August 10, 2012 • 39 mins
A shark attack is a terrifying experience for the victim -- but are sharks really man-eating monsters with a taste for human flesh? Join Josh and Chuck as they ask why sharks attack, how attacks occur and which sharks are most likely to attack someone.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to you stuff you should
know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always
as Charles W. Chuck Bryant and uh, this is stuff
(00:24):
you should do. That's right. A Shark Week edition. Week edition,
Happy Shark Week, Chuck, Happy Shark Week. In honor of
Shark Week, I got you a little present. Wow. Yeah,
what is that? It's the jabber Jaw DVD box set?
Oh is it? That's awesome? Thank you. Yeah, I was
(00:44):
going to get you speed Buggy. Um. If I am correct,
then this should be coming out the Thursday before Shark Week.
Oh good time. Yeah. So Shark Week actually starts in
three days on Sunday. I'm so embarrassed that I give
you president early. That's okay, okay, we we like to
open on Christmas Eve. Here. Um, are you're doing okay?
(01:06):
You're feeling good? Yeah? I thought that we wouldn't be
able to find anything here to do on sharks, but
we never really covered specifically shark attacks. Yeah. I think
it's high time we did, because I think that, Um,
thanks to a growing, growingly, increasingly enlightened, populous, sharks are
(01:26):
losing a lot of the bad rap they had for many,
many years since. And I feel like we're here to
kind of help hasten that along a little bit and
strike fear into your heart. Well, yeah, it depends this. This
This is going to be kind of a roller coaster ride,
because this article is a roller coaster ride. We're talking
about how shark attacks work, um, and we should say
(01:50):
first and foremost, right off the bat, that you can
make a pretty good case almost all shark attacks are
cases of mistaken identity. Yeah. I don't know if this
is a real stat but um, Gary Atkinson, who is
a diver more a big just big mistakes more usually
indicates not a real stat probably, but I bet it's
(02:13):
pretty high because, especially when it's contained in a book
that has an exclamation point in the title. Sharks don't
like people that were not fatty enough for them. They
don't seek us out, they don't like the way we taste,
and when they bite us, they probably think we are
a big turtle or a sea lion. That's just that's
what's going on. And when you look at the photo.
(02:34):
Was it bioluminescence we talked about looking up from the ocean. Yeah,
and you see the silhouette, a dude on a surfboard
or a lady on a surfboard looks an awful lot
like a sea turtle or a sea lion. Yeah. If
you're interested, go to how stuffworks dot com and type
in how sharkitects working. On the first page, there's a
pretty cool little illustration of how a surfer looks like
(02:55):
a sea turtle or or a sea lion. I wouldn't
know what the spinning image. The point is is by
looks you, you may look like a sea lion. Once
the shark figures out that you're not, however, it's probably
going to leave you alone. The great white, we should say,
But of course it may be too late. At that point.
In between those two points, the sharks gonna bite you, probably,
(03:19):
especially if it's a great white. Um. That's pretty much
the number one reason for shark attacks, like we said,
is you are confused for another food source. Um. And
if it is a great white and you are bitten,
and it will probably leave you alone and not come
back right And depending on the severity of that first bite,
(03:42):
that test bite as they call it um, which a
could be um I think your food or be apparently uh,
there's a food chain of sharks. Even well they were,
they will like bite another shark to say, did get
away from me? And I know I didn't hurt you
that bad because your shark. But if you're human, all
of a sudden your midsection is missing. That's another explanation
(04:04):
for shark at texts. Aggression. Yeah, if the sharks are
if they are just kind of messing around with one
another when they do it to you, that hurts confusion.
Um aggression. Hunger is another one too. And if you're
like say a spear fisherman, and you're just laying waste
to like a school of fish coco cocoon, cocoon, right, um,
(04:27):
and the fish are flapping around, they're bleeding, you have
two huge stimulus. There's a stimuli. Yeah, man, this whole
bailout just screw me up. Man. Um that the sharks
can pick up that are that they are specially designed,
if you believe in intelligent, designed to pick up um
(04:48):
blood in the water, and they can smell that stuff
for miles, dude, for miles, and I couldn't find any
actual real stat on that. I think I've seen like
another one of those sharks stats which are always a
little hinky, which is like they can smell blood, like
a drop of blood for five miles or something, right, Yeah,
but they can they can they smell some blood. They
can smell some blood. Yeah. The other way that they're
(05:10):
being attracted is the fish flapping around actually generates electrical impulses,
and the shark have an organ called the ampullae of
Lorenzini you should say this chuck, which is basically a
series of tubes that are connected that connect the exterior
of the skin with um electricity or electrical sensing cells.
(05:35):
That basically it's another way of sharks detecting movement prey.
It's on the snout. So when you have a bunch
of fish dying that it's going to attract the shark.
And if you're standing in the middle of it, the
shark is not really gonna care what you look like
or what you're doing. There's just so worked up it's
gonna bite you and confused. Maybe, uh, what I learned
from the sharkles you don't want to confuse the shark. No,
(05:56):
and you don't want to be standing in the middle
of their um, their prey, like a big massive their
prey um. And also too, I know we're pointed this
out before in the I think, how to defend yourself,
but the Apulia Laurentzen gonna bunch that one. It's in
the snout. So that's why they tell you to like
trying head butter, punch the shark in the mouth. Now
(06:19):
you imagine get taking a sock right to the electrical cells.
I can't imagine delivering that punch, like having the wherewithal
to be like, oh, I'm supposed to punch you, now
I'm missing an arm. I think you. I think you
might surprise yourself. You just react. If you have a
healthy ego, then you would. Yeah, you'd probably punch that shark. Um.
(06:41):
I don't. You can't say that. You just haven't been
put in any life threatening situations yet. Okay yet, alright,
so hold on, hold on, there's another good explanation for
why sharks attack defense. Oh they feel threatened, Yeah by humans.
Oh the divers that tug on the nurse sharks. Yeah,
the nurse sharks a big one that likes to attack
when somebody pulls on its tail. Yeah, and why people
(07:04):
do this, I don't know, but apparently the nurse shark
is kind of funny and that it sort of will
be still at the bottom of the ocean and it
wears a wig and the old nurses cap because you're like,
I gotta push that thing around exactly. But apparently there
are some divers who like, well like tug on their
tail because they think it's just some harmless game, and
then they find out that the hand because the nurse
(07:27):
shark is generous with its bite, right. Um, so because
of jerks like that pulling in a nurse shark tails. Um,
there is a division in the statistics of shark attacks
provoked and unprovoked jerks and what the heck happened? Or
(07:47):
stupid people and what the heck happened? Why do you
provoke a shark? Um? So let's talk about what goes
down with the shark attack. Okay, here's the fair warning part.
We're going. Um, we has been climbing a hill, now
we're about to go down the hill. There are roller
coaster ride Okay, okay, um, well what yeah, this is
when you have fear? Should I read the Jaws thing?
(08:10):
If you want, I might as well. Okay, all right,
this is Quint from Jaws. The thing about a shark
is he's got lifeless eyes, black eyes like a dolls eyes.
When he comes at you, he doesn't even seem to
be living until he bites you, and those black eyes
roll over a white and then dot dot dot, Thank you.
(08:33):
You're the rich little of this podcast. That was not
a good Quint, but that's what it is. In my
top ten, used to be in my top five all
time movies. Jaws. Yeah what knocked it out? I don't know.
Just over the years, you know, things built up. Jaws
falls behind a little bit. Yeah what what knocked it
out of the I don't know specifically what knocked it out?
I'm sorry, but Jaws circuits was what of it was? Um?
(08:56):
I mean every time this movie is on, I will
watch it and I do not get sick of It's
one of my favorites. So here's where we scare the
crap out of you, because usually you will learn that
you are being attacked by a shark by getting run
into by a car, is what some people have said.
It feels like it depends again, it depends on the shark.
(09:17):
So we should point out The three most deadly sharks
are great whites, tigers, and bull sharks bulls. If you
get hit by what feels like a truck, it's probably
a bull shark. If all of a sudden you're missing
an arm, it was probably a great white or possibly
a tiger. But it seems like bulls and tigers are
the ones that bump you first, and the great white
takes the test bite. Yeah, and bulls are known to
(09:40):
for being one of the more aggressive as far as
like usually a shark will bite you and then kind
of leave you right and the bull shark will is
one of the only ones that will come back repeatedly.
Or someone's trying to save you, they might attack them.
They'll they'll hang around a little more than I'm comfortable
with one are the other big problems with the bull
shark is that they attack in shallow water. Ye, so
(10:00):
if you see a bullshark, just run um. So what's
going on here with the test bite, Well, a could
be a test bight b When they feed on like
a sea lion, they don't just go in there and
like feed on it like a frenzy until it's all gone.
They bite it and then let it bleed to death,
and then once the animal is dead, then they'll go
(10:23):
an inchow down. So pretty frightening if you're a person
it is. So you're saying that, Um, it's like getting
hit by a truck. Let's say it's a bullet shark attack. Um.
That's a quote from Don Shauman, who was pregnant as
a lifeguard when she was attacked in Florida. Um. And
she survived because she wrote a book about it. Another
(10:46):
person who wrote a book, I believe uh is surfer
Kenny doot doo u d t do. And he was
doing his surfing thing in nineteen seventy nine in Oregon.
I didn't know you surfed Oregon. Yeah, sure, surf Oregon. Well,
I mean you got to have the wet suits. It's
cold outher but it's cold in southern California too specific. Yea. Anyway,
(11:11):
Kenny Do was surfing and all of a sudden, Um,
he was a shark. This is probably a great white
because all of a sudden he was in the jaws
of a shark and it had it had him and
his surfboard in its bite, and the surfboard probably saved
his life because that shark was originally trying to like
(11:32):
that because he couldn't get that full bite down. He's
apparently very determined, and he kept trying and trying for
about twenty seconds. By Duke's testament, dude was totally out
of the water. He was pulled under the water and
the shark couldn't get him under because again the surfboard.
So he lived another day. He lived to see another day,
although he said that the doctor who fixed him up
(11:54):
um stopped counting his stitches when he reached five hundred,
which is a pretty patient doctor, but also kind of lazy,
like why do you get there and just be like, oh,
you know what, forget it? He yeah, he took them
all out at about two fifty because he forgot where
he was and started over. And this is the guy
that said he heard his like ribs breaking right, all right.
(12:15):
You have to remember people, roller coaster. This is extremely rare. Chuck.
We talked about how like the great white feeds bite,
leave you to blie to death, come back and feed
on you. Um. We talked about the bull shark. It
hits and then circles, hitching in circles, and then eventually
(12:35):
it's gonna bite you and like you said, like it'll
attack somebody coming to try to rescue you. The tiger
shark is um one of the deadliest ones, especially in
the deep sea. Um. Apparently they like to pick off
the week and the wounded like um, and they'll circle
for a while and then they'll bump and then they'll bite.
(12:57):
And there's this very famous story of the U S
sus Indianapolis that was sunk in the Pacific in nineteen five.
The story quintells, Oh, yeah, he was one of the dudes. Okay,
this character Okay, not Robert Shaw right, um, although, man,
that would have been some serious would it be method
or character? I don't even know real life? Yeah, I
(13:21):
guess it's not even acting. Um. So in in nine
Indianapolis Thanking, a thousand crew members survived the sinking, but
by the time the rescuers showed up a few days later,
there were only three seventeen men left thanks to shark attacks,
and these tigers were just circling them and like, according
(13:41):
to quinn story, which is pretty accurate, just like you know,
you'd be talking to a guy and all of a
sudden he's gone and you're just waiting, and it didn't
get called in because it was wasn't it They were
delivering the bomb? Oh right, yeah, is that right? They
were delivering the bomb, which is why it was such
a top secret operation. And because it was top secret,
it didn't get called in and reported missing for like
(14:02):
a couple of days. Even so, it was pretty scary stuff. Yeah,
all over, So that means that there's a undetonated nuclear
bomb at the bottom of the Pacific. Actually, I don't
know that part. I would guess. I mean, if they
were delivering it and it was sunk, I have to
look into that or maybe that. I don't think Steven
Spielberg made that up. I think that's real. Yeah, it's
(14:24):
definitely in the movie, though Steven Spielberg is not known
for making things up. What there's like aliens et s.
So you did say something kind of important here about
um Finally, tiger sharks out in the deep sea are
a little more dangerous. Most people get attacked closer to shore.
And that doesn't mean you should be afraid because close
(14:46):
to shore is dangerous. It's just because that's where the
people are. Yes, you know, so most people don't swim out,
you know, in the the middle of the deep blue ocean. Yeah,
this guy wouldn't know. Well, that's the that's part of
the point. Um so um, back down another another hill.
It's a little bit a little bit scary now because
we're gonna talk about what happens during the shark attack
(15:08):
or what the shark attack does to your person. Well,
one surgeon who operated on a teenage surfer in Australia
said that when her leg was lopped off, he described
as guillotine like. So it can be very swift in
the case of a limb, and very clean, and all
of a sudden there's just no arm there anymore. Forty
(15:30):
pounds of pressure per square inch with his teeth, the
size of a shot glass. If you listen to Richard Drynus,
that's what he says in the movie. I okay, have
you ever seen johs Okay, I don't know if I
if it was ever in my top ten, it's like
up there for sure, it's such a great movie, But
I don't okay. I can recognize when you say things
(15:53):
like quint and size of a shot class, shot class,
and okay Cooper and all that stuff. Do you remember
what Roy what's his name? Yeah, what his character was,
Chief Brodie he dream brody uh noady Um. So if
(16:13):
you don't lose a limb, you're probably gonna get like
a large piece of your flesh removed, like from your thigh,
from room mid section or something like that. Yeah. Usually
if you're getting a type by a good size great white,
it's gonna get you in your midsection. Like you said,
uh and uh. You may end up like a guy
named Rodney Fox who was a spear fisherman who was
attacked near Adelaide, Australia, nineteen sixty three and basically he
(16:37):
was bitten from shoulder to hip and a lot of
them was missing after that. Have you seen pictures of
that guy? Yeah? I did when I researched the shark
stuff a couple of years ago. It's like a shark
bite missing from him. Yeah, like a little crescent and
out of the side of him. I don't know if
little is the right word. Well, yeah, it's not little. Yeah,
that's a pretty startling time life photo. I think you're
(16:59):
probably gonna die by bleeding to death because you're gonna
be suffering from massive amounts of blood loss at this point,
and by the time you get into shore and get
someone there to help you, it's maybe too late. So
having someone on shore that can stop the blood is
like really key to your survival. Um. And there's a
(17:20):
kid who was attacked off Cape sam Blasts in two
thousand five who was saved because the doctor and a
nurse happened to be on shore on vacation and they
stopped the bleeding by putting pressure on this leg, which
I assume was where the shark bit him. Yeah. Um,
but if you're in cold water, you actually have something
(17:41):
in your favor and that the cold water is going
to slow down your physical processes, so including your blood loss,
so you'll you won't waste as much time in the
trip to shore, right, So I guess the Pacific Ocean
would be a little better in Oregon surf Oregon. Um.
And then another thing, you're gonna run into his infection
(18:01):
because you just got bitten by a shark and you
rolled around on the beach and people were touching you,
and um, you know they're teenagers and lifeguards and stuff
like that, and they're all dirty and you might get
an infection from it. That seems like it could be
the least of your worries. But can you imagine though,
like surviving the sharks pipe and then dying from an
infection from it, especially in this day, and it's very sad. Okay, So, um,
(18:28):
we've got the We talked about the three deadliest types
of sharks, um, the tiger, the bowl and the great white.
Well there's a reason, um, And they're actually like they
kind of fly in the face of the idea that
they're deadly because they want to kill you and your
whole family and they would come into your house at
night if they could, which is the prevalent view of sharks,
(18:50):
where it wasn't at least until about five years ago.
But these things are extremely widespread. You can find them
all over the world. Um. They're big enough so that
a human, which is a pretty good sized animal itself ourselves, um,
can look like prey, which is something they're interested in. Um.
They're powerful enough that that initial test bite can kill you.
(19:15):
Even though the shark was like, oh this is gross,
like a little reef shark, You're gonna have a little
bit of troubles, but you know, you could probably get
over that. I think the worst thing that can happen
to you underwater, besides losing your life, is one of
those little fish swimming into your urethra. What yeah, that happens? What? Yes,
(19:41):
all right, I'll show you later man. Really yeah, man,
in the I believe the Amazon. What does it do
exactly what I just said? Yeah, but I mean after
that feeds, once it's in there, it feeds. Good lord.
So the other, the other um factor that makes those
three the deadliest sharks is that they're at the top
(20:02):
of the food chain, which means that they're not afraid
of humans. If it knows you're a human, it's not
going to be like, oh god, human, It'll be like,
you know, want to feel a little hiky today. Uh
So those are the why those three are the most dangerous.
But like we said, um, hammer heads, makos, nurse sharks,
reef sharks, black tips, they can all bite when threatened
(20:26):
or by mistake. It happens. Um. I remember when we
swam in the Georgia Aquarium, hammer head sharks were in there,
and I wasn't super worried because people do this all
the time, but it's still at one point I did
look down and see that hammer head shark, you know,
ten feet from me, and think, all right, well, there's
a shark, and this is as close as I've ever
been to one, and it is so weird looking. Actually,
(20:49):
not as close as as someone in a wave when
one time when I was in the ocean. No, just
a shark like jetting through a wave that was crashing
over me and he just flew by. I saw, like
the silhouette. The wave is like Nature's aquai. Yeah, And
I told the guy the lifeguard was like, dude, I
just saw a shark, like really close to me. He said,
how big was it? Said? About three ft long. He's like,
(21:10):
what was he doing? Said, he sort of just surfing
through the wave. He's like it's fine. He's like, we
see him out here all the time. And he was
probably saying it's fine because the shark was probably long
gone by the time you talked to the lifeguard. It's
a good point. They don't like to stay in one
place for very long. And there's even a school of
thought that multiple shark attacks in the location are not
(21:30):
the result of a single shark. They are pretty much
coincidence or there's something that's going on around there that
we're not aware of that's attracting sharks. But it's not
just one shark a rogue shark, and I just made
air quotes which may or may not exist. Yeah, that's that.
They have a couple of shark myths in this article
and the the human um I desire human flesh rogue
(21:53):
shark they think, I mean, they can't prove that that
is not the case, but they certainly think that's de
only not in the case. You know, like they can't
say there are no rogue sharks anywhere. Um, but it's
it's not like it is in the movies where there's
like this one shark named Jaws and he just loves
people and he loves hanging out in the same spot
(22:13):
and just feeding on folks because idiots, Yeah keep coming
out here. Why wouldn't they. But they do do weird things,
um like go way out of their range, like as
far north as New England or way upriver to like Chicago. Um,
that's crazy. And they said if a shark was like
sicker injured, you might could get some pretty unpredictable behaviors.
(22:35):
Well that's truth. Any a cow, you don't want to
be around a sicker injured cow. You know, it's just sad.
It's a big animal and you don't it could do
damage to you. Um, So shark at text. Like we said,
there there are statistics and actually the University of Florida
is the keeper of shark attacks statistics. Yeah yeah, um,
(22:56):
which is just like boo, I know. Um, but there's
between thirty and fifty unprovoked attacks every year worldwide, worldwide,
the United States, um has the most. Typically in Florida
has the most. So Florida is the shark attack capital
of the world. But even still we're talking about thirty
(23:18):
seven a year maybe, and that's at the top end. Yeah,
ten to thirty seven. And millions and millions of people
go to these beaches. But uh, these statistics show that
shark attacks are increasing, and it's because of what you're
just saying. Millions of millions of people go to these beaches,
and more people are going to the beaches, so they
don't think that sharks are getting any more aggressive. There's
(23:39):
just more people out on the ocean. Makes sense, It
does make sense, um, And there's this is kind of
supported in a certain way by um. If you look
at San Francisco, right, there's tons of sea lions or
sea lion habitats in San Francisco, which means there's tons
of great white sharks in San Francisco, but there's not
a tremendous amount of shark attacks in San Francisco because
people stay away from the sea lions. Yeah, and I
(24:02):
don't think San Francisco Bay is like not a lot
of people are swimming in that on a regular basis.
That's true too. That's the other way you can look
at it is be like, well, nobody's getting in there,
so how can there be shark attacks? Plus, people in
San Francisco is smarter than most people. But that kind
of that raises Ah, that raises a pretty good point
if you ask me, Like when you look at shark statistics,
(24:25):
when you hear about a shark attack in the media,
it's just by nature, it's sensational um And the author
of this article of The Grabster took pains to point
out that there's this thing that happens when something sensational
is reported in the media, it becomes it seems to
be much more prevalent than it actually is. What that's
(24:47):
called an availability heuristic, and that's basically surmising that something
is prevalent or around or exists just based on limited
available data. Rather than all of the facts. So a
pretty good example is like this idea that, um, you
are more likely to be struck by lightning, it could
be attacked by a shark. But the thing is is,
(25:09):
if you are anywhere or a thunderstorm is you can
be struck by lightning, But you have to go to
the ocean to be attacked by a shark. That's a
terrible comparison. It is if like my grandmother went to
the ocean for the first time when she was like
in her eighties, the probability of her dying from a
shark attack was zero exactly. She never touched the water.
(25:29):
But have she had your grandmother read a newspaper report
about a shark attack, she probably felt like that was
a threat to her even though she had a zero
chance of being attacked by a shark. Or if my
grandmother was a surfer in Florida, a that would have
been pretty cool and be um heard. Chances of a
(25:49):
shark attack would be much greater than like dying from
a coconut hitting your head, which apparently does not happen
ahead and spill the beans there. Well, that's another shark
myth that one of the media reports shark attack frequency
is often compared to death by coconuts dropping from trees.
I've heard that. Everyone's heard that, right, I had not
heard that. One haven't heard that. Um. I think they
(26:12):
knew it was so asinine they didn't try that out
on me. Um. But the apparently there's out of all
reports of coconut injuries, there's never been a coconut fatality.
And there's like been maybe a couple of reported coconut injuries,
not a year like ever. So the this whole statistic
(26:32):
about coconut deaths is totally made up, urban legend, totally
urban legend. But the point is is that yes, there
are sharks out there. Most likely they're not going to
attack you. But if you are in the ocean where
sharks are, your chances of being attacked are increased. Just
(26:53):
take some precautions if you are a salt life person,
assault life person. Uh. Plus, we should also point out
that even if you do get attacked, chances are you
going to live? Like, how many fatalities out of the
out of the provoked the taxis year, ten are fatal
(27:15):
that's statistics five to ten statistically speaking to five to
ten worldwide a year people die from shark attacks. That's way,
way low. And another another way to point this out
to um about how there's lies, damn lies and statistics
is that most shark attacks take place, you know, in shore,
within a hundred yards of shore, Like you were saying,
(27:36):
it's because it's where everybody is sure, Like if everybody
swam two hundred yards off shore, maybe there'll be more
shark at texts, maybe there'll be fewer. We don't really
know because this is all very limited data. Well, yeah,
they're really hard to study in the wild. Like, as
much as we know about sharks, there's a lot we
don't know, alright, So we tell people how to not
get bitten by sharks. They recommend the experts don't swim
(28:02):
at donn or dusk. They feed more and the water
might be a little harder to tell what you are
during the dimly lit hours. For the same reason, you
shouldn't swim in murky water. Yes, and don't just stay
out of murky water. That's my advice really, because there's
a lot of murky water out there. Yeah, but why
do you want to get in it when there's nice, clean,
(28:22):
clear water. Not all of us have the time or
the money to go to like sugar beaches. Chuck. Okay,
don't swim with open cuts and some people say even
menstruating uh women probably shouldn't swim the ocean. Yes, that
might be taken a little too far, but avoid sandbars
and sea mountains and drop offs because this is where
(28:44):
you're gonna find a lot of wildlife marine wildlife, which
might mean there might be sharks nearby. It definitely means
the sharks don't wear contrasting colors. This can confuse the shark,
and a confused shark is not good to be around.
That's just um, contrasting but really bright ones to remember beachwear. Man,
I know, um, I remember when we were training to
(29:04):
Scooba Dive, my sister of my dad and I. The
guy was talking about how sharks love really bright colors
and like it's almost impossible to find like a black
bathing suit, right, Um they call it yellby yellow. Yellows
called Yebby yellow because apparently sharks like that one more
than others. I'm looking for some some tope swim trunks.
Can you help me out here? Some drab all of green,
(29:28):
really short ones. Um, don't wear shiny jewelry. Uh, you
shouldn't have your jewelry in the ocean anyway, if you
asked me. But that reflection can like might look alluring
to a shark. You never know, which is why you
want this is swimming bricky water. That's a good point.
Don't swim with a bunch of sea lions and seals.
(29:50):
Pretty brainless right there, don't you think. Yeah, totally. I'm
surprised that was even on the list. Don't thrash around.
I think even in the movie Jaws, they talked about
how that kind of thrashing and splashing that you get
on the fourth of July as might attract sharks. So
don't listen to thresh metal in the water. Um, I
(30:11):
don't think you're safe just because you're like knee deep
in water. Yeah, those bullsharks like shallow water and they're aggressive,
So yeah, just be terrified in shallow water too. And finally,
if you're fishing while in the ocean, like standing up
to your waist, don't have your bait and a little
(30:32):
sack tied to your waist floating there next to you.
That's a bad idea. You want to keep your bait
out of the water. You want to keep it. And
I would imagine some sort of drift drift or drip
proof container so that there's no blood just dripping into
the water right in the water. Yeah, uh and um.
Even if you're taking those precautions, you don't want to
(30:52):
stay in the same place or too long. Yeah, I
would fish from the beach. That wasn't the last when
The last bit of advice is don't swim when there
are sharks of the water. Yeah, because you can see
them sometimes. Yeah, And if you do see them, don't
go swimming. That's what I would do too. But if
you're ever in a shark attack, fight back. People who
punched them shark in the old ampule a um, or
(31:16):
bite the shark, or head butt the shark, or do
anything they can to beat the shark up have been
successful in chasing sharks off. Especially I get the impression
great whites are kind of wosses. That's grabs. Are called
them whimps, like they don't they don't like to fight back,
all right, I guess they don't like to get punched
in the ampule of Lonncini. So I guess since we
(31:40):
mentioned jaws a few times, we should finish up with
the famous um Jaws effect as it's known, which was
a big deal in with the book first UM and
then the movie about a people being scared of the
ocean for the first time and be uh, these rich
(32:01):
jerks all of a sudden going out with high tech
equipment and like killing as many sharks as they can
just so they can have a big jaw to hang
on their walls. They had like whole trophy UM tournaments, Yeah,
called monster fishing, I think is what it was called,
where you're just catching kill as many sharks as you could.
And they still have these tournaments. They're all that catch
(32:21):
a release now. UM. But before there it was unfettered
sharks slaughter. UM, because directly because of Jaws. Yeah, and
so much so that I think Peter Benchley even UM
expressed regret later on that something he wrote, you know,
led to this like slaughter of these innocent animals. He
(32:42):
actually became a conservationist. I'm not surprised. I wonder what
Spielberg thinks about all that. UM. I don't know, but
you did find this article written by a marine biologist,
UM who said, yes, this is true. Jaws did have
this terrible act, but it also had a verily positive effect,
(33:03):
and that it totally opened people's eyes to sharks period,
and even the ensuing slaughter that came afterward woke the
shark community people who were studying sharks up and said, whoa, whoa,
We don't know enough about these animals for everybody to
be running around killing them. We need more funding. So
funding went into it because there was public interest, and
(33:25):
there was a whole generation of shark biologists that were
inspired to become shark biologists thanks to Matt Hooper. Yeah,
and this guy himself said that he wanted to be
Matt Hooper. This like the only guy in Jaws that
was like really smart and really knew a lot about
what he was doing. Like Brody obviously was a sympathetic character,
but he didn't dream. He didn't even like being in
(33:47):
the water. But Hooper comes along and with a shot
classes and his beard and all his high tech equipment.
The shark shark You go on the cage plage, goes
in the water. Sharks in the water. So great. Hey,
Plus he looks so cool with his rolled up jeans
and his blue kads. Go Matt Hooper, what a great money.
(34:10):
If you want to learn more about sharks. We have
a ton of stuff out of this site. Um, and
you can type sharks into the haydy search bart house
to works dot com. Don't forget the type of how
sharks work. And on the page zero, it'll bring up
that cool image that shows what you look like to
a shark. What do you always here for? You look
like a sea turtle? Yeah, um, I said search part
(34:31):
of the you did that means this type of the
listening to mail. That's right, Josh, I'm gonna call this um.
But what do you know we have French listeners. Oh yeah,
I'm gonna read one and then I'll read off the
names of the other French cheese who wrote in because
we mentioned in the recent show that we never get
email from French listeners, and we got emails from French people,
(34:53):
and then we got angry emails from people saying whoa
are they supposed to learn English just so they can
listen to your show? Yeah? Yeah, And I was like, damn,
what I met? Everybody take a chill pill, all right,
everybody's listening to the Draft Mettle. Yesterday I was heading
back home after work. I listened to one of the
latest episodes about Lemoss. I guess it's the Musketeers in French. Yeah,
(35:15):
I was joined listening and all of a sudden, out
of the blue, you mentioned that you wondered if there
were any French fans voila, which means here I am
the la oh sorry, voila. My name is Sylvain and
I'm a French fan. My brother Pierre Eve yeah y
(35:37):
v E s like st L. Thank you. It is
surprised we don't have worth place listen to this with
the beautiful uh. We first listened to the Zombie podcast
a couple of years ago in the city of Lyon,
and he and I were simply amazed by this awesome
technique of yours to spread knowledge through legitimate data while
(35:58):
still having fun. Sure it's d of our show. We
have told many friends to listen to your brilliant podcast
and they did as far as I know. Pierre Hula,
who now lives in Paris or Perrys, make sure to
check out every new one that comes out. As for me,
I first moved to New York a year ago as
(36:18):
an exchange student and recently moved to Minneapolis after graduating
and got married to my lovely wife Jill. The Old
Paris to New York to Medeapolis exactly. Um he met
Jill in France. When he points out that Jill as American,
I had the privilege of introducing her to your podcast
and we've been following the guys that were since. Anyways,
thank you guys for all the hints to French things
(36:40):
throughout your podcast. Is delightful to hear you try and
pronounce these difficult French names, but you are doing fantastique.
I never thought that I would actually write in but
it would be a privilege if you read this out loud,
wild privilege, that's right. The friends of how to talk
to us, I know, man uh in short, Josh and Chuck,
you are great. You made my transition to living in
the US, a new and different country much easier. Avec
(37:05):
de mom to you with all the affection of the world.
I really could you look at at a time that
was from Sylvain past, and we also heard from Sophie
and uh m Undine and Eve and Pauline, and some
were French Canadians somewhere from France living in America. And
(37:28):
I think a couple of them were from France proper
like living there and they is no English, and I
think we're pretty good. Awesome, thanks for listening, guys, Thanks
to everybody for listening, but right now, thanks especially to
all of you freend cheese for listening to us. Viva
la France. Yeah, nicely done. Let's see if you want
to send uh some sort of information to Chuck and I. Uh,
(37:51):
it can be information about anything, secret information, public information,
a recipe for something, flat outlies. Okay, now if they're
good only whoppers and home diggers accepted. Um, you can
tweet to us at s y s K podcast. Seriously,
what are you doing? Go follow us? It's awesome. Uh,
(38:13):
Facebook is awesome, Facebook dot com, slash stuff you should know. Yeah, yes,
and before you give our email address, we finally want
to encourage you to go check out Shark Week. H
oh nice Chuck, you know company guy, that's why we
do this. This Discovery channel, animal Planet, they've all got
some good stuff going on. Yeah, well, keep in our
beloved science it's a Shark weeknd Um, let's see. Yeah. Okay, Well,
(38:35):
then uh you can email us too at Stuff podcast
at Discovery dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics. Does it How stuff works dot com
(38:58):
brought to you by the Reinvents, had two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to you stuff you should
know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always
as Charles W. Chuck Bryant and uh, this is stuff
(00:24):
you should do. That's right. A Shark Week edition. Week edition,
Happy Shark Week, Chuck, Happy Shark Week. In honor of
Shark Week, I got you a little present. Wow. Yeah,
what is that? It's the jabber Jaw DVD box set?
Oh is it? That's awesome? Thank you. Yeah, I was
(00:44):
going to get you speed Buggy. Um. If I am correct,
then this should be coming out the Thursday before Shark Week.
Oh good time. Yeah. So Shark Week actually starts in
three days on Sunday. I'm so embarrassed that I give
you president early. That's okay, okay, we we like to
open on Christmas Eve. Here. Um, are you're doing okay?
(01:06):
You're feeling good? Yeah? I thought that we wouldn't be
able to find anything here to do on sharks, but
we never really covered specifically shark attacks. Yeah. I think
it's high time we did, because I think that, Um,
thanks to a growing, growingly, increasingly enlightened, populous, sharks are
(01:26):
losing a lot of the bad rap they had for many,
many years since. And I feel like we're here to
kind of help hasten that along a little bit and
strike fear into your heart. Well, yeah, it depends this. This
This is going to be kind of a roller coaster ride,
because this article is a roller coaster ride. We're talking
about how shark attacks work, um, and we should say
(01:50):
first and foremost, right off the bat, that you can
make a pretty good case almost all shark attacks are
cases of mistaken identity. Yeah. I don't know if this
is a real stat but um, Gary Atkinson, who is
a diver more a big just big mistakes more usually
indicates not a real stat probably, but I bet it's
(02:13):
pretty high because, especially when it's contained in a book
that has an exclamation point in the title. Sharks don't
like people that were not fatty enough for them. They
don't seek us out, they don't like the way we taste,
and when they bite us, they probably think we are
a big turtle or a sea lion. That's just that's
what's going on. And when you look at the photo.
(02:34):
Was it bioluminescence we talked about looking up from the ocean. Yeah,
and you see the silhouette, a dude on a surfboard
or a lady on a surfboard looks an awful lot
like a sea turtle or a sea lion. Yeah. If
you're interested, go to how stuffworks dot com and type
in how sharkitects working. On the first page, there's a
pretty cool little illustration of how a surfer looks like
(02:55):
a sea turtle or or a sea lion. I wouldn't
know what the spinning image. The point is is by
looks you, you may look like a sea lion. Once
the shark figures out that you're not, however, it's probably
going to leave you alone. The great white, we should say,
But of course it may be too late. At that point.
In between those two points, the sharks gonna bite you, probably,
(03:19):
especially if it's a great white. Um. That's pretty much
the number one reason for shark attacks, like we said,
is you are confused for another food source. Um. And
if it is a great white and you are bitten,
and it will probably leave you alone and not come
back right And depending on the severity of that first bite,
(03:42):
that test bite as they call it um, which a
could be um I think your food or be apparently uh,
there's a food chain of sharks. Even well they were,
they will like bite another shark to say, did get
away from me? And I know I didn't hurt you
that bad because your shark. But if you're human, all
of a sudden your midsection is missing. That's another explanation
(04:04):
for shark at texts. Aggression. Yeah, if the sharks are
if they are just kind of messing around with one
another when they do it to you, that hurts confusion.
Um aggression. Hunger is another one too. And if you're
like say a spear fisherman, and you're just laying waste
to like a school of fish coco cocoon, cocoon, right, um,
(04:27):
and the fish are flapping around, they're bleeding, you have
two huge stimulus. There's a stimuli. Yeah, man, this whole
bailout just screw me up. Man. Um that the sharks
can pick up that are that they are specially designed,
if you believe in intelligent, designed to pick up um
(04:48):
blood in the water, and they can smell that stuff
for miles, dude, for miles, and I couldn't find any
actual real stat on that. I think I've seen like
another one of those sharks stats which are always a
little hinky, which is like they can smell blood, like
a drop of blood for five miles or something, right, Yeah,
but they can they can they smell some blood. They
can smell some blood. Yeah. The other way that they're
(05:10):
being attracted is the fish flapping around actually generates electrical impulses,
and the shark have an organ called the ampullae of
Lorenzini you should say this chuck, which is basically a
series of tubes that are connected that connect the exterior
of the skin with um electricity or electrical sensing cells.
(05:35):
That basically it's another way of sharks detecting movement prey.
It's on the snout. So when you have a bunch
of fish dying that it's going to attract the shark.
And if you're standing in the middle of it, the
shark is not really gonna care what you look like
or what you're doing. There's just so worked up it's
gonna bite you and confused. Maybe, uh, what I learned
from the sharkles you don't want to confuse the shark. No,
(05:56):
and you don't want to be standing in the middle
of their um, their prey, like a big massive their
prey um. And also too, I know we're pointed this
out before in the I think, how to defend yourself,
but the Apulia Laurentzen gonna bunch that one. It's in
the snout. So that's why they tell you to like
trying head butter, punch the shark in the mouth. Now
(06:19):
you imagine get taking a sock right to the electrical cells.
I can't imagine delivering that punch, like having the wherewithal
to be like, oh, I'm supposed to punch you, now
I'm missing an arm. I think you. I think you
might surprise yourself. You just react. If you have a
healthy ego, then you would. Yeah, you'd probably punch that shark. Um.
(06:41):
I don't. You can't say that. You just haven't been
put in any life threatening situations yet. Okay yet, alright,
so hold on, hold on, there's another good explanation for
why sharks attack defense. Oh they feel threatened, Yeah by humans.
Oh the divers that tug on the nurse sharks. Yeah,
the nurse sharks a big one that likes to attack
when somebody pulls on its tail. Yeah, and why people
(07:04):
do this, I don't know, but apparently the nurse shark
is kind of funny and that it sort of will
be still at the bottom of the ocean and it
wears a wig and the old nurses cap because you're like,
I gotta push that thing around exactly. But apparently there
are some divers who like, well like tug on their
tail because they think it's just some harmless game, and
then they find out that the hand because the nurse
(07:27):
shark is generous with its bite, right. Um, so because
of jerks like that pulling in a nurse shark tails. Um,
there is a division in the statistics of shark attacks
provoked and unprovoked jerks and what the heck happened? Or
(07:47):
stupid people and what the heck happened? Why do you
provoke a shark? Um? So let's talk about what goes
down with the shark attack. Okay, here's the fair warning part.
We're going. Um, we has been climbing a hill, now
we're about to go down the hill. There are roller
coaster ride Okay, okay, um, well what yeah, this is
when you have fear? Should I read the Jaws thing?
(08:10):
If you want, I might as well. Okay, all right,
this is Quint from Jaws. The thing about a shark
is he's got lifeless eyes, black eyes like a dolls eyes.
When he comes at you, he doesn't even seem to
be living until he bites you, and those black eyes
roll over a white and then dot dot dot, Thank you.
(08:33):
You're the rich little of this podcast. That was not
a good Quint, but that's what it is. In my
top ten, used to be in my top five all
time movies. Jaws. Yeah what knocked it out? I don't know.
Just over the years, you know, things built up. Jaws
falls behind a little bit. Yeah what what knocked it
out of the I don't know specifically what knocked it out?
I'm sorry, but Jaws circuits was what of it was? Um?
(08:56):
I mean every time this movie is on, I will
watch it and I do not get sick of It's
one of my favorites. So here's where we scare the
crap out of you, because usually you will learn that
you are being attacked by a shark by getting run
into by a car, is what some people have said.
It feels like it depends again, it depends on the shark.
(09:17):
So we should point out The three most deadly sharks
are great whites, tigers, and bull sharks bulls. If you
get hit by what feels like a truck, it's probably
a bull shark. If all of a sudden you're missing
an arm, it was probably a great white or possibly
a tiger. But it seems like bulls and tigers are
the ones that bump you first, and the great white
takes the test bite. Yeah, and bulls are known to
(09:40):
for being one of the more aggressive as far as
like usually a shark will bite you and then kind
of leave you right and the bull shark will is
one of the only ones that will come back repeatedly.
Or someone's trying to save you, they might attack them.
They'll they'll hang around a little more than I'm comfortable
with one are the other big problems with the bull
shark is that they attack in shallow water. Ye, so
(10:00):
if you see a bullshark, just run um. So what's
going on here with the test bite, Well, a could
be a test bight b When they feed on like
a sea lion, they don't just go in there and
like feed on it like a frenzy until it's all gone.
They bite it and then let it bleed to death,
and then once the animal is dead, then they'll go
(10:23):
an inchow down. So pretty frightening if you're a person
it is. So you're saying that, Um, it's like getting
hit by a truck. Let's say it's a bullet shark attack. Um.
That's a quote from Don Shauman, who was pregnant as
a lifeguard when she was attacked in Florida. Um. And
she survived because she wrote a book about it. Another
(10:46):
person who wrote a book, I believe uh is surfer
Kenny doot doo u d t do. And he was
doing his surfing thing in nineteen seventy nine in Oregon.
I didn't know you surfed Oregon. Yeah, sure, surf Oregon. Well,
I mean you got to have the wet suits. It's
cold outher but it's cold in southern California too specific. Yea. Anyway,
(11:11):
Kenny Do was surfing and all of a sudden, Um,
he was a shark. This is probably a great white
because all of a sudden he was in the jaws
of a shark and it had it had him and
his surfboard in its bite, and the surfboard probably saved
his life because that shark was originally trying to like
(11:32):
that because he couldn't get that full bite down. He's
apparently very determined, and he kept trying and trying for
about twenty seconds. By Duke's testament, dude was totally out
of the water. He was pulled under the water and
the shark couldn't get him under because again the surfboard.
So he lived another day. He lived to see another day,
although he said that the doctor who fixed him up
(11:54):
um stopped counting his stitches when he reached five hundred,
which is a pretty patient doctor, but also kind of lazy,
like why do you get there and just be like, oh,
you know what, forget it? He yeah, he took them
all out at about two fifty because he forgot where
he was and started over. And this is the guy
that said he heard his like ribs breaking right, all right.
(12:15):
You have to remember people, roller coaster. This is extremely rare. Chuck.
We talked about how like the great white feeds bite,
leave you to blie to death, come back and feed
on you. Um. We talked about the bull shark. It
hits and then circles, hitching in circles, and then eventually
(12:35):
it's gonna bite you and like you said, like it'll
attack somebody coming to try to rescue you. The tiger
shark is um one of the deadliest ones, especially in
the deep sea. Um. Apparently they like to pick off
the week and the wounded like um, and they'll circle
for a while and then they'll bump and then they'll bite.
(12:57):
And there's this very famous story of the U S
sus Indianapolis that was sunk in the Pacific in nineteen five.
The story quintells, Oh, yeah, he was one of the dudes. Okay,
this character Okay, not Robert Shaw right, um, although, man,
that would have been some serious would it be method
or character? I don't even know real life? Yeah, I
(13:21):
guess it's not even acting. Um. So in in nine
Indianapolis Thanking, a thousand crew members survived the sinking, but
by the time the rescuers showed up a few days later,
there were only three seventeen men left thanks to shark attacks,
and these tigers were just circling them and like, according
(13:41):
to quinn story, which is pretty accurate, just like you know,
you'd be talking to a guy and all of a
sudden he's gone and you're just waiting, and it didn't
get called in because it was wasn't it They were
delivering the bomb? Oh right, yeah, is that right? They
were delivering the bomb, which is why it was such
a top secret operation. And because it was top secret,
it didn't get called in and reported missing for like
(14:02):
a couple of days. Even so, it was pretty scary stuff. Yeah,
all over, So that means that there's a undetonated nuclear
bomb at the bottom of the Pacific. Actually, I don't
know that part. I would guess. I mean, if they
were delivering it and it was sunk, I have to
look into that or maybe that. I don't think Steven
Spielberg made that up. I think that's real. Yeah, it's
(14:24):
definitely in the movie, though Steven Spielberg is not known
for making things up. What there's like aliens et s.
So you did say something kind of important here about
um Finally, tiger sharks out in the deep sea are
a little more dangerous. Most people get attacked closer to shore.
And that doesn't mean you should be afraid because close
(14:46):
to shore is dangerous. It's just because that's where the
people are. Yes, you know, so most people don't swim out,
you know, in the the middle of the deep blue ocean. Yeah,
this guy wouldn't know. Well, that's the that's part of
the point. Um so um, back down another another hill.
It's a little bit a little bit scary now because
we're gonna talk about what happens during the shark attack
(15:08):
or what the shark attack does to your person. Well,
one surgeon who operated on a teenage surfer in Australia
said that when her leg was lopped off, he described
as guillotine like. So it can be very swift in
the case of a limb, and very clean, and all
of a sudden there's just no arm there anymore. Forty
(15:30):
pounds of pressure per square inch with his teeth, the
size of a shot glass. If you listen to Richard Drynus,
that's what he says in the movie. I okay, have
you ever seen johs Okay, I don't know if I
if it was ever in my top ten, it's like
up there for sure, it's such a great movie, But
I don't okay. I can recognize when you say things
(15:53):
like quint and size of a shot class, shot class,
and okay Cooper and all that stuff. Do you remember
what Roy what's his name? Yeah, what his character was,
Chief Brodie he dream brody uh noady Um. So if
(16:13):
you don't lose a limb, you're probably gonna get like
a large piece of your flesh removed, like from your thigh,
from room mid section or something like that. Yeah. Usually
if you're getting a type by a good size great white,
it's gonna get you in your midsection. Like you said,
uh and uh. You may end up like a guy
named Rodney Fox who was a spear fisherman who was
attacked near Adelaide, Australia, nineteen sixty three and basically he
(16:37):
was bitten from shoulder to hip and a lot of
them was missing after that. Have you seen pictures of
that guy? Yeah? I did when I researched the shark
stuff a couple of years ago. It's like a shark
bite missing from him. Yeah, like a little crescent and
out of the side of him. I don't know if
little is the right word. Well, yeah, it's not little. Yeah,
that's a pretty startling time life photo. I think you're
(16:59):
probably gonna die by bleeding to death because you're gonna
be suffering from massive amounts of blood loss at this point,
and by the time you get into shore and get
someone there to help you, it's maybe too late. So
having someone on shore that can stop the blood is
like really key to your survival. Um. And there's a
(17:20):
kid who was attacked off Cape sam Blasts in two
thousand five who was saved because the doctor and a
nurse happened to be on shore on vacation and they
stopped the bleeding by putting pressure on this leg, which
I assume was where the shark bit him. Yeah. Um,
but if you're in cold water, you actually have something
(17:41):
in your favor and that the cold water is going
to slow down your physical processes, so including your blood loss,
so you'll you won't waste as much time in the
trip to shore, right, So I guess the Pacific Ocean
would be a little better in Oregon surf Oregon. Um.
And then another thing, you're gonna run into his infection
(18:01):
because you just got bitten by a shark and you
rolled around on the beach and people were touching you,
and um, you know they're teenagers and lifeguards and stuff
like that, and they're all dirty and you might get
an infection from it. That seems like it could be
the least of your worries. But can you imagine though,
like surviving the sharks pipe and then dying from an
infection from it, especially in this day, and it's very sad. Okay, So, um,
(18:28):
we've got the We talked about the three deadliest types
of sharks, um, the tiger, the bowl and the great white.
Well there's a reason, um, And they're actually like they
kind of fly in the face of the idea that
they're deadly because they want to kill you and your
whole family and they would come into your house at
night if they could, which is the prevalent view of sharks,
(18:50):
where it wasn't at least until about five years ago.
But these things are extremely widespread. You can find them
all over the world. Um. They're big enough so that
a human, which is a pretty good sized animal itself ourselves, um,
can look like prey, which is something they're interested in. Um.
They're powerful enough that that initial test bite can kill you.
(19:15):
Even though the shark was like, oh this is gross,
like a little reef shark, You're gonna have a little
bit of troubles, but you know, you could probably get
over that. I think the worst thing that can happen
to you underwater, besides losing your life, is one of
those little fish swimming into your urethra. What yeah, that happens? What? Yes,
(19:41):
all right, I'll show you later man. Really yeah, man,
in the I believe the Amazon. What does it do
exactly what I just said? Yeah, but I mean after
that feeds, once it's in there, it feeds. Good lord.
So the other, the other um factor that makes those
three the deadliest sharks is that they're at the top
(20:02):
of the food chain, which means that they're not afraid
of humans. If it knows you're a human, it's not
going to be like, oh god, human, It'll be like,
you know, want to feel a little hiky today. Uh
So those are the why those three are the most dangerous.
But like we said, um, hammer heads, makos, nurse sharks,
reef sharks, black tips, they can all bite when threatened
(20:26):
or by mistake. It happens. Um. I remember when we
swam in the Georgia Aquarium, hammer head sharks were in there,
and I wasn't super worried because people do this all
the time, but it's still at one point I did
look down and see that hammer head shark, you know,
ten feet from me, and think, all right, well, there's
a shark, and this is as close as I've ever
been to one, and it is so weird looking. Actually,
(20:49):
not as close as as someone in a wave when
one time when I was in the ocean. No, just
a shark like jetting through a wave that was crashing
over me and he just flew by. I saw, like
the silhouette. The wave is like Nature's aquai. Yeah, And
I told the guy the lifeguard was like, dude, I
just saw a shark, like really close to me. He said,
how big was it? Said? About three ft long. He's like,
(21:10):
what was he doing? Said, he sort of just surfing
through the wave. He's like it's fine. He's like, we
see him out here all the time. And he was
probably saying it's fine because the shark was probably long
gone by the time you talked to the lifeguard. It's
a good point. They don't like to stay in one
place for very long. And there's even a school of
thought that multiple shark attacks in the location are not
(21:30):
the result of a single shark. They are pretty much
coincidence or there's something that's going on around there that
we're not aware of that's attracting sharks. But it's not
just one shark a rogue shark, and I just made
air quotes which may or may not exist. Yeah, that's that.
They have a couple of shark myths in this article
and the the human um I desire human flesh rogue
(21:53):
shark they think, I mean, they can't prove that that
is not the case, but they certainly think that's de
only not in the case. You know, like they can't
say there are no rogue sharks anywhere. Um, but it's
it's not like it is in the movies where there's
like this one shark named Jaws and he just loves
people and he loves hanging out in the same spot
(22:13):
and just feeding on folks because idiots, Yeah keep coming
out here. Why wouldn't they. But they do do weird things,
um like go way out of their range, like as
far north as New England or way upriver to like Chicago. Um,
that's crazy. And they said if a shark was like
sicker injured, you might could get some pretty unpredictable behaviors.
(22:35):
Well that's truth. Any a cow, you don't want to
be around a sicker injured cow. You know, it's just sad.
It's a big animal and you don't it could do
damage to you. Um, So shark at text. Like we said,
there there are statistics and actually the University of Florida
is the keeper of shark attacks statistics. Yeah yeah, um,
(22:56):
which is just like boo, I know. Um, but there's
between thirty and fifty unprovoked attacks every year worldwide, worldwide,
the United States, um has the most. Typically in Florida
has the most. So Florida is the shark attack capital
of the world. But even still we're talking about thirty
(23:18):
seven a year maybe, and that's at the top end. Yeah,
ten to thirty seven. And millions and millions of people
go to these beaches. But uh, these statistics show that
shark attacks are increasing, and it's because of what you're
just saying. Millions of millions of people go to these beaches,
and more people are going to the beaches, so they
don't think that sharks are getting any more aggressive. There's
(23:39):
just more people out on the ocean. Makes sense, It
does make sense, um, And there's this is kind of
supported in a certain way by um. If you look
at San Francisco, right, there's tons of sea lions or
sea lion habitats in San Francisco, which means there's tons
of great white sharks in San Francisco, but there's not
a tremendous amount of shark attacks in San Francisco because
people stay away from the sea lions. Yeah, and I
(24:02):
don't think San Francisco Bay is like not a lot
of people are swimming in that on a regular basis.
That's true too. That's the other way you can look
at it is be like, well, nobody's getting in there,
so how can there be shark attacks? Plus, people in
San Francisco is smarter than most people. But that kind
of that raises Ah, that raises a pretty good point
if you ask me, Like when you look at shark statistics,
(24:25):
when you hear about a shark attack in the media,
it's just by nature, it's sensational um And the author
of this article of The Grabster took pains to point
out that there's this thing that happens when something sensational
is reported in the media, it becomes it seems to
be much more prevalent than it actually is. What that's
(24:47):
called an availability heuristic, and that's basically surmising that something
is prevalent or around or exists just based on limited
available data. Rather than all of the facts. So a
pretty good example is like this idea that, um, you
are more likely to be struck by lightning, it could
be attacked by a shark. But the thing is is,
(25:09):
if you are anywhere or a thunderstorm is you can
be struck by lightning, But you have to go to
the ocean to be attacked by a shark. That's a
terrible comparison. It is if like my grandmother went to
the ocean for the first time when she was like
in her eighties, the probability of her dying from a
shark attack was zero exactly. She never touched the water.
(25:29):
But have she had your grandmother read a newspaper report
about a shark attack, she probably felt like that was
a threat to her even though she had a zero
chance of being attacked by a shark. Or if my
grandmother was a surfer in Florida, a that would have
been pretty cool and be um heard. Chances of a
(25:49):
shark attack would be much greater than like dying from
a coconut hitting your head, which apparently does not happen
ahead and spill the beans there. Well, that's another shark
myth that one of the media reports shark attack frequency
is often compared to death by coconuts dropping from trees.
I've heard that. Everyone's heard that, right, I had not
heard that. One haven't heard that. Um. I think they
(26:12):
knew it was so asinine they didn't try that out
on me. Um. But the apparently there's out of all
reports of coconut injuries, there's never been a coconut fatality.
And there's like been maybe a couple of reported coconut injuries,
not a year like ever. So the this whole statistic
(26:32):
about coconut deaths is totally made up, urban legend, totally
urban legend. But the point is is that yes, there
are sharks out there. Most likely they're not going to
attack you. But if you are in the ocean where
sharks are, your chances of being attacked are increased. Just
(26:53):
take some precautions if you are a salt life person,
assault life person. Uh. Plus, we should also point out
that even if you do get attacked, chances are you
going to live? Like, how many fatalities out of the
out of the provoked the taxis year, ten are fatal
(27:15):
that's statistics five to ten statistically speaking to five to
ten worldwide a year people die from shark attacks. That's way,
way low. And another another way to point this out
to um about how there's lies, damn lies and statistics
is that most shark attacks take place, you know, in shore,
within a hundred yards of shore, Like you were saying,
(27:36):
it's because it's where everybody is sure, Like if everybody
swam two hundred yards off shore, maybe there'll be more
shark at texts, maybe there'll be fewer. We don't really
know because this is all very limited data. Well, yeah,
they're really hard to study in the wild. Like, as
much as we know about sharks, there's a lot we
don't know, alright, So we tell people how to not
get bitten by sharks. They recommend the experts don't swim
(28:02):
at donn or dusk. They feed more and the water
might be a little harder to tell what you are
during the dimly lit hours. For the same reason, you
shouldn't swim in murky water. Yes, and don't just stay
out of murky water. That's my advice really, because there's
a lot of murky water out there. Yeah, but why
do you want to get in it when there's nice, clean,
(28:22):
clear water. Not all of us have the time or
the money to go to like sugar beaches. Chuck. Okay,
don't swim with open cuts and some people say even
menstruating uh women probably shouldn't swim the ocean. Yes, that
might be taken a little too far, but avoid sandbars
and sea mountains and drop offs because this is where
(28:44):
you're gonna find a lot of wildlife marine wildlife, which
might mean there might be sharks nearby. It definitely means
the sharks don't wear contrasting colors. This can confuse the shark,
and a confused shark is not good to be around.
That's just um, contrasting but really bright ones to remember beachwear. Man,
I know, um, I remember when we were training to
(29:04):
Scooba Dive, my sister of my dad and I. The
guy was talking about how sharks love really bright colors
and like it's almost impossible to find like a black
bathing suit, right, Um they call it yellby yellow. Yellows
called Yebby yellow because apparently sharks like that one more
than others. I'm looking for some some tope swim trunks.
Can you help me out here? Some drab all of green,
(29:28):
really short ones. Um, don't wear shiny jewelry. Uh, you
shouldn't have your jewelry in the ocean anyway, if you
asked me. But that reflection can like might look alluring
to a shark. You never know, which is why you
want this is swimming bricky water. That's a good point.
Don't swim with a bunch of sea lions and seals.
(29:50):
Pretty brainless right there, don't you think. Yeah, totally. I'm
surprised that was even on the list. Don't thrash around.
I think even in the movie Jaws, they talked about
how that kind of thrashing and splashing that you get
on the fourth of July as might attract sharks. So
don't listen to thresh metal in the water. Um, I
(30:11):
don't think you're safe just because you're like knee deep
in water. Yeah, those bullsharks like shallow water and they're aggressive,
So yeah, just be terrified in shallow water too. And finally,
if you're fishing while in the ocean, like standing up
to your waist, don't have your bait and a little
(30:32):
sack tied to your waist floating there next to you.
That's a bad idea. You want to keep your bait
out of the water. You want to keep it. And
I would imagine some sort of drift drift or drip
proof container so that there's no blood just dripping into
the water right in the water. Yeah, uh and um.
Even if you're taking those precautions, you don't want to
(30:52):
stay in the same place or too long. Yeah, I
would fish from the beach. That wasn't the last when
The last bit of advice is don't swim when there
are sharks of the water. Yeah, because you can see
them sometimes. Yeah, And if you do see them, don't
go swimming. That's what I would do too. But if
you're ever in a shark attack, fight back. People who
punched them shark in the old ampule a um, or
(31:16):
bite the shark, or head butt the shark, or do
anything they can to beat the shark up have been
successful in chasing sharks off. Especially I get the impression
great whites are kind of wosses. That's grabs. Are called
them whimps, like they don't they don't like to fight back,
all right, I guess they don't like to get punched
in the ampule of Lonncini. So I guess since we
(31:40):
mentioned jaws a few times, we should finish up with
the famous um Jaws effect as it's known, which was
a big deal in with the book first UM and
then the movie about a people being scared of the
ocean for the first time and be uh, these rich
(32:01):
jerks all of a sudden going out with high tech
equipment and like killing as many sharks as they can
just so they can have a big jaw to hang
on their walls. They had like whole trophy UM tournaments, Yeah,
called monster fishing, I think is what it was called,
where you're just catching kill as many sharks as you could.
And they still have these tournaments. They're all that catch
(32:21):
a release now. UM. But before there it was unfettered
sharks slaughter. UM, because directly because of Jaws. Yeah, and
so much so that I think Peter Benchley even UM
expressed regret later on that something he wrote, you know,
led to this like slaughter of these innocent animals. He
(32:42):
actually became a conservationist. I'm not surprised. I wonder what
Spielberg thinks about all that. UM. I don't know, but
you did find this article written by a marine biologist,
UM who said, yes, this is true. Jaws did have
this terrible act, but it also had a verily positive effect,
(33:03):
and that it totally opened people's eyes to sharks period,
and even the ensuing slaughter that came afterward woke the
shark community people who were studying sharks up and said, whoa, whoa,
We don't know enough about these animals for everybody to
be running around killing them. We need more funding. So
funding went into it because there was public interest, and
(33:25):
there was a whole generation of shark biologists that were
inspired to become shark biologists thanks to Matt Hooper. Yeah,
and this guy himself said that he wanted to be
Matt Hooper. This like the only guy in Jaws that
was like really smart and really knew a lot about
what he was doing. Like Brody obviously was a sympathetic character,
but he didn't dream. He didn't even like being in
(33:47):
the water. But Hooper comes along and with a shot
classes and his beard and all his high tech equipment.
The shark shark You go on the cage plage, goes
in the water. Sharks in the water. So great. Hey,
Plus he looks so cool with his rolled up jeans
and his blue kads. Go Matt Hooper, what a great money.
(34:10):
If you want to learn more about sharks. We have
a ton of stuff out of this site. Um, and
you can type sharks into the haydy search bart house
to works dot com. Don't forget the type of how
sharks work. And on the page zero, it'll bring up
that cool image that shows what you look like to
a shark. What do you always here for? You look
like a sea turtle? Yeah, um, I said search part
(34:31):
of the you did that means this type of the
listening to mail. That's right, Josh, I'm gonna call this um.
But what do you know we have French listeners. Oh yeah,
I'm gonna read one and then I'll read off the
names of the other French cheese who wrote in because
we mentioned in the recent show that we never get
email from French listeners, and we got emails from French people,
(34:53):
and then we got angry emails from people saying whoa
are they supposed to learn English just so they can
listen to your show? Yeah? Yeah, And I was like, damn,
what I met? Everybody take a chill pill, all right,
everybody's listening to the Draft Mettle. Yesterday I was heading
back home after work. I listened to one of the
latest episodes about Lemoss. I guess it's the Musketeers in French. Yeah,
(35:15):
I was joined listening and all of a sudden, out
of the blue, you mentioned that you wondered if there
were any French fans voila, which means here I am
the la oh sorry, voila. My name is Sylvain and
I'm a French fan. My brother Pierre Eve yeah y
(35:37):
v E s like st L. Thank you. It is
surprised we don't have worth place listen to this with
the beautiful uh. We first listened to the Zombie podcast
a couple of years ago in the city of Lyon,
and he and I were simply amazed by this awesome
technique of yours to spread knowledge through legitimate data while
(35:58):
still having fun. Sure it's d of our show. We
have told many friends to listen to your brilliant podcast
and they did as far as I know. Pierre Hula,
who now lives in Paris or Perrys, make sure to
check out every new one that comes out. As for me,
I first moved to New York a year ago as
(36:18):
an exchange student and recently moved to Minneapolis after graduating
and got married to my lovely wife Jill. The Old
Paris to New York to Medeapolis exactly. Um he met
Jill in France. When he points out that Jill as American,
I had the privilege of introducing her to your podcast
and we've been following the guys that were since. Anyways,
thank you guys for all the hints to French things
(36:40):
throughout your podcast. Is delightful to hear you try and
pronounce these difficult French names, but you are doing fantastique.
I never thought that I would actually write in but
it would be a privilege if you read this out loud,
wild privilege, that's right. The friends of how to talk
to us, I know, man uh in short, Josh and Chuck,
you are great. You made my transition to living in
the US, a new and different country much easier. Avec
(37:05):
de mom to you with all the affection of the world.
I really could you look at at a time that
was from Sylvain past, and we also heard from Sophie
and uh m Undine and Eve and Pauline, and some
were French Canadians somewhere from France living in America. And
(37:28):
I think a couple of them were from France proper
like living there and they is no English, and I
think we're pretty good. Awesome, thanks for listening, guys, Thanks
to everybody for listening, but right now, thanks especially to
all of you freend cheese for listening to us. Viva
la France. Yeah, nicely done. Let's see if you want
to send uh some sort of information to Chuck and I. Uh,
(37:51):
it can be information about anything, secret information, public information,
a recipe for something, flat outlies. Okay, now if they're
good only whoppers and home diggers accepted. Um, you can
tweet to us at s y s K podcast. Seriously,
what are you doing? Go follow us? It's awesome. Uh,
(38:13):
Facebook is awesome, Facebook dot com, slash stuff you should know. Yeah, yes,
and before you give our email address, we finally want
to encourage you to go check out Shark Week. H
oh nice Chuck, you know company guy, that's why we
do this. This Discovery channel, animal Planet, they've all got
some good stuff going on. Yeah, well, keep in our
beloved science it's a Shark weeknd Um, let's see. Yeah. Okay, Well,
(38:35):
then uh you can email us too at Stuff podcast
at Discovery dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics. Does it How stuff works dot com
(38:58):
brought to you by the Reinvents, had two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready, are you
Stuff You Should Know News
Hosts And Creators
Josh Clark
Chuck Bryant
Show Links
Order Our BookRSSStoreSYSK ArmyAboutPopular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Death, Sex & Money
Anna Sale explores the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.