From dodging the powerful whipping tails and buoy lines hooked on, to the razor sharp teeth and sheer force of 2000kg, 6 metre Great White Sharks, this may not be the safest job – but it sure is rewarding.
The occupation is Shark researching and the man leading the charge is boat captain Brett McBride. Brett and his crew are Shark Researchers for OCEARCH which is a non-profit organisation for unprecedented research on great white sharks and other large apex predators.
A massive 73 million sharks a year are killed for their fins and Brett’s main goal right now is to stop shark finning world wide with a scientific based approach, gathering data from scientists and taking his own real data to the policy makers to enforce the laws of shark finning.
“The reason we are tagging the great white shark is because there is almost nothing known about them, we don’t know where they breed, we don’t know where they give birth, if you don’t know where they breed and give birth then how do you protect those sites” Says Brett.
The procedure to capture this data is very challenging, firstly you must catch the shark then it is literally all hands on deck to pull it in safely, once the shark is on the shark deck the crew monitor the seconds it has been out of water to ensure it is safe and alive, once all is safe then the dorsal fin is tagged with a transmitter and the shark is released carefully.
“We are putting tags to the dorsal fin so whenever it breaks the surface it transmits to a satellite and gives real timed info on it’s location”. “Let’s look at the facts, sharks don’t attack people very often, its a phobia and a scary way to go but you’re more likely to get struck by lightning twice” claims Brett.
We stumbled across Brett and his team in the new film “What The Sea Gives Me”, this film is dedicated to people like Brett with a passion for the ocean and all it gives, the film features different characters and stories of how the sea has impact on different peoples lives, From a one legged keen surfer to a free diver thriving to reach new depths as well as Brett’s amazing story.
