WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 Basking sharks are awesome creatures. They are just magnificent. 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.000 They grow 10 meters long. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Some say bigger. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:09.000 They might weigh up to two tons. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:11.000 Some say up to five tons. 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.000 They're the second largest fish in the world. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:16.000 They're also harmless plankton-feeding animals. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:18.000 And they are thought to be able 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:21.000 to filter a cubic kilometer of water every hour 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:24.000 and can feed on 30 kilos of zoo plankton a day to survive. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:26.000 They're fantastic creatures. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:29.000 And we're very lucky in Ireland, we have plenty of basking sharks 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:31.000 and plenty of opportunities to study them. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:33.000 They were also very important to coast communities 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:35.000 going back hundreds of years, 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.000 especially the around the Claddagh, Duff, Connemara region 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.000 where subsistence farmers used to sail out 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:42.000 on their hookers and open boats 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:44.000 sometimes way off shore, sometimes to a place called the Sunfish Bank, 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.000 which is about 30 miles west of Achill Island, 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:48.000 to kill the basking sharks. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:50.000 This is an old woodcut from the 17, 1800s. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:53.000 So they were very important, and they were important for the oil out of their liver. 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.000 A third of the size of the basking shark is their liver, and it's full of oil. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:57.000 You get gallons of oil from their liver. 00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:59.000 And that oil was used especially for lighting, 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:01.000 but also for dressing wounds and other things. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:03.000 In fact, the streetlights in 1742 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:05.000 of Galway, Dublin and Waterford 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:07.000 were linked with sunfish oil. 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:09.000 And "sunfish" is one of the words for basking sharks. 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:11.000 So they were incredibly important animals. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:14.000 They've been around a long time, have been very important to coast communities. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:17.000 Probably the best documented basking shark fishery in the world 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.000 is that from Achill Island. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:21.000 This is Keem Bay up in Achill Island. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:24.000 And sharks used to come into the bay. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:27.000 And the fishermen would tie a net off the headland, 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:29.000 string it out along the other net. 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:32.000 And as the shark came round, it would hit the net, the net would collapse on it. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:34.000 It would often drown and suffocate. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:37.000 Or at times, they would row out in their small currachs 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:39.000 and kill it with a lance through the back of the neck. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:42.000 And then they'd tow the sharks back to Purteen Harbor, 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.000 boil them up, use the oil. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.000 They used to use the flesh as well for fertilizer 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:51.000 and also would fin the sharks. 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.000 This is probably the biggest threat to sharks worldwide -- 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:55.000 it is the finning of sharks. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:57.000 We're often all frightened of sharks thanks to "Jaws." 00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:59.000 Maybe five or six people get killed 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.000 by sharks every year. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:04.000 There was someone recently, wasn't there? Just a couple weeks ago. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:07.000 We kill about 100 million sharks a year. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:09.000 So I don't know what the balance is, 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:12.000 but I think sharks have got more right to be fearful of us than we have of them. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:14.000 It was a well-documented fishery, 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:16.000 and as you can see here, it peaked in the 50s 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:18.000 where they were killing 1,500 sharks a year. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:21.000 And it declined very fast -- a classic boom and bust fishery, 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.000 which suggests that a stock has been depleted 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:26.000 or there's low reproductive rates. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:28.000 And they killed about 12,000 sharks in this period, 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:31.000 literally just by stringing a manila rope 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.000 off the tip of Keem Bay 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:35.000 at Achill Island. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:37.000 Sharks were still killed up into the mid-80s, 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.000 especially after places like Dunmore East in County Waterford. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:43.000 And about two and a half, 3,000 sharks were killed up till '85, 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:45.000 many by Norwegian vessels. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:48.000 The black, you can't really see this, but these are Norwegian basking shark hunting vessels, 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:50.000 and the black line in the crow's nest 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:52.000 signifies this is a shark vessel 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.000 rather than a whaling vessel. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:57.000 The importance of basking sharks to the coast communities 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.000 is recognized through the language. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.000 Now I don't pretend to have any Irish, 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:04.000 but in Kerry they were often known as "Ainmhide na seolta," 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.000 the monster with the sails. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:09.000 And another title would be "Liop an da lapa," 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:12.000 the unwieldy beast with two fins. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.000 "Liabhan mor," suggesting a big animal. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:17.000 Or my favorite, "Liabhan chor greine," 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:19.000 the great fish of the sun. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:21.000 And that's a lovely, evocative name. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:24.000 On Tory Island, which is a strange place anyway, they were known as muldoons, 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:26.000 and no one seems to know why. 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:28.000 Hope there's no one from Tory here; lovely place. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:31.000 But more commonly all around the island, 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:33.000 they were known as the sunfish. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:36.000 And this represents their habit of basking on the surface when the sun is out. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:39.000 There's great concern that basking sharks are depleted 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:41.000 all throughout the world. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.000 Some people say it's not population decline. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:45.000 It might be a change in the distribution of plankton. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:47.000 And it's been suggested that basking sharks would make 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:49.000 fantastic indicators of climate change, 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:51.000 because they're basically continuous plankton recorders 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:53.000 swimming around with their mouth open. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:56.000 They're now listed as vulnerable under the IUCN. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:59.000 There's also moves in Europe to try and stop catching them. 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:02.000 There's now a ban on catching them and even landing them 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:04.000 and even landing ones that are caught accidentally. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:06.000 They're not protected in Ireland. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:08.000 In fact, they have no legislative status in Ireland whatsoever, 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.000 despite our importance for the species 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:13.000 and also the historical context within which basking sharks reside. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.000 We know very little about them. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.000 And most of what we do know 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.000 is based on their habit of coming to the surface. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:22.000 And we try to guess what they're doing 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:24.000 from their behavior on the surface. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:27.000 I only found out last year, at a conference on the Isle of Man, 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:30.000 just how unusual it is to live somewhere 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.000 where basking sharks regularly, frequently and predictably 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000 come to the surface to "bask." 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.000 And it's a fantastic opportunity in science 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:39.000 to see and experience basking sharks, 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:41.000 and they are awesome creatures. 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:44.000 And it gives us a fantastic opportunity to actually study them, to get access to them. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:47.000 So what we've been doing a couple of years -- but last year was a big year -- 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:50.000 is we started tagging sharks 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:52.000 so we could try to get some idea 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:54.000 of sight fidelity and movements and things like that. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:56.000 So we concentrated mainly 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:58.000 in North Donegal and West Kerry 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:01.000 as the two areas where I was mainly active. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:03.000 And we tagged them very simply, not very hi-tech, 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:05.000 with a big, long pole. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:07.000 This is a beachcaster rod 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:09.000 with a tag on the end. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.000 Go up in your boat and tag the shark. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:14.000 And we were very effective. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.000 We tagged 105 sharks last summer. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:18.000 We got 50 in three days 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.000 off Inishowen Peninsula. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:23.000 Half the challenge is to get access, is to be in the right place at the right time. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:25.000 But it's a very simple and easy technique. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:27.000 I'll show you what they look like. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:29.000 We use a pole camera on the boat 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:31.000 to actually film shark. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:33.000 One is to try and work out the gender of the shark. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:36.000 We also deployed a couple of satellite tags, so we did use hi-tech stuff as well. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:38.000 These are archival tags. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.000 So what they do is they store the data. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:42.000 A satellite tag only works when the air is clear of the water 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:44.000 and can send a signal to the satellite. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:47.000 And of course, sharks, fish, are underwater most of the time. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.000 So this tag actually works out the locations of shark 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.000 depending on the timing and the setting of the sun, 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:55.000 plus water temperature and depth. 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:58.000 And you have to kind of reconstruct the path. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:01.000 What happens is that you set the tag to detach from the shark after a fixed period, 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:03.000 in this case it was eight months, 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:07.000 and literally to the day the tag popped off, drifted up, said hello to the satellite 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:10.000 and sent, not all the data, but enough data for us to use. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:12.000 And this is the only way to really work out 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:15.000 the behavior and the movements when they're under water. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:18.000 And here's a couple of maps that we've done. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:21.000 That one, you can see that we tagged both off Kerry. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:24.000 And basically it spent all its time, the last eight months, in Irish waters. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:26.000 Christmas day it was out on the shelf edge. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:28.000 And here's one that we haven't ground-truthed it yet 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.000 with sea surface temperature and water depth, 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:32.000 but again, the second shark kind of spent most of its time 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.000 in and around the Irish Sea. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:36.000 Colleagues from the Isle of Man last year 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:38.000 actually tagged one shark 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:41.000 that went from the Isle of Man all the way out to Nova Scotia in about 90 days. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:44.000 That's nine and a half thousand kilometers. We never thought that happened. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.000 Another colleague in the States 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:49.000 tagged about 20 sharks off Massachusetts, and his tags didn't really work. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:51.000 All he knows is where he tagged them 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:53.000 and he knows where they popped off. 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:55.000 And his tags popped off in the Caribbean 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:57.000 and even in Brazil. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.000 And we thought that basking sharks were temperate animals 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.000 and only lived in our latitude. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:04.000 But in actual fact, they're obviously crossing the Equator as well. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:06.000 So very simple things like that, 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:08.000 we're trying to learn about basking sharks. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:11.000 One thing that I think 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:13.000 is a very surprising and strange thing 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:16.000 is just how low the genetic diversity of sharks are. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:19.000 Now I'm not a geneticist, so I'm not going to pretend to understand the genetics. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:22.000 And that's why it's great to have collaboration. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:24.000 Whereas I'm a field person, 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:26.000 I get panic attacks if I have to spend too many hours 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:29.000 in a lab with a white coat on -- take me away. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.000 So we can work with geneticists who understand that. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:34.000 So when they looked at the genetics of basking sharks, 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:37.000 they found that the diversity was incredibly low. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:39.000 If you look at the first line really, 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:42.000 you can see that all these different shark species are all quite similar. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:44.000 I think this means basically that they're all sharks 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.000 and they've come from a common ancestry. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:49.000 If you look at nucleotide diversity, 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:52.000 which is more genetics that are passed on through parents, 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.000 you can see that basking sharks, if you look at the first study, 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:57.000 was an order of magnitude less diversity 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.000 than other shark species. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:01.000 And you see that this work was done in 2006. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:04.000 Before 2006, we had no idea of the genetic variability of basking sharks. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:07.000 We had no idea, did they distinguish into different populations? 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:09.000 Were there subpopulations? 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:11.000 And of course, that's very important if you want to know 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:13.000 what the population size is and the status of the animals. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:16.000 So Les Noble in Aberdeen 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:18.000 kind of found this a bit unbelievable really. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:21.000 So he did another study 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:24.000 using microsatellites, 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:27.000 which are much more expensive, much more time consuming, 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:30.000 and, to his surprise, came up with almost identical results. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:32.000 So it does seem to be 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:35.000 that basking sharks, for some reason, have incredibly low diversity. 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:37.000 And it's thought maybe it was a bottleneck, a genetic bottleneck 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:39.000 thought to be 12,000 years ago, 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:42.000 and this has caused a very low diversity. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:44.000 And yet, if you look at whale sharks, 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:47.000 which is the other plankton eating large shark, 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:49.000 its diversity is much greater. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:51.000 So it doesn't really make sense at all. 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:53.000 They found that there was no genetic differentiation 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:56.000 between any of the world's oceans of basking sharks. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:58.000 So even though basking sharks are found throughout the world, 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.000 you couldn't tell the difference genetically 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:03.000 from one from the Pacific, the Atlantic, New Zealand, or from Ireland, South Africa. 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:05.000 They all basically seem the same. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:08.000 But again, it's kind of surprising. You wouldn't really expect that. 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:10.000 I don't understand this. I don't pretend to understand this. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.000 And I suspect most geneticists don't understand it either, 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:14.000 but they produce the numbers. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:16.000 So you can actually estimate the population size 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:18.000 based on the diversity of the genetics. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:21.000 And Rus Hoelzel came up with an effective population size: 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:23.000 8,200 animals. 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.000 That's it. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:27.000 8,000 animals in the world. 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:29.000 You're thinking, "That's just ridiculous. No way." 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:31.000 So Les did a finer study 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:33.000 and he found out it came out about 9,000. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:36.000 And using different microsatellites gave the different results. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:39.000 But the average of all these studies came out -- 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:41.000 the mean is about 5,000, 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:43.000 which I personally don't believe, 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:45.000 but then I am a skeptic. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:47.000 But even if you toss a few numbers around, 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:50.000 you're probably talking of an effective population of about 20,000 animals. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:52.000 Do you remember how many they killed off Achill there 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:55.000 in the 70s and the 50s? 00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:57.000 So what it tells us actually 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:00.000 is that there's actually a risk of extinction of this species 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.000 because its population is so small. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:05.000 In fact, of those 20,000, 8,000 were thought to be females. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:08.000 There's only 8,000 basking shark females in the world? 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:10.000 I don't know. I don't believe it. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:12.000 The problem with this 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.000 is they were constrained with samples. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.000 They didn't get enough samples 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.000 to really explore the genetics 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:20.000 in enough detail. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.000 So where do you get samples from 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.000 for your genetic analysis? 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:27.000 Well one obvious source is dead sharks, 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:29.000 Dead sharks washed up. 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:32.000 We might get two or three dead sharks washed up in Ireland a year, 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:34.000 if we're kind of lucky. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:36.000 Another source would be fisheries bycatch. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:39.000 We were getting quite a few caught in surface drift nets. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:42.000 That's banned now, and that'll be good news for the sharks. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:44.000 And some are caught in nets, in trawls. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:47.000 This is a shark that was actually landed in Howth just before Christmas, 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:50.000 illegally, because you're not allowed to do that under E.U. law, 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:53.000 and was actually sold for eight euros a kilo as shark steak. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:56.000 They even put a recipe up on the wall, until they were told this was illegal. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:59.000 And they actually did get a fine for that. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:01.000 So if you look at all those studies I showed you, 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:04.000 the total number of samples worldwide 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:06.000 is 86 at present. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:08.000 So it's very important work, 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:10.000 and they can ask some really good questions, 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:12.000 and they can tell us about population size 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:15.000 and subpopulations and structure, 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.000 but they're constrained by lack of samples. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:20.000 Now when we were out tagging our sharks, 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:23.000 this is how we tagged them on the front of a RIB -- get in there fast -- 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:25.000 occasionally the sharks do react. 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:28.000 And on one occasion when we were up in Malin Head up in Donegal, 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:31.000 a shark smacked the side of the boat with his tail, 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:34.000 more, I think, in startle to the fact that a boat came near it, 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:36.000 rather than the tag going in. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:39.000 And that was fine. We got wet. No problem. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:41.000 And then when myself and Emmett 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:43.000 got back to Malin Head, to the pier, 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:46.000 I noticed some black slime on the front of the boat. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:48.000 And I remembered -- I used to spend a lot of time out on commercial fishing boats -- 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:50.000 I remember fishermen telling me they can always tell 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:52.000 when a basking shark's been caught in the net 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:54.000 because it leaves this black slime behind. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:56.000 So I was thinking that must have come from the shark. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:58.000 Now we had an interest 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:00.000 in getting tissue samples for genetics 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:02.000 because we knew they were very valuable. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.000 And we would use conventional methods -- 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:06.000 I have a crossbow, you see the crossbow in my hand there, 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:09.000 which we use to sample whales and dolphins for genetic studies as well. 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:11.000 So I tried that, I tried many techniques. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:13.000 All it was doing was breaking my arrows 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:15.000 because the shark skin is just so strong. 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:17.000 There was no way we were going to get a sample from that. 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:20.000 So that wasn't going to work. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:23.000 So when I saw the black slime on the bow of the boat, 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:26.000 I thought, "If you take what you're given in this world ..." 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:28.000 So I scraped it off. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:31.000 And I had a little tube with alcohol in it to send to the geneticists. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:33.000 So I scraped the slime off and I sent it off to Aberdeen. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:35.000 And I said, "You might try that." 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:37.000 And they sat on it for months actually. 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:39.000 It was only because we had a conference on the Isle of Man. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:41.000 But I kept emailing, saying, 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:43.000 "Have you had a chance to look at my slime yet?" 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:45.000 And he was like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Later, later, later." 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:47.000 Anyway he thought he'd better do it, 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:49.000 because I never met him before 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:51.000 and he might lose face if he hadn't done the thing I sent him. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:54.000 And he was amazed that they actually got DNA from the slime. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:56.000 And they amplified it and they tested it 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:58.000 and they found, yes, this was actually basking shark DNA, 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:01.000 which was got from the slime. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:03.000 And so he was all very excited. 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:06.000 It became known as Simon's shark slime. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:09.000 And I thought, "Hey, you know, I can build on this." 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:11.000 So we thought, okay, we're going to try to get out 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:13.000 and get some slime. 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:17.000 So having spent three and a half thousand on satellite tags, 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:22.000 I then thought I'd invest 7.95 -- the price is still on it -- 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:25.000 in my local hardware store in Kilrush 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:27.000 for a mop handle 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:30.000 and even less money on some oven cleaners. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:33.000 And I wrapped the oven cleaner around the end of the mop handle 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:35.000 and was desperate, desperate 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:38.000 to have an opportunity 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:40.000 to get some sharks. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.000 Now this was into August now, 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:44.000 and normally sharks peak at June, July. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:46.000 And you rarely see them. 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:49.000 You can only rarely be in the right place to find sharks into August. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:51.000 So we were desperate. 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:54.000 So we rushed out to Blasket as soon as we heard there were sharks there 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:56.000 and managed to find some sharks. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:58.000 So by just rubbing the mop handle down the shark 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:00.000 as it swam under the boat -- 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:02.000 you see, here's a shark that's running under the boat here -- 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:04.000 we managed to collect slime. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:06.000 And here it is. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:09.000 Look at that lovely, black shark slime. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:12.000 And in about half an hour, 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:15.000 we got five samples, five individual sharks, 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:18.000 were sampled using Simon's shark slime sampling system. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:20.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:25.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:28.000 I've been working on whales and dolphins in Ireland for 20 years now, 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:30.000 and they're kind of a bit more dramatic. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:32.000 You probably saw the humpback whale footage 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.000 that we got there a month or two ago off County Wexford. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:37.000 And you always think you might have some legacy you can leave the world behind. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:39.000 And I was thinking of humpback whales breaching 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:41.000 and dolphins. 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:43.000 But hey, sometimes these things are sent to you 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:45.000 and you just have to take them when they come. 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:47.000 So this is possibly going to be my legacy -- 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:49.000 Simon's shark slime. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:51.000 So we got more money this year 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:54.000 to carry on collecting more and more samples. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:56.000 And one thing that is kind of very useful 00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:59.000 is that we use a pole cameras -- this is my colleague Joanne with a pole camera -- 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:01.000 where you can actually look underneath the shark. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:04.000 And what you're trying to look at is the males have claspers, 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:07.000 which kind of dangle out behind the back of the shark. 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:09.000 So you can quite easily tell the gender of the shark. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:11.000 So if we can tell the gender of the shark 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:13.000 before we sample it, 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:16.000 we can tell the geneticist this was taken from a male or a female. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.000 Because at the moment, they actually have no way genetically 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:20.000 of telling the difference between a male and a female, 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:22.000 which I found absolutely staggering, 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:25.000 because they don't know what primers to look for. 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:27.000 And being able to tell the gender of a shark 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:29.000 has got very important 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:32.000 for things like policing the trade 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:36.000 in basking shark and other species through societies, 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.000 because it is illegal to trade any sharks. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:40.000 And they are caught and they are on the market. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:42.000 So as a field biologist, 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:44.000 you just want to get encounters with these animals. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.000 You want to learn as much as you can. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:49.000 They're often quite brief. They're often very seasonally constrained. 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:52.000 And you just want to learn as much as you can as soon as you can. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:54.000 But isn't it fantastic 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:57.000 that you can then offer these samples 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:00.000 and opportunities to other disciplines, such as geneticists, 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:03.000 who can gain so much more from that. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:05.000 So as I said, 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:08.000 these things are sent to you in strange ways. Grab them while you can. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:10.000 I'll take that as my scientific legacy. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:13.000 Hopefully I might get something a bit more dramatic and romantic before I die. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:16.000 But for the time being, thank you for that. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:18.000 And keep an eye out for sharks. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:21.000 If you're more interested, we have a basking shark website now just set up. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:24.000 So thank you and thank you for listening. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:26.000 (Applause)