Author and marine conservation biologist David Shiffman (Why Sharks Matter) talks about Sharkweek, Sharknados, megalodon myths, Jaws and junk science with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young (author of Sharks Forever & Big Sharks, Small World). “More people are bitten by other people on the New York city subway system every year than are bitten by sharks in the whole world… but whenever any shark gives someone side eye anywhere in the world, it’s headline news everywhere in the world.”

Shownotes:

4:10 “Jaws has had a really transformative impact. For sharks mostly bad.” How Jaws changed everything for sharks and meeting Richard Dreyfuss. “The movie is just so good.”

5:05 “It’s really changed the world. Before Jaws came out most people really didn’t think about sharks at all.”

5:56 “Spielberg has a lot to answer for here.”

6:23 The Jaws Effect. “It refers to how fictional portrayals of a real world issue can affect how people really think about that issue. In reality.”

7:36 Watching The Shark is Broken – the Jaws play – on Broadway!

10:14 On the impact of Sharknado! “I love those goofy, bad shark movies… there are two kinds of shark movies – there are bad shark movies and there’s Jaws.” And how Sharknado funded his PhD work.

13:18 “It’s just frigging weird how much this goofy Saturday night basic cable movie has escaped its cage and entered the cultural zeitgeist.”

13:44 “Here’s a crazy story for you…” How Sharknado may have launched Donald Trump’s political career.

16:04 On being Sharkweek’s number one critic “I’m very critical of the dumpster fire of nonsense and lies that they show every year.”

17:33 “I could rant about how bad Sharkweek is… forever.” And how Sharkweek does nothing to help sharks. “Sharkweek and I are not besties.”

17:48 There are more dudes named Mike on Sharkweek than there are women… even though in real life 60% of shark experts are women.

19:37 Great white sharks are mentioned in 40% of newspaper stories about endangered sharks – even though they’re not one of the most endangered species… All anyone wants to talk or write about… great white sharks.

21:00 Getting people to care about the bigger picture…”One thing that does change people’s minds is “yes, and…””

25:44 Talking 24 and sharks. “All of the species of sharks in the world combined have killed a lot fewer people than Jack Bauer has killed on-screen. Not even counting his off-screen exploits.”

26:34 “More people are bitten by other people on the New York city subway system every year than are bitten by sharks in the whole world… but whenever any shark gives someone side eye anywhere in the world, it’s headline news everywhere in the world.”

27:46 “Seeing a shark swimming close to the beach is not news. That’s where they’re supposed to be.”

28:00 A toy story – myth busting a fake goblin shark.

31:18 The megalodon conspiracy! “They were very cool – but they’ve been extinct for millions of years.”

33:38 The importance of public science engagement.

34:54 A new treaty that may help save sharks – and other species.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
David Shiffman and friends…
Support Our Guest
Books for sale and Classes from Team Skaana

**Amazon links are affiliate links and support our podcast, thanks for clicking!**

 

Filmmaker Gloria Pancrazi (Coextinction) talks with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young about red herrings, fishy fish farms, whale watching, whale saving and Coextinction. “Orcas are telling us something. They’re showing us something. You can learn a lot about the things we’ve got to do in the world right now by looking at these orcas.”

Shownotes:

3:35 Meet Gloria Pancrazi and how the story of love for orcas turned into a mission to save the southern resident orcas.

6:12 “A lot of politicians like to blame whale watchers because then they can accept a pipeline that’s going to increase tanker traffic by seven- fold… you can go on and on about the impact of the Trans Mountain pipeline and how it’s going to impact southern resident orcas.”

8:38 “One of the biggest points of the movie is that everything is connected… it’s hard to pick one big issue.”

11:50 “It always fascinated us how the orcas are telling us something. They’s showing us something. You can learn a lot about the things we’ve got to do in the world right now by looking at these orcas.”

13:18 “They are each other’s home and we’re destroying that home.”

13:38 The first time she saw a whale:

15:35 Working for Cetus’s Straitwatch program in Canada and SoundWatch in the US and the challenges of keeping orcas safe from small boats.

22:04 Visiting OrcaLab. “It’s magical up there.”

25:28 The impacts of colonization and colonial trauma.

27:50 Where and how to see Coextinction.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
Support Our Guest
Books for sale and Classes from Team Skaana

**Amazon links are affiliate links and support our podcast, thanks for clicking!**

 

Filmmaker, Julia Barnes, on the dirty secrets of clean energy, how electric cars are running over the oceans and her new documentary Bright Green Lies – debuting online April 22 (Earth Day), 2021 https://www.brightgreenlies.com/

Skaana connects you to stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.

Books on Amazon

**Amazon links are affiliate links and support our podcast, thanks for clicking!

Information on Julia Barnes and Deep Sea Mining

Trailer for Bright Green Lies

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Hello from Julia Barnes
  • 1:01– Mark’s welcome. Start of the Skaana Podcast
  • 3:51– Start of the interview. Discussing Julia’s upcoming documentary Bright Green Lies and where the idea for the documentary came from.
  • 6:30– About false solutions that are promoted by Bright Green Environmentalism.
  • 7:51– About Biomass. The dangers of wood waste and clear cutting.
  • 10:05– Solar, wind and hydro power lies
  • 13:34– How Julia Barnes got interested in filmmaking and her connection to Rob Stewart.
  • 20:33– About being uncomfortable in a room with David Suzuki
  • 24:41– Deep sea mining for electric cars…. “They’re calling it the largest mining operation in history. That’s about to begin. There should terrify everybody.”
  • 37:39– “We should be furious that the movement has been so co-opted and it is at this point, a betrayal of the natural world.”
  • 39:15– The displacement paradox
  • 40:10– There is no such thing as green industrial energy
  • 45:26– Experiences with whales while filming Sea of Life
  • 47:09– “My advice is learn as much as you can about what’s happening and get started right away.”
  • 48:02– Message from Mark Leiren-Young for our Patreons. Support independent coverage of issues facing the Southern Resident Orcas at www.patreon.com/mobydoll
  • 52:25 – Trailer for Bright Green Lies
Kriss Kevorkian
The lessons I find from grief – and from death – are appreciating what we have in the now.

“The lessons I find from grief – and from death – are appreciating what we have in the now.”

“What is environmental grief? …It’s the grief reaction stemming from the environmental loss of ecosystems caused by natural or man-made events.”

“Ecological grief is the grief reaction stemming from the disconnection and relational loss from our natural world.”

“I don’t see grief as a disorder. I see it as a life issue. And I wish people would stop trying to medicalize it, or put it as some sort of mental illness because I don’t see my environmental grief or ecological grief as a disorder. I see it as a proper reaction to what’s happening on the planet.”

“Laughter is just one of those things that’s helped us get through dark times.”

“This pandemic is also teaching us that mother nature has a way of managing without us.”

“If Jane Goodall can maintain a sense of hope, then who am I not to?”

“I look at the rights of nature as helping… If a corporation can have rights. I think mother nature should.”

“We need to start putting nature first.”

“When we get rights for the Southern residents, they will be the first species to have rights of nature”

Fin Donnelly (@FinDonnelly), NDP critic for Fisheries, Oceans and Canadian Coast Guard, on the history and future of his fight for a law to protect sharks and what you can do to help pass a new Canadian law to end Canada’s role in shark-finning.

To help turn this bill into law sign the Oceana petition to ban the sale and importation of shark fins.

 

These animals predate dinosaurs… and the scary thing is it could be on humans’ watch that we would lose them.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about  orcas, oceans and the environment.

You can use the affiliate links below to support the pod.

Join the Pod……https://www.patreon.com/skaana

Skaana home…..skaana.org

Facebook………..https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter……………https://twitter.com/leirenyoung

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World….http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q

Orcas Everywhere…. http://www.orcaseverywhere.com

Fin Donnelly on Saving the Southern Resident Orcas

Links:

  1. Senator MacDonald: Shark finning is unsustainable, irresponsible and ecologically reckless
  2. MPs, senators unite to oppose ‘finning’ at premiere of ‘Sharkwater Extinction’
  3. Proposed federal shark fin ban a good ‘first step,’ Vancouver advocate says

Fin Donnelly

Books on Amazon

**Amazon links are affiliate links and support our podcast, thanks for clicking!

Rob Stewart
“I think the way I can best serve the planet and the environment is just educating people. If I bring everybody up in their knowledge of what’s going on, then they’ll elect different people.”

 

“If people knew that our life support system was in jeopardy, the human species could potentially go down this century, and future generations and millions of species are at stake because of it, then there would be a vote determinative issue.”

“What percentage of the planet would you say, knows about ocean acidification, knows about over consumption, that 75% of the forests are gone, 90% of the fish are gone, that, you know we face this world. Three percent? 90% of our food species are gone. This is happening.”

I keep optimistic because I think we’ve got the greatest opportunity here. They always say in movies, the hero is only as good as his villain. We’ve got the biggest villain possible.”

We’ve got the biggest crisis, potentially, that we’re facing, and to defeat it we’re gonna have to grow and we’re gonna have to evolve and we’re gonna have to step it up and learn what it is to be human—to care more about other people and other species than we have in the past.”

“I think the way I can best serve the planet and the environment is just educating people. If I bring everybody up in their knowledge of what’s going on, then they’ll elect different people.”

“What’s next, what’s bigger? Well, save the humans.”

“The reason why we can survive on this planet is because of life. That gives us our food our water and our air… oh my god, all these systems that we’ve built are destroying our food and our water and our air.” “Before, when we set up the systems, when we had 300 million people on earth, we could whatever the fuck we want. And now that we’ve got 7 billion of us, we’ve eaten everything.” 

“Any revolution of the past has been led by the people most directly impacted by the atrocity. It was women for women’s rights, it was black people for racial equality. It was them that hit the road and put their hands in the air. Now it’s gonna be kids, because they’re the ones that are going to be most directly impacted by it. It our future that we’re taking. So I expect kids will be a much bigger role in this than adults.”

“For adults it’s confronting the realization that you’re inherently bad for the planet… and everything you’ve been doing for most of your life has been bad for the planet… it’s tough to let that sink in.”

My favourite aspect about making a movie is giving the public the information they need to make better decisions.” 

“I think I was passionate about [sharks] from having a goldfish. From the time I was zero, onwards.”

Michael Moore
“I don’t use the words ‘political activist,’ because I think it’s redundant. If I’m a citizen of a democracy, it means I’m automatically a political activist. I have to be. All of us have to be. If we’re not active, it ceases to be a democracy.”

“I wish more Americans would look north and see that there are some things we can learn from you, that we might be better off if we were more Canadian-like in some ways. Not the boring, dull stuff. But there’s something about your core, your values, the way you’re wired. You believe that you’re your brother’s keeper, that you have a responsibility, that you exist as part of a whole. If one of you gets sick, it means that if that’s not taken care of, then we all sort of suffer a bit. I think that’s pretty profound.”

“I’m continually inspired by a lot of things, a lot of people.”

“I hope that the average American will quit thinking that they’re going to achieve the ”˜American dream’, that they too will be rich someday. That’s just not going to happen. I would hope that people get involved—become active, join an organization, run for office themselves, any of a number of things. At the very least, quit participating in the system. Don’t buy shares of stock. Put your money in a credit union. Only use credit cards where you have to pay at the end of the month. Don’t put your pension in the stock market, for Christ’s sake. Things like that.”

“I don’t use the words ‘political activist,’ because I think it’s redundant. If I’m a citizen of a democracy, it means I’m automatically a political activist. I have to be. All of us have to be. If we’re not active, it ceases to be a democracy.”

“I go back over all these movies and things I’ve done where it feels like I’m beating my head against the wall, at some point I just get tired of it.”

“My job is to take a look at what’s going on and to make movies about it”

David Neiwert (@DavidNeiwert) – an expert on orcas and America’s Alt-Right – talks orcas, empathy and why fighting for whales still matters in the Age of Trump.  Neiwert is the author of Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us & Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump.

Ken Balcomb (Centre for Whale Research @CWROrcas) talks Tahlequah (J-35), Scarlet (J-50) and what we need to do to save the southern resident orcas before we meet the teams from NOAA and the DFO fighting to save Scarlet in this special update on the status of J-Pod. And the world premiere of a new song by poet & author Pauline La Bel. #FreeTheSnake

Skaana connects you to news and experts and their discussions about orcas, oceans and the environment.

Center for Whale Research….https://www.whaleresearch.com

You can use the affiliate links below to support the pod.

Join the Pod……https://www.patreon.com/skaana

Skaana home…..skaana.org

Facebook………..https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter……………https://twitter.com/leirenyoung

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World…. http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q

Skaana on Medium… https://medium.com/skaana

Mark Leiren-Young for The Narwhal… https://thenarwhal.ca/author/mark-leiren-young/

For more on this story

NOAA updates of J-35 & J-50 http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/protected_species/marine_mammals/killer_whale/updates-j50-j35.html

The Whale Sanctuary Project is on the scene of Operation Scarlet and updating regularly  https://whalesanctuaryproject.org/updates-on-the-j-pod-orcas/

Jeff Foster tests the breath sample test pole on the NOAA vessel which will be used in the health assesment of J50. (Photo: Katy Foster)

  • *Amazon links are affiliate links and support our podcast, thanks for clicking! 
  • The Killer Whale Who Changed the World http://amzn.to/2sISiOa

Support Pauline Le Bel

 

Dr. Lori Marino (Blackfish; The Sanctuary Project; The Kimmela Centre for Animal Advocacy) on seeking sanctuary, captive orcas (Corky, Lolita & Kiska), animal rights and wrongs & more.

“Being a dolphin in a captive environment, in a concrete tank, doing tricks, is not being a dolphin… A dolphin is someone who has a life to lead and is not necessarily interested in looking to you to enrich their lives, they’re going about their business.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about  orcas, oceans and the environment.

You can use the affiliate links below to support the pod.

Join the Pod……https://www.patreon.com/skaana

Skaana home…..skaana.org

Facebook………..https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter……………https://twitter.com/leirenyoung

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World…. http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q

Links:

  1. Dr. Marino talks possible sanctuary locations 
  2. Mirrors and dolphins 
  3. Are dolphins smarter than your kid?
  4. The Canadian Senate talks cetacean rights

Support Dr. Lori Marino

Official Website: Whale Sanctuary Project

Official Website: Center for Animal Advocacy 

Books on Amazon

**Amazon links are affiliate links and support our podcast, thanks for clicking!

Song of the Episode:

The Dorsals With The Gatormen “Namu”