15 - 00:17:42:00
Speaker 3
And what you see that Hollywood sold us for how many years? And in reality, that's not all sharks do. The majority of time. They're just swimming beautifully underwater. And by sharing those authentic images, you maybe don't get as much viral hits. But I think it tells a more of a authentic story. And that's really what I try my photography to show.
00:17:42:00 - 00:18:00:02
Speaker 3
When I edit photos, I look for images of smirks, smiles and sort of like something you can relate to on a human connection level. And I think that's maybe my unique way of showcasing my work. And I think that if people can see something in themselves, they want to learn more about it. And I think there's power in people wanting to dive deeper.
00:18:00:10 - 00:18:09:07
Speaker 3
Obviously there is power in that and it makes people want to get up off the couch and learn more about sharks, share about sharks and and see sharks in a new light. In a way.
00:18:09:22 - 00:18:29:05
Speaker 1
Have you thought about that day? You know, you said you approached the surf spot and you smelt something really stinky. You know, in retrospect, you said that that might have been something that clue due to the presence of a shark. But what was that? You know, is there a lesson that people can learn here about how to, like, observe a potential area where there might be more sharks around?
00:18:29:12 - 00:18:46:20
Speaker 3
Yeah, that's a great question. And I don't know the exact answer of to that day, but I did have that feeling that something was amiss. I think it's something that's innately inside of us and to listen to that, if you're out in the water and something just feels off, maybe not force it. If you're at the beach and you're just like, This doesn't look right, these conditions don't look right.
00:18:46:20 - 00:18:52:20
Speaker 3
And no matter how good the surf is or how clear the water is for diving, just listen to that intuition. It's powerful stuff. Yeah.
00:18:53:05 - 00:19:01:01
Speaker 1
Have you seen a rise in incidents in Hawaii or a, you know, a correlation with certain things, with more shark presence or more shark bites?
00:19:01:14 - 00:19:25:17
Speaker 3
I haven't seen a rise in shark attacks. It does seem like there's a cluster of attacks in late October. We've kind of coined the name Shark Tober and it seems like a lot of attacks are off Maui. There's an insular shelf off there. And through satellite tags, they're finding a lot of sharks in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It's called pop on our MacBook Air or going across the state of Hawaii to the main islands and into Maui, into this area.
00:19:25:21 - 00:19:41:00
Speaker 3
And it seems like the bigger sharks from the northwestern white ends will do that journey every other year. The reasons I don't know if scientists know that yet, but it always seems to sort of be a hotspot in late October. It seems to be a hot, hot time of year.
00:19:41:16 - 00:19:42:18
Speaker 1
Is it all tiger sharks?
00:19:43:01 - 00:19:43:17
Speaker 3
All tiger sharks.
00:19:43:17 - 00:20:03:23
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was out in Hawaii doing some work with a a scientific group and they were they actually developed this basically self propelling technology is I think my NDAs expired by now that should be fun talking about but it was kind of cool. It was basically an underwater wing that kind of like a hydrofoils that are becoming common now.
00:20:03:23 - 00:20:22:13
Speaker 1
But it was basically self piloting and it had its own rudder and solar powered and it could like go places covertly and you could imagine all the, you know, nefarious things that, you know, government organizations would do with a silent but deadly little missile thing. But what they found is that it was attracting sharks. It was basically turning into a little fad, you know, a fish attracting device.
00:20:22:13 - 00:20:39:21
Speaker 1
And the sharks were honing in on the little flappy underwater winged thing. And all we saw was tiger sharks. How are they seen in Hawaii? I know there's a lot of respect for sharks, but is there a particular, you know, awareness of tiger sharks for surfers?
00:20:40:02 - 00:21:02:17
Speaker 3
I think there's definitely a mutual respect because most people spend day in and day out every day since they're little kids in the water and rarely even see a shark, let alone have an adverse, you know, encounter. It's a family god to a lot of native Hawaiians as well. So there's reverence in that respect. And they're treated very well here in Hawaii compared to other places in the world.
00:21:03:11 - 00:21:19:08
Speaker 3
We've got really strong shark fishing laws, shark finning laws. And I think a lot of people, because we're so connected to the ocean and especially native Hawaiians, three generations, that the love of of the shark of the mano is really strong here in Hawaii.
00:21:19:19 - 00:21:40:12
Speaker 1
What's your message that you go out with now? Because I think of other shark attack survivors, like a real famous one in Australia where, you know, the guy who got attacked by a shark and you know, Rodney Fox, I'm sure you've heard of him, but his response was basically to go on a killing spree. He killed a whole bunch of sharks and he's since gone out of complete 180.
00:21:40:13 - 00:21:51:22
Speaker 1
Now he runs a great advocacy and shark diving tours and stuff. But I think that was in a time when people didn't understand it as much. Did you ever have those kinds of feelings or was it just a compassion for the animal?
00:21:52:15 - 00:21:57:22
Speaker 3
I never had those kind of feelings at all. And I love Rodney and I was on his boat earlier this year.
00:21:58:01 - 00:21:58:17
Speaker 1
Is a good character.
00:21:58:17 - 00:22:16:04
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah. Good, good people. But no, there's never been no animosity. There's never been hatred. You're kind of just sharks. That's their place. And the more time, like I said, you spend in the water, the more it's reaffirmed that that's is the case. We're just guests in their home and very fortunate to be able to spend any bit of time in the water as well.
00:22:16:12 - 00:22:28:11
Speaker 1
Yeah. So what's what's your ultimate goal here? Obviously, you want to, you know, sell shark photos and make a living off that. Make a living off the water. Is there a what's your altruistic Gulf sharks around the world?
00:22:29:03 - 00:22:51:06
Speaker 3
My ultimate goal is just a showpiece for sharks in a different way. You know, media has done an incredible job of vilifying sharks. And if my little voice can do any sort of balance in that conversation and show that sharks are you know, they're obviously much needed for the health of marine ecosystems, but they're also very beautiful. They're gorgeous animals.
00:22:51:06 - 00:23:12:05
Speaker 3
And to show others that sharks have these, you know, wonderful attributes, I, I think that is sort of my little niche and that's my little area. I didn't study biology. I couldn't quote you on shark facts and all kinds of stuff like that. I just I'm a I'm an artist in a way, and it's a show you a different side of sharks.
00:23:13:02 - 00:23:25:04
Speaker 1
I wonder, do you get any pushback from people when you share that message? And, you know, I imagine if I said some of these hate safe sharks, they might be like, how are you? You know, you just the shark lover. Do they give you a little more respect because you've been there, done that?
00:23:25:16 - 00:23:43:18
Speaker 3
Possibly. You know, you hurt us a little bit, but it's not the voice of of people loving sharks seems to be so great. And maybe it's an echo chamber, at least on my social media. But there does seem to be a tide shifting on that. Sharks are needed for a healthy planet. And not only that, but they're beautiful.
00:23:43:18 - 00:24:01:17
Speaker 3
And I'm diving. I hope to see one. The one common thread, you know, amongst a lot of them is, is there love for sharks and their love for the ocean and and not hitting them. It's really when you see this kneejerk reaction of after shark attacks, the shark calling in the shark nets and things like that. It's usually politicians or it's usually a lot of people that aren't really connected to the ocean.
00:24:02:08 - 00:24:12:18
Speaker 3
It's not as much the people that are day in, day out, near the water and very fortunate, like if there were to be, you know, back to back shark attacks here in Hawaii, that conversation is a nonstarter in the state of Hawaii.
00:24:14:00 - 00:24:15:21
Speaker 1
When you say it's a nonstarter, what do you mean?
00:24:16:11 - 00:24:25:20
Speaker 3
There'd be incredible amount of pushback if we were to go out and kill sharks like we did in the 1970s. It's a it's a whole different mindset now, and we're very fortunate for that.
00:24:26:03 - 00:24:30:19
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's great. So what does that pressure come from as a community, local government? Oh, it would be.
00:24:30:19 - 00:24:33:01
Speaker 3
Totally the community. Yeah. The people that live here.
00:24:33:01 - 00:24:35:23
Speaker 1
Yeah. What's next for you Might like what do you. What are you doing?
00:24:36:06 - 00:24:55:18
Speaker 3
Yeah, a big project. I've just completed as a book. I'm doing a coffee table book with the publisher, Rizzoli. It's shark's big, bold and beautiful. 340 pages, 300 images. It comes out mid September, available at most book retailers around the world. And it was it was almost a two year project, I would say about a year and a half.
00:24:56:13 - 00:25:04:14
Speaker 3
A really fun project. And just trying to, like I mentioned earlier, show sharks in a different way and I hope people enjoy it as much as I did, making it.
00:25:05:11 - 00:25:10:21
Speaker 1
Being an attack survivor, being an advocate, you know, what do you want to share with people?
00:25:10:21 - 00:25:26:12
Speaker 3
Ultimate messages. And I guess I can forgive an animal that nearly killed me. You should look at it a little differently. If you fear something, dive a little deeper into it, and you're going to realize that that fear is really unjustified and more importantly, that sharks are needed for a healthy planet.
00:25:27:14 - 00:25:45:18
Speaker 1
It truly is a remarkable story as such a young man to be able to turn that around and almost immediately turn it into a positive and then go on like one of the things I've really admired about just watching you through the years is how much you're still passionate about surfing, about getting in the water, and there being like zero aversion to that.
00:25:46:04 - 00:25:58:22
Speaker 1
I think when I think I've found you on social media, what, a number of years ago. And I was like, Yeah, man, that's that's what you do. You know, you take your licks and you know, you get back up and get back out there and and shred again. I'm stuck for you.
00:25:59:08 - 00:25:59:21
Speaker 3
Well, thank you.
00:26:03:17 - 00:26:32:12
Speaker 1
Today's shark bite comes to us from scientists at the University of Hawaii who discovered that hammerhead sharks can effectively hold their breath. Or to put it more accurately, they can deprive themselves of oxygen for up to 17 minutes at a time. Now, hammerhead sharks are actor firms, which means that cold blooded animals. So they rely on their environment to be able to provide them with warmth that would usually trap these fish into warm water environments because really cold water would effectively kill them.
00:26:32:23 - 00:26:57:01
Speaker 1
Now, on a shark, the gills are the most exposed organ. That's where all the gas transfer happens. That's where all the blood is flowing through. So when they're in contact with very cold water, they lose all the heat really quickly. And that can be extremely dangerous and deadly for these sharks. So the scientists ask themselves a question. We know that hammerheads can dive down to 800 meters plus it's super cold down there.
00:26:57:07 - 00:27:24:05
Speaker 1
How are they doing it? So they figured out that they can actually hold their gills closed, intentionally depriving themselves of oxygen, effectively holding their breath just to be able to save that heat. Now, while hammerheads are the first species to have been found to do this trick, we suspect that probably other sharks can do it, too. So really, this is just another example of how sharks have evolved to be these perfect predators where even the deepest, coldest waters can't keep them out.
00:27:28:01 - 00:27:36:02
Speaker 1
All right. That's it for today's episode. I'd really like to thank our guest, Mike Coates, for sharing his amazing story with us. I'm Luke Tipple. I'll catch you next time.
00:27:37:05 - 00:27:40:14
Unknown
During the Week podcast.
00:27:47:11 - 00:28:16:19
Speaker 4
Shark Week. The podcast is produced by Delve Media for Warner Brothers Discovery. Luke Tipple is the executive producer and our writer and producer is Yale Rice, our researcher and associate producer, a Sierra Kehoe for Warner Brothers Discovery. The executive producer is Christina Bavetta, and the coordinating producer is Corin Wilson. You can follow our show wherever you get your podcasts, and we'd love it if you could take a second to leave us a five star review and subscribe to help our mission to give sharks a voice.