WEBVTT

00:00:00.253 --> 00:00:02.430
Basking sharks are awesome creatures.

00:00:02.454 --> 00:00:03.777
They are just magnificent.

00:00:03.801 --> 00:00:06.976
They grow 10 meters long; some say bigger.

00:00:07.373 --> 00:00:09.388
They might weigh up to two tons.

00:00:09.412 --> 00:00:10.976
Some say up to five tons.

00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.253
They're the second-largest
fish in the world.

00:00:13.277 --> 00:00:15.889
They're also harmless
plankton-feeding animals.

00:00:15.913 --> 00:00:21.349
And they are thought to be able to filter
a cubic kilometer of water every hour

00:00:21.373 --> 00:00:26.110
and can feed on 30 kilos
of zoo plankton a day to survive.

00:00:26.134 --> 00:00:27.499
They're fantastic creatures.

00:00:27.523 --> 00:00:28.880
We're very lucky in Ireland,

00:00:28.904 --> 00:00:32.484
we have plenty of basking sharks
and plenty of opportunities to study them.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:32.508 --> 00:00:34.806
They were very important
to coastal communities,

00:00:34.830 --> 00:00:36.266
going back hundreds of years,

00:00:36.290 --> 00:00:39.042
especially around
the Claddaghduff, Connemara region

00:00:39.066 --> 00:00:42.664
where subsistence farmers used to sail
out on their hookers and open boats,

00:00:42.688 --> 00:00:45.415
sometimes way offshore
to a place called the Sunfish Bank,

00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:47.216
about 30 miles west of Achill Island,

00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:48.533
to kill the basking sharks.

00:00:48.557 --> 00:00:50.729
This is a woodcut from about the 1800s.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:50.753 --> 00:00:53.504
They were very important,
for the oil out of their liver.

00:00:53.528 --> 00:00:55.990
A third of the basking
shark's size is their liver,

00:00:56.014 --> 00:00:57.797
and it's full of oil, gallons of oil.

00:00:57.821 --> 00:00:59.910
That oil was used especially for lighting,

00:00:59.934 --> 00:01:02.107
but also for dressing wounds
and other things.

00:01:02.131 --> 00:01:04.017
In fact, the streetlights in 1742,

00:01:04.041 --> 00:01:05.565
of Galway, Dublin and Waterford,

00:01:05.589 --> 00:01:06.976
were lit with sunfish oil.

00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:09.390
"Sunfish" is one of the words
for basking sharks.

00:01:09.414 --> 00:01:11.430
So they were incredibly important animals.

00:01:11.454 --> 00:01:14.823
They've been around a long time,
very important to coastal communities.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:14.847 --> 00:01:18.141
Probably the best-documented
basking shark fishery in the world

00:01:18.165 --> 00:01:19.677
is that from Achill Island.

00:01:19.701 --> 00:01:22.076
This is Keem Bay up in Achill Island.

00:01:22.100 --> 00:01:24.253
Sharks used to come into the bay,

00:01:24.277 --> 00:01:27.278
and the fishermen
would tie a net off the headland,

00:01:27.302 --> 00:01:28.934
string it out, an old Manila net,

00:01:28.958 --> 00:01:31.307
and as the shark came round,
it would hit the net,

00:01:31.331 --> 00:01:32.727
the net would collapse on it.

00:01:32.751 --> 00:01:34.446
It would often drown and suffocate.

00:01:34.470 --> 00:01:37.325
Or at times, they would row out
in their small curraghs

00:01:37.349 --> 00:01:39.883
and kill it with a lance
through the back of the neck.

00:01:39.907 --> 00:01:42.651
And then they'd tow the sharks
back to Purteen Harbour,

00:01:42.675 --> 00:01:44.399
boil them up, use the oil.

00:01:44.423 --> 00:01:48.347
They also used the flesh
as well, for fertilizer

00:01:48.371 --> 00:01:51.267
and also would fin the sharks.

00:01:51.291 --> 00:01:54.132
This is probably the biggest threat
to sharks worldwide --

00:01:54.156 --> 00:01:56.195
the finning of sharks.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:56.219 --> 00:01:58.708
We're often frightened
of sharks, thanks to "Jaws."

00:01:58.732 --> 00:02:01.786
Maybe five or six people
get killed by sharks every year.

00:02:01.810 --> 00:02:04.985
There was someone recently, wasn't there?
Just a couple weeks ago.

00:02:05.009 --> 00:02:06.976
We kill about 100 million sharks a year.

00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:08.976
So I don't know what the balance is,

00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:12.994
but I think sharks have more right
to be fearful of us than we have of them.

00:02:13.018 --> 00:02:14.647
It was a well-documented fishery.

00:02:14.671 --> 00:02:16.874
As you can see here,
it peaked in the '50s,

00:02:16.898 --> 00:02:18.995
where they were killing
1,500 sharks a year.

00:02:19.019 --> 00:02:21.953
And it declined very fast --
a classic boom-and-bust fishery,

00:02:21.977 --> 00:02:24.649
which suggests that a stock
has been depleted

00:02:24.673 --> 00:02:26.611
or there's low reproductive rates.

00:02:26.635 --> 00:02:29.105
They killed about 12,000 sharks
within this period,

00:02:29.129 --> 00:02:32.059
literally just by stringing a Manila rope

00:02:32.083 --> 00:02:34.661
off the tip of Keem Bay
up in Achill Island.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:35.177 --> 00:02:37.590
Sharks were still killed
up into the mid-80s,

00:02:37.614 --> 00:02:40.627
especially out of places
like Dunmore East in County Waterford.

00:02:40.651 --> 00:02:43.480
About two and a half, 3,000
sharks were killed up till '85,

00:02:43.504 --> 00:02:45.198
mainly by Norwegian vessels.

00:02:45.222 --> 00:02:46.376
You can't really see,

00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:48.939
but these are Norwegian
basking shark hunting vessels.

00:02:48.963 --> 00:02:52.518
The black line in the crow's nest
signifies this is a shark vessel,

00:02:52.542 --> 00:02:54.614
rather than a whaling vessel.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:54.638 --> 00:02:57.483
The importance of basking sharks
to the coast communities

00:02:57.507 --> 00:02:59.185
is recognized through the language.

00:02:59.209 --> 00:03:01.494
I don't pretend
to [know many Irish words],

00:03:01.518 --> 00:03:05.076
but in Kerry they were often
known as "ainmhide Na seolta,"

00:03:05.100 --> 00:03:06.675
"the monster with the sails."

00:03:07.101 --> 00:03:10.105
Another title would be "liop an dá lapa,"

00:03:10.129 --> 00:03:12.039
"the unwieldy beast with two fins."

00:03:12.820 --> 00:03:15.835
"Liabhán mór," suggesting a big animal.

00:03:15.859 --> 00:03:19.362
Or my favorite, "liabhán chor gréine,"
"the great fish of the sun."

00:03:19.386 --> 00:03:20.922
That's a lovely, evocative name.

00:03:20.946 --> 00:03:24.476
On Tory Island -- a strange place
anyway -- they were known as "muldoons."

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:24.500 --> 00:03:25.521
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:25.545 --> 00:03:26.740
No one seems to know why.

00:03:26.764 --> 00:03:29.099
Hope there's no one
from Tory here. Lovely place.

00:03:29.123 --> 00:03:33.146
But more commonly all around the island,
they were known as the sunfish.

00:03:33.170 --> 00:03:35.879
And this represents their habit
of basking on the surface

00:03:35.903 --> 00:03:37.061
when the sun is out.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:37.085 --> 00:03:39.648
There's great concern
that basking sharks are depleted

00:03:39.672 --> 00:03:41.185
all throughout the world.

00:03:41.209 --> 00:03:43.202
Some say it's not population decline,

00:03:43.226 --> 00:03:45.715
it might be a change
in the distribution of plankton.

00:03:45.739 --> 00:03:46.896
It's been suggested

00:03:46.920 --> 00:03:50.144
that these sharks would make
fantastic indicators of climate change,

00:03:50.168 --> 00:03:52.579
as they're basically
continuous plankton recorders,

00:03:52.603 --> 00:03:54.423
swimming around with their mouth open.

00:03:54.447 --> 00:03:56.732
They're now listed
as vulnerable under the IUCN.

00:03:56.756 --> 00:03:59.716
There's movements in Europe
to try and stop catching them.

00:03:59.740 --> 00:04:02.196
There's now a ban on catching
and even landing them,

00:04:02.220 --> 00:04:04.285
even landing ones caught accidentally.

00:04:04.309 --> 00:04:05.897
They're not protected in Ireland;

00:04:05.921 --> 00:04:08.906
in fact, they have no legislative
status in Ireland whatsoever,

00:04:08.930 --> 00:04:10.860
despite our importance for the species

00:04:10.884 --> 00:04:14.438
and also the historical context
within which basking sharks reside.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:14.462 --> 00:04:15.976
We know very little about them.

00:04:16.700 --> 00:04:18.101
And most of what we do know

00:04:18.125 --> 00:04:20.911
is based on their habit
of coming to the surface --

00:04:20.935 --> 00:04:24.337
we try and guess what they're doing
from their behavior on the surface.

00:04:24.361 --> 00:04:27.429
I only found out last year,
at a conference on the Isle of Man,

00:04:27.453 --> 00:04:30.167
just how unusual it is to live somewhere

00:04:30.191 --> 00:04:33.738
where basking sharks regularly,
frequently and predictably

00:04:33.762 --> 00:04:36.306
come to the surface to "bask."

00:04:36.726 --> 00:04:38.821
It's a fantastic opportunity
for a scientist

00:04:38.845 --> 00:04:40.646
to see and experience basking sharks.

00:04:40.670 --> 00:04:42.019
They are awesome creatures.

00:04:42.043 --> 00:04:45.499
It gives us a fantastic opportunity
to study them, to get access to them.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:45.523 --> 00:04:48.921
What we've been doing for a couple
years -- last year was a big year --

00:04:48.945 --> 00:04:50.799
is we started tagging sharks,

00:04:50.823 --> 00:04:53.869
so we could try to get some idea
of sight fidelity and movement

00:04:53.893 --> 00:04:55.051
and things like that.

00:04:55.075 --> 00:04:58.376
So we concentrated mainly
in North Donegal and West Kerry

00:04:58.400 --> 00:05:01.111
as the two areas
where I was mainly active.

00:05:01.135 --> 00:05:05.292
And we tagged them
very simply, not very high-tech,

00:05:05.316 --> 00:05:06.492
with a big, long pole.

00:05:06.516 --> 00:05:09.142
This is a beachcaster rod
with a tag on the end.

00:05:09.166 --> 00:05:11.837
You go up in your boat and tag the shark.

00:05:12.599 --> 00:05:14.147
And we were very effective.

00:05:14.171 --> 00:05:17.009
We tagged 105 sharks last summer.

00:05:17.033 --> 00:05:20.684
We got 50 in three days
off Inishowen Peninsula.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:20.708 --> 00:05:22.265
Half the challenge to get access

00:05:22.289 --> 00:05:24.503
is to be in the right place
at the right time.

00:05:24.527 --> 00:05:27.996
But it's a very simple, easy technique;
I'll show you what it looks like.

00:05:28.020 --> 00:05:30.871
We use a pole camera on the boat
to actually film the shark.

00:05:30.895 --> 00:05:33.432
One, it's to try and work out
the gender of the shark.

00:05:33.456 --> 00:05:37.119
We also deployed some satellite tags,
so we did use high-tech stuff as well.

00:05:37.143 --> 00:05:38.452
These are archival tags.

00:05:38.476 --> 00:05:40.415
What they do is store the data.

00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:43.325
A satellite tag only works
when the air is clear of the water

00:05:43.349 --> 00:05:45.246
and can send a signal to the satellite.

00:05:45.270 --> 00:05:47.725
And sharks and fish
are underwater most of the time,

00:05:47.749 --> 00:05:50.678
so this tag actually works out
the locations of shark,

00:05:50.702 --> 00:05:54.064
depending on the timing
and the setting of the sun,

00:05:54.088 --> 00:05:56.039
plus water temperature and depth.

00:05:56.063 --> 00:05:58.231
And you have to kind of
reconstruct the path.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:58.255 --> 00:05:59.428
What happens is,

00:05:59.452 --> 00:06:02.542
you set the tag to detach
from the shark after a fixed period --

00:06:02.566 --> 00:06:03.964
in this case, eight months --

00:06:03.988 --> 00:06:06.096
and literally to the day,
the tag popped off,

00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:07.999
drifted up, said hello to the satellite

00:06:08.023 --> 00:06:10.892
and sent, not all the data,
but enough data for us to use.

00:06:10.916 --> 00:06:14.160
This is the only way to really work out
their behavior and movements

00:06:14.184 --> 00:06:15.375
when they're underwater.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:16.277 --> 00:06:18.376
And here's a couple
of maps that we've done.

00:06:18.400 --> 00:06:21.556
In that one, you can see
that we tagged both off Kerry.

00:06:21.580 --> 00:06:25.065
Basically, it spent all its time,
the last eight months, in Irish waters.

00:06:25.089 --> 00:06:27.098
On Christmas, it was out
on the shelf edge.

00:06:27.122 --> 00:06:29.066
Here's one we haven't ground-truthed yet

00:06:29.090 --> 00:06:31.215
with sea-surface temperature
and water depth,

00:06:31.239 --> 00:06:33.592
but again, the second shark
spent most of its time

00:06:33.616 --> 00:06:34.965
in and around the Irish Sea.

00:06:34.989 --> 00:06:38.167
Colleagues from the Isle of Man
last year actually tagged one shark

00:06:38.191 --> 00:06:41.375
that went from the Isle of Man
to Nova Scotia in about 90 days.

00:06:41.399 --> 00:06:44.722
Nine and a half thousand kilometers --
we never thought that happened.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:44.746 --> 00:06:48.670
Another colleague in the States
tagged about 20 sharks off Massachusetts.

00:06:48.694 --> 00:06:50.134
His tags didn't really work.

00:06:50.158 --> 00:06:51.991
All he knows is where he tagged them,

00:06:52.015 --> 00:06:53.483
and where they popped off.

00:06:53.507 --> 00:06:55.825
His tags popped off in the Caribbean,

00:06:55.849 --> 00:06:57.376
and even in Brazil.

00:06:57.400 --> 00:06:59.715
We thought basking sharks
were temperate animals

00:06:59.739 --> 00:07:01.231
and lived in our latitudes,

00:07:01.255 --> 00:07:04.447
but in actual fact, they're obviously
crossing the equator as well.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:04.471 --> 00:07:06.233
So very simple things like that,

00:07:06.257 --> 00:07:08.305
we're trying to learn
about basking sharks.

00:07:09.088 --> 00:07:13.661
One thing that I think
is a very surprising and strange thing

00:07:13.685 --> 00:07:16.650
is just how low the genetic
diversity of sharks is.

00:07:16.674 --> 00:07:20.135
I'm not a geneticist, so I won't pretend
to understand the genetics.

00:07:20.159 --> 00:07:22.516
And that's why it's great
to have collaboration.

00:07:22.540 --> 00:07:23.852
Whereas I'm a field person,

00:07:23.876 --> 00:07:25.400
I get panic attacks

00:07:25.424 --> 00:07:28.572
if I have to spend too many hours
in a lab with a white coat on.

00:07:28.596 --> 00:07:29.827
Take me away.

00:07:29.851 --> 00:07:32.431
So we can work with geneticists
who understand that.

00:07:32.455 --> 00:07:35.035
So when they looked at
the genetics of basking sharks,

00:07:35.059 --> 00:07:38.068
they found that the diversity
was incredibly low.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:38.092 --> 00:07:39.951
If you look at the first line, really,

00:07:39.975 --> 00:07:43.431
you can see that all these different
shark species are all quite similar.

00:07:43.455 --> 00:07:45.233
I think this means they're all sharks

00:07:45.257 --> 00:07:47.187
and they've come from a common ancestry.

00:07:47.211 --> 00:07:49.281
But if you look at nucleotide diversity,

00:07:49.305 --> 00:07:52.525
which is more genetics
that are passed on through the parents,

00:07:52.549 --> 00:07:55.382
you see that basking sharks,
if you look at the first study,

00:07:55.406 --> 00:07:59.376
was order of magnitude less diverse
even than other shark species.

00:07:59.400 --> 00:08:01.472
You can see this work
was only done in 2006.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:01.496 --> 00:08:05.133
Before 2006, we had no idea of the genetic
variability of basking sharks.

00:08:05.157 --> 00:08:08.270
We had no idea: Did they distinguish
into different populations?

00:08:08.294 --> 00:08:09.569
Were there subpopulations?

00:08:09.593 --> 00:08:11.744
And that's very important
if you want to know

00:08:11.768 --> 00:08:14.545
what the population size is,
and the status of the animals.

00:08:14.569 --> 00:08:18.180
So, Les Noble in Aberdeen kind of found
this a bit unbelievable, really.

00:08:18.204 --> 00:08:24.789
So he did another study
using microsatellites,

00:08:24.813 --> 00:08:27.424
which is much more expensive,
much more time-consuming,

00:08:27.448 --> 00:08:30.709
and to his surprise,
came up with almost identical results.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:30.733 --> 00:08:33.645
So it does seem to be
that basking sharks, for some reason,

00:08:33.669 --> 00:08:35.439
have incredibly low diversity.

00:08:35.463 --> 00:08:37.957
And it's thought maybe
it was a genetic bottleneck,

00:08:37.981 --> 00:08:40.052
thought to have been 12,000 years ago,

00:08:40.076 --> 00:08:42.600
and this has caused a very low diversity.

00:08:42.624 --> 00:08:44.584
And yet, if you look at the whale shark,

00:08:44.608 --> 00:08:47.323
which is the other
plankton-eating large shark,

00:08:47.347 --> 00:08:48.818
its diversity is much greater.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:48.842 --> 00:08:51.277
So it doesn't really make sense at all.

00:08:51.301 --> 00:08:53.735
They found that there was
no genetic differentiation

00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:56.220
between any of the world's oceans
of basking sharks:

00:08:56.244 --> 00:08:58.482
even though they're found
throughout the world,

00:08:58.506 --> 00:09:00.664
you couldn't tell
the difference, genetically,

00:09:00.688 --> 00:09:04.121
from one from the Pacific, Atlantic,
New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa.

00:09:04.145 --> 00:09:05.724
They all basically seem the same.

00:09:05.748 --> 00:09:08.653
Which, again, is kind of surprising;
you wouldn't expect that.

00:09:08.677 --> 00:09:11.024
I don't understand or pretend
to understand this;

00:09:11.048 --> 00:09:12.958
I suspect most geneticists don't either,

00:09:12.982 --> 00:09:14.376
but they produce the numbers.

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:14.400 --> 00:09:16.727
So you can actually estimate
the population size

00:09:16.751 --> 00:09:18.921
based on the diversity of the genetics.

00:09:18.945 --> 00:09:22.497
And Rus Hoelzel came up with
an effective population size:

00:09:22.521 --> 00:09:24.354
8,200 animals.

00:09:24.378 --> 00:09:27.282
That's it -- 8,000 animals in the world.

00:09:27.306 --> 00:09:29.528
You're thinking,
"That's ridiculous. No way."

00:09:29.552 --> 00:09:31.376
So Les did a finer study,

00:09:31.400 --> 00:09:34.178
and he found out it came out about 9,000.

00:09:34.202 --> 00:09:37.083
Using different microsatellites
gave the different results,

00:09:37.107 --> 00:09:41.748
but the mean of all these
studies is about 5,000,

00:09:41.772 --> 00:09:43.376
which I personally don't believe.

00:09:43.400 --> 00:09:45.030
But then, I am a skeptic.

00:09:45.054 --> 00:09:47.483
But even if you toss a few numbers around,

00:09:47.507 --> 00:09:50.924
you're probably talking an effective
population of about 20,000 animals.

00:09:50.948 --> 00:09:55.463
Do you remember how many they killed
off Achill in the 70s and the 50s?

00:09:55.487 --> 00:09:57.183
So what it tells us, actually,

00:09:57.207 --> 00:10:00.459
is that there's actually a risk
of extinction of this species

00:10:00.483 --> 00:10:02.376
because its population is so small.

00:10:02.400 --> 00:10:03.931
In fact, of those 20,000,

00:10:03.955 --> 00:10:06.123
8,000 were thought to be females.

00:10:06.147 --> 00:10:08.834
There's only 8,000 basking shark
females in the world?

00:10:08.858 --> 00:10:10.704
I don't know. I don't believe it.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:11.125 --> 00:10:14.768
The problem with this
is they were constrained with samples.

00:10:14.792 --> 00:10:16.375
They didn't get enough samples

00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:20.119
to really explore the genetics
in enough detail.

00:10:20.714 --> 00:10:25.201
So, where do you get samples from
for your genetic analysis?

00:10:25.670 --> 00:10:28.458
Well, one obvious source is dead sharks --

00:10:28.482 --> 00:10:29.734
dead sharks, washed up.

00:10:29.758 --> 00:10:33.014
We might get two or three dead sharks
washed up in Ireland a year,

00:10:33.038 --> 00:10:34.560
if we're kind of lucky.

00:10:34.584 --> 00:10:36.934
Another source would be
fisheries' bycatch.

00:10:36.958 --> 00:10:39.947
We were getting quite a few caught
in surface drift nets.

00:10:39.971 --> 00:10:42.757
That's banned now, and that'll be
good news for the sharks.

00:10:42.781 --> 00:10:44.698
And some are caught in nets, in trawls.

00:10:44.722 --> 00:10:48.340
This is a shark that was actually
landed in Howth just before Christmas --

00:10:48.364 --> 00:10:51.391
illegally, because you're not allowed
to do that under EU law --

00:10:51.415 --> 00:10:54.253
and was actually sold
for eight euros a kilo as shark steak.

00:10:54.277 --> 00:10:56.101
They even put a recipe up on the wall,

00:10:56.125 --> 00:10:57.903
until they were told it was illegal.

00:10:57.927 --> 00:10:59.806
They actually did get a fine for that.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:59.830 --> 00:11:02.156
So if you look at
all those studies I showed you,

00:11:02.180 --> 00:11:04.836
the total number of samples worldwide

00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:06.384
is 86, at present.

00:11:06.858 --> 00:11:08.950
So it's very important work,

00:11:08.974 --> 00:11:11.069
and they can ask
some really good questions,

00:11:11.093 --> 00:11:15.376
and tell us about population size
and subpopulations and structure,

00:11:15.400 --> 00:11:18.053
but they're constrained
by lack of samples.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:18.744 --> 00:11:20.593
When we were out tagging our sharks --

00:11:20.617 --> 00:11:23.927
this is how we tagged them on the front
of a RIB, get in there fast --

00:11:23.951 --> 00:11:26.117
occasionally, the sharks do react.

00:11:26.141 --> 00:11:28.892
On one occasion, when we were
up in Malin Head in Donegal,

00:11:28.916 --> 00:11:31.414
the shark smacked the side
of the boat with his tail,

00:11:31.438 --> 00:11:34.582
more, I think, in startle to the fact
that a boat came near it,

00:11:34.606 --> 00:11:36.592
rather than the tag going in.

00:11:36.957 --> 00:11:39.353
And that was fine. We got wet. No problem.

00:11:39.876 --> 00:11:43.866
And then when myself and Emmett
got back to Malin Head, to the pier,

00:11:43.890 --> 00:11:46.332
I noticed some black slime
on the front of the boat.

00:11:46.356 --> 00:11:49.085
I used to spend a lot of time
on commercial fishing boats,

00:11:49.109 --> 00:11:50.588
and I remember fishermen saying

00:11:50.612 --> 00:11:53.435
they can tell when a basking shark
has been caught in a net,

00:11:53.459 --> 00:11:55.339
because it leaves a black slime behind.

00:11:55.363 --> 00:11:57.194
So that must have come from the shark.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:57.218 --> 00:12:00.612
Now, we had an interest
in getting tissue samples for genetics

00:12:00.636 --> 00:12:02.622
because we knew they were very valuable.

00:12:02.646 --> 00:12:04.303
We would use conventional methods;

00:12:04.327 --> 00:12:06.644
I have a crossbow --
you see it in my hand there,

00:12:06.668 --> 00:12:10.154
which we use to sample whales
and dolphins for genetic studies as well.

00:12:10.178 --> 00:12:12.153
So I tried that, I tried many techniques.

00:12:12.177 --> 00:12:14.106
All it was doing was breaking my arrows,

00:12:14.130 --> 00:12:16.155
because the shark's skin
is just so strong.

00:12:16.179 --> 00:12:18.955
There was no way we were going
to get a sample from that.

00:12:18.979 --> 00:12:20.556
That wasn't going to work.

NOTE Paragraph

00:12:20.580 --> 00:12:23.137
So when I saw the black slime
on the bow of the boat,

00:12:23.161 --> 00:12:26.138
I thought, "If you take
what you're given in this world ..."

00:12:26.162 --> 00:12:27.326
So I scraped it off.

00:12:27.350 --> 00:12:31.745
I had a little tube with alcohol in it
to send to the geneticists.

00:12:31.769 --> 00:12:34.824
So I scraped the slime off
and sent it to Aberdeen,

00:12:34.848 --> 00:12:36.364
and said, "You might try that."

00:12:36.388 --> 00:12:37.998
And they sat on it for months.

00:12:38.022 --> 00:12:40.834
It was only because we had
a conference on the Isle of Man.

00:12:40.858 --> 00:12:42.397
But I kept emailing Les, saying,

00:12:42.421 --> 00:12:44.516
"Have you had a chance
to look at my slime?"

00:12:44.540 --> 00:12:46.383
And he was like, "Yeah, yeah. Later."

00:12:46.407 --> 00:12:49.230
He thought he'd better do it
because I never met him before;

00:12:49.254 --> 00:12:52.009
he might lose face if he hadn't done
the thing I sent him.

NOTE Paragraph

00:12:52.033 --> 00:12:54.884
And he was amazed that they actually
got DNA from the slime.

00:12:54.908 --> 00:12:56.743
They amplified it and they tested it,

00:12:56.767 --> 00:12:59.565
and they found, yes,
this was actually basking shark DNA,

00:12:59.589 --> 00:13:01.526
which was got from the slime.

00:13:02.568 --> 00:13:03.733
So he was very excited.

00:13:03.757 --> 00:13:07.042
It became known as "Simon's shark slime."

00:13:07.066 --> 00:13:09.957
And I thought, "Hey, you know,
I can build on this."

00:13:09.981 --> 00:13:13.743
So we thought, OK, we're going to try
to get out and get some slime.

00:13:13.767 --> 00:13:17.401
So having spent three-and-a-half
thousand on satellite tags ...

00:13:19.987 --> 00:13:23.424
I then thought I'd invest 7.95 --
the price is still on it --

00:13:23.448 --> 00:13:25.638
in my local hardware store in Kilrush

00:13:25.662 --> 00:13:27.432
for a mop handle,

00:13:27.456 --> 00:13:30.376
and even less money on some oven cleaners.

00:13:30.400 --> 00:13:33.871
And I wrapped the oven cleaner
around the edge of the mop handle

00:13:33.895 --> 00:13:35.376
and ...

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:35.400 --> 00:13:36.958
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:36.982 --> 00:13:40.513
I was desperate to have an opportunity
to get some sharks.

00:13:40.537 --> 00:13:44.930
And this was into August now,
and normally sharks peak in June, July,

00:13:44.954 --> 00:13:47.943
and you rarely see them,
or rarely can be in the right place

00:13:47.967 --> 00:13:49.518
to find sharks into August.

00:13:49.542 --> 00:13:51.972
We were desperate,
so we rushed out to the Blaskets

00:13:51.996 --> 00:13:54.066
as soon as we heard
there were sharks there,

00:13:54.090 --> 00:13:55.617
and managed to find some sharks.

00:13:55.641 --> 00:13:59.105
So by just rubbing
the mop handle down the shark

00:13:59.129 --> 00:14:00.697
as it swam under the boat --

00:14:00.721 --> 00:14:03.231
you see a shark
running under the boat here --

00:14:03.255 --> 00:14:04.597
we managed to collect slime.

00:14:04.621 --> 00:14:05.869
And here it is.

00:14:05.893 --> 00:14:09.622
Look at that lovely black shark slime.

00:14:09.646 --> 00:14:14.239
And in about half an hour,
we got five samples.

00:14:14.263 --> 00:14:16.016
Five individual sharks were sampled

00:14:16.040 --> 00:14:18.872
using Simon's Shark Slime Sampling System.

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:18.896 --> 00:14:20.711
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:20.735 --> 00:14:26.066
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:26.090 --> 00:14:29.344
I've been working on whales and dolphins
in Ireland for 20 years now,

00:14:29.368 --> 00:14:30.907
and they're a bit more dramatic.

00:14:30.931 --> 00:14:32.967
You probably saw
the humpback whale footage

00:14:32.991 --> 00:14:35.101
we got a month or two ago
off County Wexford.

00:14:35.125 --> 00:14:37.375
And you always think
you might have some legacy

00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:38.893
you can leave the world behind,

00:14:38.917 --> 00:14:41.852
and I was thinking of humpback
whales breaching and dolphins.

00:14:41.876 --> 00:14:44.261
But hey -- sometimes
these things are sent to you

00:14:44.285 --> 00:14:46.477
and you just have to take them
when they come.

00:14:46.501 --> 00:14:48.598
So this is possibly
going to be my legacy --

00:14:48.622 --> 00:14:50.264
Simon's Shark Slime.

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:50.288 --> 00:14:51.922
We got more money this year

00:14:51.946 --> 00:14:54.567
to carry on collecting
more and more samples.

00:14:54.591 --> 00:14:57.531
One thing that is very useful
is that we use a pole camera --

00:14:57.555 --> 00:14:59.968
this is my colleague, Joanne,
with a pole camera --

00:14:59.992 --> 00:15:01.931
where you can look underneath the shark.

00:15:01.955 --> 00:15:04.724
What you're trying to look at is,
the males have claspers,

00:15:04.748 --> 00:15:07.368
which kind of dangle out
behind the back of the shark.

00:15:07.392 --> 00:15:09.989
So you can quite easily tell
the gender of the shark.

00:15:10.013 --> 00:15:13.760
If we can tell the gender of the shark
before we sample it,

00:15:13.784 --> 00:15:16.891
we can tell the geneticist
this was taken from a male or a female.

00:15:16.915 --> 00:15:19.418
Because in the moment,
they have no way, genetically,

00:15:19.442 --> 00:15:21.980
of telling the difference
between a male and a female,

00:15:22.004 --> 00:15:23.163
which I find staggering,

00:15:23.187 --> 00:15:25.772
because they don't know
what primers to look for.

00:15:25.796 --> 00:15:28.110
Being able to tell the gender of a shark

00:15:28.134 --> 00:15:32.376
is very important
for things like policing the trade

00:15:32.400 --> 00:15:36.796
in basking shark and other species
through the sightings,

00:15:36.820 --> 00:15:39.035
because it is illegal
to trade in these sharks.

00:15:39.059 --> 00:15:41.097
And they are caught and are on the market.

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:41.121 --> 00:15:42.492
So as a field biologist,

00:15:42.516 --> 00:15:44.962
you just want to get encounters
with these animals,

00:15:44.986 --> 00:15:46.376
and learn as much as you can.

00:15:46.400 --> 00:15:49.810
They're often quite brief,
they're often very seasonally constrained.

00:15:49.834 --> 00:15:52.739
You just want to learn as much
as you can as soon as you can.

00:15:52.763 --> 00:15:54.530
But isn't it fantastic

00:15:54.554 --> 00:15:58.053
that you can then offer
these samples and opportunities

00:15:58.077 --> 00:16:00.897
to other disciplines,
such as the geneticists,

00:16:00.921 --> 00:16:03.376
who can gain so much more from that.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:03.400 --> 00:16:07.106
So as I said, these things
are sent to you in strange ways.

00:16:07.130 --> 00:16:08.376
Grab them while you can.

00:16:08.400 --> 00:16:10.342
I'll take that as my scientific legacy.

00:16:10.366 --> 00:16:13.453
Hopefully, I might get something
a bit more dramatic and romantic

00:16:13.477 --> 00:16:14.726
before I die.

00:16:14.750 --> 00:16:17.155
But for the time being,
thank you for that.

00:16:17.179 --> 00:16:18.665
And keep an eye out for sharks.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:18.689 --> 00:16:22.435
If you're more interested, we have
a basking shark website now set up.

00:16:22.459 --> 00:16:24.429
So thank you and thank you for listening.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:24.453 --> 00:16:26.400
(Applause)