How Sharks Devoured My Career

Overheard at National Geographic

National Geographic

Science, Society & Culture

4.5 • 10.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Nat Geo Explorer Gibbs Kuguru was in college, he found himself trying to choose between two terrifying futures: going free diving with sharks off the coast of South Africa or, even scarier, studying for the MCAT. Since then, he’s become devoted to sharks. His genetic research has shown they can do remarkable things, like change color to become more effective predators. And he’s also become a staunch advocate for shark species as they grow more vulnerable to overfishing and the effects of climate change. For more information on this episode, visit natgeo.com/overheard. Want more? If you want more on Gibbs’s journey and his research, check out our story about him online. Plus, we’ve also got an article about how great whites change their color to sneak up on prey. Also explore You can watch Gibbs in the National Geographic documentary Camo Sharks. He and other scientists try to catch sharks in the middle of their color changes. And if you just can’t get enough of sharks, we’ve got a whole bunch of SharkFest stories for you, including how drones are changing how we observe and think about sharks. Fuel your curiosity with a free one-month trial subscription to Nat Geo Digital. You’ll have unlimited access on any device, anywhere, ad-free with our app that lets you download stories to read off-line. Explore every page ever published with a century of digital archives at your fingertips. Check it all out for free at natgeo.com/exploremore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I gotta say the first experience I had with a great white or I should say the lead up to
0:11.0	the first experience was filled with terror.
0:15.4	That's National Geographic Explorer Gibbs Kaguaro.
0:18.5	Gibbs is a Kenyan scientist who studies sharks and he's talking about the first time he
0:22.5	dove with great whites.
0:24.4	He's on the coast in South Africa.
0:26.1	I was certain I was going to die.
0:28.1	I was like, yeah, I'm in this situation.
0:30.6	The sea looks a bit choppy.
0:32.6	It's gray skies, which is by the way perfect, sharky conditions.
0:37.2	I'm about to get in a cage.
0:39.4	I'm basically like a gummy bear for this two-ton animal.
0:45.6	I put the wetsuit on and I remember just staring over the edge of the boat into the cage
0:50.8	and thinking, this is what my coffin's going to look like.
0:58.0	And as soon as you see your first great white, your, I shouldn't say your my imagination about
1:06.8	them being these bloodthirsty man-eaters immediately dissipated because you saw a curious,
1:16.1	beautiful, fierce, graceful animal just enjoying its surroundings.
1:24.8	There was no malice or inspired cruelty to its actions.
1:29.4	And you could see that.
1:31.2	I always tell people that they're like, man, it must be scary going out to work every day
1:37.4	and I'm like, no way.
1:39.6	Once you see what I've seen, you'll never have that weird notion that these sharks are
	...

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