Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
This is Later with Lee Matthews,the Lee Matthews Podcast. More what you
hear weekday afternoon is on the Drive. It is Shark Week, one of
the more exciting and fun weeks ontelevision when it comes to the Discovery Channel.
John Cena is not disappointing this weekwith Shark Week, but a lot
of what you're going to be seeingis brought to you by Kendall burna documentary
(00:27):
filmmaker and environmental scientist from southern Californiawho specializes an adventure in wildlife TV productions.
Welcome Kendall Burna. Hi Lee,thanks for having me. I am
a dive master in my own rightand have done a lot of swimming with
sharks, whether it's nurse, whitetip, black tip, gray reef.
(00:49):
One of the things that I've learnedin particular about sharks is is if you
leave them alone, they'll leave youalone. Yes, I would agree with
that. I always say very cool. By the way that you're a diver,
that's awesome. But I always saythat if I have a mask on
and can make eye contacts with ashark in any way, I'm always very
(01:12):
vugerable knowing that I can read itsbehavior, and it can also know that
I'm a predator. I think whenpeople are scared of sharks, it's usually
more a case of mistaken identity.Yeah, if they're splashing around and looking
like prey. So anyone who's evergotten a chance to swim with sharks in
(01:32):
a snorkel or scuba diving way likeyou just described, I think has been
able to see really how cool ofanimals they are. I was my most
interesting encounter, if you will.I was diving Molikini Crater in Hawaii,
and that is where the oxygen contentof the water is such that they don't
have to swim to breathe, andso many of the white tip females will
(01:57):
wait on the bottom for the male'sto come along. And I encountered one
just waiting calmly on the bottom,and I was trying to get some good
video of her, and the closerI got, of course, the more
she moved away. And it waswhen those pec fins went down and she
went into a deep swath of aswim. I said, all right,
I'm aggravating her. I'm backing offnow. So if you if you give
(02:21):
them the space they need, theywill leave you alone and Curiously, I've
noticed similar behavior in fresh water bass. Yeah, this sounds like a really
cool trip that you got to do. That's actually really interesting. I've never
seen that where they just are insuch a high oxygen environment that they didn't
(02:42):
have to swim to that level.But you're so yeah, you're so right,
You're so right. Sharks generally don'tlike, especially something like a white
tip, something kind of size likethat reef sharks or pelgics out in in
Hawaii. Yeah, they really don'tlike when you come towards them. You
(03:02):
know. I think because our eyesare at the front of our head,
we're very clearly a predator, andwhen we put a mask on like we
usually do underwater, our eyes lookeager, and then if our bodies are
going straight down in the water,call and we look even bigger to them.
So I think sharks are also veryscared of us when they see us
(03:23):
in that environment. But I've alsohad some sharks be more curious if if
it's a shark week thing where I'vepositioned myself closer to bait, But usually
they know what is and is inpray for them. And there's actually a
really cool thing that I've noticed thatthe make ups have done when they're going
(03:45):
to get the bait is they don'tfully close their eyes. So a shark
that's going to attack something would closeits eyes knowing that that it might get
scratched or there might be a fightback. The sharks didn't close their eyes
when they went to bite the bait, so they knew it was dead.
They knew it was bait. Theyknew what we were doing. I've come
(04:06):
to learn that sharks, especially someof these bigger ones like macOS in the
episode that I just did, arevery intelligent and they know what is and
is not their food. Kendall burnaswith us, she's in the belly of
the beasts, both literally and figurativelywhen it comes to a great white sharks
and feeding and monster hammerheads some ofthe episodes of Shark Week on Discovery Channel
(04:30):
all week long. And she's alsothe founder of a conservation nonprofit organization,
Beyond the Reef, which tell usa little about that organization. Yeah,
So, Beyond the Reef is anocean conservation nonprofit based out of the British
Virgin Islands. It was formed afterHurricanes Irma and Maria really devastated the islands
(04:55):
and a lot of the Caribbean regionafter twenty seventeen. So we initially formed
it as a response to some ofthe underwater devastation that happened, but also
there were a lot of garlic vesselson the coastline after the hurricanes, like
a large steel ship and even airplanes, and we decided that it would be
really cool to turn them into underwaterart projects and recycle them as artificial reefs.
(05:19):
So the hundred foot ship we turnedinto an underwater pirate ship and brought
it out to an area of thereef that needed some revitalizing. And the
airplanes we actually turned into sharks,because if you think about it, some
airplanes look a bit like sharks.Might be hard for you to visualize now,
but we called them the Shark planeos, which is a very silly name.
(05:43):
But the next time you see anairplane, think about how much it
looks like a shark, especially ifyou just add a few extra fins onto
it. So we created these thesereally cool art project artificial reefs and sunk
them in the British Virgin Islands,where they still are, and that then
led to other ocean conservation work there. We realized that there were a lot
(06:03):
of humpbacks migrating through the region thatno one knew about. We realized that
it was also a hot spot forsharks pupping and breeding grounds and really important
to the Greater Caribbean region. Werealized that lemon sharks were actually going back
to a particular island there called Anagatato have their pups. They think that
(06:28):
lemon sharks might be like salmon,where they returned back to where they were
born in order to have their pups, which is really fascinating and I don't
believe any other shark species does that. So we just are trying to get
baseline research in order to have anunderstanding to then lead to conservation. It's
really hard to protect things if youdon't know anything about them. I'm sorry,
(06:50):
I didn't know. Didn't realize therewere humpbacks and that part of the
Caribbean. Certainly I knew they werein the Pacific and migratory in the Pacific.
Yeah, it's there are so manyhumpbacks actually on the backside of this
island called Anagata, And what beyondthe reef has been doing is taking tail
(07:11):
fluke IDs. So if we canget a photograph of a whales' tail fluke.
We upload it into some AI softwareand it will match it with any
other sales fluke that's ever been photographedfor science. And it is actually crazy.
Lee. We did not think.We were like, Okay, we're
going out into the middle of theocean taking a photo. What are the
(07:33):
chances that someone's photographed it before.We are finding that it's almost like half
of the whales that we get aproper tail fluke idea on, which can
be tricky. It requires the rightlighting and it requires the whale to do
the right show at the end beforeit goes down. But we're finding that
almost half of them have actually beenphotographed before, and a lot of times
(07:56):
it was last seen in like twothousand and three Iceland or wow, two
thousand and five Greenland, so it'sbeen you know, twenty years nearly since
it's been seen before. But whatthat helps us do is track its migration
patterns and also see that maybe there'scertain pods that return each year. If
(08:18):
we collaborate with other scientists in theCaribbean, we're finding that, you know,
in the Turks and Caicos, they'regetting a pod that's often coming from
Canada. Our pod is often comingfrom Iceland, Finland, so it's really
really cool, instant gratification signed tosee with a lot of this, And
same with the sharks. You know, we get to put satellite tags on
(08:39):
them and just on our phones tracktheir whereabouts. So you know, I
now have a Tiger sharks friend onmy phone that I can wake up in
the morning and see where it's at. That's that's great, and that's my
next dream vacation is a live aboardwhere we can do some diving with some
of the humpback whales. No matterwhere that may be Pacific Atlantic, I
don't care, but that's that's onmy list, as should be yours.
(09:01):
To watch Shark Week with the videoand commentary of Kelly of Kendall, Berna
tonight and all this week on DiscoveryNetwork. I could talk to you all
day, but thanks for joining us. Thank you, wee appreciate it.
Thanks for listening to Later with LeeMatthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and
(09:22):
remember to listen to The Drive Liveweekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation
This is Later with Lee Matthews,the Lee Matthews Podcast. More what you
hear weekday afternoon is on the Drive. It is Shark Week, one of
the more exciting and fun weeks ontelevision when it comes to the Discovery Channel.
John Cena is not disappointing this weekwith Shark Week, but a lot
of what you're going to be seeingis brought to you by Kendall burna documentary
(00:27):
filmmaker and environmental scientist from southern Californiawho specializes an adventure in wildlife TV productions.
Welcome Kendall Burna. Hi Lee,thanks for having me. I am
a dive master in my own rightand have done a lot of swimming with
sharks, whether it's nurse, whitetip, black tip, gray reef.
(00:49):
One of the things that I've learnedin particular about sharks is is if you
leave them alone, they'll leave youalone. Yes, I would agree with
that. I always say very cool. By the way that you're a diver,
that's awesome. But I always saythat if I have a mask on
and can make eye contacts with ashark in any way, I'm always very
(01:12):
vugerable knowing that I can read itsbehavior, and it can also know that
I'm a predator. I think whenpeople are scared of sharks, it's usually
more a case of mistaken identity.Yeah, if they're splashing around and looking
like prey. So anyone who's evergotten a chance to swim with sharks in
(01:32):
a snorkel or scuba diving way likeyou just described, I think has been
able to see really how cool ofanimals they are. I was my most
interesting encounter, if you will.I was diving Molikini Crater in Hawaii,
and that is where the oxygen contentof the water is such that they don't
have to swim to breathe, andso many of the white tip females will
(01:57):
wait on the bottom for the male'sto come along. And I encountered one
just waiting calmly on the bottom,and I was trying to get some good
video of her, and the closerI got, of course, the more
she moved away. And it waswhen those pec fins went down and she
went into a deep swath of aswim. I said, all right,
I'm aggravating her. I'm backing offnow. So if you if you give
(02:21):
them the space they need, theywill leave you alone and Curiously, I've
noticed similar behavior in fresh water bass. Yeah, this sounds like a really
cool trip that you got to do. That's actually really interesting. I've never
seen that where they just are insuch a high oxygen environment that they didn't
(02:42):
have to swim to that level.But you're so yeah, you're so right,
You're so right. Sharks generally don'tlike, especially something like a white
tip, something kind of size likethat reef sharks or pelgics out in in
Hawaii. Yeah, they really don'tlike when you come towards them. You
(03:02):
know. I think because our eyesare at the front of our head,
we're very clearly a predator, andwhen we put a mask on like we
usually do underwater, our eyes lookeager, and then if our bodies are
going straight down in the water,call and we look even bigger to them.
So I think sharks are also veryscared of us when they see us
(03:23):
in that environment. But I've alsohad some sharks be more curious if if
it's a shark week thing where I'vepositioned myself closer to bait, But usually
they know what is and is inpray for them. And there's actually a
really cool thing that I've noticed thatthe make ups have done when they're going
(03:45):
to get the bait is they don'tfully close their eyes. So a shark
that's going to attack something would closeits eyes knowing that that it might get
scratched or there might be a fightback. The sharks didn't close their eyes
when they went to bite the bait, so they knew it was dead.
They knew it was bait. Theyknew what we were doing. I've come
(04:06):
to learn that sharks, especially someof these bigger ones like macOS in the
episode that I just did, arevery intelligent and they know what is and
is not their food. Kendall burnaswith us, she's in the belly of
the beasts, both literally and figurativelywhen it comes to a great white sharks
and feeding and monster hammerheads some ofthe episodes of Shark Week on Discovery Channel
(04:30):
all week long. And she's alsothe founder of a conservation nonprofit organization,
Beyond the Reef, which tell usa little about that organization. Yeah,
So, Beyond the Reef is anocean conservation nonprofit based out of the British
Virgin Islands. It was formed afterHurricanes Irma and Maria really devastated the islands
(04:55):
and a lot of the Caribbean regionafter twenty seventeen. So we initially formed
it as a response to some ofthe underwater devastation that happened, but also
there were a lot of garlic vesselson the coastline after the hurricanes, like
a large steel ship and even airplanes, and we decided that it would be
really cool to turn them into underwaterart projects and recycle them as artificial reefs.
(05:19):
So the hundred foot ship we turnedinto an underwater pirate ship and brought
it out to an area of thereef that needed some revitalizing. And the
airplanes we actually turned into sharks,because if you think about it, some
airplanes look a bit like sharks.Might be hard for you to visualize now,
but we called them the Shark planeos, which is a very silly name.
(05:43):
But the next time you see anairplane, think about how much it
looks like a shark, especially ifyou just add a few extra fins onto
it. So we created these thesereally cool art project artificial reefs and sunk
them in the British Virgin Islands,where they still are, and that then
led to other ocean conservation work there. We realized that there were a lot
(06:03):
of humpbacks migrating through the region thatno one knew about. We realized that
it was also a hot spot forsharks pupping and breeding grounds and really important
to the Greater Caribbean region. Werealized that lemon sharks were actually going back
to a particular island there called Anagatato have their pups. They think that
(06:28):
lemon sharks might be like salmon,where they returned back to where they were
born in order to have their pups, which is really fascinating and I don't
believe any other shark species does that. So we just are trying to get
baseline research in order to have anunderstanding to then lead to conservation. It's
really hard to protect things if youdon't know anything about them. I'm sorry,
(06:50):
I didn't know. Didn't realize therewere humpbacks and that part of the
Caribbean. Certainly I knew they werein the Pacific and migratory in the Pacific.
Yeah, it's there are so manyhumpbacks actually on the backside of this
island called Anagata, And what beyondthe reef has been doing is taking tail
(07:11):
fluke IDs. So if we canget a photograph of a whales' tail fluke.
We upload it into some AI softwareand it will match it with any
other sales fluke that's ever been photographedfor science. And it is actually crazy.
Lee. We did not think.We were like, Okay, we're
going out into the middle of theocean taking a photo. What are the
(07:33):
chances that someone's photographed it before.We are finding that it's almost like half
of the whales that we get aproper tail fluke idea on, which can
be tricky. It requires the rightlighting and it requires the whale to do
the right show at the end beforeit goes down. But we're finding that
almost half of them have actually beenphotographed before, and a lot of times
(07:56):
it was last seen in like twothousand and three Iceland or wow, two
thousand and five Greenland, so it'sbeen you know, twenty years nearly since
it's been seen before. But whatthat helps us do is track its migration
patterns and also see that maybe there'scertain pods that return each year. If
(08:18):
we collaborate with other scientists in theCaribbean, we're finding that, you know,
in the Turks and Caicos, they'regetting a pod that's often coming from
Canada. Our pod is often comingfrom Iceland, Finland, so it's really
really cool, instant gratification signed tosee with a lot of this, And
same with the sharks. You know, we get to put satellite tags on
(08:39):
them and just on our phones tracktheir whereabouts. So you know, I
now have a Tiger sharks friend onmy phone that I can wake up in
the morning and see where it's at. That's that's great, and that's my
next dream vacation is a live aboardwhere we can do some diving with some
of the humpback whales. No matterwhere that may be Pacific Atlantic, I
don't care, but that's that's onmy list, as should be yours.
(09:01):
To watch Shark Week with the videoand commentary of Kelly of Kendall, Berna
tonight and all this week on DiscoveryNetwork. I could talk to you all
day, but thanks for joining us. Thank you, wee appreciate it.
Thanks for listening to Later with LeeMatthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and
(09:22):
remember to listen to The Drive Liveweekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation
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