Host Luke Tipple welcomes a pair of shark divers to discuss what it takes to do their perilous jobs.
Host Luke Tipple welcomes a pair of divers – Leigh Cobb and Josh Eccles – who have taken their passion for sharks and turned it into a dangerous career. They explore what it takes to swim with sharks for a living, then go into common myths and facts on what to do in the open water – if you ever come face to face with a shark. Plus, our researcher Sierra drops by with a new species of shark discovered in the freezing depths of the ocean.
Find episode transcripts here: https://shark-weeks-daily-bite.simplecast.com/episodes/s4-ep3-do-you-have-the-guts-to-be-a-shark-handler
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:11:11
Luke Tipple
Today, we're going to find out exactly what it takes to become a professional shark diver. Plus, stick around to the end for our shark bite where we discover a brand new shark species living in the freezing depths of the ocean.
00:00:11:13 - 00:00:22:01
Unknown
During the week broadcasts.
00:00:22:03 - 00:00:39:14
Luke Tipple
Goodbye and welcome to Shark Week, the podcast. One of the most common questions I get from fans of Shark Week is how do I get to work with sharks? Now my response will sometimes throw people as I'll always ask them if they want to be a scientist or a shark diver, and they'll ask, Well, aren't they the same thing?
00:00:39:16 - 00:01:11:20
Luke Tipple
Well, no, they're absolutely not the same thing. Now, while there might be significant crossover in knowledge and skills, the expressions and day to day life of these two vocations are completely different. Shark divers and handlers are a rare breed. They come from all kinds of backgrounds. And while some, like myself, may have a marine biology degree, many shark enthusiasts that have chosen to take their education from the strictest of teachers, the sharks themselves, they literally spend their entire day underwater face to face with large predatory sharks.
00:01:11:22 - 00:01:31:05
Luke Tipple
And despite all the risks of losing a finger or a limb or perhaps even your life, many of us find this pursuit to be not only extremely satisfying, but truly addicting. Before we get too deep into things, make sure you subscribe to this channel like this video and ring that little bell so you never miss another one of our weekly podcasts.
00:01:31:06 - 00:01:48:18
Luke Tipple
My guests today are two professional shark analysts Josh Eccles and Lacob, and I brought them on to discuss the day to day life of working in, in my opinion, one of the coolest jobs in the world. What do you guys think when people talk about, you know, shark diving, shark feeding, being a dangerous job?
00:01:48:20 - 00:02:10:01
Leigh Cobb
You know, I get this. The biggest question I always get about you, Josh, I always get asked, do you ever get bitten? And, you know, I would say electricians get electric shocks. Rufus, Fall off roofs, plumbers get wet. You know, shark fin. We get little nips and things and yeah, you know, it's it is dangerous in some people's eyes.
00:02:10:01 - 00:02:30:21
Leigh Cobb
But I think that's where you can tell when there are certain sharks that you're not going to feed, you're just not going to feed them. And you know what you're looking for. You know when to do, when not to do. And so you can reduce the the danger element of it just by knowing the job. Yeah.
00:02:30:23 - 00:02:49:01
Luke Tipple
And I mean, you do when you're feeding, you get bit sometimes a little nip. It's really not a big deal. But when I started feeding, I'd just wear a leather glove. And I never thought anything different of that until I started. I went over with Christina Donato and she's teaching me how to hand-feed Caribbean reef. Sharks have changed me.
00:02:49:03 - 00:03:08:14
Luke Tipple
I've got my gloves. Like, know you need this, you know, food chain, my own. Although I am okay. Yeah, this is cool. And I could see why. Because those things are just much more scary. Arabian reefs. Bad, bad, bad. I mean, tell me, just tell me about your experience of the moist Caribbean reefs. Like, there's a reason why they have you come sit down in a circle and then you come.
00:03:08:14 - 00:03:32:16
Luke Tipple
Now with the chain mail is once you go to feed it, the let's say you have a little stick and it puts a piece of food here. Once you go to feed, by the time the shark actually bites the food, it's already beat your arm three times. Just go finding it. So, yeah, with Caribbean reefs, I mean, you look at the box and they'll start looking at you like, Oh yeah, they man three of their friends.
00:03:32:16 - 00:03:56:13
Luke Tipple
And then when they hit you, there's some full power. It's like a brick wall hitting you. Yeah, it's like almost being inside a shark tornado, you know, the stupid sci fi movies that come out, as you describe it pretty well. You Sharknado it down there hunkered down on the sand covered in chainmail. You're holding bait and you surround just by a wall of bodies of sharks, all looking for a meal.
00:03:56:13 - 00:04:12:20
Luke Tipple
And they're not being aggressive, You know, they're just coming out. They don't know what they're there for. They know you've got food and they know they'll get fed. And they kind of they actually have a pretty decent pecking order about it. But you're still now part of that very distinct food chain. Oh, yeah. You know, because I get that question all the time as well.
00:04:12:20 - 00:04:24:13
Luke Tipple
You know, how dangerous is it? Do you are you going to die? Aren't you scared? What does your mom think? Oh, that type of stuff. But it's actually it's not even close to being the most dangerous job in the world. I don't know if this has ever been a shark. Fatal death or serious injury, Gus.
00:04:24:17 - 00:04:25:21
Leigh Cobb
Not that I know of.
00:04:25:23 - 00:04:44:09
Luke Tipple
Not that I know of. It's always been because it's always a mistaken identity. It's not like they're mauling you. It's. Yes, they're quick. Usually it's a bite and they go, Oh, what did I eat? Like eating something that we just don't like. It's like they bite and instantly let go. So as for that, if anything, it's on our hands.
00:04:44:11 - 00:04:57:00
Luke Tipple
I mean, there was remember incidents, I think it was out of Palm Beach a number of years ago where it was one of the guests got tagged and he got beaten on his thigh or something. And. And he died.
00:04:57:05 - 00:04:59:12
Leigh Cobb
Are you sure that wasn't in the Bahamas?
00:04:59:13 - 00:05:01:18
Luke Tipple
It was coming out of the Bahamas. Yeah.
00:05:01:19 - 00:05:10:03
Leigh Cobb
Yeah, Jimmy got one. Jimmy got one in the Bahamas. And that was a guest. And she passed. That was it. That was on her thigh.
00:05:10:05 - 00:05:21:07
Luke Tipple
And then maybe I got it wrong and I thought it was a guy and it was a girl. But yeah, it was a bull shark feeding and some bait got free and. And the guest got tagged, unfortunately.
00:05:21:12 - 00:05:22:10
Leigh Cobb
Yeah.
00:05:22:12 - 00:05:33:05
Luke Tipple
Yeah. So, I mean, there is some risk. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Sierra, what you find in, in terms of, you know, relative risk from. Yeah. From vacation. Well let's.
00:05:33:05 - 00:05:48:21
Josh Eccles
See. So for scuba diving, we have a fatality rate of 16.4 deaths per 100,000 persons per year. And that's kind of one of the higher estimates. And then there's a lower one of 14.4 deaths per 100,000 persons.
00:05:48:23 - 00:05:52:15
Luke Tipple
And then that actually seems kind of high, doesn't it?
00:05:52:17 - 00:05:55:23
Josh Eccles
Well, wait until you hear what the what the other ones are.
00:05:56:00 - 00:06:06:05
Luke Tipple
And to be very clear on that record, the overwhelming majority, in fact, probably almost all of those people are expiring from, you know, a non shark related incident. Oh.
00:06:06:07 - 00:06:07:06
Leigh Cobb
Whether it be glad you had.
00:06:07:10 - 00:06:19:23
Luke Tipple
A heart attack or, you know, pneumothorax or some type of medical incident, we're not talking about shark injuries here. The actual incidence of shark injuries when shark diving is phenomenally small.
00:06:20:00 - 00:06:35:13
Josh Eccles
Just to tie in this fatality rate statistic. So we had, what, 16.6 for the scuba divers and here for the most dangerous occupation is fishing and hunting workers. And that fatality rate is 132 per 100,000.
00:06:35:13 - 00:06:36:19
Luke Tipple
So it's.
00:06:36:21 - 00:06:38:04
Josh Eccles
Multitude type.
00:06:38:06 - 00:06:58:15
Luke Tipple
Wow. So ten X, you know, you much better going diving with sharks and going fishing. Sharks are always ten, ten times less chance of dying if you're diving with them versus fishermen. But that actually brings up thank you for that zero. So you've got the customers who are obviously coming in to to see sharks. And I did this for years and years.
00:06:58:15 - 00:07:23:11
Luke Tipple
I think I calculated at some point that I've been underwater at Tiger Beach for something like it was in the several months, actually physically underwater. And, you know, the customers are the lifeblood of what you do. But then there's the other side of the whole. What I say is debate. And it's not really a debate. It's just sometimes the media comes up with some reason to talk about sharks and there might be fingers that are pointed towards shark diving operations.
00:07:23:11 - 00:07:46:00
Luke Tipple
So, Josh, what do you think when people come in and say, hey, we're, you know, feeding sharks, habituated sharks, associating with humans, all those typical arguments that you've probably heard many, many times. A big thing with me is we have science backing it. So there's a lot of scientific papers, research forums that are showing that we are not messing with their migration.
00:07:46:01 - 00:08:06:13
Luke Tipple
They might look at as like, Oh, we get an intermission snack kind of thing. But what we're feeding is nothing that they could sustain off of that you'd have to say that we certainly try to be politically right about this, but at least adding to their experience into their behavior patterns right. Because they do learn how to associate with the feeder.
00:08:06:13 - 00:08:37:17
Luke Tipple
They do learn how to turn to seafood that is presented to them and take it in a in a, you know, docile manner without attacking anything. How do you sort of pass that now as far as, again, changing their behavior? It it doesn't change it in the long term. I do see like if we do it because again, we have these sharks in season, so I might have them for anywhere from two weeks to eight months depending on the species that we're dealing with.
00:08:37:19 - 00:09:04:20
Luke Tipple
So if I'm seeing them on that migration, I will see them start to kind of familiarize like noise. Is that the US tapping? So yes, I do see that they are kind of taking an intermission, but it's not changing any pattern because we're not trying to be invasive at all. We're just really trying to show everyone that, you know, Hollywood needs a villain and that's what sharks have been played out to be.
00:09:04:23 - 00:09:26:17
Luke Tipple
What I always like to tell people as sharks will perhaps associate, you know, a bait crate full of smelly fish and a diver next to it as a place to come up and get a snack. But if you if you allow the argument that they're smart enough to learn new behaviors from that, then you also have to allow the argument they're smart enough to understand that it's not a really good source of food.
00:09:26:18 - 00:09:42:21
Luke Tipple
So they probably need to go elsewhere if they actually want to continue living and being energetically sufficient to be a predator and a breeder and everything else because they're not getting enough food to do it. Leigh, how important do you think shark diving operations are for conservation and awareness?
00:09:42:23 - 00:10:10:11
Leigh Cobb
Hugely. You know, the amount of people that come on the boat, some of them are petrified and they absolutely want to get over that fear and the people that will come on with their children and not not always, you know, teenage children or grown up children. Some of these are younger children. You know, I've taken six, seven year old time with sharks.
00:10:10:12 - 00:10:35:12
Leigh Cobb
And that message then goes back to the classroom. The photographs go on online and all these kind of things. And it's all about education and for me, one of the biggest things is education. And it's making people aware that, you know, you know, Josh is still standing. I'm still standing. There's an awful lot of us that are with sharks pretty much every day of our lives.
00:10:35:18 - 00:10:54:06
Leigh Cobb
And, you know, and with bite fresh bite as well. You know, our issue is wow. And, you know, so we're shooting fish and and bringing the sharks in and we're still here. So it blows that myth of, you know, I'm going to get into the ocean and get eaten out of the water, you know? So it's big. It is big.
00:10:54:07 - 00:11:13:00
Luke Tipple
Now, Lee, you're a financial adviser. You've got a financial backer. If it was for the people who are listening, who are thinking, hey, I'd love to do this in the job, you know, I'd love to get out there and spend my life underwater. Hand-feeding sharks. Is that something you'd recommend.
00:11:13:01 - 00:11:14:22
Leigh Cobb
To friends for a lifestyle?
00:11:15:00 - 00:11:42:00
Luke Tipple
Probably just as well. Well, you want money. I know. Let's put on a real well, Josh, let's let's elaborate on that, because it's easy to romanticize it. People look at, you know, Shark Week and like, hey, I want to go do that. But you don't get to do that year round. If you want to work on a dive boat, if you want to be a shark diver and actually work with sharks all the time, usually you have to basically a tourism operator.
00:11:42:00 - 00:12:14:01
Luke Tipple
Yeah. So how does that pan out for you? You know, you always have bad weather, you have certain seasons. So that doing this job, you know, any kind of dive job there is season. So you have to have something else to fall back on. So I do know underwater male burlesque show, Telemundo. Oh yeah, I also bartend. So, you know, it's that I don't just you know, my focus is sharks and that's what I care about.
00:12:14:01 - 00:12:25:06
Luke Tipple
So, yeah, if I've got it. Do you think I missed the first part of what you said? Can you do an underwater What? No, I do an underwater male burlesque show in Fort Lauderdale, So I'm holding my breath.
00:12:25:06 - 00:12:29:01
Leigh Cobb
He's brilliant. He works.
00:12:29:03 - 00:12:37:03
Luke Tipple
So are you Aquaman? Kind of, yeah. With a lot less clothes. I move.
00:12:37:05 - 00:12:38:10
Leigh Cobb
When I get back, we'll go.
00:12:38:16 - 00:12:52:01
Luke Tipple
Right? Oh, that's simply amazing. Yeah. So for everyone listening, we all live in the same area. I'm in Pompano Beach, and, you know, Lee and Josh are both usually local and Lee, I'll take you up on that. We're definitely in a country to watch Josh do his thing.
00:12:52:03 - 00:12:55:11
Leigh Cobb
I'll take it and we will die laughing.
00:12:55:13 - 00:13:15:20
Luke Tipple
But sure is amazing. Yes. You know, that's a big thing. So you have to remember that if you're willing, what are you willing to sacrifice? You know, I'm willing to do all this to be a moment underwater with sharks. You know, Lee and me are really kind of good, and it's random, but we take hooks out like big hooks.
00:13:15:20 - 00:13:37:14
Luke Tipple
And that's what I really like doing, is that's part of the education. It's not just like, oh, let's, let's give you that. Wow factor. No, it's let me show you that we're going down there Like I've I've had times where there's hook, there's double hook. So it's hooked on the top and the bottom of the shark's mouth. And it can't eat, it can't open its mouth all the way.
00:13:37:14 - 00:13:58:05
Luke Tipple
It's kind of like nibbling at things. So that is my big drive on it. Oh, explain that process to somebody who might not quite understand so exactly how hands on you need to be in order to do what you're saying. So this is a hand gassed, right? So this was taken out of a silky shark. It came through and it was dead in the middle of his head.
00:13:58:06 - 00:14:22:09
Luke Tipple
So and it was broken off just hanging like this. So we do tonic immobility, like where we could rub and they almost do a trance, like where they slow down, they calm down and almost relax for a second so we could remove this kind of stuff. It's not easy. Like when I first started, I went and took a whole bunch of hooks and put it in a stake and tried to take it out with one hand.
00:14:22:11 - 00:14:43:14
Luke Tipple
It's it's it's kind of a work of art to it. You can't just baker come here freshly, you know, because you can't make that fish not want to ever come back. You can't hold them down and back. You're going to let me do this, you know, So you only really get one, maybe two passes to try. And then after that, you got to just let it go.
00:14:43:14 - 00:15:04:21
Luke Tipple
And the sad part is, is there's a lot of times that you could do, ah, three dives with this. And there's a guarantee one of those sharks have hooks or multiple sharks have hooks in their face. The Josh is out there singlehandedly saving all this. The sharks of South Florida sling and slinging pliers around and dollar bills in the evening.
00:15:04:21 - 00:15:13:13
Luke Tipple
Right. That's way for people who are listening, who really want to be a shark diver, who want to get out there. Lee, give us your best piece of advice for them.
00:15:13:15 - 00:15:36:13
Leigh Cobb
Do it. Don't think about it. Don't procrastinate. Just get in the water. Go with somebody like Josh and myself and understand that fear. They've seen it before. You know, we can tell you the right things to do. We cannot put you in a position where you're going to fail uncomfortable. And don't think about it more. You think about it, the bigger it is.
00:15:36:15 - 00:15:50:20
Leigh Cobb
There's a lot of things in life, but, you know, we do this every day. You know, we've got people with us every day. Nothing ever happens. Don't you know, getting there because you're missing out every day that you don't.
00:15:50:22 - 00:16:10:08
Luke Tipple
Josh, same question. Give us a practical piece of advice. What should people do first step tomorrow? What should they do if they want to go be a shark diver, get certified in diving and start. Don't do it tomorrow. Don't do it next week. Start there. There's everyone will always talk you out of it. Like, oh, like I have all my family, you know, all the time.
00:16:10:08 - 00:16:33:02
Luke Tipple
I was my whole dive career. They're like, Well, diving is nothing. And it's like, well, diving something to me. And once you realize that when they say there's another world, they're not kidding. It's a whole nother world. Like everything, the experience or the pressure on you, the you exhaling and seeing bubbles way higher than you and you're like, I'm not even close to the surface.
00:16:33:07 - 00:16:54:16
Luke Tipple
It's a factor. And if you could do that, do it. So if I can summarize for our viewers, you guys are recommending doing it out there, doing it certified. Listen to people who are better than you with more experience and you be humble on the boat. And that's the number one thing as much as you can. We will show you just be humble.
00:16:54:18 - 00:17:15:13
Leigh Cobb
We what we love doing is neat jobs. We love getting people from that fire stage to that. You know, when we get the kids coming up and their face. Yeah. That you know when I was ten and we'll always watch for that one person that is in a net to tears before they're going to get in the water the fear on them.
00:17:15:15 - 00:17:20:07
Leigh Cobb
And then they come up out of the water and their face is like.
00:17:20:09 - 00:17:22:15
Luke Tipple
Oh my, yesterday's.
00:17:22:17 - 00:17:26:09
Leigh Cobb
Is priceless, isn't it. Yeah, that priceless.
00:17:26:11 - 00:17:48:03
Luke Tipple
Before we kind of wrap things up here, I want to give people the benefit of your vast knowledge here. Play a little bit of true or false. So Cierra found this list from I think it was scuba diving magazine or something, talking to people about how to remain safe in shock. All right, let's do it. So that's true.
00:17:48:05 - 00:17:50:01
Leigh Cobb
Do you come to the event.
00:17:50:03 - 00:18:15:13
Luke Tipple
True or false? How to stay safe in the water with sharks. Okay. Don't panic. True or false? Check? No, their behavior check remain vertical in the water. Fast. The water. I guess the theory behind this one is that in remaining vertical CPR, you're a big, imposing thing. And that is a fairly pervasive thought. You're both saying false. Why?
00:18:15:18 - 00:18:18:06
Leigh Cobb
Yeah, it's not necessary for me.
00:18:18:07 - 00:18:41:04
Luke Tipple
I lay down in the water and they'll swim right next to me, you know? Yeah. Again, I'm not trying to get rid of them, so I'm not trying to be the big balloon. And I guess but we I guess we have everybody from somebody who didn't want them coming around. It wouldn't matter. They're going to come around. You're in the water if you taste it and there's a little salt chance there's a shark back.
00:18:41:06 - 00:18:44:08
Luke Tipple
It's good. It's nice.
00:18:44:10 - 00:19:05:23
Luke Tipple
I think it's something for me at least more about body position. So if you are to be worried about a shark and you decided that, hey, swimming away from it was a good idea or, you know, turning on your back and swimming with your fins flapping in its face, that to me would be a bad idea because I'd see that movement, they might see a bit of erratic stuff.
00:19:06:01 - 00:19:25:12
Leigh Cobb
I think active like that. If you are, you know, you want someone like Josh to tell you about the Tigers, you know, if you want a tiger to come close to you, just have a mirror in your face and and watch it, turn your back on it and have the mirror so you can see where he is. He's going to come right behind you.
00:19:25:12 - 00:19:50:10
Leigh Cobb
And then you turn around and face it. The minute you turn around and face it, obviously you'll be vertical and it will swim away. So I think it I think it depends. We both said false to that one. I think because we're probably thinking in the manner that says we want them closer to us. So if you don't want them close to, it's kind of like stand up and face them rather than turn a turn and run away.
00:19:50:13 - 00:19:54:15
Leigh Cobb
Yeah, that that would be true In that kind of instance.
00:19:54:17 - 00:20:16:09
Luke Tipple
I will realize when I was working at Guadalupe, I, we were doing a documentary where we were working with great whites. Obviously is a baited scenario, but we're pulling it out while we're in the water, but we're working with free divers. And I was safety crew and my job was basically corralling the sharks. So when the three free divers, they do that dive, then the sharks are kind of check them out.
00:20:16:11 - 00:20:39:11
Luke Tipple
Once the sharks got bored with them, they go to swim off and I'd put myself directly in front of them. So the sharks went back and, you know, engaged with the free divers again. So I'm always on the outside just like, yes, right. Well, not very often goes that way, buddy. And it was always my experience that, you know, just get in front of them and swim towards them, show them something to deflect and move away.
00:20:39:11 - 00:21:01:00
Luke Tipple
And I think that actually, probably without exaggeration, probably saved my life once because I jumped in and that was at least seven great whites around us. And it was always the thing to check below. So I got in and clocked all the ones in front of me, looked down, and that was one coming, just a freight train straight up at me, mouth open.
00:21:01:02 - 00:21:19:04
Luke Tipple
And I just, just something hit me, I guess after all the years of working, just I turn total flip down, look straight at it, and started swimming towards it. And I don't even know how far I got through that process because it was happened pretty quickly. But I know I managed to flip over, look at it and start swimming, maybe a kick or two that just deflected enough to just turn off.
00:21:19:04 - 00:21:38:06
Luke Tipple
So whenever somebody says, Hey, you know, what do you say to get sharks away from you or whatever, it's it's a sight towards look at it in the swim towards it. Yeah. Yeah. I think that eye contact I if you started staring at them. Same thing with hammerheads you have to almost like you don't breathe real hard you look away.
00:21:38:11 - 00:21:59:05
Luke Tipple
Yeah. Like one of these things and that eye contact instantly reflexive. Okay so yeah okay well that that was the next one. Maintain eye contact. Oh, yes, true. That's true. Yeah. Yeah, we got a true one. And avoid the surface sharks target prey on the surface.
00:21:59:07 - 00:22:00:16
Leigh Cobb
Correct. So fortunately.
00:22:00:20 - 00:22:02:01
Luke Tipple
Yeah.
00:22:02:03 - 00:22:27:05
Leigh Cobb
I mean, you know, I used to work in Cocos Island going back to do a couple of months there this year and there was an unfortunate incident there with a lady and she was on the surface and they it was a tiger and now they have this protocol that is, you know, you can't be on the surface on your own.
00:22:27:07 - 00:22:57:12
Leigh Cobb
I look back at the amount of times that when I was over there, that I was on the surface on my own and there were tigers and there was, you know, hammers, Galapagos, everything else. And I never, never for once felt threatened. And and I've been back since the attack and what have you. And you know, there are that that's the other thing that we've got to be careful of is is when an incident does happen we don't then go down the grounds of, oh, you know, this is going to happen if we die or this is, you know, you need.
00:22:57:12 - 00:22:58:20
Luke Tipple
To put a correction to it.
00:22:59:00 - 00:23:20:11
Leigh Cobb
Yeah. Put puts, put perspective there because, you know, this attack did happen on the surface. There are a lot of sharks. There were there are a lot of divers there at different dive sites. And it was a one off incident and it's never happened before that. It has never happened since that either. But that was on the surface.
00:23:20:11 - 00:23:36:21
Luke Tipple
So I think to be fair, you know, those surface things, people don't see them coming. You know, if you can get your eyes on them, I think you're you're generally pretty okay, at least in my experience. But yeah. So if people want to contact you guys and also a bit of advice, sort of come dive with you. How do they rate Shelley.
00:23:36:23 - 00:23:44:11
Leigh Cobb
You can get me on WW Shark diver travels with an S on the intercom or bloodshot diver.
00:23:44:13 - 00:23:45:12
Luke Tipple
On Instagram, right?
00:23:45:12 - 00:23:46:15
Leigh Cobb
Yeah, on Instagram.
00:23:46:17 - 00:24:06:15
Luke Tipple
Got it. And Josh the shark guy there, we got a name as a prize for guessing how he rate. Yeah, yeah. Josh Josh is the shark guy on Instagram, Josh Eccles on Facebook. And I am working on getting something else running. So to be continued on that one. So I thank you both so much. That's been really fun.
00:24:06:16 - 00:24:07:09
Luke Tipple
Appreciate your time today.
00:24:07:10 - 00:24:12:20
Leigh Cobb
Thank you. Thanks for having us. My.
00:24:12:22 - 00:24:20:01
Luke Tipple
All right. It's time for our shark bite where our researcher Ciara digs out really cool stuff that's going on in the ocean. Ciara, what do you got for us this week?
00:24:20:03 - 00:24:29:02
Josh Eccles
All right. This one is a mystery that's gone on for a full decade until it was cracked by scientists pretty recently, and believe it or not, comes from your native land. Australia.
00:24:29:02 - 00:24:32:13
Luke Tipple
Hey, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Let's hear it.
00:24:32:15 - 00:24:42:10
Josh Eccles
So ten years ago, scientists discovered an unusual egg pouch, which is the fleshy sac, fleshy.
00:24:42:12 - 00:24:45:20
Luke Tipple
Fleshy sac.
00:24:45:22 - 00:24:48:10
Josh Eccles
That's what it says. But oh my God, There.
00:24:48:12 - 00:24:52:00
Luke Tipple
Definitely could have had a better terminology on that, couldn't they? But this is.
00:24:52:02 - 00:24:52:17
Josh Eccles
Like.
00:24:52:19 - 00:24:55:23
Luke Tipple
Let's go with the shark egg pouch.
00:24:56:01 - 00:25:13:10
Josh Eccles
So ten years ago, scientists discovered an unusual egg pouch which allows the shark egg to mature outside the female body. And this one had really unique T-shaped ridges, but it didn't have an egg inside of it, so no one knew if it was a new species or just a different morphology of a group of cat sharks known as demon sharks.
00:25:13:12 - 00:25:30:06
Luke Tipple
Okay. So they just found basically the empty egg sac, egg pouch thing that that the female shark will you know, I've seen sharks actually get those egg pouches and like screw them into places in the reef to protect them. That's a really cool adaptation. Yeah. Okay. So what cracked the case?
00:25:30:08 - 00:25:50:14
Josh Eccles
So in late 2022, a research voyage went out and luckily they found more of the egg cases and even more lucky. One of them still had an embryo inside. They were able to harvest a genetic sample and they confirmed that there's a completely new species and it's now known as a Pretorius of the core goddess. So I know that that's a nightmare name to try to pronounce.
00:25:50:14 - 00:25:53:18
Josh Eccles
And luckily it has a really easy common name, which is the demon shark.
00:25:53:18 - 00:25:58:15
Luke Tipple
Oh, the demon shark. Way better than what was it, Upper stories of a car goddess.
00:25:58:17 - 00:26:00:19
Josh Eccles
Yeah, something like that. Okay.
00:26:00:21 - 00:26:03:18
Luke Tipple
I like demon shark better. Why? They call it demon shark?
00:26:03:20 - 00:26:19:06
Josh Eccles
Yeah. So they're calling it this demon shark because it looks pretty spooky. It has these unusual, bright white irises, which is super rare in deep water. Creatures. And some people are you know, scientists are hypothesizing that it might be to help it see better in the dark, but they're not totally sure.
00:26:19:11 - 00:26:27:11
Luke Tipple
So it sounds like we stand very little chance of seeing the shark in real life. Right. It's a deep water animal. Probably just got caught by fishermen type of thing.
00:26:27:13 - 00:26:28:09
Josh Eccles
Yep, totally.
00:26:28:10 - 00:26:32:12
Luke Tipple
Okay. Well, there we have it. We have a demon shark. And you said it's a brand new species.
00:26:32:13 - 00:26:34:12
Josh Eccles
Yup. Brand name. First time they discovered it.
00:26:34:12 - 00:26:40:15
Luke Tipple
I love it. I'm glad to know there's a little demon shark swimming around down in the depths down there. And now you do, too. Thanks. Yeah.
00:26:40:17 - 00:26:44:11
Josh Eccles
The only time.
00:26:44:13 - 00:27:00:12
Luke Tipple
All right, that's it for today's episode. I hope you learned something today. And for those of you who want to pursue a career underwater working with sharks, listen to the steps that myself, Lee and Josh gave you. And you never know. You might just be on the deck of a boat one day making something cool with us for Shark Week.
00:27:00:14 - 00:27:02:09
Luke Tipple
Until next time I'm locked up, I'll chat.
00:27:02:09 - 00:27:15:12
Unknown
Dyson during the Week podcast Shark Week.
00:27:15:12 - 00:27:44:07
Speaker 5
Shark Week, the podcast is produced by Delve Media for Warner Brothers. 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.