1
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Basking sharks are awesome creatures.

2
00:00:02,454 --> 00:00:03,777
They are just magnificent.

3
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They grow 10 meters long; some say bigger.

4
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They might weigh up to two tons.

5
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Some say up to five tons.

6
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They're the second-largest
fish in the world.

7
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They're also harmless
plankton-feeding animals.

8
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And they are thought to be able to filter
a cubic kilometer of water every hour

9
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and can feed on 30 kilos
of zoo plankton a day to survive.

10
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They're fantastic creatures.

11
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We're very lucky in Ireland,

12
00:00:28,904 --> 00:00:32,484
we have plenty of basking sharks
and plenty of opportunities to study them.

13
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They were very important
to coastal communities,

14
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going back hundreds of years,

15
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especially around
the Claddaghduff, Connemara region

16
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where subsistence farmers used to sail
out on their hookers and open boats,

17
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sometimes way offshore
to a place called the Sunfish Bank,

18
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about 30 miles west of Achill Island,

19
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to kill the basking sharks.

20
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This is a woodcut from about the 1800s.

21
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They were very important,
for the oil out of their liver.

22
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A third of the basking
shark's size is their liver,

23
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and it's full of oil, gallons of oil.

24
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That oil was used especially for lighting,

25
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but also for dressing wounds
and other things.

26
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In fact, the streetlights in 1742,

27
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of Galway, Dublin and Waterford,

28
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were lit with sunfish oil.

29
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"Sunfish" is one of the words
for basking sharks.

30
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So they were incredibly important animals.

31
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They've been around a long time,
very important to coastal communities.

32
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Probably the best-documented
basking shark fishery in the world

33
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is that from Achill Island.

34
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This is Keem Bay up in Achill Island.

35
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Sharks used to come into the bay,

36
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and the fishermen
would tie a net off the headland,

37
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string it out, an old Manila net,

38
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and as the shark came round,
it would hit the net,

39
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the net would collapse on it.

40
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It would often drown and suffocate.

41
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Or at times, they would row out
in their small curraghs

42
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and kill it with a lance
through the back of the neck.

43
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And then they'd tow the sharks
back to Purteen Harbour,

44
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boil them up, use the oil.

45
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They also used the flesh
as well, for fertilizer

46
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and also would fin the sharks.

47
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This is probably the biggest threat
to sharks worldwide --

48
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the finning of sharks.

49
00:01:56,219 --> 00:01:58,708
We're often frightened
of sharks, thanks to "Jaws."

50
00:01:58,732 --> 00:02:01,786
Maybe five or six people
get killed by sharks every year.

51
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There was someone recently, wasn't there?
Just a couple weeks ago.

52
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We kill about 100 million sharks a year.

53
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So I don't know what the balance is,

54
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but I think sharks have more right
to be fearful of us than we have of them.

55
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It was a well-documented fishery.

56
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As you can see here,
it peaked in the '50s,

57
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where they were killing
1,500 sharks a year.

58
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And it declined very fast --
a classic boom-and-bust fishery,

59
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which suggests that a stock
has been depleted

60
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or there's low reproductive rates.

61
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They killed about 12,000 sharks
within this period,

62
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literally just by stringing a Manila rope

63
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off the tip of Keem Bay
up in Achill Island.

64
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Sharks were still killed
up into the mid-80s,

65
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especially out of places
like Dunmore East in County Waterford.

66
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About two and a half, 3,000
sharks were killed up till '85,

67
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mainly by Norwegian vessels.

68
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You can't really see,

69
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but these are Norwegian
basking shark hunting vessels.

70
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The black line in the crow's nest
signifies this is a shark vessel,

71
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rather than a whaling vessel.

72
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The importance of basking sharks
to the coast communities

73
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is recognized through the language.

74
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I don't pretend
to [know many Irish words],

75
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but in Kerry they were often
known as "ainmhide Na seolta,"

76
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"the monster with the sails."

77
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Another title would be "liop an dá lapa,"

78
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"the unwieldy beast with two fins."

79
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"Liabhán mór," suggesting a big animal.

80
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Or my favorite, "liabhán chor gréine,"
"the great fish of the sun."

81
00:03:19,386 --> 00:03:20,922
That's a lovely, evocative name.

82
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On Tory Island -- a strange place
anyway -- they were known as "muldoons."

83
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(Laughter)

84
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No one seems to know why.

85
00:03:26,764 --> 00:03:29,099
Hope there's no one
from Tory here. Lovely place.

86
00:03:29,123 --> 00:03:33,146
But more commonly all around the island,
they were known as the sunfish.

87
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And this represents their habit
of basking on the surface

88
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when the sun is out.

89
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There's great concern
that basking sharks are depleted

90
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all throughout the world.

91
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Some say it's not population decline,

92
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it might be a change
in the distribution of plankton.

93
00:03:45,739 --> 00:03:46,896
It's been suggested

94
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that these sharks would make
fantastic indicators of climate change,

95
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as they're basically
continuous plankton recorders,

96
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swimming around with their mouth open.

97
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They're now listed
as vulnerable under the IUCN.

98
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There's movements in Europe
to try and stop catching them.

99
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There's now a ban on catching
and even landing them,

100
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even landing ones caught accidentally.

101
00:04:04,309 --> 00:04:05,897
They're not protected in Ireland;

102
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in fact, they have no legislative
status in Ireland whatsoever,

103
00:04:08,930 --> 00:04:10,860
despite our importance for the species

104
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and also the historical context
within which basking sharks reside.

105
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We know very little about them.

106
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And most of what we do know

107
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is based on their habit
of coming to the surface --

108
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we try and guess what they're doing
from their behavior on the surface.

109
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I only found out last year,
at a conference on the Isle of Man,

110
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just how unusual it is to live somewhere

111
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where basking sharks regularly,
frequently and predictably

112
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come to the surface to "bask."

113
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It's a fantastic opportunity
for a scientist

114
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to see and experience basking sharks.

115
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They are awesome creatures.

116
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It gives us a fantastic opportunity
to study them, to get access to them.

117
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What we've been doing for a couple
years -- last year was a big year --

118
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is we started tagging sharks,

119
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so we could try to get some idea
of sight fidelity and movement

120
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and things like that.

121
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So we concentrated mainly
in North Donegal and West Kerry

122
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as the two areas
where I was mainly active.

123
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And we tagged them
very simply, not very high-tech,

124
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with a big, long pole.

125
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This is a beachcaster rod
with a tag on the end.

126
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You go up in your boat and tag the shark.

127
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And we were very effective.

128
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We tagged 105 sharks last summer.

129
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We got 50 in three days
off Inishowen Peninsula.

130
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Half the challenge to get access

131
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is to be in the right place
at the right time.

132
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But it's a very simple, easy technique;
I'll show you what it looks like.

133
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We use a pole camera on the boat
to actually film the shark.

134
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One, it's to try and work out
the gender of the shark.

135
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We also deployed some satellite tags,
so we did use high-tech stuff as well.

136
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These are archival tags.

137
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What they do is store the data.

138
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A satellite tag only works
when the air is clear of the water

139
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and can send a signal to the satellite.

140
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And sharks and fish
are underwater most of the time,

141
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so this tag actually works out
the locations of shark,

142
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depending on the timing
and the setting of the sun,

143
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plus water temperature and depth.

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And you have to kind of
reconstruct the path.

145
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What happens is,

146
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you set the tag to detach
from the shark after a fixed period --

147
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in this case, eight months --

148
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and literally to the day,
the tag popped off,

149
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drifted up, said hello to the satellite

150
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and sent, not all the data,
but enough data for us to use.

151
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This is the only way to really work out
their behavior and movements

152
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when they're underwater.

153
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And here's a couple
of maps that we've done.

154
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In that one, you can see
that we tagged both off Kerry.

155
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Basically, it spent all its time,
the last eight months, in Irish waters.

156
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On Christmas, it was out
on the shelf edge.

157
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Here's one we haven't ground-truthed yet

158
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with sea-surface temperature
and water depth,

159
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but again, the second shark
spent most of its time

160
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in and around the Irish Sea.

161
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Colleagues from the Isle of Man
last year actually tagged one shark

162
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that went from the Isle of Man
to Nova Scotia in about 90 days.

163
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Nine and a half thousand kilometers --
we never thought that happened.

164
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Another colleague in the States
tagged about 20 sharks off Massachusetts.

165
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His tags didn't really work.

166
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All he knows is where he tagged them,

167
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and where they popped off.

168
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His tags popped off in the Caribbean,

169
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and even in Brazil.

170
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We thought basking sharks
were temperate animals

171
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and lived in our latitudes,

172
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but in actual fact, they're obviously
crossing the equator as well.

173
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So very simple things like that,

174
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we're trying to learn
about basking sharks.

175
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One thing that I think
is a very surprising and strange thing

176
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is just how low the genetic
diversity of sharks is.

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I'm not a geneticist, so I won't pretend
to understand the genetics.

178
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And that's why it's great
to have collaboration.

179
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Whereas I'm a field person,

180
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I get panic attacks

181
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if I have to spend too many hours
in a lab with a white coat on.

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Take me away.

183
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So we can work with geneticists
who understand that.

184
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So when they looked at
the genetics of basking sharks,

185
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they found that the diversity
was incredibly low.

186
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If you look at the first line, really,

187
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you can see that all these different
shark species are all quite similar.

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I think this means they're all sharks

189
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and they've come from a common ancestry.

190
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But if you look at nucleotide diversity,

191
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which is more genetics
that are passed on through the parents,

192
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you see that basking sharks,
if you look at the first study,

193
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was order of magnitude less diverse
even than other shark species.

194
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You can see this work
was only done in 2006.

195
00:08:01,496 --> 00:08:05,133
Before 2006, we had no idea of the genetic
variability of basking sharks.

196
00:08:05,157 --> 00:08:08,270
We had no idea: Did they distinguish
into different populations?

197
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Were there subpopulations?

198
00:08:09,593 --> 00:08:11,744
And that's very important
if you want to know

199
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what the population size is,
and the status of the animals.

200
00:08:14,569 --> 00:08:18,180
So, Les Noble in Aberdeen kind of found
this a bit unbelievable, really.

201
00:08:18,204 --> 00:08:24,789
So he did another study
using microsatellites,

202
00:08:24,813 --> 00:08:27,424
which is much more expensive,
much more time-consuming,

203
00:08:27,448 --> 00:08:30,709
and to his surprise,
came up with almost identical results.

204
00:08:30,733 --> 00:08:33,645
So it does seem to be
that basking sharks, for some reason,

205
00:08:33,669 --> 00:08:35,439
have incredibly low diversity.

206
00:08:35,463 --> 00:08:37,957
And it's thought maybe
it was a genetic bottleneck,

207
00:08:37,981 --> 00:08:40,052
thought to have been 12,000 years ago,

208
00:08:40,076 --> 00:08:42,600
and this has caused a very low diversity.

209
00:08:42,624 --> 00:08:44,584
And yet, if you look at the whale shark,

210
00:08:44,608 --> 00:08:47,323
which is the other
plankton-eating large shark,

211
00:08:47,347 --> 00:08:48,818
its diversity is much greater.

212
00:08:48,842 --> 00:08:51,277
So it doesn't really make sense at all.

213
00:08:51,301 --> 00:08:53,735
They found that there was
no genetic differentiation

214
00:08:53,759 --> 00:08:56,220
between any of the world's oceans
of basking sharks:

215
00:08:56,244 --> 00:08:58,482
even though they're found
throughout the world,

216
00:08:58,506 --> 00:09:00,664
you couldn't tell
the difference, genetically,

217
00:09:00,688 --> 00:09:04,121
from one from the Pacific, Atlantic,
New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa.

218
00:09:04,145 --> 00:09:05,724
They all basically seem the same.

219
00:09:05,748 --> 00:09:08,653
Which, again, is kind of surprising;
you wouldn't expect that.

220
00:09:08,677 --> 00:09:11,024
I don't understand or pretend
to understand this;

221
00:09:11,048 --> 00:09:12,958
I suspect most geneticists don't either,

222
00:09:12,982 --> 00:09:14,376
but they produce the numbers.

223
00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:16,727
So you can actually estimate
the population size

224
00:09:16,751 --> 00:09:18,921
based on the diversity of the genetics.

225
00:09:18,945 --> 00:09:22,497
And Rus Hoelzel came up with
an effective population size:

226
00:09:22,521 --> 00:09:24,354
8,200 animals.

227
00:09:24,378 --> 00:09:27,282
That's it -- 8,000 animals in the world.

228
00:09:27,306 --> 00:09:29,528
You're thinking,
"That's ridiculous. No way."

229
00:09:29,552 --> 00:09:31,376
So Les did a finer study,

230
00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:34,178
and he found out it came out about 9,000.

231
00:09:34,202 --> 00:09:37,083
Using different microsatellites
gave the different results,

232
00:09:37,107 --> 00:09:41,748
but the mean of all these
studies is about 5,000,

233
00:09:41,772 --> 00:09:43,376
which I personally don't believe.

234
00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:45,030
But then, I am a skeptic.

235
00:09:45,054 --> 00:09:47,483
But even if you toss a few numbers around,

236
00:09:47,507 --> 00:09:50,924
you're probably talking an effective
population of about 20,000 animals.

237
00:09:50,948 --> 00:09:55,463
Do you remember how many they killed
off Achill in the 70s and the 50s?

238
00:09:55,487 --> 00:09:57,183
So what it tells us, actually,

239
00:09:57,207 --> 00:10:00,459
is that there's actually a risk
of extinction of this species

240
00:10:00,483 --> 00:10:02,376
because its population is so small.

241
00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:03,931
In fact, of those 20,000,

242
00:10:03,955 --> 00:10:06,123
8,000 were thought to be females.

243
00:10:06,147 --> 00:10:08,834
There's only 8,000 basking shark
females in the world?

244
00:10:08,858 --> 00:10:10,704
I don't know. I don't believe it.

245
00:10:11,125 --> 00:10:14,768
The problem with this
is they were constrained with samples.

246
00:10:14,792 --> 00:10:16,375
They didn't get enough samples

247
00:10:16,399 --> 00:10:20,119
to really explore the genetics
in enough detail.

248
00:10:20,714 --> 00:10:25,201
So, where do you get samples from
for your genetic analysis?

249
00:10:25,670 --> 00:10:28,458
Well, one obvious source is dead sharks --

250
00:10:28,482 --> 00:10:29,734
dead sharks, washed up.

251
00:10:29,758 --> 00:10:33,014
We might get two or three dead sharks
washed up in Ireland a year,

252
00:10:33,038 --> 00:10:34,560
if we're kind of lucky.

253
00:10:34,584 --> 00:10:36,934
Another source would be
fisheries' bycatch.

254
00:10:36,958 --> 00:10:39,947
We were getting quite a few caught
in surface drift nets.

255
00:10:39,971 --> 00:10:42,757
That's banned now, and that'll be
good news for the sharks.

256
00:10:42,781 --> 00:10:44,698
And some are caught in nets, in trawls.

257
00:10:44,722 --> 00:10:48,340
This is a shark that was actually
landed in Howth just before Christmas --

258
00:10:48,364 --> 00:10:51,391
illegally, because you're not allowed
to do that under EU law --

259
00:10:51,415 --> 00:10:54,253
and was actually sold
for eight euros a kilo as shark steak.

260
00:10:54,277 --> 00:10:56,101
They even put a recipe up on the wall,

261
00:10:56,125 --> 00:10:57,903
until they were told it was illegal.

262
00:10:57,927 --> 00:10:59,806
They actually did get a fine for that.

263
00:10:59,830 --> 00:11:02,156
So if you look at
all those studies I showed you,

264
00:11:02,180 --> 00:11:04,836
the total number of samples worldwide

265
00:11:04,860 --> 00:11:06,384
is 86, at present.

266
00:11:06,858 --> 00:11:08,950
So it's very important work,

267
00:11:08,974 --> 00:11:11,069
and they can ask
some really good questions,

268
00:11:11,093 --> 00:11:15,376
and tell us about population size
and subpopulations and structure,

269
00:11:15,400 --> 00:11:18,053
but they're constrained
by lack of samples.

270
00:11:18,744 --> 00:11:20,593
When we were out tagging our sharks --

271
00:11:20,617 --> 00:11:23,927
this is how we tagged them on the front
of a RIB, get in there fast --

272
00:11:23,951 --> 00:11:26,117
occasionally, the sharks do react.

273
00:11:26,141 --> 00:11:28,892
On one occasion, when we were
up in Malin Head in Donegal,

274
00:11:28,916 --> 00:11:31,414
the shark smacked the side
of the boat with his tail,

275
00:11:31,438 --> 00:11:34,582
more, I think, in startle to the fact
that a boat came near it,

276
00:11:34,606 --> 00:11:36,592
rather than the tag going in.

277
00:11:36,957 --> 00:11:39,353
And that was fine. We got wet. No problem.

278
00:11:39,876 --> 00:11:43,866
And then when myself and Emmett
got back to Malin Head, to the pier,

279
00:11:43,890 --> 00:11:46,332
I noticed some black slime
on the front of the boat.

280
00:11:46,356 --> 00:11:49,085
I used to spend a lot of time
on commercial fishing boats,

281
00:11:49,109 --> 00:11:50,588
and I remember fishermen saying

282
00:11:50,612 --> 00:11:53,435
they can tell when a basking shark
has been caught in a net,

283
00:11:53,459 --> 00:11:55,339
because it leaves a black slime behind.

284
00:11:55,363 --> 00:11:57,194
So that must have come from the shark.

285
00:11:57,218 --> 00:12:00,612
Now, we had an interest
in getting tissue samples for genetics

286
00:12:00,636 --> 00:12:02,622
because we knew they were very valuable.

287
00:12:02,646 --> 00:12:04,303
We would use conventional methods;

288
00:12:04,327 --> 00:12:06,644
I have a crossbow --
you see it in my hand there,

289
00:12:06,668 --> 00:12:10,154
which we use to sample whales
and dolphins for genetic studies as well.

290
00:12:10,178 --> 00:12:12,153
So I tried that, I tried many techniques.

291
00:12:12,177 --> 00:12:14,106
All it was doing was breaking my arrows,

292
00:12:14,130 --> 00:12:16,155
because the shark's skin
is just so strong.

293
00:12:16,179 --> 00:12:18,955
There was no way we were going
to get a sample from that.

294
00:12:18,979 --> 00:12:20,556
That wasn't going to work.

295
00:12:20,580 --> 00:12:23,137
So when I saw the black slime
on the bow of the boat,

296
00:12:23,161 --> 00:12:26,138
I thought, "If you take
what you're given in this world ..."

297
00:12:26,162 --> 00:12:27,326
So I scraped it off.

298
00:12:27,350 --> 00:12:31,745
I had a little tube with alcohol in it
to send to the geneticists.

299
00:12:31,769 --> 00:12:34,824
So I scraped the slime off
and sent it to Aberdeen,

300
00:12:34,848 --> 00:12:36,364
and said, "You might try that."

301
00:12:36,388 --> 00:12:37,998
And they sat on it for months.

302
00:12:38,022 --> 00:12:40,834
It was only because we had
a conference on the Isle of Man.

303
00:12:40,858 --> 00:12:42,397
But I kept emailing Les, saying,

304
00:12:42,421 --> 00:12:44,516
"Have you had a chance
to look at my slime?"

305
00:12:44,540 --> 00:12:46,383
And he was like, "Yeah, yeah. Later."

306
00:12:46,407 --> 00:12:49,230
He thought he'd better do it
because I never met him before;

307
00:12:49,254 --> 00:12:52,009
he might lose face if he hadn't done
the thing I sent him.

308
00:12:52,033 --> 00:12:54,884
And he was amazed that they actually
got DNA from the slime.

309
00:12:54,908 --> 00:12:56,743
They amplified it and they tested it,

310
00:12:56,767 --> 00:12:59,565
and they found, yes,
this was actually basking shark DNA,

311
00:12:59,589 --> 00:13:01,526
which was got from the slime.

312
00:13:02,568 --> 00:13:03,733
So he was very excited.

313
00:13:03,757 --> 00:13:07,042
It became known as "Simon's shark slime."

314
00:13:07,066 --> 00:13:09,957
And I thought, "Hey, you know,
I can build on this."

315
00:13:09,981 --> 00:13:13,743
So we thought, OK, we're going to try
to get out and get some slime.

316
00:13:13,767 --> 00:13:17,401
So having spent three-and-a-half
thousand on satellite tags ...

317
00:13:19,987 --> 00:13:23,424
I then thought I'd invest 7.95 --
the price is still on it --

318
00:13:23,448 --> 00:13:25,638
in my local hardware store in Kilrush

319
00:13:25,662 --> 00:13:27,432
for a mop handle,

320
00:13:27,456 --> 00:13:30,376
and even less money on some oven cleaners.

321
00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:33,871
And I wrapped the oven cleaner
around the edge of the mop handle

322
00:13:33,895 --> 00:13:35,376
and ...

323
00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:36,958
(Laughter)

324
00:13:36,982 --> 00:13:40,513
I was desperate to have an opportunity
to get some sharks.

325
00:13:40,537 --> 00:13:44,930
And this was into August now,
and normally sharks peak in June, July,

326
00:13:44,954 --> 00:13:47,943
and you rarely see them,
or rarely can be in the right place

327
00:13:47,967 --> 00:13:49,518
to find sharks into August.

328
00:13:49,542 --> 00:13:51,972
We were desperate,
so we rushed out to the Blaskets

329
00:13:51,996 --> 00:13:54,066
as soon as we heard
there were sharks there,

330
00:13:54,090 --> 00:13:55,617
and managed to find some sharks.

331
00:13:55,641 --> 00:13:59,105
So by just rubbing
the mop handle down the shark

332
00:13:59,129 --> 00:14:00,697
as it swam under the boat --

333
00:14:00,721 --> 00:14:03,231
you see a shark
running under the boat here --

334
00:14:03,255 --> 00:14:04,597
we managed to collect slime.

335
00:14:04,621 --> 00:14:05,869
And here it is.

336
00:14:05,893 --> 00:14:09,622
Look at that lovely black shark slime.

337
00:14:09,646 --> 00:14:14,239
And in about half an hour,
we got five samples.

338
00:14:14,263 --> 00:14:16,016
Five individual sharks were sampled

339
00:14:16,040 --> 00:14:18,872
using Simon's Shark Slime Sampling System.

340
00:14:18,896 --> 00:14:20,711
(Laughter)

341
00:14:20,735 --> 00:14:26,066
(Applause)

342
00:14:26,090 --> 00:14:29,344
I've been working on whales and dolphins
in Ireland for 20 years now,

343
00:14:29,368 --> 00:14:30,907
and they're a bit more dramatic.

344
00:14:30,931 --> 00:14:32,967
You probably saw
the humpback whale footage

345
00:14:32,991 --> 00:14:35,101
we got a month or two ago
off County Wexford.

346
00:14:35,125 --> 00:14:37,375
And you always think
you might have some legacy

347
00:14:37,399 --> 00:14:38,893
you can leave the world behind,

348
00:14:38,917 --> 00:14:41,852
and I was thinking of humpback
whales breaching and dolphins.

349
00:14:41,876 --> 00:14:44,261
But hey -- sometimes
these things are sent to you

350
00:14:44,285 --> 00:14:46,477
and you just have to take them
when they come.

351
00:14:46,501 --> 00:14:48,598
So this is possibly
going to be my legacy --

352
00:14:48,622 --> 00:14:50,264
Simon's Shark Slime.

353
00:14:50,288 --> 00:14:51,922
We got more money this year

354
00:14:51,946 --> 00:14:54,567
to carry on collecting
more and more samples.

355
00:14:54,591 --> 00:14:57,531
One thing that is very useful
is that we use a pole camera --

356
00:14:57,555 --> 00:14:59,968
this is my colleague, Joanne,
with a pole camera --

357
00:14:59,992 --> 00:15:01,931
where you can look underneath the shark.

358
00:15:01,955 --> 00:15:04,724
What you're trying to look at is,
the males have claspers,

359
00:15:04,748 --> 00:15:07,368
which kind of dangle out
behind the back of the shark.

360
00:15:07,392 --> 00:15:09,989
So you can quite easily tell
the gender of the shark.

361
00:15:10,013 --> 00:15:13,760
If we can tell the gender of the shark
before we sample it,

362
00:15:13,784 --> 00:15:16,891
we can tell the geneticist
this was taken from a male or a female.

363
00:15:16,915 --> 00:15:19,418
Because in the moment,
they have no way, genetically,

364
00:15:19,442 --> 00:15:21,980
of telling the difference
between a male and a female,

365
00:15:22,004 --> 00:15:23,163
which I find staggering,

366
00:15:23,187 --> 00:15:25,772
because they don't know
what primers to look for.

367
00:15:25,796 --> 00:15:28,110
Being able to tell the gender of a shark

368
00:15:28,134 --> 00:15:32,376
is very important
for things like policing the trade

369
00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:36,796
in basking shark and other species
through the sightings,

370
00:15:36,820 --> 00:15:39,035
because it is illegal
to trade in these sharks.

371
00:15:39,059 --> 00:15:41,097
And they are caught and are on the market.

372
00:15:41,121 --> 00:15:42,492
So as a field biologist,

373
00:15:42,516 --> 00:15:44,962
you just want to get encounters
with these animals,

374
00:15:44,986 --> 00:15:46,376
and learn as much as you can.

375
00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:49,810
They're often quite brief,
they're often very seasonally constrained.

376
00:15:49,834 --> 00:15:52,739
You just want to learn as much
as you can as soon as you can.

377
00:15:52,763 --> 00:15:54,530
But isn't it fantastic

378
00:15:54,554 --> 00:15:58,053
that you can then offer
these samples and opportunities

379
00:15:58,077 --> 00:16:00,897
to other disciplines,
such as the geneticists,

380
00:16:00,921 --> 00:16:03,376
who can gain so much more from that.

381
00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,106
So as I said, these things
are sent to you in strange ways.

382
00:16:07,130 --> 00:16:08,376
Grab them while you can.

383
00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:10,342
I'll take that as my scientific legacy.

384
00:16:10,366 --> 00:16:13,453
Hopefully, I might get something
a bit more dramatic and romantic

385
00:16:13,477 --> 00:16:14,726
before I die.

386
00:16:14,750 --> 00:16:17,155
But for the time being,
thank you for that.

387
00:16:17,179 --> 00:16:18,665
And keep an eye out for sharks.

388
00:16:18,689 --> 00:16:22,435
If you're more interested, we have
a basking shark website now set up.

389
00:16:22,459 --> 00:16:24,429
So thank you and thank you for listening.

390
00:16:24,453 --> 00:16:26,400
(Applause)