July 24, 2024 • 35 mins
As summer reaches its height, everyone gets nervous about shark attacks. But how afraid should we be of these Jabberjaws? (Spoiler: not very.) From the hilarious way goblin sharks catch their prey, to the strange effect AC/DC has on sharks, to why Will and Mango wish they could trade out their chompers for shark teeth, Part-Time Genius goes all-in on sharks.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, Mango? What's that? Will? So you know my
son who who's just eight years old now, he used
to be completely obsessed with a c DC. You remember this, right, Yeah,
it's hard to forget. Well, apparently there's a big advantage
to having as many A C d C songs saved
in our on our hard drive as we do. And
it's the calm Sharks down. Have you heard this? It
was back in two thousand eleven there was an Australian
(00:21):
tour operator, his name was Matt Wall already started playing
music from underwater speakers and what he realized was that
when he played back in Black or You Shook Me
All Night Long, that the sharks started to become much
less aggressive. How strange. So instead they actually became calm
and inquisitive, and they started nuzzling up to the speaker
and rubbing up against it as they moved past. And
(00:42):
I can't say this is my reaction to hearing a CDC,
but this is what they did. I love that like
sharks dig a C d C and not other bands,
you know, But do you have any idea why they
like it so much? No? And honestly, this guy was
baffled as well. So, as Waller told Time Magazine, quote,
sharks don't of ears, they don't have long hair, and
they don't headbang past the cage doing air guitar. But
(01:05):
they do seem to like the particular vibrations that a
C d C casts off. In fact, it works so
well he stopped using bait to draw the sharks near
his diving cages, and instead he just calms them down
and lures them close with a C d C. It's
like they go into this hard rock trance. So today
show is all about sharks, like why are we so
(01:26):
afraid of shark attacks? Why do they need so many teeth?
And why is punching a shark in the nose a
terrible strategy if you want to avoid being eaten? So
let's dig in. Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part
(01:58):
Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined
by my good friend Manges Ticketer and on the other
side of the soundproof glass wearing yet another one of
his classic shirts. Every week I think there's no way
he can top the last one, and then he somehow does.
And so today's it just says live every week like
it's shark week, and I have to bet I don't
know exactly what that means, but I feel like it's
(02:20):
so deep and it's something that we really need to
learn to live by. These words. I'd actually put it
right up there with the Golden Rule, even though I'm
not acent sure what it means. That's our friend and
producer Tristan McNeil. So after about a year of working here,
I tend to get all my moral advice straight off
of Tristan shirts. I feel like he's basically a walking
Confucius well, and from what we hear from our listeners,
(02:42):
I think a lot of people are doing this too.
I really don't think he knows the impact he has
in this world. But you know, in this case, we're
taking his advice to heart. Because today's show is all
about sharks. That means we'll be taking a deep dive
into the surprising science behind some of their unique characteristics,
as well as a few reasons why it's in our
own best interest to eat the ocean shark friendly. And
(03:02):
I know for a lot of people, the idea of
protecting sharks is going to sound like a terrible idea.
That's part of the reason we wanted to do this episode,
so with summer just around the corner, it felt like
the right time to take a close look at the
animals responsible for so much of the world's beach side dread.
But rather than just perpetuating that old idea that sharks
are ravenous and man eating monsters, even we're actually going
(03:25):
to try to make a case for why sharks should
be feared a little bit less and and actually admired
a whole lot more So, we have these animal plates
at my house, and they've got foxes and owls and
all these other cute creatures and bow ties. They're all
kind of dressed up, and I always end up eating
off the shark plate, Like the kids always go for
the cute animals, and I am tired of eating off
(03:45):
the shark plates. For me. That's what's fueling this episode.
But that's great. But I do think a good place
to start is noting that while they're nearly five unique
species of sharks in the world, only thirty or so
have been definitively linked to unprovoked attacks on humans. So
while this idea of sharks immediately conjures up, I don't know,
like scary ideas of tiger sharks or great whites. In
(04:09):
people's minds, those kind of human hungry peak predators. They're
really the exception for sharks species and not the rule, right,
And you know you've actually said human hungry. But but
even that is not really the case when we talk
about these species as well, because you know, I remember
hearing that even these highly predatory sharks, they don't really
care for the taste of human Yeah, I mean, I
guess we can't really compete with the taste of free
(04:30):
range blue fin tuna. Um Sharks obviously don't typically hunt
humans for food at all. In fact, the majority of
shark bites are considered exploratory bites, which is basically the
sharks just kind of taking a little taste to see
if what it's caught is food or not. And after
that first bite, most sharks decide, you know, they aren't
in the mood for humans and don't go back for seconds.
(04:52):
Of course, none of that means that a single shark
bite can't be devastating on its own. Usually a nibble
is all it takes to lose a limb. Yeah, I mean,
you know, setting aside the unlikely hood of an attack
and the intention of the sharks themselves, it is easy
to understand why so many people are scared of these creatures.
And even a bite that leaves a person's organs and
tacks still puts them at risk of, you know, significantly
(05:12):
bleeding from that. And at the end of the day,
some sharks definitely do attack humans, and when it happens,
the results tend to be pretty horrifying. So you know,
you figure that has to color the way the average
person looks at sharks, even if the friendlier species do
far outnumber the killer ones, right, I mean, as good
a drummer as jabber Jaws was on that cartoon, it
didn't change our impressionive sharks. Yeah, and he was a
(05:35):
very very good drummer, to be honest. But I mean
it's partially because, like, the only reports we hear about
sharks are terrifying, and that makes it tough for people
to think about them as anything but a threat. But
the weird thing is that those feelings have persisted even
as a lot of media outlets are improving how they
handle shark attacks. In the news like now, reporters will
often give a little perspective on the attacks by mentioning
(05:57):
how rare shark attacks are overall, Yeah, and that true.
I feel like the line always here is how you
have a greater chance of being struck dead by lightning
than killed by a shark. I think the odds of
dying from a shark attack or something like, you know,
one in three point seven million, whereas the odds of
dying from lightning are I think one in a hundred
and sixty two thousand, So it is a pretty significant difference. Also,
(06:18):
I think Martha Stewart has claimed to have been struck
by lightning three times, and she's also never been eaten
by a shark, which supports that data. That definitely supports
that if that's true. Does she actually claim to have
been struck by lightning three times? Yeah? I think once
was in her bed once wash dishes. Yeah, she has
a little frame bed apparently. Oh that is some bad luck. Well,
(06:40):
there are plenty of other examples too. I think I think,
you know, you have higher odds of being killed by
beastings or squashed by unstable vending machines, which weirdly is
kind of a fear of mine, or at least it
was when I was a kid, or or even crushed
by falling coconuts. Those are all things that are more
likely to happen to you than being eaten or bitten
by a shark. Well, I mean, no matter how you
(07:01):
want to measure it, the point is that sharks aren't
nearly as big a threat to humans as we give
them credit for. But that's still a tough prospect for
most of us to believe. All right, So I'm curious, like,
why do you think that is? Like, if we know
grizzly shark attacks are really, really rare, then then why
are we so unnerved by them? I Mean, I think
part of it is just the sense of otherness that
people get from sharks, because I mean, if you think
(07:23):
about other animals that prey on humans, you're thinking about
like lions or tigers or wolves, there's still some sense
of familiarity there. Like the characteristics and mannerisms we see
in those predators kind of remind us of cuddly cats
or the dogs we keep his house pets. And it's
similar with other occasional human killers like grizzly bears and gorillas,
Like sometimes their behavior makes it seem like they're almost human,
(07:46):
which causes people to underestimate the threat that they pose
until it's too late, right, And you know, if you
think about those animals, they're also pretty cute and playful
when they're just baby. So I would think that kind
of furthers the the empathy that you're talking about, definitely,
And like, none of this happens with sharks, right, I mean,
baby sharks are called pops, but we don't see them
as cute like puppies. So when when most people look
(08:07):
at sharks, they see something completely unfamiliar to them, and
and humans tend to have a tough time grappling with
the unfamiliar, all right, So it sounds like most of
us probably won't ever really empathize with sharks. But but
I feel like we can at least admire or even
respect them a little bit more than we currently do.
So keeping that in mind, I know, we both found
a ton of surprising, you know, non threatening reasons to
(08:29):
be pro sharks. So I feel like maybe the best
way to do this is just kind of have a
back and forth and and and maybe we can help
these guys out on the pr front. I don't know
why we're doing this, but but let's give it a shot.
Yeah for it? So I'm gonna start us off with
the fact that sharks are way more social than we'd
always thought. And this news actually comes from a group
of Delaware based researchers who spent nearly a decade tracking
(08:51):
the movements of more than three d San tiger sharks.
So this group tagged the sharks with these mobile transmitters,
and then they logged how often members of the group
cross paths with fellow sharks in the wild, And in
the end, they found that sharks hang out in groups
that shrink and grow in size depending on the time
of year and the location, which is actually something we
see mostly in mammals like elephants or chimps and dolphins. Yeah,
(09:13):
that's not something I'd heard before, so just trying to
understand this. So, like in the spring, the sharks might
go off on their own to mate, but then they
like group up again later in the year to hunt together.
Is that is that how it works exactly? But even
when they travel alone like these San tiger sharks still
seem to socialize with passers by. Like the researchers who
tagged all these sharks recaptured two of them at one point,
(09:33):
and when they downloaded the data from their trackers, they
found that just these two sharks had interacted with more
than three fifty fish. Oh wow. And were they mostly
bumping into other sand tiger sharks or what? Yeah for
for the most part, but they also ran into seven
other different species, including a few other kinds of sharks
and some plain old fish. But here's the really wild part.
(09:54):
These encounters weren't just chance meetings with strangers like the tag.
Sharks actually interacted with the same individuals over and over again.
And this would go on throughout the year. And in fact,
some sharks bumped into the same fish more than twenty times.
That's so bizarre. So do the researchers know what's going
on with that? Like, are they really forming these little
friend circles or family groups out in the out in
(10:15):
the ocean. I mean, it certainly seems that way, but
the truth is we aren't actually sure yet. Like we'll
still have to keep following sharks around until we figure
it out, But so far, there's actually reason to think
that sharks are much friendlier and also better at staying
in touch than we ever thought before. Well, I want
to congratulate you on on finding both a way to
boost the public perception of sharks and your home state.
(10:36):
Don't think I've noticed the mention of Delaware in there.
That was well done. But you know, while the social
lives of sharks might bear some similarity to our own,
I am sad to say they put us the shame
in one category and I'm going to go in a
very different direction here. But I did find this interesting,
and that's dental hygiene. I bet you didn't see me
going there now, But if you look at it, sharks
(10:57):
actually can't get cavities, And to be fair, that's actually
true of most animals, since their diets don't contain anywhere
near as much sugar as that of humans. But sharks
actually have a really unique ability here are really unique
feature rather, and that's that their teeth are completely coded
and fluoride. And that's not an exaggeration. There was this
research I was looking at. It was published in the
(11:17):
Journal of Structural Biology that both makos and tiger sharks
have teeth with outer coatings made from a hundred percent fluoride.
So there's reason to think the same is true for
other shark species as well. That's really incredible, but it
also reminds me, do you remember when we were coming
up with bad ideas for T shirts at Mentalphlass, and
one of our friends was desperately trying to get us
to make a shark shirt, like a T shirt of
(11:39):
a shark smiling, and it said too many teeth, too
little time. I do remember that. I still have no
idea what that means. It made no sense. I know,
I'm kind of surprised we didn't make it. But you
were saying, basically, cavities are an issue for sharks because
of their diet, but it also sounds like they don't
have much of a problem with tooth togay, like if
their teeth are basically encased in this toothpaste. Yeah, that's true.
(12:02):
And and not only that, but because the mineral that
coat shark teeth is less water soluble than the stuff
that coats mammal teeth, they're they're actually perfectly suited for
that underwater life. So then one thing I'm actually curious
about is why are there so many loose shark teeth
floating around? I mean, if their teeth are so protected,
why are they always falling out? Well? See, that's the thing,
and this is actually another point of overlap between us
(12:24):
and sharks because you know, it turns out that shark
teeth are just as weak as human teeth. And so
this was discovered by that same German team of researchers
who were studying the fluoride coating on their teeth, and
what they found was that despite the added strength from
the fluoride, shark teeth aren't any better than ours when
it comes to resisting cracking or breaking. So shark teeth
actually fall out all the time, you know, whenever they
(12:47):
break or get too worn down. And this is made
especially easy because shark teeth are actually only attached at
their jaws by this soft tissue, So unlike ours, they're
they're they're not nestled in these like tight fitting sockets
that we see in you know, in human teeth. But
do they have uh, never ending supply of shark teeth
as well. I mean, I feel like any time you
see a picture of a shark's mouth, it just looks
(13:08):
like endless rows of teeth. Oh yeah, I mean, these
guys are like tooth making machines. And in fact, it
it only takes them. And this was one of the
craziest stats that I saw. It takes most sharks about
twenty four hours to produce a replacement tooth, and over
the course of an average, say like twenty or thirty
year lifespan, a single shark can go through literally thousands
(13:28):
of teeth, So anytime you have a tooth falling out,
there's always another one just to row behind, and it's
just ready to move up and take its place. So
it's pretty remarkable. Yeah, I love that shark dentist isn't
a profession any sharks should go into. I feel like
there's no money in that, So this is also dumb.
But I wonder if anybody's ever knocked out a bunch
of sharks teeth, Like you know, how if you're ever
(13:49):
faced with an attacking shark, they say your best bet
is to punch in the nose. You know, it's weird
because I've heard that too, and so I decided to
actually look into it, and it turns out that punching
a shark in the face is just about the worst
advice you could give a shark attack victim, which honestly,
I feel like should have been pretty obvious from the start.
And I really don't know how this rumor caught on,
but I found this interview with a wildlife filmmaker, and
(14:12):
I wanted to include this quote because he has the
best name of just about anyone we've ever talked about.
His name is Andy Brandy Cassa Grande the fourth. Is
that not such an amazing name? It's pretty amazing. I
feel like he deserves his own episode. Anyway, he explains
why socking a shark is such a dumb idea. So
here's what he says. The reality is that sharks are
(14:33):
pretty durable. Plus water magnifies images, so shark's nose might
look like it's six inches in front of your face,
but in reality it's nout as further away. So when
you punch and miss its nose, your punch trajectory will
go slightly downward, right into the shark's mouth. And here's
his advice, don't put your arm in a shark's mouth,
which just seems like pretty sound advice. Yeah, it is.
(14:55):
And it seems like even if someone did knock a
sharks teeth that they probably weren't around to talk about
it afterwards. Yeah, I mean, I think you'd better go
ahead and just take that socking a shark thing off
of your bucket list, Mango. But you know, since we're
back on talking shark attacks, there's a side of them
I do want to talk about that actually might be
another reason to be pro shark strange as that may sound,
(15:16):
So let's take a quick break and then I'll tell
you what I mean. You're listening to part Time Genius
and we're talking about the signs of sharks. Okay, well,
so I'm super curious where you're going with this one.
(15:38):
Tell me what's the upside shark attacks? All right? So
it's tragic as shark attacks undoubtedly are, it's it's possible
they also provide a kind of paradoxical benefit to humans.
So this comes from a well known theoretical physicist and mathematician.
His name is Freeman Dyson, and according to Dyson, for
every swimmer killed in a shark attack off the coast
of San Diego, there are a ten drowning desk prevented
(16:00):
due to fear of going in the water. So here's
how he writes about it. He says, every time a
swimmer is killed, the number of deaths by drowning goes
down for a few years and then returns to the
normal level. The effect occurs because reports of death by
shark attack are remembered more vividly than reports of drownings.
So you know, the ideas here that after a shark attack,
people are either more cautious in the water or they
(16:22):
just avoid it altogether, and in the process of that
that's effectively saves people from drowning. Now, to be clear,
Dison's yet to show enough solid evidence to back up
this claim, but but it kind of makes sense if
you think about it, and you know, it's a nice
reminder that protecting sharks could wind up benefiting in all
sorts of kind of weird ways. Well, one thing we
can definitely thank sharks for is the summer blockbuster, though
(16:45):
I guess Steven Spielberg gets some credit for this too. Well,
this is something of a tangent. I I do want
to take a little time to talk about not only
how Jaws has impacted the public image of sharks, but
also how it revolutionized the movie industry as a whole.
You know, I've read before how monumental this move you
was in terms of building this excited audience, like it
caught so many people's attention when it was released. I
(17:06):
guess it was what came out and it actually became
the first movie to ever pass the hundred million dollar
mark at the box office, which, if you think about it,
not too shabby. This was this was really just a
B movie about these three scruffy guys waging war with
this largely unseen sharks. So it's pretty incredible. Yeah, And
you know, the sellar box office wasn't the only way
(17:27):
that Jaws was a game changer. I mean the way
the movie was advertised and also merchandized also fed into
its success, and it established this new formula for Hollywood blockbusters.
I mean, it's what Hollywood blockbusters still do today. And
it's weird to think about, but prior to Jaws, there
were actually no wide release summer event films, like the
tradition of luring movie goers into theaters with these big
(17:49):
budget thrillers, especially during the hottest months of the year.
It's a practice that really began with Jaws and was
cemented two years later with the release of Star Wars.
So obviously, I know you looked into this a bit
more than I and I'm curious what made Jaws such
an outlier. Like if you look back and movie history,
there were so many movies released in the summer months
before Jaw. So why didn't any of these others catch
(18:10):
on as the world's first blockbuster? Well, largely because at
the time, the summer months were this unspoken dumping ground
for all the studios worst movies. So while today movies
that studios have no faith in typically come out in
like January or September, back then, the thining was that
most people were too busy going on vacations or enjoying
the outdoors, you know, to bother with going to the
(18:31):
theater in the summertime. Wait. So, so, looking back at this,
so universal had assumed Jaws would flop. Kind of yeah,
I mean, the original plan was to release it in
Christmas in n but when this production schedule just was
so troubled and it dragged on for more than a
hundred days over schedule, the studio had no choice but
to push it back for a summer release the following year.
(18:52):
By the way, I don't know if you realize this,
but Spielberg wasn't actually the movie's first director. It actually
got offered to a number of people, including this guy
Dick Richards, who got fired because he kept referring to
Jaws as a whale. If you're directing the movie, it
feels like you should learn the animal your ship. That
seems like a pretty critical mistake there, but after you know,
(19:12):
so many of these setbacks along the way, Universal probably
didn't have that much faith in Jaws finding an audience.
But for whatever reason, a movie about people being torn
apart by a shark is exactly what people wanted to
see that summer. The Universal really just looked into the success.
It sounds like, and you know, since this is a
Shark episode, we should probably take a couple of minutes
to talk about the star of Jaws, which, of course
(19:33):
is this mechanical shark puppet that the crew referred to
as Bruce. And as a real quick aside here, the
shark's namesake is actually Spielberg's long time and still current lawyer.
His name is Bruce Raymer. That there was a funny
quote from him when he was asked about this by
the Harvard Law bulletin. He just says, they never paid
me a royalty and that's all I know, which is
(19:53):
spoken like a true lawyer. But speaking of Bruce, I
I know that three mechanical sharks used during production, where
this constant headache for the crew, and in fact that
that was a big part of the movie's delays, not
to mention it's ballooning budget, which wound up a full
five million dollars over budget. But apparently it was one
nightmare after another with a shark like it was constantly
(20:14):
slipping off its platform or I guess it's foam skin
would actually blow from all the water and then would
just sink to the bottom of the ocean before filming
could begin, and then like these scuba teams would have
to go down to haul it back up. And of
course the other problem was that even when the shark worked,
which was rarely, it didn't look very convincing, much less frightening. Well,
(20:35):
I mean, I have to think that this was a
real challenge for Spielberg, and this was actually only, like,
I think, his third theatrical film. But you know, I've
actually heard that this malfunctioning shark turned out to be
more of a blessing and disguise than anything, because what
it did was it for Spielberg and his crew to
focus on building this suspense rather than just kind of
looking at the carnage created by the shark. So you know,
(20:57):
for instance, early versions of the script gave the shark
prop a lot more screen time in the movies third act,
but since Bruce was rarely working as needed, the production
team really had to improvise, and instead they used these
barrels to show where the shark was in the water,
and a Spielberg once put it, he said, I had
no choice but to figure out how to tell the
story without the shark, which is such a tough spot
(21:19):
to be in when you're making a movie about a shark.
Obviously he pulled it off. And it's just like hitchcockis today, right,
Like it's what we don't see, which is truly frightening,
which makes a lot of sense. But it does matter
what we hear, as this movie proved, you know, in
the case of Jaws, of course that's John Williams iconic
two note theme. And I know we talked a little
bit about this back in our Weird Government Investments episode,
(21:41):
and we were talking specifically about how the use of
suspenseful music and shark films has really contributed to the
public's negative view of sharks. But I still can't help
but marvel at how much dread they managed to squeeze
out of just repeating that done. Uh, you know, and
this was all done on a two. But I mean,
it really takes some talent to make the tubas seem
(22:03):
that threatening, don't you think? I think so. But Williams
was spot on when he later said that the theme
worked because it gave the quote effect of grinding away
at you, just as a shark would do. Instinctual, relentless, unstoppable. Yeah,
obviously the music played a pig part in making this
as suspenseful as it was. But you know what's strange
while the film plays like fiction, that there was definitely
(22:24):
a real life series of shark attacks that sound like
they might have inspired Jaws. Really, I've actually never heard
this before, and I do want you to share this story.
But first let's take a quick break, all right, mango,
(22:46):
So get us back on the topic of the non
mechanical sharks, and and I want to hear more about
this real world Jaw story that you you mentioned before
the break. So this is something that started in the
summer of nineteen sixteen with a shark attack at the
Jersey Shore and it was a twenty year old man
who died after being bidden by a great white on
July one, and then just five days later, another guy
was killed by the same great white about forty five
(23:08):
miles to the north. And I mean, this was super strange, right,
because shark attacks don't typically happen in quick succession like that,
and it's especially rare for the same shark to go
on multiple attacks like that. But the nineteen sixteen attacks
didn't stop with the second victim, and this is where
it gets really weird. On July twelve, eleven days after
the first attack, the shark struck again another thirty miles
(23:30):
to the north, but this time the shark didn't attack
along the shore. Instead, it traveled sixteen miles inland through
the Mattawan Creek to claim it's third and fourth victims.
The shark's fifth and final attack happened just half an
hour after the fourth, but thankfully the victims survived this
by and made it out of the creek alive, which
is just such a nightmare when you think about and
(23:50):
I can definitely see how Peter Benchley might have been
inspired to write his Jaws novel after hearing about all this,
And it actually goes right along with that whole idea
about there being so called rogue sharks that just I don't.
I guess they developed this taste for human flesh and
then they just go on the hunt for other people. Yeah,
and that rogue shark theory has actually pretty much been
debunked at this point, like most shark researchers now consider
(24:12):
attacks to be kind of a one off thing. In fact,
the majority of shark attacks are isolated events, and they're
either provoked, which means the shark was speared or hooked
by a human who drew first blood, or else the
shark attack because if you'd the human as a thread
or as a competitor for food, well, what about those
nineteen sixteen attacks. I mean, I get that multiple attacks
from a single shark is unusual, but it feels like
(24:34):
there still had to be some reason why this happened then, right,
But even now, it's hard to say exactly what that
reason was. Like, the best I came across was that
the shark might have been injured or deformed in some way,
which could have caused it to lash out at humans
nearby whenever it's pain peaked. And though it's kind of
sad to think about, it's not a bad theory. We
already know that some other animals like Elephants, for example,
(24:56):
have been known to attack humans because they have I
don't know, like an injured foot or maybe a rotten tooth.
So it's pretty reasonable to think that something similar might
happen with sharks, which makes sense. But I'm curious though,
like what happened to the shark after its fifth attack
and in nineteen sixteen, Well, it was caught soon after
that last attack, and the shark's body actually wound up
on display in the New York shop where the owner
(25:16):
made I guess a fortune just charging people admission to
see it, which you know, in itself has a very
Jaws feel to it if you think back about the characters.
I could easily see the movie Stevie Mayer like getting
on board with some sort of scheme like this, Yeah, totally.
And if you already think this all sounds a lot
like Jaws, wait till you hear this. So I was
reading an interview with a scientist named George Burgess, and
(25:38):
he's actually the curator of the International Shark Attack File.
It's this amazing archive that keeps case files on over
five thousand attacks that took place between sixteenth century and today.
And he said that the public's response to the nineteen
sixteen attacks was the same reaction observed in cases all
throughout the world. It also happened to sound quite a
bit like what happens in Jaws. So listen to this,
(25:59):
and this is how Burgess told it to Smithsonian quote.
I see a common pattern around the world when shark
attacks occur. There's obviously shock. Then the second phase is denial,
denial that it was done by a shark. It has
to be done by something else. The third phase is
the feeling that if we shuffle it under the rug,
maybe it will disappear. The fourth phase is realizing that
(26:19):
none of those things are working and that we probably
need to go kill some sharks. Then in the fifth phase,
the reality sets in finally that that's not the solution
and we probably ought to bring in a scientist that
knows what's going on. Wow. I mean, it feels like
that's scene for seeing what the townspeople try in this movie.
When you think about those different stages, you know of
shock and denial, cover up machismo, and then you know,
(26:42):
lastly reason though that doesn't work out quite as planned either. Yeah,
and that denial phase is particularly interesting to me, Like
I always thought it was ridiculous in the movie when
the mayor tries to convince everyone that the woman was
killed by a boat propeller and not a shark. But
people in New Jersey in nineteen sixteen proposed even weirder explanations,
like apparently someone pitched this idea that it was a
(27:04):
school of sea turtles that was coming in and biting everybody,
despite the fact that you know, turtles don't tend to
school like fish or bite off people's limbs like sharks.
You have to admit, though, I was skeptical at first
with this, but I think you've sold me on this.
I mean, he's nineteen sixteen attacks. I don't know. It
feels like they have to have been the inspiration for Jaws,
at least to some degree. I mean, that's the thing.
(27:25):
Peter Benchley has gone on record saying they definitely weren't
the inspiration for the novel or the movie. It's spunned.
I mean, of course, there are plenty of people that
shark researcher I mentioned included who don't buy that denial well,
and I can see why. I mean, there's an awful
lot of crossover between the two stories. But I can
also understand why Benchley might not want the public to
think his work was actually rooted in reality. And that's
(27:46):
because years later, you know, after the massive success of
Jaws as a movie, Bnchuley came to deeply regret his
role in shaping public perception, at least that perception of
sharks as these man eating beasts. And you know, he
actually spent decades trying to convinced people that sharks weren't
the villains that have been portrayed in the film. And
for instance, that there was a two thousand two interview
(28:06):
he did with nat Geo and here's what Benchley said there.
He said, the theory that sharks target humans, that they
are man eaters, nothing could be further from the truth.
Every time you see on TV people surrounded by sharks,
the chances are that the sharks have been baited, and
it gives a false impression because by nature, sharks will
stay away from people. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of
(28:26):
amazing to see someone do a complete one eighty like that,
but I also think it's pretty laudable in this case.
And actually that reminds me. You want to hear my
favorite fact about Peter Benchley. So when Discovery started hiring
host for Shark Week beginning in the seventh season, the
first m C they ever got was none other than
the Jaws author himself. I mean it seems appropriate, you know,
especially since Shark Week has also been accused of misrepresenting
(28:49):
the ferocity of sharks. But you think about this, To
be fair, the event has gotten more and more educational
over time, and even functions as a fundraising drive for
somebody I think pretty reputable shark conservation efforts. Now. So
I didn't realize this, but two eighteen is actually the
thirtieth anniversary of Shark Week, and in honor of that,
they've got Shacked to host, which, of course that makes
(29:10):
perfect sense. It makes a lot of sense. But uh,
I feel like they've had enough time to find that
sweet spot between entertainment and education. Well, and if nothing else,
I do give the producers credit for drawing some much
needed attention to shark conservation. And like we said at
the top of the show, it's hard to wrap our
heads around the idea that sharks are in need of saving,
you know, probably because we're so used to thinking that
(29:32):
we're the ones in danger from them. But when you
look at the numbers, it really tells a very different story. So,
I mean, the sharks have survived for four hundred and
fifty million years on the planet, including no less than
five mass extinction events. And so for the first time,
I started looking like the survival of sharks could be
in jeopardy. And you know, I say that because today
about a quarter of all shark species are threatened with
(29:54):
extinction and the main culprit behind their dwindling numbers is
I'm sad to say us and and just looking at
the numbers, it's pretty crazy. So more than a hundred
million sharks are killed by humans every year based on
most reports, and that number is staggering enough, but there's
some sources that say the number could be as high
as two hundred and seventy million. But you know, either way,
(30:15):
when you consider that shark attacks account for only about
five human deaths on average each year, it's obvious who
the most dangerous predators really are. Okay, so just to
sum this up, don't punch a shark in the face,
don't judge a shark by its creepy eyes, and do
appreciate how great a movie Jaws is. Well, let's not
forget Tristan shirt Live every week like it's shark wa
(30:36):
right that most of all? Okay, then I guess that's everything,
well everything except for how we like to close the show.
We gotta we gotta have the fact off. Are you ready?
I'm ready? Yea. So it is pretty amazing to think
(30:56):
how long sharks have been around. I know you mentioned
that they've been here for over four and fifty million years,
but that's two hundred million years before dinosaurs. And in fact,
they're even older than trees, Like how can anything be
older than trees? Are? We talked earlier about how much
more dangerous humans are to sharks than vice versa. But
it's even more sad when you realize what a waste
(31:18):
it is when sharks are just killed for their fins,
you know, because shark carcasses are bulky and worth a
lot less than their fins. Because of these luxury items
things like shark fins soup, which actually can go for
something like a hundred dollars a bowl. A lot of
times their fins are removed and the rest of the
shark is just thrown overboard, and this is known as
shark finning. And in these cases only about three percent
(31:40):
of the actual shark is being used. So I'm fascinated
by a shark reproduction. Uh. The very unusual ghost sharks,
which are named this because they live so deep and
are rarely spotted, have these really weird retractable sex organs
on their heads. Like the organs actually have these hooks
and use them to grab onto female ghost sharks during mating.
(32:01):
And on top of this, the females have a unique
ability to store the sperm for years until just the
right time for conception. That's so strange, you know, And
you see so many cases of significant aggression on the
part of males and several sharks species during mating. And
because of this, it's actually not surprising that the skin
on female sharks typically is found to be a good
bit thicker than that of males, because the males actually
(32:23):
often bite during mating, so that that thicker skin is needed. Well,
that might explain why some sharks have figured out how
to reproduce a sexually. They're basically cloning themselves now. Well.
One of the first cases of scientists seeing this came
in two thousand one, when a female hammer head at
a zoo in Nebraska gave birth without the assistance of
a male. This process is called parthenogenesis and it's where
(32:45):
embryos are created without outside fertilization. Oh that's so cool. Well,
I think we may have talked about this before, but
in the book Grunt, the Terrific Science, writer Mary Roach
writes about this top secret project during World War Two.
And in this project, the U. S Military was trying
to use sharks to deliver bombs. So the sharks were
equipped with this headgear and then they would use electric
(33:06):
shocks to keep the sharks on track before they would
deliver the bombs to these very specific locations. And it
was a project that ran for a couple of decades,
I think from the late fifties to the early seventies,
and then it was discontinued without much fanfare because it
turned out this was not really an effective way to
deliver bombs. And I feel like we're always trying to
harness animals like pigeons or sharks or whatever, and it's
(33:28):
always a bad idea. It never is better. But Uh,
there's this other feature that I'm so fascinated by, and
it's what goblin sharks can do when they're hunting. So
they had this ability to do what scientists called sling
shot feeding. And this is where they use these elastic
ligaments that are attached to their jaws to basically catapult
their mouths forward by almost ten percent of their bodies.
(33:49):
Lent what yeah, and then they could do this with
like impressive speeds. So this is basically the equivalent of
a person being able to sling shot his or her
mouth about seven inches in front of it to snag
food in front of its nose. That is so strange,
So it's called it's called sling shot feeding. You said, wow,
I have to say, you mentioned ghost sharks, and now
(34:10):
you've mentioned goblin sharks. I feel like you have to
win today's fact off, so I'm going to give you
the trophy today, Mango. Thank you so much, well, and
thank you guys for listening. I'm sure we've forgotten some
terrific facts about sharks and because of that, we would
love to hear those from. You can always email us
part time Genius and how Stuff Works dot com, or
call us on our seven fact hotline that's eight four
(34:30):
four pt Genius, or you can always hit us up
on Facebook or Twitter. But thanks so much for listening.
Thanks again for listening. Part Time. Genius is a production
(34:52):
of how stuff works, and wouldn't be possible without several
brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even
begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel
Brown made the theme song and does the MIXI MIXI
sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gabe
Loues Yer is our lead researcher, with support from the
research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams
and Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.
(35:13):
Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard, we
hope you'll subscribe, And if you really really like what
you've heard, maybe you could leave a good review for us.
Do we do? We forget Jason? Jason who
Guess what, Mango? What's that? Will? So you know my
son who who's just eight years old now, he used
to be completely obsessed with a c DC. You remember this, right, Yeah,
it's hard to forget. Well, apparently there's a big advantage
to having as many A C d C songs saved
in our on our hard drive as we do. And
it's the calm Sharks down. Have you heard this? It
was back in two thousand eleven there was an Australian
(00:21):
tour operator, his name was Matt Wall already started playing
music from underwater speakers and what he realized was that
when he played back in Black or You Shook Me
All Night Long, that the sharks started to become much
less aggressive. How strange. So instead they actually became calm
and inquisitive, and they started nuzzling up to the speaker
and rubbing up against it as they moved past. And
(00:42):
I can't say this is my reaction to hearing a CDC,
but this is what they did. I love that like
sharks dig a C d C and not other bands,
you know, But do you have any idea why they
like it so much? No? And honestly, this guy was
baffled as well. So, as Waller told Time Magazine, quote,
sharks don't of ears, they don't have long hair, and
they don't headbang past the cage doing air guitar. But
(01:05):
they do seem to like the particular vibrations that a
C d C casts off. In fact, it works so
well he stopped using bait to draw the sharks near
his diving cages, and instead he just calms them down
and lures them close with a C d C. It's
like they go into this hard rock trance. So today
show is all about sharks, like why are we so
(01:26):
afraid of shark attacks? Why do they need so many teeth?
And why is punching a shark in the nose a
terrible strategy if you want to avoid being eaten? So
let's dig in. Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part
(01:58):
Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined
by my good friend Manges Ticketer and on the other
side of the soundproof glass wearing yet another one of
his classic shirts. Every week I think there's no way
he can top the last one, and then he somehow does.
And so today's it just says live every week like
it's shark week, and I have to bet I don't
know exactly what that means, but I feel like it's
(02:20):
so deep and it's something that we really need to
learn to live by. These words. I'd actually put it
right up there with the Golden Rule, even though I'm
not acent sure what it means. That's our friend and
producer Tristan McNeil. So after about a year of working here,
I tend to get all my moral advice straight off
of Tristan shirts. I feel like he's basically a walking
Confucius well, and from what we hear from our listeners,
(02:42):
I think a lot of people are doing this too.
I really don't think he knows the impact he has
in this world. But you know, in this case, we're
taking his advice to heart. Because today's show is all
about sharks. That means we'll be taking a deep dive
into the surprising science behind some of their unique characteristics,
as well as a few reasons why it's in our
own best interest to eat the ocean shark friendly. And
(03:02):
I know for a lot of people, the idea of
protecting sharks is going to sound like a terrible idea.
That's part of the reason we wanted to do this episode,
so with summer just around the corner, it felt like
the right time to take a close look at the
animals responsible for so much of the world's beach side dread.
But rather than just perpetuating that old idea that sharks
are ravenous and man eating monsters, even we're actually going
(03:25):
to try to make a case for why sharks should
be feared a little bit less and and actually admired
a whole lot more So, we have these animal plates
at my house, and they've got foxes and owls and
all these other cute creatures and bow ties. They're all
kind of dressed up, and I always end up eating
off the shark plate, Like the kids always go for
the cute animals, and I am tired of eating off
(03:45):
the shark plates. For me. That's what's fueling this episode.
But that's great. But I do think a good place
to start is noting that while they're nearly five unique
species of sharks in the world, only thirty or so
have been definitively linked to unprovoked attacks on humans. So
while this idea of sharks immediately conjures up, I don't know,
like scary ideas of tiger sharks or great whites. In
(04:09):
people's minds, those kind of human hungry peak predators. They're
really the exception for sharks species and not the rule, right,
And you know you've actually said human hungry. But but
even that is not really the case when we talk
about these species as well, because you know, I remember
hearing that even these highly predatory sharks, they don't really
care for the taste of human Yeah, I mean, I
guess we can't really compete with the taste of free
(04:30):
range blue fin tuna. Um Sharks obviously don't typically hunt
humans for food at all. In fact, the majority of
shark bites are considered exploratory bites, which is basically the
sharks just kind of taking a little taste to see
if what it's caught is food or not. And after
that first bite, most sharks decide, you know, they aren't
in the mood for humans and don't go back for seconds.
(04:52):
Of course, none of that means that a single shark
bite can't be devastating on its own. Usually a nibble
is all it takes to lose a limb. Yeah, I mean,
you know, setting aside the unlikely hood of an attack
and the intention of the sharks themselves, it is easy
to understand why so many people are scared of these creatures.
And even a bite that leaves a person's organs and
tacks still puts them at risk of, you know, significantly
(05:12):
bleeding from that. And at the end of the day,
some sharks definitely do attack humans, and when it happens,
the results tend to be pretty horrifying. So you know,
you figure that has to color the way the average
person looks at sharks, even if the friendlier species do
far outnumber the killer ones, right, I mean, as good
a drummer as jabber Jaws was on that cartoon, it
didn't change our impressionive sharks. Yeah, and he was a
(05:35):
very very good drummer, to be honest. But I mean
it's partially because, like, the only reports we hear about
sharks are terrifying, and that makes it tough for people
to think about them as anything but a threat. But
the weird thing is that those feelings have persisted even
as a lot of media outlets are improving how they
handle shark attacks. In the news like now, reporters will
often give a little perspective on the attacks by mentioning
(05:57):
how rare shark attacks are overall, Yeah, and that true.
I feel like the line always here is how you
have a greater chance of being struck dead by lightning
than killed by a shark. I think the odds of
dying from a shark attack or something like, you know,
one in three point seven million, whereas the odds of
dying from lightning are I think one in a hundred
and sixty two thousand, So it is a pretty significant difference. Also,
(06:18):
I think Martha Stewart has claimed to have been struck
by lightning three times, and she's also never been eaten
by a shark, which supports that data. That definitely supports
that if that's true. Does she actually claim to have
been struck by lightning three times? Yeah? I think once
was in her bed once wash dishes. Yeah, she has
a little frame bed apparently. Oh that is some bad luck. Well,
(06:40):
there are plenty of other examples too. I think I think,
you know, you have higher odds of being killed by
beastings or squashed by unstable vending machines, which weirdly is
kind of a fear of mine, or at least it
was when I was a kid, or or even crushed
by falling coconuts. Those are all things that are more
likely to happen to you than being eaten or bitten
by a shark. Well, I mean, no matter how you
(07:01):
want to measure it, the point is that sharks aren't
nearly as big a threat to humans as we give
them credit for. But that's still a tough prospect for
most of us to believe. All right, So I'm curious, like,
why do you think that is? Like, if we know
grizzly shark attacks are really, really rare, then then why
are we so unnerved by them? I Mean, I think
part of it is just the sense of otherness that
people get from sharks, because I mean, if you think
(07:23):
about other animals that prey on humans, you're thinking about
like lions or tigers or wolves, there's still some sense
of familiarity there. Like the characteristics and mannerisms we see
in those predators kind of remind us of cuddly cats
or the dogs we keep his house pets. And it's
similar with other occasional human killers like grizzly bears and gorillas,
Like sometimes their behavior makes it seem like they're almost human,
(07:46):
which causes people to underestimate the threat that they pose
until it's too late, right, And you know, if you
think about those animals, they're also pretty cute and playful
when they're just baby. So I would think that kind
of furthers the the empathy that you're talking about, definitely,
And like, none of this happens with sharks, right, I mean,
baby sharks are called pops, but we don't see them
as cute like puppies. So when when most people look
(08:07):
at sharks, they see something completely unfamiliar to them, and
and humans tend to have a tough time grappling with
the unfamiliar, all right, So it sounds like most of
us probably won't ever really empathize with sharks. But but
I feel like we can at least admire or even
respect them a little bit more than we currently do.
So keeping that in mind, I know, we both found
a ton of surprising, you know, non threatening reasons to
(08:29):
be pro sharks. So I feel like maybe the best
way to do this is just kind of have a
back and forth and and and maybe we can help
these guys out on the pr front. I don't know
why we're doing this, but but let's give it a shot.
Yeah for it? So I'm gonna start us off with
the fact that sharks are way more social than we'd
always thought. And this news actually comes from a group
of Delaware based researchers who spent nearly a decade tracking
(08:51):
the movements of more than three d San tiger sharks.
So this group tagged the sharks with these mobile transmitters,
and then they logged how often members of the group
cross paths with fellow sharks in the wild, And in
the end, they found that sharks hang out in groups
that shrink and grow in size depending on the time
of year and the location, which is actually something we
see mostly in mammals like elephants or chimps and dolphins. Yeah,
(09:13):
that's not something I'd heard before, so just trying to
understand this. So, like in the spring, the sharks might
go off on their own to mate, but then they
like group up again later in the year to hunt together.
Is that is that how it works exactly? But even
when they travel alone like these San tiger sharks still
seem to socialize with passers by. Like the researchers who
tagged all these sharks recaptured two of them at one point,
(09:33):
and when they downloaded the data from their trackers, they
found that just these two sharks had interacted with more
than three fifty fish. Oh wow. And were they mostly
bumping into other sand tiger sharks or what? Yeah for
for the most part, but they also ran into seven
other different species, including a few other kinds of sharks
and some plain old fish. But here's the really wild part.
(09:54):
These encounters weren't just chance meetings with strangers like the tag.
Sharks actually interacted with the same individuals over and over again.
And this would go on throughout the year. And in fact,
some sharks bumped into the same fish more than twenty times.
That's so bizarre. So do the researchers know what's going
on with that? Like, are they really forming these little
friend circles or family groups out in the out in
(10:15):
the ocean. I mean, it certainly seems that way, but
the truth is we aren't actually sure yet. Like we'll
still have to keep following sharks around until we figure
it out, But so far, there's actually reason to think
that sharks are much friendlier and also better at staying
in touch than we ever thought before. Well, I want
to congratulate you on on finding both a way to
boost the public perception of sharks and your home state.
(10:36):
Don't think I've noticed the mention of Delaware in there.
That was well done. But you know, while the social
lives of sharks might bear some similarity to our own,
I am sad to say they put us the shame
in one category and I'm going to go in a
very different direction here. But I did find this interesting,
and that's dental hygiene. I bet you didn't see me
going there now, But if you look at it, sharks
(10:57):
actually can't get cavities, And to be fair, that's actually
true of most animals, since their diets don't contain anywhere
near as much sugar as that of humans. But sharks
actually have a really unique ability here are really unique
feature rather, and that's that their teeth are completely coded
and fluoride. And that's not an exaggeration. There was this
research I was looking at. It was published in the
(11:17):
Journal of Structural Biology that both makos and tiger sharks
have teeth with outer coatings made from a hundred percent fluoride.
So there's reason to think the same is true for
other shark species as well. That's really incredible, but it
also reminds me, do you remember when we were coming
up with bad ideas for T shirts at Mentalphlass, and
one of our friends was desperately trying to get us
to make a shark shirt, like a T shirt of
(11:39):
a shark smiling, and it said too many teeth, too
little time. I do remember that. I still have no
idea what that means. It made no sense. I know,
I'm kind of surprised we didn't make it. But you
were saying, basically, cavities are an issue for sharks because
of their diet, but it also sounds like they don't
have much of a problem with tooth togay, like if
their teeth are basically encased in this toothpaste. Yeah, that's true.
(12:02):
And and not only that, but because the mineral that
coat shark teeth is less water soluble than the stuff
that coats mammal teeth, they're they're actually perfectly suited for
that underwater life. So then one thing I'm actually curious
about is why are there so many loose shark teeth
floating around? I mean, if their teeth are so protected,
why are they always falling out? Well? See, that's the thing,
and this is actually another point of overlap between us
(12:24):
and sharks because you know, it turns out that shark
teeth are just as weak as human teeth. And so
this was discovered by that same German team of researchers
who were studying the fluoride coating on their teeth, and
what they found was that despite the added strength from
the fluoride, shark teeth aren't any better than ours when
it comes to resisting cracking or breaking. So shark teeth
actually fall out all the time, you know, whenever they
(12:47):
break or get too worn down. And this is made
especially easy because shark teeth are actually only attached at
their jaws by this soft tissue, So unlike ours, they're
they're they're not nestled in these like tight fitting sockets
that we see in you know, in human teeth. But
do they have uh, never ending supply of shark teeth
as well. I mean, I feel like any time you
see a picture of a shark's mouth, it just looks
(13:08):
like endless rows of teeth. Oh yeah, I mean, these
guys are like tooth making machines. And in fact, it
it only takes them. And this was one of the
craziest stats that I saw. It takes most sharks about
twenty four hours to produce a replacement tooth, and over
the course of an average, say like twenty or thirty
year lifespan, a single shark can go through literally thousands
(13:28):
of teeth, So anytime you have a tooth falling out,
there's always another one just to row behind, and it's
just ready to move up and take its place. So
it's pretty remarkable. Yeah, I love that shark dentist isn't
a profession any sharks should go into. I feel like
there's no money in that, So this is also dumb.
But I wonder if anybody's ever knocked out a bunch
of sharks teeth, Like you know, how if you're ever
(13:49):
faced with an attacking shark, they say your best bet
is to punch in the nose. You know, it's weird
because I've heard that too, and so I decided to
actually look into it, and it turns out that punching
a shark in the face is just about the worst
advice you could give a shark attack victim, which honestly,
I feel like should have been pretty obvious from the start.
And I really don't know how this rumor caught on,
but I found this interview with a wildlife filmmaker, and
(14:12):
I wanted to include this quote because he has the
best name of just about anyone we've ever talked about.
His name is Andy Brandy Cassa Grande the fourth. Is
that not such an amazing name? It's pretty amazing. I
feel like he deserves his own episode. Anyway, he explains
why socking a shark is such a dumb idea. So
here's what he says. The reality is that sharks are
(14:33):
pretty durable. Plus water magnifies images, so shark's nose might
look like it's six inches in front of your face,
but in reality it's nout as further away. So when
you punch and miss its nose, your punch trajectory will
go slightly downward, right into the shark's mouth. And here's
his advice, don't put your arm in a shark's mouth,
which just seems like pretty sound advice. Yeah, it is.
(14:55):
And it seems like even if someone did knock a
sharks teeth that they probably weren't around to talk about
it afterwards. Yeah, I mean, I think you'd better go
ahead and just take that socking a shark thing off
of your bucket list, Mango. But you know, since we're
back on talking shark attacks, there's a side of them
I do want to talk about that actually might be
another reason to be pro shark strange as that may sound,
(15:16):
So let's take a quick break and then I'll tell
you what I mean. You're listening to part Time Genius
and we're talking about the signs of sharks. Okay, well,
so I'm super curious where you're going with this one.
(15:38):
Tell me what's the upside shark attacks? All right? So
it's tragic as shark attacks undoubtedly are, it's it's possible
they also provide a kind of paradoxical benefit to humans.
So this comes from a well known theoretical physicist and mathematician.
His name is Freeman Dyson, and according to Dyson, for
every swimmer killed in a shark attack off the coast
of San Diego, there are a ten drowning desk prevented
(16:00):
due to fear of going in the water. So here's
how he writes about it. He says, every time a
swimmer is killed, the number of deaths by drowning goes
down for a few years and then returns to the
normal level. The effect occurs because reports of death by
shark attack are remembered more vividly than reports of drownings.
So you know, the ideas here that after a shark attack,
people are either more cautious in the water or they
(16:22):
just avoid it altogether, and in the process of that
that's effectively saves people from drowning. Now, to be clear,
Dison's yet to show enough solid evidence to back up
this claim, but but it kind of makes sense if
you think about it, and you know, it's a nice
reminder that protecting sharks could wind up benefiting in all
sorts of kind of weird ways. Well, one thing we
can definitely thank sharks for is the summer blockbuster, though
(16:45):
I guess Steven Spielberg gets some credit for this too. Well,
this is something of a tangent. I I do want
to take a little time to talk about not only
how Jaws has impacted the public image of sharks, but
also how it revolutionized the movie industry as a whole.
You know, I've read before how monumental this move you
was in terms of building this excited audience, like it
caught so many people's attention when it was released. I
(17:06):
guess it was what came out and it actually became
the first movie to ever pass the hundred million dollar
mark at the box office, which, if you think about it,
not too shabby. This was this was really just a
B movie about these three scruffy guys waging war with
this largely unseen sharks. So it's pretty incredible. Yeah, And
you know, the sellar box office wasn't the only way
(17:27):
that Jaws was a game changer. I mean the way
the movie was advertised and also merchandized also fed into
its success, and it established this new formula for Hollywood blockbusters.
I mean, it's what Hollywood blockbusters still do today. And
it's weird to think about, but prior to Jaws, there
were actually no wide release summer event films, like the
tradition of luring movie goers into theaters with these big
(17:49):
budget thrillers, especially during the hottest months of the year.
It's a practice that really began with Jaws and was
cemented two years later with the release of Star Wars.
So obviously, I know you looked into this a bit
more than I and I'm curious what made Jaws such
an outlier. Like if you look back and movie history,
there were so many movies released in the summer months
before Jaw. So why didn't any of these others catch
(18:10):
on as the world's first blockbuster? Well, largely because at
the time, the summer months were this unspoken dumping ground
for all the studios worst movies. So while today movies
that studios have no faith in typically come out in
like January or September, back then, the thining was that
most people were too busy going on vacations or enjoying
the outdoors, you know, to bother with going to the
(18:31):
theater in the summertime. Wait. So, so, looking back at this,
so universal had assumed Jaws would flop. Kind of yeah,
I mean, the original plan was to release it in
Christmas in n but when this production schedule just was
so troubled and it dragged on for more than a
hundred days over schedule, the studio had no choice but
to push it back for a summer release the following year.
(18:52):
By the way, I don't know if you realize this,
but Spielberg wasn't actually the movie's first director. It actually
got offered to a number of people, including this guy
Dick Richards, who got fired because he kept referring to
Jaws as a whale. If you're directing the movie, it
feels like you should learn the animal your ship. That
seems like a pretty critical mistake there, but after you know,
(19:12):
so many of these setbacks along the way, Universal probably
didn't have that much faith in Jaws finding an audience.
But for whatever reason, a movie about people being torn
apart by a shark is exactly what people wanted to
see that summer. The Universal really just looked into the success.
It sounds like, and you know, since this is a
Shark episode, we should probably take a couple of minutes
to talk about the star of Jaws, which, of course
(19:33):
is this mechanical shark puppet that the crew referred to
as Bruce. And as a real quick aside here, the
shark's namesake is actually Spielberg's long time and still current lawyer.
His name is Bruce Raymer. That there was a funny
quote from him when he was asked about this by
the Harvard Law bulletin. He just says, they never paid
me a royalty and that's all I know, which is
(19:53):
spoken like a true lawyer. But speaking of Bruce, I
I know that three mechanical sharks used during production, where
this constant headache for the crew, and in fact that
that was a big part of the movie's delays, not
to mention it's ballooning budget, which wound up a full
five million dollars over budget. But apparently it was one
nightmare after another with a shark like it was constantly
(20:14):
slipping off its platform or I guess it's foam skin
would actually blow from all the water and then would
just sink to the bottom of the ocean before filming
could begin, and then like these scuba teams would have
to go down to haul it back up. And of
course the other problem was that even when the shark worked,
which was rarely, it didn't look very convincing, much less frightening. Well,
(20:35):
I mean, I have to think that this was a
real challenge for Spielberg, and this was actually only, like,
I think, his third theatrical film. But you know, I've
actually heard that this malfunctioning shark turned out to be
more of a blessing and disguise than anything, because what
it did was it for Spielberg and his crew to
focus on building this suspense rather than just kind of
looking at the carnage created by the shark. So you know,
(20:57):
for instance, early versions of the script gave the shark
prop a lot more screen time in the movies third act,
but since Bruce was rarely working as needed, the production
team really had to improvise, and instead they used these
barrels to show where the shark was in the water,
and a Spielberg once put it, he said, I had
no choice but to figure out how to tell the
story without the shark, which is such a tough spot
(21:19):
to be in when you're making a movie about a shark.
Obviously he pulled it off. And it's just like hitchcockis today, right,
Like it's what we don't see, which is truly frightening,
which makes a lot of sense. But it does matter
what we hear, as this movie proved, you know, in
the case of Jaws, of course that's John Williams iconic
two note theme. And I know we talked a little
bit about this back in our Weird Government Investments episode,
(21:41):
and we were talking specifically about how the use of
suspenseful music and shark films has really contributed to the
public's negative view of sharks. But I still can't help
but marvel at how much dread they managed to squeeze
out of just repeating that done. Uh, you know, and
this was all done on a two. But I mean,
it really takes some talent to make the tubas seem
(22:03):
that threatening, don't you think? I think so. But Williams
was spot on when he later said that the theme
worked because it gave the quote effect of grinding away
at you, just as a shark would do. Instinctual, relentless, unstoppable. Yeah,
obviously the music played a pig part in making this
as suspenseful as it was. But you know what's strange
while the film plays like fiction, that there was definitely
(22:24):
a real life series of shark attacks that sound like
they might have inspired Jaws. Really, I've actually never heard
this before, and I do want you to share this story.
But first let's take a quick break, all right, mango,
(22:46):
So get us back on the topic of the non
mechanical sharks, and and I want to hear more about
this real world Jaw story that you you mentioned before
the break. So this is something that started in the
summer of nineteen sixteen with a shark attack at the
Jersey Shore and it was a twenty year old man
who died after being bidden by a great white on
July one, and then just five days later, another guy
was killed by the same great white about forty five
(23:08):
miles to the north. And I mean, this was super strange, right,
because shark attacks don't typically happen in quick succession like that,
and it's especially rare for the same shark to go
on multiple attacks like that. But the nineteen sixteen attacks
didn't stop with the second victim, and this is where
it gets really weird. On July twelve, eleven days after
the first attack, the shark struck again another thirty miles
(23:30):
to the north, but this time the shark didn't attack
along the shore. Instead, it traveled sixteen miles inland through
the Mattawan Creek to claim it's third and fourth victims.
The shark's fifth and final attack happened just half an
hour after the fourth, but thankfully the victims survived this
by and made it out of the creek alive, which
is just such a nightmare when you think about and
(23:50):
I can definitely see how Peter Benchley might have been
inspired to write his Jaws novel after hearing about all this,
And it actually goes right along with that whole idea
about there being so called rogue sharks that just I don't.
I guess they developed this taste for human flesh and
then they just go on the hunt for other people. Yeah,
and that rogue shark theory has actually pretty much been
debunked at this point, like most shark researchers now consider
(24:12):
attacks to be kind of a one off thing. In fact,
the majority of shark attacks are isolated events, and they're
either provoked, which means the shark was speared or hooked
by a human who drew first blood, or else the
shark attack because if you'd the human as a thread
or as a competitor for food, well, what about those
nineteen sixteen attacks. I mean, I get that multiple attacks
from a single shark is unusual, but it feels like
(24:34):
there still had to be some reason why this happened then, right,
But even now, it's hard to say exactly what that
reason was. Like, the best I came across was that
the shark might have been injured or deformed in some way,
which could have caused it to lash out at humans
nearby whenever it's pain peaked. And though it's kind of
sad to think about, it's not a bad theory. We
already know that some other animals like Elephants, for example,
(24:56):
have been known to attack humans because they have I
don't know, like an injured foot or maybe a rotten tooth.
So it's pretty reasonable to think that something similar might
happen with sharks, which makes sense. But I'm curious though,
like what happened to the shark after its fifth attack
and in nineteen sixteen, Well, it was caught soon after
that last attack, and the shark's body actually wound up
on display in the New York shop where the owner
(25:16):
made I guess a fortune just charging people admission to
see it, which you know, in itself has a very
Jaws feel to it if you think back about the characters.
I could easily see the movie Stevie Mayer like getting
on board with some sort of scheme like this, Yeah, totally.
And if you already think this all sounds a lot
like Jaws, wait till you hear this. So I was
reading an interview with a scientist named George Burgess, and
(25:38):
he's actually the curator of the International Shark Attack File.
It's this amazing archive that keeps case files on over
five thousand attacks that took place between sixteenth century and today.
And he said that the public's response to the nineteen
sixteen attacks was the same reaction observed in cases all
throughout the world. It also happened to sound quite a
bit like what happens in Jaws. So listen to this,
(25:59):
and this is how Burgess told it to Smithsonian quote.
I see a common pattern around the world when shark
attacks occur. There's obviously shock. Then the second phase is denial,
denial that it was done by a shark. It has
to be done by something else. The third phase is
the feeling that if we shuffle it under the rug,
maybe it will disappear. The fourth phase is realizing that
(26:19):
none of those things are working and that we probably
need to go kill some sharks. Then in the fifth phase,
the reality sets in finally that that's not the solution
and we probably ought to bring in a scientist that
knows what's going on. Wow. I mean, it feels like
that's scene for seeing what the townspeople try in this movie.
When you think about those different stages, you know of
shock and denial, cover up machismo, and then you know,
(26:42):
lastly reason though that doesn't work out quite as planned either. Yeah,
and that denial phase is particularly interesting to me, Like
I always thought it was ridiculous in the movie when
the mayor tries to convince everyone that the woman was
killed by a boat propeller and not a shark. But
people in New Jersey in nineteen sixteen proposed even weirder explanations,
like apparently someone pitched this idea that it was a
(27:04):
school of sea turtles that was coming in and biting everybody,
despite the fact that you know, turtles don't tend to
school like fish or bite off people's limbs like sharks.
You have to admit, though, I was skeptical at first
with this, but I think you've sold me on this.
I mean, he's nineteen sixteen attacks. I don't know. It
feels like they have to have been the inspiration for Jaws,
at least to some degree. I mean, that's the thing.
(27:25):
Peter Benchley has gone on record saying they definitely weren't
the inspiration for the novel or the movie. It's spunned.
I mean, of course, there are plenty of people that
shark researcher I mentioned included who don't buy that denial well,
and I can see why. I mean, there's an awful
lot of crossover between the two stories. But I can
also understand why Benchley might not want the public to
think his work was actually rooted in reality. And that's
(27:46):
because years later, you know, after the massive success of
Jaws as a movie, Bnchuley came to deeply regret his
role in shaping public perception, at least that perception of
sharks as these man eating beasts. And you know, he
actually spent decades trying to convinced people that sharks weren't
the villains that have been portrayed in the film. And
for instance, that there was a two thousand two interview
(28:06):
he did with nat Geo and here's what Benchley said there.
He said, the theory that sharks target humans, that they
are man eaters, nothing could be further from the truth.
Every time you see on TV people surrounded by sharks,
the chances are that the sharks have been baited, and
it gives a false impression because by nature, sharks will
stay away from people. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of
(28:26):
amazing to see someone do a complete one eighty like that,
but I also think it's pretty laudable in this case.
And actually that reminds me. You want to hear my
favorite fact about Peter Benchley. So when Discovery started hiring
host for Shark Week beginning in the seventh season, the
first m C they ever got was none other than
the Jaws author himself. I mean it seems appropriate, you know,
especially since Shark Week has also been accused of misrepresenting
(28:49):
the ferocity of sharks. But you think about this, To
be fair, the event has gotten more and more educational
over time, and even functions as a fundraising drive for
somebody I think pretty reputable shark conservation efforts. Now. So
I didn't realize this, but two eighteen is actually the
thirtieth anniversary of Shark Week, and in honor of that,
they've got Shacked to host, which, of course that makes
(29:10):
perfect sense. It makes a lot of sense. But uh,
I feel like they've had enough time to find that
sweet spot between entertainment and education. Well, and if nothing else,
I do give the producers credit for drawing some much
needed attention to shark conservation. And like we said at
the top of the show, it's hard to wrap our
heads around the idea that sharks are in need of saving,
you know, probably because we're so used to thinking that
(29:32):
we're the ones in danger from them. But when you
look at the numbers, it really tells a very different story. So,
I mean, the sharks have survived for four hundred and
fifty million years on the planet, including no less than
five mass extinction events. And so for the first time,
I started looking like the survival of sharks could be
in jeopardy. And you know, I say that because today
about a quarter of all shark species are threatened with
(29:54):
extinction and the main culprit behind their dwindling numbers is
I'm sad to say us and and just looking at
the numbers, it's pretty crazy. So more than a hundred
million sharks are killed by humans every year based on
most reports, and that number is staggering enough, but there's
some sources that say the number could be as high
as two hundred and seventy million. But you know, either way,
(30:15):
when you consider that shark attacks account for only about
five human deaths on average each year, it's obvious who
the most dangerous predators really are. Okay, so just to
sum this up, don't punch a shark in the face,
don't judge a shark by its creepy eyes, and do
appreciate how great a movie Jaws is. Well, let's not
forget Tristan shirt Live every week like it's shark wa
(30:36):
right that most of all? Okay, then I guess that's everything,
well everything except for how we like to close the show.
We gotta we gotta have the fact off. Are you ready?
I'm ready? Yea. So it is pretty amazing to think
(30:56):
how long sharks have been around. I know you mentioned
that they've been here for over four and fifty million years,
but that's two hundred million years before dinosaurs. And in fact,
they're even older than trees, Like how can anything be
older than trees? Are? We talked earlier about how much
more dangerous humans are to sharks than vice versa. But
it's even more sad when you realize what a waste
(31:18):
it is when sharks are just killed for their fins,
you know, because shark carcasses are bulky and worth a
lot less than their fins. Because of these luxury items
things like shark fins soup, which actually can go for
something like a hundred dollars a bowl. A lot of
times their fins are removed and the rest of the
shark is just thrown overboard, and this is known as
shark finning. And in these cases only about three percent
(31:40):
of the actual shark is being used. So I'm fascinated
by a shark reproduction. Uh. The very unusual ghost sharks,
which are named this because they live so deep and
are rarely spotted, have these really weird retractable sex organs
on their heads. Like the organs actually have these hooks
and use them to grab onto female ghost sharks during mating.
(32:01):
And on top of this, the females have a unique
ability to store the sperm for years until just the
right time for conception. That's so strange, you know, And
you see so many cases of significant aggression on the
part of males and several sharks species during mating. And
because of this, it's actually not surprising that the skin
on female sharks typically is found to be a good
bit thicker than that of males, because the males actually
(32:23):
often bite during mating, so that that thicker skin is needed. Well,
that might explain why some sharks have figured out how
to reproduce a sexually. They're basically cloning themselves now. Well.
One of the first cases of scientists seeing this came
in two thousand one, when a female hammer head at
a zoo in Nebraska gave birth without the assistance of
a male. This process is called parthenogenesis and it's where
(32:45):
embryos are created without outside fertilization. Oh that's so cool. Well,
I think we may have talked about this before, but
in the book Grunt, the Terrific Science, writer Mary Roach
writes about this top secret project during World War Two.
And in this project, the U. S Military was trying
to use sharks to deliver bombs. So the sharks were
equipped with this headgear and then they would use electric
(33:06):
shocks to keep the sharks on track before they would
deliver the bombs to these very specific locations. And it
was a project that ran for a couple of decades,
I think from the late fifties to the early seventies,
and then it was discontinued without much fanfare because it
turned out this was not really an effective way to
deliver bombs. And I feel like we're always trying to
harness animals like pigeons or sharks or whatever, and it's
(33:28):
always a bad idea. It never is better. But Uh,
there's this other feature that I'm so fascinated by, and
it's what goblin sharks can do when they're hunting. So
they had this ability to do what scientists called sling
shot feeding. And this is where they use these elastic
ligaments that are attached to their jaws to basically catapult
their mouths forward by almost ten percent of their bodies.
(33:49):
Lent what yeah, and then they could do this with
like impressive speeds. So this is basically the equivalent of
a person being able to sling shot his or her
mouth about seven inches in front of it to snag
food in front of its nose. That is so strange,
So it's called it's called sling shot feeding. You said, wow,
I have to say, you mentioned ghost sharks, and now
(34:10):
you've mentioned goblin sharks. I feel like you have to
win today's fact off, so I'm going to give you
the trophy today, Mango. Thank you so much, well, and
thank you guys for listening. I'm sure we've forgotten some
terrific facts about sharks and because of that, we would
love to hear those from. You can always email us
part time Genius and how Stuff Works dot com, or
call us on our seven fact hotline that's eight four
(34:30):
four pt Genius, or you can always hit us up
on Facebook or Twitter. But thanks so much for listening.
Thanks again for listening. Part Time. Genius is a production
(34:52):
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brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even
begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel
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(35:13):
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