Dr. Harley Newton, Ocearch chief veterinarian Interview

Dr. Harley Newton talks to Mendte in the Morning about the largest shark ever recorded being tracked off the coast of North Carolina.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Doctor Harley Newton is on the line. Hello doctor, Hi,
good morning. So I'm very fascinated by your work. But
I have to know, as a kid who grew up
watching Jaws, what motivated you or drove you to go
out and get into the business of tagging sharks. This
blows my mind, you know.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I even when I started my veterinary career, I didn't
think this would be an option because there's just so
few opportunities. And I just found the way. I was
interested in exotics in veterinary school and interested in aquatic animals,
and I just took every opportunity offered and here I am.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Wow, really cool stuff. So to get the audience up
the speed, it's the biggest great white shark that's ever
been recorded in the Atlantic. They do believe, according to
these reports, that it could be headed north towards our area.
But you yourself tagged this shark.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Correct, I did, and I do want to clarify. He
is the largest male white shark that oh Search has
ever tagged. Okay, definitely not the largest white shark ever
recorded in northwest Atlantic. These guys get big, and he
was about fourteen feet so nothing to sniff that. But
oh god, definitely not the biggest.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay, so it's only a fourteen foot shark, Honey, everybody
back in the water. Only a fourteen footer. No, this
this blows me away. And in the process of oh,
search and yourself tagging a shark like this, I assume
you're able to deduce what is on this guy's agenda
when they say they're tracking him and they's heading north?
What does that mean to us in plain English?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Sure? So, white sharks are migratory. They spend their summer
and fall up north, typically in Cape cod or Atlantic Canada,
and then they spend their summer down south anywhere from
the Carolina's down around Florida and into the Gulf. But
this is the time of year that they're on the move,
so they're actually migrating now, and very often when we

(01:55):
watch our animals on our Global Shark Tracker, they spend
some time off of Cape Hatteras and typically right inside
the Gulf stream. We think that's because there's a lot
of food there and they're about to travel more than
a thousand miles, So we think what's on his agenda
is he's going to be moving north and very likely
moving through the waters of New York.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Oh wow, would you look at that lovely this time
of year? Well, thanks for that. We're talking to the
great doctor Harley Newton. Now I did see here that
you have a particular interest in stress physiology and sharks
and what conditions induce higher stress levels. That's what I
wanted to ask you. Is there something that this shark
might be experiencing him that made him want to come here,

(02:36):
or you're saying this is just regular seasonal migration.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
This is regular seasonal migration. This is what he should do.
And you know, the interesting thing about that is these
sharks seem to choose a primary place to spend their summers.
They either go to Cape cod or they go to
Atlantic Canada. And this will be the first year we'll
be able to kind of follow them and see which
one he chooses. So for me, that's a primary point

(03:01):
of interest.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
It makes sense.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, the stress of theology work, It largely just has
to do with how these animals handle fisheries capture, and
that really comes back to policy. There's a lot of
policies that involve catching release of sharks, and some species
handle it really really well and other ones really don't.
So we're just trying to get to the bottom of
which animals can handle, fisheries capture and which ones can't.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well, he's swimming his way to a changing world in
New York because the adults are scared of sharks, but
the kids actually like them because of that baby shark
Doo doo dooot song. You see. The adults are running
out of the water, the kids are running in. It's
going to be a whole spectacle. I thank you so
much for taking a few minutes to make sense of
this for us, because it is far beyond my pay grade,

(03:45):
and I just find you in your line of work
so fascinating.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Well, thank you so much for having me. This was fun.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
The great doctor Harley Newton. There she goes