Ask Us Anything About Sharks (Round 2)! With Dr James Lea

We're diving back into our mailbag to answer more of your burning sharky questions! In this episode we address all sorts of fascinating queries such as how bioluminescence evolved in sharks, which species are capable of breathing while they’re not swimming, and whether sharks are really older than trees. Plus, we take deep dives into several awesome species – great white sharks, grey reef sharks, pocket sharks and of course, James’ favourite, the velvet belly lantern shark. 

Specific question timestamps:

Q1: Are there any shark species that are showing signs of adapting well to climate change? [3.36 – 10.21]

Q2: Has there ever been more observations of any of the two species of Mollisquama (pocket sharks)? [10.31 – 13.20]

Q3: How did bioluminescence in species like the pocket shark evolve? Was it independent, or did their last common ancestor have bioluminescent fluid? [13.40-15.11]

Q4: We rarely hear about white sharks in the vicinity of South America, either ocean, with the exception of seasonal migrations of NA white sharks into the US South Atlantic coast and Caribbean. My question is: why not? [15.22 – 21.49]

Q5: Which shark species can stay still and breathe through buccal pumping? [21.59-28.44]

Q6: Which species of shark and ray are most closely related? [28.54 – 37.50]

Q7: What is the most surprising thing you’ve learnt in your career (when you first started, vs. most recently)? [37.58 – 44.58]

Q8: Shark [bite incidents] often go unreported for various reasons despite the best efforts of educational institutes to accurately record them. What do you think the real number of global [incidents] might be? [45.06-52.14]

Do you have any questions you'd like researched and answered on the pod? Get in touch! You can email isla@saveourseas.com or message us on socials: @saveourseasfoundation.