Shark Week’s Luke Tipple welcomes two guests to talk about how to break into marine biology, with or without an advanced degree.
Shark Week’s Luke Tipple tackles the question “How can I work with sharks?” alongside two experts in the field – and their answers are not always the obvious ones. Luke is joined first by Kelly Link, Associate Curator of the Georgia Aquarium who talks about what it’s like to be an aquarist, how it differs from field work, and how to get yourself noticed. The second guest is Dr. Neil Hammerschlag who goes into detail on what it takes to become a prominent scientist, and what other paths you can take if a PhD isn’t for you. And at the end, researcher Sierra stops by to tell us about the world’s smallest shark.
Find episode transcripts here: https://shark-weeks-daily-bite.simplecast.com/episodes/s4-ep-9-how-to-have-a-career-in-shark-science
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:08:23
Luke Tipple
Today, you'll learn how to have a marine science career, even without a Ph.D.. And stick around for the shark bite where we'll discover a shark that can fit in the palm of your hand.
00:00:09:01 - 00:00:19:15
Unknown
You're listening to the Shark Week podcast.
00:00:19:17 - 00:00:36:05
Luke Tipple
G’day, everyone. And welcome to Shark Week, the podcast. I'm your host, Luke Tipple. Today, I'm really excited because we're talking about marine science, one of my favorite subjects, and we're answering a bunch of questions that I had as a kid. And I know that there's listeners out there today thinking, How can I have a career in marine science?
00:00:36:07 - 00:00:38:14
Luke Tipple
Well, today we're going to answer those questions for you.
00:00:38:14 - 00:00:46:22
Luke Tipple
You know, people that work on the ocean kind of a rare breed. Most of us are adventurers where people who are fascinated with the ocean, with its animals.
00:00:47:03 - 00:01:18:04
Luke Tipple
We dream about getting out on a boat in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight, seeing massive whales and sharks and jellyfish and all these mysterious animals below the water. I mean, it's crazy. There's more water on this planet than there is land. There's more life in the water than there is on land. And when you actually become knowledgeable of that environment and go spend time in that environment, it's incredible the experiences that you can have and how much you can grow as a person just by having a connection with the ocean.
00:01:18:06 - 00:01:38:11
Luke Tipple
And I know that there's a lot of fans of Shark Week and people who just really, really want to work on the ocean who are out there listening to this podcast right now, perhaps dreaming of having exactly that experience, studying something, discovering something, finding something that you're absolutely passionate about. But how do you do it? You know, that was always the question that I had when I was a kid.
00:01:38:16 - 00:01:58:02
Luke Tipple
I always wanted to be Jacques Cousteau. How was I going to do that? I was five. I didn't know. I even went on to study business because I didn't think I could make a career being a marine biologist. But I managed to prove myself wrong. And I'm very stoked that I did. So today's episode is for those people out there who are having those exact same questions and really need some answers to help us out with that.
00:01:58:03 - 00:02:21:18
Luke Tipple
We have two guests today. Both of them have made careers in marine science, have both taken slightly different routes, and what you learn from them could well change your life. Joining me first is Kelly Link. She's the associate curator at Georgia Aquarium. She's got about two decades experience in both field and museum work. So, Kelly, it's 2023 and somebody comes to you and says, I really want a career in marine science.
00:02:21:19 - 00:02:23:04
Luke Tipple
What do you say to them?
00:02:23:06 - 00:02:39:03
Kelly Link
My first question will be, what do you actually want to do with marine science? Because there are a lot of avenues, there's research, there's things like what I do, which is work in an aquarium. There's a lot of different ways people can go with it. So I usually try to ask first, what do you actually want to do with marine science?
00:02:39:05 - 00:03:03:12
Kelly Link
And then if they say they want to go sort of down the route that I'm on a four year degree. Most of us have biology degrees, some of us have marine science degrees, but most of us have biology degrees. And then as much hands on field work, volunteer work, anything that you can get to just sort of start getting your hands wet, literally to start understanding what it means to take care of Marine animals and get some experience with that.
00:03:03:14 - 00:03:07:23
Luke Tipple
Sure. So why don't you tell everyone about what you do and how you got there?
00:03:08:00 - 00:03:27:17
Kelly Link
So I'm the associate curator for our shark exhibit here, which means I manage the team that takes care of all of our sharks. Our most recent exhibit has our hammerheads, our tiger shark, our sand tigers. So we take care of all the the day to day maintenance of them, the cleaning, feeding, diving, all the things that are involved with the care of our sharks.
00:03:27:20 - 00:03:47:19
Kelly Link
I have been here at the aquarium September, it’ll be 19 years. So I started out at the very bottom as an entry level aquarist and I worked my way through. I worked in a lot of different areas. I've done a lot of work in Ocean Voyager with our whale sharks and our manta. So I kind of had a start with our sharks and rays, and that's sort of what I fell in love with.
00:03:47:21 - 00:03:57:18
Kelly Link
But I've worked in freshwater and just sort of different areas around the building to get experience with all kinds of different animals and different tanks and sizes and things like that.
00:03:57:20 - 00:04:14:14
Luke Tipple
I think one of the biggest thing I mean, for me, when I was entering Marine biology, I went into a started a degree in international business to start with because I thought, you know, Marine be fun. That's really what I want to do, but I'll never make money on it. I'll never have a real career. I better go do the sensible thing and be a business guy or something.
00:04:14:16 - 00:04:32:17
Luke Tipple
And then I dropped out of that after a year and went to did marine biology anyway. But for somebody who's taking sort of a more traditional academic path, maybe going into, you know, an aquarium or something like that, what kind of career can they expect? Like, can they make a good living doing it?
00:04:32:18 - 00:05:06:14
Kelly Link
So, yes, it is possible. Here at the aquarium, we've actually started doing a lot more to make it a much more livable career, because historically, a lot of aquarium jobs, zoo jobs were animal animal care. Jobs in general tend to not be very high paying positions because it's a little bit more of a passion type job. And they sort of rely on the passion that you do have for those animals to like.
00:05:06:14 - 00:05:26:16
Kelly Link
Basically you're like, I love my job, so I don't care if I get paid a whole lot. But there is a line there where you do have to be able to support yourself and support your family. It does seem to be the direction that the industry is heading to understand that people can't stay in this industry if they're not making a livable wage to be able to support their family.
00:05:26:16 - 00:05:36:03
Kelly Link
We've lost a lot of people that can't afford to stay into it, and that's a lot of what prompted the aquarium to sort of reevaluate what that looks like for a lot of people.
00:05:36:05 - 00:06:00:00
Luke Tipple
But I think you kind of hit the nail on the head that it is a a job that people are passionate about at the time. You have that passion which would drive somebody to volunteer then that can, you know, exploit it as a is a strong word, but it can be, you know, the action of exploiting somebody’s, you know, emotions in order to get them to do something that they feel good doing but don't necessarily, you know, live well doing, you know.
00:06:00:02 - 00:06:16:02
Luke Tipple
I mean, I've done the same thing. You know, when I first started, you know, working as a diver, I think I was making, you know, 100 bucks a day or something, doing 10 hours a day underwater, hand-feeding sharks, I mean. Right. It's what I wanted to do. And to be fair, I wasn't spending any money on, you know, food and electricity and stuff.
00:06:16:02 - 00:06:22:09
Luke Tipple
I was living on boats, but still, when you take a, you know, thousand yard view of it. So where's this going to go? Right.
00:06:22:11 - 00:06:33:15
Kelly Link
And and you have to look ahead to, you know, in 20 years, what are you going to do with yourself. Can are you still not able to support yourself at that point? Yeah. You know, you start to reevaluate, like, is this what you want to do?
00:06:33:20 - 00:06:47:18
Luke Tipple
Yeah. Can I still do 10 hours a day underwater? I'd come up, I'd be a dive tanks, I'd be down for like 2 hours, I'd come up, somebody would hot fill me while I'm sitting on the back of the boat, jam some food in my mouth, go straight back down.
00:06:47:20 - 00:06:49:21
Kelly Link
That's a terrible idea, but.
00:06:49:21 - 00:06:55:21
Luke Tipple
Well, I mean, everything was safe. Everything was good. But I will admit I slept pretty well at the end of the day.
00:06:55:21 - 00:06:56:23
Kelly Link
Yeah, I bet.
00:06:57:00 - 00:07:04:15
Luke Tipple
Still that five days in a row, I have one day off and then go out again. It's a slog, but yeah, it's what I really love doing.
00:07:04:17 - 00:07:24:03
Kelly Link
And people, people love working with animals and the type of work that we do is really rewarding because you do get to spend time with animals and we have animals that you don't really get to see normally. So it is it's very rewarding. Yeah, but it also can be a challenge when you're struggling to pay your rent or that kind of thing.
00:07:24:03 - 00:07:33:10
Kelly Link
And that's what the aquarium is trying to change so that people don't have to worry about that and they can make it a career that they want to stay in and that they want to be a part of for a long time.
00:07:33:12 - 00:07:37:00
Luke Tipple
Totally. And you've done a lot of work with sharks. Tell me about that.
00:07:37:02 - 00:07:48:19
Kelly Link
Oh, God, I just love sharks so much. They're such cool animals. Sharks are. Let me preface. Not all sharks, but most sharks are a lot smarter than you think that they are.
00:07:48:21 - 00:07:50:09
Luke Tipple
You say that those dumb sharks.
00:07:50:11 - 00:07:51:23
Kelly Link
Absolutely.
00:07:52:01 - 00:07:53:00
Luke Tipple
Which ones are the dumb sharks?
00:07:53:03 - 00:08:19:17
Kelly Link
Whale sharks are not smart sharks. Well, they have they have little tiny brains with big giant bodies. But I love them. But they're not very smart sharks. But like, hammerheads have big brains. They're easy to train. They're excited to train like they're such fun animals to work with. I always find it fascinating because people think sharks are just sort of these mindless fish, but they're actually way smarter and way more interesting than a lot of people think that they are.
00:08:19:17 - 00:08:27:16
Kelly Link
And just being able to see that and experience that is just such a cool part of my job. Like they're just such cool animals to work with.
00:08:27:18 - 00:08:37:01
Luke Tipple
Yeah. Have you ever had an event where, you know, a smaller shark has gotten eaten by bigger shark? How do you guys manage that natural predation that they have.
00:08:37:03 - 00:08:58:10
Kelly Link
In general to manage predation at overall, we just try to make sure that we feed everyone as much as we can to ensure that they don't want to eat other animals. But you can't stop that natural behavior. I mean, even you can feed a shark all that you would ever want to eat, and they're still going to find something that they can chase.
00:08:58:12 - 00:09:12:14
Luke Tipple
Now, with Shark Week just having happened, we're obviously getting an influx of people saying, oh, you know, sharks are awesome. I want to follow this guy's career or that girl's career and do that kind of thing. What is a day in the life of you or somebody who's working with the sharks look like?
00:09:12:16 - 00:09:35:07
Kelly Link
A lot of times the job of an aquarist, which is what we call ourselves, are aquarists. It's not as glamorous as some people might think of. Like you think, Oh, I'm working with sharks and that's amazing. And it is. But there's also a lot of things that aren't super glamorous when you've got your hands in fish, chopping up food or cleaning floors or scrubbing algae off of rocks.
00:09:35:07 - 00:09:40:15
Kelly Link
It's not quite as glamorous as people might assume, but it's still pretty cool and you're still.
00:09:40:15 - 00:09:43:13
Luke Tipple
Scrubbing algae off rocks and looking around. And there's a whale shark behind you.
00:09:43:15 - 00:10:01:23
Kelly Link
Right, right. And you get to dive in places like where else are you going to dive? And you can have multiple hammerheads and a tiger. And it's and tiger, you know, they're not going to go those. You're going to see that in the ocean all in one place very often. So it is very cool to have all of those animals in one place to be able to see them and work with them.
00:10:02:01 - 00:10:18:18
Luke Tipple
That is a huge appeal to me. I took my wife in there and we came up and worked with the guys and we went diving and she's, you know, privately petrified of sharks, but she got into it and had a great time. But the whole time she was worried about getting bit by sharks. How are you guys feeding, especially the larger sharks?
00:10:18:18 - 00:10:24:18
Luke Tipple
That could be a potential threat if they associated you with food or you got, you know, mishandled the food or something like that?
00:10:24:23 - 00:10:45:23
Kelly Link
Yeah, we never offer any food while people are in the water with our larger sharks in the shark exhibit. They'll they'll feed like the whale sharks with divers in. But whale sharks are filter feeders. You're not really worried about that. But our larger sharks, we never offer food. If there's divers in the water and we we target feed all of our sharks.
00:10:46:01 - 00:11:02:12
Kelly Link
So they come they're trained to come to a specific location and eat in a specific way to get their food. And they might come and try to steal food from each other occasionally. But they know where they're supposed to go to get their food. So they associate us on the deck of the exhibit with food, but not anyone in the water.
00:11:02:12 - 00:11:04:15
Kelly Link
They don't associate divers with food at all.
00:11:04:17 - 00:11:19:16
Luke Tipple
That's really interesting. It's kind of the opposite of what we see out in the open ocean. Actually, let's pivot to that because you've done a lot of fieldwork as well. Is that kind of a natural extension of your work at the aquarium, or was that kind of stage one and now this stage to.
00:11:19:18 - 00:11:45:09
Kelly Link
It is doing that kind of fieldwork is a natural extension of what we do. It's something that most of us really want to do. We want to be able to go out and do some of that field work and tag sharks and do all of that stuff. But we don't personally have a whole lot of opportunity to do that on our team because we have our own research group that does that stuff and we get a chance to go out with them occasionally, but we're not able to do it all the time.
00:11:45:11 - 00:11:51:02
Kelly Link
But it's definitely something that we all want to do and we think it's really cool when we get the chance to be able to go out and do it.
00:11:51:04 - 00:12:05:18
Luke Tipple
Cool. So let's start with somebody who perhaps either sort of perhaps missed their window of going to college or decided not to go to college, but still wants to follow and pursue a career working with sharks, or at least in sort of the marine environment. How do they do that?
00:12:05:20 - 00:12:26:07
Kelly Link
Most people, if you don't already have sort of a background in it, if you haven't been able to go to school, the best way is to start volunteering or start interning, something like that, just to be able to get some experience. So be willing to go to smaller places and try different things and try things that maybe you wouldn't think that you would love, but would give you a chance to find out.
00:12:26:07 - 00:12:47:01
Kelly Link
I never thought that I would love freshwater, but I found out I really like freshwater plants, oddly enough, so I never would have known that if I hadn't gone to work over in freshwater for a little while. So just kind of keeping an open mind of what you want to do. And even if sharks are your ultimate goal, kind of think about what are your ways you might be able to get there.
00:12:47:03 - 00:13:08:03
Luke Tipple
With your career and what you've done and your experience in the field and in the aquarium and everything else. If you've got a, you know, 17, 18, 19 year old kid coming up and saying, Hey, I really want to do something in this, let's say you're going to give them a career path that actually would be sustainable, that gets them adjacent or at least working with the animals that they'd like to work with.
00:13:08:05 - 00:13:10:05
Luke Tipple
What does that look like?
00:13:10:06 - 00:13:32:12
Kelly Link
I mean, because of the direction the aquarium industry in general is going, I would encourage them to to look at options that would be in a facility that they would really enjoy working at that has the animals that they're interested in and gives them good opportunities because the industry is headed in the right direction to be able to allow that for a lot more people.
00:13:32:13 - 00:13:54:19
Kelly Link
And that really is like get your degree and get as much experience as you can do internships, do volunteering, whatever that looks like. That's really your best bet. You do field work. You know, in college, I did a summer in Mexico working with sea turtles that like I loved every moment of that. But I wouldn't have gotten that experience if I didn't do it when I was in college.
00:13:54:19 - 00:14:02:12
Kelly Link
So like, take advantage of the things that are available to you while you can and just get that experience as much as possible.
00:14:02:13 - 00:14:13:12
Luke Tipple
So I'm a kid. I've been watching Shark Week, I've been listening to you, I've been listening to this whole podcast enamored with the idea of being, you know, the Jacques Cousteau kind of figure. Do you say go for it.
00:14:13:14 - 00:14:39:03
Kelly Link
If it's what you love? Yes. You know, I think it's really important to find something to do that you're passionate about. And you just have to find the right way to do it. You know, I would never discourage someone that's really excited about it. I love seeing kids that are excited about sharks because I feel like those are the people that we need to kind of help save sharks in the future because sharks are in a lot of trouble.
00:14:39:03 - 00:14:47:19
Kelly Link
So the more people who love sharks, the better off we are. So I would never discourage someone from doing it. It's just about finding the right way to do it and the way that works for you best.
00:14:47:19 - 00:15:02:12
Luke Tipple
To continue this conversation. We have Dr. Neil Hammerschlag. He's an academic, he's an entrepreneur. He's kind of been there and done it all, especially when it comes to shock research. So, Neil, if you had someone come to you and say, I want to be a marine biologist today, what advice would you give them?
00:15:02:13 - 00:15:24:19
Neil Hammerschlag
Funnily enough. I generally try to first discourage them into it because I think people have some idea of what they think that is. And you know, I don't think they realize, you know, this might involve, you know, ten years of school after, you know, high school or college, because often what I what I hear from people is that they want to spend time with animals.
00:15:24:19 - 00:15:47:01
Neil Hammerschlag
They want to be in nature. They want to help conserve sharks. But they don't they don't know there's many ways to get there. And so they think it's just restricted to marine biology. So I generally try to discourage them to see that they have to be just as passionate about the science and the process of science as they are about the ocean or sharks in order to go into a career that involves science.
00:15:47:06 - 00:16:04:11
Luke Tipple
You know, I know that you mentor a lot of sort of up and coming scientists and people looking to get into related fields. What do you tell people who want to be you? You know, specifically they're interested in science, in academia. They like sharks. They like the ocean. What's their path?
00:16:04:13 - 00:16:24:19
Neil Hammerschlag
Yeah, I would say that, you know, if you want kind of that more, you know, one, a path that involves science, I first always try to educate them of what that what the job actually is. You know the big thing about being you know, someone who has my job is that you have to design the projects. You have to you know, design the projects.
00:16:24:19 - 00:16:53:12
Neil Hammerschlag
You have to come up with funding for the projects. You have to write up those reports from the published projects to publish those projects. And, you know, if you don't really care about that aspect and you just want to work with the animals, well, you can be a technician. There are scientific researchers that go out and just take direction on what to do, like do the technical aspects so you don't have to be have a job, as you know, a principal investigator to be able to do the field work aspect or the lab work aspect.
00:16:53:12 - 00:16:55:09
Neil Hammerschlag
You can be a technician, for example.
00:16:55:11 - 00:17:12:00
Luke Tipple
So if I was coming to you and saying, Hey, I really want to thanks for counseling me on this, I really appreciate you dissuading me from, you know, having to go after all this funding and being an academic, I really want to be a technician. Give me the three steps or whatever it might be to get into that career.
00:17:12:02 - 00:17:32:16
Neil Hammerschlag
Well, one of the things I really stress is that you need to have a skill. A lot of people come to me and tell me about their passion and you know that they kind of feel that, you know, their past brought them to this career path and that, you know, that passion is a driver. And you certainly passion is important.
00:17:32:18 - 00:18:00:02
Neil Hammerschlag
Right? But if you really like doing the field work aspect, well, you need to have the skills to, you know for example, be on boats, operate boats may be involved diving. Maybe it involves the skills associated with, you know, being a captain or or working with equipment, you know, and for me, often I say as we work with very large data sets, I need someone who can make sense of a large data set that can that can work with that data, run it in.
00:18:00:02 - 00:18:18:11
Neil Hammerschlag
You know, these fancy quantitative software and programs that can make maps and illustrations and show, you know, show patterns in the data. And those are skills that can be learned at school and even learned in online courses. Those are the things that I really tell people to go out and seek to do.
00:18:18:12 - 00:18:23:13
Luke Tipple
What would you say to somebody who really, really, really wants to work with sharks?
00:18:23:15 - 00:18:40:12
Neil Hammerschlag
I hear that all the time. You don't have to go to shark science to work with sharks. You know, there's millions of ways that people can encounter and work with sharks. You know, you can go in the film industry, you can become the photographer, you can work in an aquarium, you can be a journalist, you can be someone who works in government.
00:18:40:12 - 00:18:55:03
Neil Hammerschlag
You can work for a nonprofit. I said, there's so many avenues. You know, I think science is a very specific thing to go into science. You want to you want to love the science. You know, as much as you love the animals, You know, it has to be there to drive you as well.
00:18:55:06 - 00:19:04:05
Luke Tipple
If you were to characterize your job in your career and in how much time you're actually exposed and being on the water and working with sharks, what kind of percentage does that look like?
00:19:04:07 - 00:19:27:23
Neil Hammerschlag
Yeah, I think that, to be honest, that my percentage is actually really high and it's probably like 10%. You know, I think for most people it's a lot lower than that because, you know, for every one hour, you know, in, in the water, there's probably at least 10 hours of planning, if not more. 10% might even be an overestimate.
00:19:27:23 - 00:19:30:19
Neil Hammerschlag
You can't always be out there with the animals.
00:19:31:00 - 00:19:48:02
Luke Tipple
Yeah, we've spoken to a few shark divers and, you know, people who do exactly that. They handle sharks. I face sharks all day long. And that that is their job. When you're setting up an experiment, when you're setting up time to be out on the water academically, there's probably less bravado involved than there might be in what people see on TV.
00:19:48:02 - 00:19:49:09
Luke Tipple
Would that be fair?
00:19:49:11 - 00:20:17:01
Neil Hammerschlag
Yeah, I see. What people see on TV is really not a good reflection often of what the science is. And if it gets close, it's like the greatest hits, you know, in. And you know, Luke that when you do these shows, there's so much time that's waiting that is not successful and you don't see that. You only see the best takes of the highlights, you know, and all the time in waiting that you do when the on success is cut out from that.
00:20:17:03 - 00:20:27:16
Neil Hammerschlag
But when you're when you're doing science like every day, is that right? And so I think when people see it on TV there, they don't see the waiting, they don't see the planning per se, and they don't see really the failures.
00:20:27:18 - 00:20:45:23
Luke Tipple
So now in 2023, with your experience of, you know, everything you've been through and knowing which way funding and everything is going and the need for science, do you still say to people to kids who are coming up like, yes, going to university in 20 years time is a great and viable career path for you. And that's how to work with animals.
00:20:45:23 - 00:20:47:17
Luke Tipple
And marine science?
00:20:47:19 - 00:21:06:22
Neil Hammerschlag
No, absolutely not. One of the big things I just say to people is definitely follow your passion, but make sure you make informed decisions. Think about someone who has the job you want. Really research that job and see if it if it meets your interests and skill sets. And if it does, you know, figure out the path that that person took to get there.
00:21:06:22 - 00:21:16:08
Neil Hammerschlag
Look at their resume and follow that. But if it isn't, look for other avenues, you know, and sometimes you might be surprised, you know, just be open minded.
00:21:16:10 - 00:21:36:23
Luke Tipple
Okay. So that's a lot of information. Let's break it down and summarize a bit. As Neil described, true science, going through academia, becoming a Ph.D. is a real calling. You have to be in love with the science. Are you going to spend a lot of time at school? And if your desire is to work with animals a lot, it's probably not the best career for you.
00:21:36:23 - 00:21:54:21
Luke Tipple
You will make a huge difference. You could change the world with this education, but if you spend five or 10% of your life in the field with animals, that would be on the very, very high side of pursuing an academic career. That's not to discourage you. That's just reality. And if that's something you want to do, then we need you in this world.
00:21:54:21 - 00:22:13:20
Luke Tipple
You will make a huge difference, and that's exactly the direction you should go. Just be realistic about what your expectations will be once you graduate. If pursuing academia doesn't sound like the right route for you, but you do want to get a good education and you want to spend more time in the field or working with animals than being a technician is probably a better route for you.
00:22:14:02 - 00:22:36:21
Luke Tipple
You'd still most likely go and get a bachelor's degree. So you do that three or four years of college, whether it be in marine science, you could do veterinary science, you could do biology, anything like that. But that's your foot in the door to some of these harder to get jobs, you'll also need skills. So that might be a boat captain or an expert diver or someone who is excels at fishing.
00:22:37:01 - 00:23:05:15
Luke Tipple
All of those are very needed skills out on the field. And coupled with a bachelor's degree, your resume is going to look really good to somebody who wants a skilled, educated person on their boat or in their aquarium or in their center, where you might be teaching people, you might be handling animals, you might be capturing animals, you might be rehabilitating animals, It'll be a lot more hands on and you spend a lot more time outside or in the field than you would as an academic, where you're spending a lot more time in the lab.
00:23:05:17 - 00:23:24:20
Luke Tipple
Now, if college is completely off the table for you, you can still be a technician in the field, but your hands on skills are going to need to increase. So being a boat captain and being an expert diver or fisher or something in that category will make you very valuable on a boat. And this way you can really assist scientists in getting the research done.
00:23:24:23 - 00:23:47:03
Luke Tipple
And you might actually spend your entire life out on the water, working with animals, capturing animals, sampling them, things like that. You could also take a different route. As Neil said, you could be an analyst or work in statistics or work in computer modeling. All of those are highly valuable skills and definitely needed, especially in compiling reports that require a lot of data analysis.
00:23:47:05 - 00:24:12:11
Luke Tipple
And those are things that you can learn online and there is a large demand for it. And then if all you want to do is to work on the water with sharks or dolphins or turtles for that matter, if your one goal is to work daily with animals, then probably tourism is a better route for you. And this is a route that a lot of people I know have taken because they got into college or they got into whatever they were doing, thinking that they'd be working with animals all the time.
00:24:12:11 - 00:24:35:21
Luke Tipple
And that's not the reality of a lot of educational choices. So they work in tourism where they take people out on the water and get to dive every single day with sharks. Check out episode three of this season of our podcast. If you want an example where I talked to two shark divers and that is literally what they do, they hand-feed sharks every single day of their working life and that is their life's calling.
00:24:35:21 - 00:24:55:07
Luke Tipple
It's what they love to do. You know, you could take that same application and do what, dolphin tours or turtle tours or work in a rescue center as a volunteer. Now, I will say that those jobs aren't necessarily really well-paid, but they are highly rewarding and if I can leave you with a piece of advice, life is short.
00:24:55:09 - 00:25:12:13
Luke Tipple
Admittedly, it could be shorter when you work with sharks, but it's way better when you do. Look, I from somebody who's never had all that much certainty in their career, all I ever knew was that I wanted to work with sharks. I wanted to work on the ocean, and I've been fortunate enough to do so. But it's never been a very clear path.
00:25:12:13 - 00:25:34:14
Luke Tipple
I've taken opportunities when they've come up and I've never really been certain about where it's going, but it's all kind of linked together. So if you're somebody who's out there, I don't care what age you are and you have an unfounded passion to work with animals, with sharks, with the ocean or anything on this planet that's a little bit out of the ordinary, something that we'd call a passion job.
00:25:34:16 - 00:25:52:03
Luke Tipple
Life is short and you might regret not following those passions, no matter where they might lead. And I promise you, it might not lead to riches, but it will certainly lead to experience. And that's something that no money can buy.
00:25:52:05 - 00:25:58:07
Luke Tipple
Okay. Time for today's Shot by where Sierra leaves us with a cool ocean story to end the show. What have you got for us today, Sierra?
00:25:58:09 - 00:26:03:00
Sierra Kehoe
Yeah. Today I'm going to tell you about this teeny, tiny shark that fits in the palm of your hand now.
00:26:03:00 - 00:26:04:02
Luke Tipple
Cute.
00:26:04:04 - 00:26:18:10
Sierra Kehoe
It's called the dwarf lantern shark. And they're pretty elusive. They haven't been seen many times, but when they are spotted, they're off the northern tip of South America. So they're in the Caribbean Sea. While they can get up to about eight inches, they're usually around six inches. So they're pretty small.
00:26:18:12 - 00:26:20:09
Luke Tipple
Yeah. And they're a deep water shark, right?
00:26:20:11 - 00:26:26:02
Sierra Kehoe
Yeah. So they're found at depths between 900 and 1400 hundred feet. So pretty deep down there.
00:26:26:06 - 00:26:29:14
Luke Tipple
And other than being the world's smallest shark, is there anything else that makes them cool?
00:26:29:16 - 00:26:48:03
Sierra Kehoe
Yeah. So they are bioluminescent, they light up, they have these light emitting organs called photophores that are on their bellies and fins. And so it's thought that when they're more near the surface and they light up, that that light mingles with the light from the sun coming through the water and actually camouflages them from predators from below.
00:26:48:05 - 00:26:54:06
Sierra Kehoe
But that when they're in darker water, that same light attracts smaller animals, but they can then feed on.
00:26:54:08 - 00:26:55:21
Luke Tipple
Pretty smart shark for a little guy.
00:26:55:22 - 00:26:57:13
Sierra Kehoe
Yeah, I'd say.
00:26:57:15 - 00:26:58:10
Luke Tipple
Thanks Sierra.
00:26:58:12 - 00:27:03:03
Sierra Kehoe
Yeah, anytime.
00:27:03:05 - 00:27:17:01
Luke Tipple
That's it for today's episode of Shark Week, the podcast. I want to thank my guests, Kelly and Neil, for joining me and sharing that knowledge with everybody. I really hope you learned something and perhaps we made a difference in your life. Until next time, I’m Luke Tipple. I'll chat to you soon.
00:27:17:03 - 00:27:28:00
Unknown
During the Shark Week podcast.
00:27:28:01 - 00:27:57:10
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 as 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.