The Shark That Turns Fear Into Fascination

0:00 Most people are afraid of sharks, but there's one shark that turns fear into fascination almost every single time someone sees it. And yes, you can find it in cold Canadian waters. This is the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, your weekday ocean news update. If you care about staying informed on the ocean every weekday, Monday to Friday, hit that follow button right now on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss tomorrow's story, which we're gonna be talking about a sea turtle. This is the largest sea turtle in the world, and it comes in cold waters for visits, and we're gonna talk about that tomorrow, so don't miss it, and hit that follow button. Today, we're answering a simple question. Can one shark change the way people think about all sharks?

0:41 Because according to marine biologist Kirsti Burnett, there's one species that seems to do exactly that. Now, if you probably wanna know who is Kirsti, if you didn't listen to, uh, yesterday's episode, shame on you. I'm just kidding. You can go back and listen to it after this episode. But Kirsti is my interview for this week. She is a guest on the podcast on Friday. We talk about celebrating cold water in this week before Oceans Week and before Ocean's Day. So she is somebody I work with at Pisces Ocean. She's a marine biologist. She's got a master's degree. She's a dive master, and she talks all about growing up on Nova Scotian shores, and what she likes to do, and how she likes to go below as well as above surface, and be able to see all these wonderful things like the mola mola and the blue shark, which we're gonna be talking about today.

1:21 When most people picture a shark, they picture a great white, and that can be a little scary. I get that, right? It has big teeth, big reputation, big Hollywood career. But blue sharks are different. They're sleek, they're graceful, and they're one of the most beautiful sharks in the ocean. And Kirsti spent years working with blue sharks off the coast of Nova Scotia, and she says people often arrive nervous about seeing sharks. Then they meet the blue shark, and everything changes after that. People stop seeing a monster. They start seeing an animal, a curious animal at that. An elegant animal, an animal that belongs in the ocean. That's important 'cause blue sharks are one of the great travelers of the sea.

2:02 A 2024 study led by Francois Poisson tracked blue sharks and found that they move across enormous distances using different parts of the ocean at different times of the year. So these sharks don't live in one neighborhood. They live in an ocean-sized world, if you wanna put it that way, and that world includes Atlantic Canada. And when you see a blue shark off Nova Scotia, you're looking at an animal that may have crossed thousands of kilometers of ocean. Now just think about that. You know, it's not just staying in and around the area. It's incredible when you think about it. Like, they don't have GPS. They don't have maps. There's no roads. Nothing, like, guiding them, like, as a road and a lane with s- like, streetlights and everything like that, yet they somehow navigate one of the largest environments on the planet, an environment that takes up 70% of the planet.

2:48 Scientists are still trying to understand exactly how they do it, 'cause they just don't know. But we do know that they follow conditions that help them survive. They follow water temperature, they follow food availability, they follow ocean currents. Very common when you look at how animals move. It's like they're reading an invisible map that we just don't have. And they're not alone. Many animals in cold water ecosystems are constantly moving. Whales do it. Leatherback sea turtles do it, which we're gonna be talking about tomorrow. Seabirds do it. Blue sharks are just part of that story. Now, here's the part that often gets overlooked. Blue sharks are predators, and that's a good thing. Healthy ecosystems need predators. Predators help maintain balance.

3:29 They influence prey behavior, they shape food webs, and they k- help keep ecosystems functioning. Without predators, ecosystems can become… Like, they're fairly unstable. So when people see blue sharks and begin appreciating them, they're not just appreciating a single species. They're appreciating the role that species plays in the ocean. And blue sharks make it easy because they're beautiful. They're fascinating. They're often the shark that changes people's minds. And the big takeaway is simple. The ocean isn't healthier without sharks. It's healthier because sharks are there, and blue sharks make the best ambassadors the shark world has. That's really what it comes down to. They are a great symbol of what sharks can be like.

4:12 Just be careful if you're diving. You know, you still wanna be careful if you're diving and you see one. They are a shark, they are a predator, but they're curious animals. But when you see them from the surface or you see them from a boat, you're really curious to see how they look. They're a very beautiful shark, and I can't wait for you guys to see them. I want you guys to go to a place like Nova Scotia or Newfoundland or PEI, Prince Edward Island, or New Brunswick or even Quebec. And I want you to take a look at what these blue sharks really look like if you get access to go out and if you know where these sharks are. My interview on Friday with Kirsti, she knows exactly where to find them for the most part. They're, you know, there's a big ocean out there, but she knows where to find them and she can't wait to take people out when she goes to see them, especially the students at Dalhousie University that take the sharks course that she talks about in Friday's interview.

4:58 But you wanna check out that interview on Friday to make sure you hear all of it because it's a fascinating one. It's a fun one. We have a great time. So if you wanna hear that interview and you wanna hear tomorrow's episodes on the leatherback sea turtle, follow this podcast if you haven't done already, so that you can make sure every day, you get a new episode during the week. So, that's it for today's episode. If you wanna get a hold of me, you can do so by just going to my socials. All the links are in the show notes. And of course, thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I am your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.