World of Sharks

We are kicking off season 4 of the World of Sharks podcast (formerly the Whole Tooth podcast) with a bang! This episode, we are talking to legendary conservation photographer, National Geographic explorer and our very own Director of Storytelling, Thomas Peschak. Thomas has photographed marine life all over the world, including a huge diversity of sharks and rays, and has dedicated his life to cre...

Shark nerds unite! WE'RE BACK! The World of Sharks podcast (formerly The Whole Tooth) will be back on Thursday 23rd March with a brand new season. As always, we will be breaking down topics in shark science and conservation with some very special guests. A friendly reminder to look out for our shiny new logo - we think you'll like it! See you there!

As season 3 and 2022 draws to a close, host Isla sits down with Dr James Lea, CEO of the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF), and Jade Schultz, content manager for SOSF, to look back on the year and all the important events that have happened for sharks and shark conservation. Plus, they have a very exciting announcement about this very podcast! You can follow our work on social media (@SaveOurSeas on...

We know that overfishing is the primary cause of global shark and ray declines. But, shark fisheries provide income and subsistence for many coastal communities. Inevitably, any regulation or conservation measure involving these fisheries must be culturally, socially and politically appropriate in order to be accepted, and to achieve this we need to work with and understand the people they will af...

Frozen Planet II and Blue Planet II are landmark natural history series and masterclasses in climate change storytelling. Via captivating sequences, charming characters and compelling stories, the viewer is deliberately drawn into a world that they can’t help but care about, before being told about the very serious threats facing it. Such powerful storytelling can have a big impact; Blue Planet II...

Recent studies have shown that over a third of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction. But which species are the most at risk? What are some of the rarest, but least well known, sharks in the world? And, when a species has seemingly fallen off the face of the earth, how on earth do you find it again? This week, we’re joined on the pod by rare shark expert Dr Dave Ebert (@lostsharkguy...

What's it like to be booped by a leopard seal? Or dive with over 300 fin whales in Antarctica? And how do you keep your cool when filming underwater in one of the most challenging and remote places on earth, while tiger sharks patrol the shallows above you? At Wildscreen film festival, host Isla sat down with award winning film-maker and wildlife cameraman Bertie Gregory to chat about his new seri...

What did the oceans look like 450 million years ago? Who were the weird and whacky ancestors of the sharks we know today? And could megalodon still exist? This week we're going back in time to answer all these questions and more at the Natural History Museum in London, with curator of fossil fish Emma Bernard!  Find out more about Emma and the Natural History Museum here: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/our...

What happens when two top ocean predators collide? This was a question that PhD candidate and white shark expert Alison Towner was faced with six years ago, when the subjects of her thesis started to wash up on shore with unusual, but fatal, injuries. Fast forward to 2022 and Alison has just led her second publication on the predation of white sharks by orca in South Africa, a behaviour that has n...

Art has the power to change perspectives, and promote awe and wonder - can it do the same for sharks? We chat to ocean artist Rachel Brooks about putting pen to paper in the name of shark conservation. You can see her work for yourself by following RachelBrooksArt on social media, or here https://rachelbrooksart.com/. Shownotes for this episode are here: www.saveourseas.com/worldofsharks/thewholet...

Whale and basking sharks are some of the biggest fish in the ocean – but could these gentle giants be threatened by something so small it can’t even be seen with the naked eye? We pitch this question to microplastics and pelagic fish expert Dr Alina Wieczorek. Alina has studied microplastic pathways from the smallest to the largest creatures in the ocean, and in some of the deepest and most remote...

This week we celebrated International Whale Shark Day! In honour of the world's largest fish, we spoke to Jonathan and Sofia of the Galapagos Whale Shark Project to find out all about this incredible species, their connection to the Galapagos Marine Reserve, and what questions Jonathan and Sofia are striving to answer through their research. We discuss the mysterious life history of the whale shar...

We're back! Season 3 of The Whole Tooth goes live on Thursday September 1st! We'll be answering ALL your shark and ocean related questions with the help of more fantastic experts in shark science and conservation, including whether sharks are affected by microplastics, if great white sharks are still apex predators, and what prehistoric sharks looked like... Tune in for all these episodes and so m...

It's the last episode of the season which means once again, the Save Our Seas team have gathered to answer as many of your questions about sharks as we can in 45 minutes! In this episode, we cover: - How do ampullae of lorenzini work? (6.48) - How do baby sharks get out of their egg-cases? (10.43) - Are sharks fish or mammals? (15.14) - How many species of sharks are there? (18.58) - Is it okay (a...

Welcome back to the Whole Tooth, a podcast all about sharks, rays and the oceans. This week, host Isla is joined by deep-sea shark researchers Sofia Graça Aranha and Paul Clerkin to explore the depths, and meet some of the fantastical, alien-like and perfectly adapted sharks, rays and skates that live there. And, just how much they need our protection. Follow Sofia and Paul's work on instagram: @s...

Welcome to another episode of The Whole Tooth, a shark podcast that asks YOUR questions to experts in shark and ocean science! This week, we are asking SOSF project leader and Science and Policy advisor for Saving the Blue, Dr Bryan Keller, all about shark social behaviour. Are sharks the lone wolves they’re always made out to be? Why do we sometimes see sharks in groups? And do they have preferen...

We all know that our oceans are in trouble, and that taking action to protect and fight for them is incredibly important. But it can also be hard to motivate yourself to keep going, especially when it feels like change isn’t happening. But we are slowly turning the tide – and that is what this episode is all about. In honour of World Ocean’s Day (June 8th), host Isla sits down with Sarah Fowler OB...

We all know that the majority of shark species are in decline. But what actually happens if they are lost from the ecosystem? How important are sharks? We pitch these questions to scientist, shark enthusiast and author Dr David Shiffman, who spends a lot of his time highlighting why sharks really do matter – not just in an ecological sense, but also from a social, economic and cultural perspective...

Our guests this week are scientists, communicators and hosts of the Beyond Jaws podcast Andrew Lewin and Dave Ebert. Beyond Jaws is all about showcasing the diversity of shark science and the people behind the research, asking them about their career journeys and how they got to be where they are. Whole Tooth host Isla flips the script and asks Dave and Andrew about finding their own niche in scie...

On April 25th, we celebrated World Penguin Day - a day dedicated to celebrating these incredibly charismatic birds and raising awareness of the immense challenges they face. Someone who knows a lot about this subject is SOSF project leader and penguinologist Dr Tom Hart. Aside from having one of the coolest job titles out there, Tom has dedicated his life to researching the wildlife of one of the...

The global ocean is a vast place, spanning the entire planet and tens of thousands of kilometres deep. Many marine animals undertake huge migrations across the ocean, but there’s no signposts or google maps…so how on earth do they know where to go? This episode, we delve into the incredible world of sensory and cognitive ecology to understand how sharks, rays, whales and a host of other critters n...

Get ready to chat all things sea pancake! This episode, we pitched all your questions about the mesmerising manta ray to Yani, Simon and Lois who work for the Maldivian Manta Ray Project (MMRP), the flagship research project of the Manta Trust. We learn so much about these enigmatic, highly intelligent animals - how do they feed? Why do they jump out of the water? And why is the Maldives such a sp...

Grab your gear and get ready for an adventure, because this week I am joined by extreme explorer, naturalist and presenter Steve Backshall MBE! Throughout his career, Steve has endeavoured to change public perception of species perceived as 'deadly' or 'dangerous' - changing the narrative from fear to respect, joy and awe. He's spent a lot of time in the water among sharks, most recently for his l...

We're back! And we're kicking off season 2 by exploring our rapidly changing seas and the impacts of these changes on shark movements, distribution and behaviour with scientists David Sims and Freya Womersley. Both David and Freya work on the Global Shark Movement Project ( https://www.globalsharkmovement.org/ ), which aims to collate data on pelagic shark movements from around the world and inves...

For the FINAL episode of season 1, I am joined by fish physiologists Dr Jodie Rummer and Carolyn Wheeler to talk about a the most-asked-about subject of 2021: climate change, and its impact on sharks. This topic has been playing on a lot of people's minds this year, and we've had a lot of questions since the start of the pod about how sharks and the oceans will be affected, and what WE can do to h...