Hawaiian Night Fright (Full Episode) | When Sharks Attack

The Hawaiian Islands are like heaven on Earth But in 2019 Paradise is in peril A terrifying creature emerges from the Depths And carries out an eerie series of Attacks Filling mystery must be solved before It's too late We're on the island of Oahu this island Represents a lot of history to Open Water Swimming Eric Shaw is a long Distance swimmer who specializes in a Discipline known as Channel swimming Channel swimming is swimming from one Island typically to another Island Through a large body of water It's like swimming a marathon I met a guy named Steve and he told me About this swim called the kaiwi Channel As being part of ocean 7. Ocean's 7 is a challenge created in 2008 Enticing long-distance swimmers to Tackle some of the most dangerous Waters In the world The Molokai Channel also known as the Kaiwi channel located between the Hawaiian Islands of Molokai and Oahu is One of the ocean's seven challenges Stretching approximately 26 miles across Plunging 2300 feet it's known for its Treacherous currents and abundant sea Life

Few people have ever made it across We all know that you're going to have Rough water lots of wind and sharks The Hawaiian Islands are home to roughly 40 different species of sharks including The Galapagos shark that hugs the Coastline The sandbar shark that feasts on reef Fish squid and octopus And the Mako known for its Speed and Agility These Predators rarely trouble swimmers But they're not the only ones who roam These depths I knew that white sharks And tiger sharks would be a possibility And that our crew to a notify us if There was a a large predatory shark Knowing that I had a great sense of ease And confidence in in their ability to Get us from Malachi to Oahu But out in the open ocean an unseen Terror that no one anticipated lies in Weight This is the first time I've been back Yeah there's a lot of emotions going on Right now [Music] We started our swim at 6 20 in the Evening the sun was setting We had a kayaker in the water who was Following the boat and we're swimming at Night we're following the the most Minimal amount of lighting possible Which was for us red glow sticks

As we were swimming through the dark Every time our hand would enter the Water I noticed an amount of Bioluminescence that I had never Witnessed or experienced previously Bioluminescent phytoplankton our Microscopic organisms that light up when Water is disrupted About four hours into the swim Steve was hit by a Portuguese man of war And when he was hit he pulled up pretty Quickly and let out a pretty good Yelp Steve had to call it and that was uh the Turning point of the swim I had been swimming for about an hour or So by myself And then I encountered a sensation in my Abdomen a sensation of burning and my Hand came down across my abdomen But I could sense that something was not Right And so I swam over to the kayaker and I Remember him immediately getting on his Marine radio and said shark Crewman Francesco Forte Springs into Action we quickly realized something was Wrong when we saw Eric grab the kayak Because once they touch it they know That their swim is disqualified distant Swimmers they will do everything they Can in their power to avoid touching That kayak that was actually the one who Pulled him out of the water and I pulled Them back and placed them down onto the

Deck of the boat and I looked down at His wound my first thought was just like Okay when you apply pressure because This is a huge huge injury And if we lose Blood by the time we get To shore there's not much we can do Radio for help and rush back to shore There an ambulance transports Eric to The hospital I was taken right back to An operating room immediately And that's when I discovered that I had A good three and a half inch diameter Hole in my abdomen that was a good inch And a half deep It takes 26 Staples to close the wounds Eric's recovery is long and arduous took Me a good year until I was able to stand Up straight again Eric's chilling encounter makes Headlines around the world Shark attacks in the Molokai channel are Extremely rare in the previous 100 years There have only been seven recorded Attacks but in 2019 the attack on Eric Is just the beginning three weeks later A second swimmer is attacked in the same Stretch of water And a few months later a third shark Bite stuns the Hawaiian Islands The cause is a mystery Locals are desperate for an answer to The unprecedented surge in attacks Three happening in one year we thought You know there must be something going

On I really want to get to the bottom of This because I want to know that I can Continue to play in this ocean me and Everybody else is curious to know why There was that spike in 2019 and then None since then In an attempt to uncover what's behind The attacks investigators first turn Their attention to the species of shock Involved And suspicion immediately falls on two Notorious sharks that inhabit Hawaiian Waters I knew that white sharks and tiger Sharks would be a possibility White sharks Are the ocean's largest predatory fish They can grow up to 20 feet and are Responsible for more fatal attacks on Humans than any other shark Tiger sharks named for the striped Markings that Adorn their flanks dubbed The garbage cans of the sea they will Eat anything from sea turtles to tractor Tires A surprising detail emerges from Eric's Account that suggests a very different Shark was involved I encountered a Sensation in my abdomen a sensation of Burning and my hand came down and I Grabbed onto a fish While the crew was watching for larger Sharks could something smaller have gone Undetected

Dr Dan Huber of the University of Tampa Examines Eric's unusual bite wound the Lower part of the wound is very very Circular you can see here from the depth Of this wound that it went through Multiple muscle layers got really deep Caused a lot of tissue damage This circular pattern Bears all the Hallmarks of one of the strangest and Rarely seen sharks in the ocean these Have those telltale signs of a cookie Cutter shark having been involved in the Attack Named for the circular wounds they leave On a victim's flesh cookie cutter sharks Spend most of their time in the deep Ocean Each night they migrate to the surface Where they are believed to feed on large Fish and marine mammals Although they only grow to about two Feet in length they have a Disproportionately large mouth compared To their body size And a set of Jaws filled with razor Sharp teeth and what they do is they Latch onto their prey and suck onto it With these fleshy lips and then dig that Lower jaw into that prey item To demonstrate how devastating a cookie Cutter shark bite can be Dr Huber has a 3D printed set of cookie cutter Jaws When cookie cutter sharks bite onto Their prey first it attaches the upper

Jaw and then it sinks the teeth from its Lower jaw into that prey item and then They do one of two things either they Just scoop through the prey item and Excavate a big chunk of Flesh or Sometimes they dig that lower jaw in and Then start twisting their body around The long axis and carve out a perfectly Circular chunk of Flesh from their prey Items and that's not all when Dr Huber Examines bite marks on the other two Victims he makes a shocking Discovery if You look at the shape of that plug this Matches the wounds that we see on each Of our victims from Hawaii Prior to the attack on Eric Shaw there Was only one recorded cookie cutter Attack in all of Hawaii's history but in 2019 all three victims were bitten by Cookie-cutter sharks in the same stretch Of water Why have these bizarre creatures started Attacking swimmers A clue emerges from the details of Eric's attack There was something else in the water That night I noticed an amount of Bioluminescence that I had never Witnessed or experienced previously Bioluminescence describes the production Of visible light by a living organism Such as a firefly or certain types of Jellyfish In the ocean it's most commonly

Generated by a type of phytoplankton Dr Heather Bracken Grissom of Florida International University investigates Whether this naturally occurring glow Could have played a role in Eric's Attack Since is one of the most beautiful Planet [Music] Blue light and many organisms including The cookie cutter are curious and will Come towards the light a shark's Vision Works differently than a human's they Don't see color instead sharks identify Prey through contrast the differences Between light and dark That means the light from glowing Phytoplankton May attract them The problem is that it's not just sea Creatures that can cause disillumination A lot of bioluminescence is produced by So if a swimmer is swimming through a Channel it's going to stir up the Bioluminescence and produce a lot of Light Dr Bracken Grissom demonstrates how this Might work What I have here is a globe full of Bioluminescent dinoflagellates a Dinoflagellate is a single cell organism That's very common in the Plankton Environment so what I'm going to Demonstrate is what this bioluminescence Might look like as swimmers are moving

Through the water Here we're going to be swirling the Globe with the bioluminescent Dinoflagellates in there So it is possible that the motion of the Swimmers was stimulating bioluminescence In the water and it's also possible that The cookie cutters was drawn to that Bioluminescence But something doesn't quite fit Swimmers have been crossing the Molokai Channel for years and bioluminescence Has always been present yet the attacks Are a recent phenomenon Bioluminescence can't be the cause of The spike The case is off to an Illuminating start But the Quest for Clues will soon lead Investigators into the darkest depths of The ocean A detail from the first ever cookie Cutter attack yields a disturbing clue I grew up on Oahu most of my life I've Lived on Maui All of my life I've been involved with Water sports Mike Spalding is a long Distance swimmer who lives in Hawaii In 2009 he's attempting to cross the Allenui haha Channel between the big Island and Maui But something is waiting for Mike in the Depths of the ocean We strategically left at three o'clock In the afternoon knowing that we would

Be swimming through the night We started off in beautiful water in Five hours I was 10 miles offshore at First the 30 mile swim seems to be going To plan I was making good time the Current was helpful when I laid out the Program for the swim I told the captain Zero lights lights attract fish sharks Are attracted to fish zero lights Got dark about 7 45 he was having Difficult seeing me and he turned his Lights on so he could spot me Thinking that it'd be better to have the Lights on even if it's going to attract Bait than losing me out there in the Blue Waters But Mike and his crew aren't the only Ones in the water Then all of a sudden I got hit by the Squid And that's when all hell broke loose I got hit by the first squid and then a Second and then a third I was terrified that something really Bad was about to happen All of a sudden had a very sharp pain in My sternum Mike doesn't know it but he has just Become the first recorded human victim Of a cookie-cutter shark attack I grabbed the kayak and I'm struggling To get into the kayak and my legs were Egg beating and kicking and that's when I got hit and it felt just like a punch

It was just like a But I ran my fingers down my leg And I felt this big divot this hole in My leg then I started to bleed profusely From then on it was let's get to the Hospital as quick as possible About five hours going full speed the Diesel boat to get to Kihei boat ramp After several surgeries and months of Rehabilitation Mike makes a full Recovery I'm gonna come back I'm not Gonna let this incident stop me from From swimming this channel I'm going to Come back one more time The attack on Mike Spalding occurs 10 Years before the spike in attacks in 2019 so what changed in that time to Make cookie cutter sharks so much more Aggressive Mike thinks he knows the answer there Are a lot of people doing the channel That year and if they're out there at Night there's going to be more cookie Cutter shark bikes A surge in the popularity of Channel Swimming could increase the chances of a Human shark interaction A plausible hypothesis But does it stand up Dr Don Kobayashi is a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association who studies the open ocean Ecosystem including sharks when we heard About three attacks in the early part of

2019 happening within the scope of just A few months First thing that came to mind was maybe There's more swimmers in the water Dr kobayashi's research finds something Surprising I looked at a website that Documents Channel Crossings in Hawaii What I found was that with regard to the Channel swimmers it doesn't look like 2019 had more swimmers in the water There are probably less swimmers in the Water than an average year at least in That particular Channel The fact of the matter is that the Number of swimmers who compete and the Number of successful Crossings of the Channel actually doesn't correlate with The spike in attacks in 2019 which Suggests that there's something else Contributing to this Perhaps there is another reason why the Swimmers are attracting sharks And it centers around a particular part Of the day Mike's attack and the three 2019 Incidents all happened at night the time Of day when cookie cutter sharks migrate From the depths up to the surface Cookie cutter shark spend most of their Time in pretty deep water down to depths Of about three thousand feet but each Night they make a migration up towards The surface in order to follow their Prey this puts them potentially in

Greater contact with people Dr James Anderson of California State University Long Beach investigates how Cookie cutter sharks hunt at night so The question becomes how do these Animals actually find their prey we know That they have these big eyes which Allow for more light to come in so then We have to look at the other sensory Organs that can give us Clues as to how It hunts how it finds its prey so one of The things we can look at is the lateral Line system The lateral line runs from the tip of a Shark's snout to its tail and along both Sides of its body it's made up of a Series of fluid-filled canals lined with Tiny receptor cells so water flushes in Runs across those receptor cells and Then that triggers an action potential That goes back to the brain sending Messages about the directionality of That water flow came from Sharks use this Keen sense to hunt Once they feel a vibration in the water They follow it in search of a meal Cookie cutters have a well-developed Lateral line system which allows them to Take water movements generated by Potential Predators or potential prey Could the changes in water pressure made By a splashing swimmer be attracting Sharks to the area increasing the Chances of an attack it's absolutely

Possible that the movements of the Swimmers attracted the attention of the Cookie cutters yes that is primarily Part of what that that are aligned System on the fish is for Swimmers have been crossing the Molokai Channel for years without incident For this Theory to stand up something Would have to be different about the Behavior of these particular swimmers I Really don't think that the three Swimmers who got better would have been Splashing any more than any other Swimmer who'd made that swim that year Or any other time Yes it's possible that the animals were Queuing in on vibrations water movement They generated but I don't believe it's Because they had a particularly bad Swimming style compared to anyone else In The Quest For answers Investigators are about to uncover a new Clue that could solve the mystery The thing that really worries me about Coconut sharks is that we have no idea About their movement so I don't even Know when to be scared Scientists know that cookie cutter Sharks hunt at night and a detail from Mike's attack offers another clue as to What they might have been hunting the Cookie cutter shark bite was within Minutes of being bumped by the squid Dr Kim Holland of the shark Lab at the

University of Hawaii Manoa is at a local Fish auction in search of other victims Of cookie cutter sharks This is a great place to see how common Cookie cutter shark bites are on all the Different species that are here for sale On the auction floor Cookie cutter sharks have long been Considered parasites that prey on larger Marine life for their primary food Source Here is a good example of two wounds Right next to each other one circular One there is quite fresh this is the Scar of an old one so it's a very common Phenomena So cookie cutter sharks are actually Quite specialized taking plugs of tissue Out of larger animals whether those Animals be a swordfish or a tuna or even A dolphin but another fish here provides A crucial piece of evidence so over here We have a row of mahi mahi and these Live in the top part of the water column So these are quite shallow but even These have cookie cutter shark bites on Them like this one right here This is key because long distance Swimmers swim at the same level where Mahi mahi are found and mahi mahi are Known to prey on squid A reason for the attack starts to emerge As a case of mistaken identity well you Can see that a cookie cutter shark

Doesn't really care what it takes to Bite out of so if it gets a chance to Get close to a human it would probably Think okay here's a Target Biggest chances Did cookie cutter sharks in the Molokai Channel mistake Mike and the 2019 Spike Victims for large marine life Dr Sora Kim at the University of California Merced researches the diet of Sharks For the cookie cutter y cutter shark Project we looked at muscle tissue and Liver because they captured different Amounts of time in terms of diet Traditionally we thought that cookie Cutter sharks a large prey and this was Because this is what we could see at the Fish market in June 2021 scientists Including Dr Kim publish a surprising Study overturning the conventional Wisdom about cookie cutter shark diet I Was surprised to find that they were Eating pretty low on the food chain Things like small fish and Squid and That these larger prey are actually a Much smaller part of their diet Were the cookie cutter sharks drawn to The area by the presence of squid Bringing them into contact with the Swimmers and triggering the attacks That these three swimmers were attack Because of these dial vertical migrating Prey so if there were squid present and

The cookie cutter sharks were hoping to Eat that but instead they found a larger Prey than they would have gone after That The theory seems to hold water but when The details of all three attacks are Analyzed a problem emerges None of the swimmers in 2019 reported Seeing squid in the water Perhaps the cause of the attacks is not Something that attracted the Sharks but Something that was supposed to keep them Away Investigators turned their attention to The second victim in 2019. This is the channel where it happens I haven't been back Several years Isaiah Mojica is a 25 year old Marathon Swimmer who's completed several major Channel Crossings The love for it after training for the English Channel so in April of 2019 I Had already swam the English Channel and The Catalina Channel and my goal was to Swim the Molokai Channel just three Weeks after the attack on Eric Shaw Isaiah is preparing to make his own Molokai Channel Crossing when I was Getting ready for the swim And Eric Charles Sharp incident I mean The shark attacks are really rare and I Didn't think it would happen to me The goal was to start the swim around 5

30 swim through the nights and then Finish around mid-morning Swim definitely felt like bathtub water The water seemed very calm But the calm doesn't last At Sunset right after the team turned on Navigational lights Isaiah experiences a Strange stinging sensation After a while I kind of got used to the The feeling and I realized This night draws in the crew deploys a Special safety mechanism every 30 Seconds the device emits a low voltage Electric pulse in the water which is Designed to keep large sharks away from The swimmer But the pulse is strong enough for Isaiah to feel it as he swims swimming Next to the shark Shield I could feel a Sharp zap like a static electricity's App except kind of all over your body Around midnight boat captain Ivan Shigaki tosses a thermos with a light Attached to Isaiah signaling it is time For a feeding break but something else In the water is also preparing to feed On Isaiah all of a sudden I felt a sharp Pain in my back I also heard I don't think I'll ever forget the sound Of that bite or the or the feeling and I Felt a strong tug on my left shoulder And I thought that it possibly could Have just been a shark Shield or a

Jellyfish kind of zapping me because my Body tensed up I reached back to see What had happened and I can feel this Deep hole in my back And that's when I knew that something Was terribly wrong I started screaming get me out get me Out the boat captain acts swiftly we Turn on the lights and and we looked and There's a cookie cutter shark swimming Away from him as Isaiah swam away from The shark he went over to the kayaker And jumped on the kayak the kayak Flipped and he flipped The kayaker shouted oh no I see it too But now I have Isaiah in the water and The kayaker in the water The men Scramble for help we're trying To get Isaiah into the boat I grabbed Onto his swim trunks and literally Yanked him onto the death And immediately said okay we need you to Lie down here started getting out towels Took a towel and used that to try to Stop the bleeding the captain turns the Boat back towards Oahu Back on Shore Isaiah is rushed by Ambulance to the hospital When I was hospitalized they cleaned out The wounds Fortunately there was no skin graft but What they did was they essentially sewed Up each layer of muscle and fat and skin It is a full six weeks before Isaiah

Recovers It's just like a straight scar right Here on the left shoulder But the impact of the terrifying attack Leaves a lasting impression Haven't tried any Channel swim since the Incident I think it'll be a few years From now before I step back into the Molokai Channel Isaiah is the second of three swimmers To be attacked in the Molokai channel in 2019. All of them by cookie cutter sharks The cause of this rare surge in shark Attacks is a total mystery But a detail from Isaiah's swim offers a Possible lead A unique piece of equipment placed in The water alongside Isaiah I went with the shark Shield because I Thought that the Extra Protection would Be helpful on the swim Hawaii's waters are home to more than 40 Species of shark posing potential Threats to swimmers Many long-distance swimmers deploy shark Shields in an attempt to keep the Predators at Bay And while these anti-shark devices are Thought to repel larger sharks like Bulls tigers and great whites cookie Cutter sharks are different one of the Things that is curious about cooking Cutters is that they do seem to be

Attracted to unusual electrical Fields So cookie cutters have been known to Bite undersea cables and damage them and Even bite through them they've been Known to attack the sonar equipment on Submarines to the point that they had to Start developing ways to protect the Telemetry devices for the sonar so the Cookie cutters wouldn't damage them This surprising fact leads Isaiah to an Unconventional Theory It's possible that electric truck Deterrence May attract cookie cutter Sharks could a shark deterrent actually Have the opposite effect so they do seem To have an attraction to unusual Electrical fields that other animals Aren't Could this compelling detail be the Missing piece to the puzzle So of the three Marathon swimmers that Made the Molokai Crossing two of them Were using Shark deterrent devices at The time whereas one was not and yet Still got bitten so it points to the Shark deterrent device has not been the Singular cause of any of those swimmers Being bitten Knowing shark deterrents are not the Primary cause Investigators focus on another attack in 2019 that may hold vital Clues Matt Buckman is a boat captain escorting A Brazilian Channel swimmer from Oahu to

Hawaii Swimmer's name is aderball trailer Oliveira It's very Cool and confident We started about 4 30 in the afternoon He was set at such a great Pace he was On time to make a record and after about Six hours we had covered 18 miles but This swim is about to set a very Different record Matt watches Adderall unexpectedly slow Down and he screamed out loud fish fish The support kayak comes in for a closer Look That's where the cookie cutter shark Came up and grabbed him And I saw him like boom jumped up by the Front of the kayak real quick and I just Jammed it in reverse right towards them To get him on the boat as quickly as Possible with the injured swimmer on Board the severity of the situation Becomes apparent as soon as I saw the Wound I knew it was a cookie cutter Shark there was quite a bit of Bud and We tourniquated him up and we just Punched him and right when we pulled up The ambulance pulled up at the same time Adder ball is treated for his injuries And eventually makes a full recovery He is the third swimmer to be attacked By cookie cutter sharks in the Molokai Channel in just over four months

This unprecedented Spike leaves locals And scientists desperate for answers What's going on is the moon lining up is It a phase that is it an explosion in Population nobody really knew Most of what we know about cookie cutter Sharks particularly their distribution Around the world actually comes from Forensic evidence from the bites that They leave on their prey items now in Addition to that cookie cutter shark Wounds are actually also used to help Understand human fatalities that have Happened in the ocean particularly to Understand how long those bodies have Been in the water Worldwide investigators wonder why Living humans have only recently come Under attack Is it possible the 2019 Spike was caused By a single flesh hungry cookie cutter Shark What scientists know is that Interactions between humans and Cookie-cutter sharks are extremely rare Could the cause of the attacks be the Work of a single Rogue shark that has Developed a taste for human flesh The idea of a rogue shark is that There's one shark that for some reason Or another has attacked multiple humans And there's very very limited evidence For this throughout history but the fact Of the matter is that there are some

Cases in which this has occurred it's Thought that in 1919 a Spate of fatal Shock attacks along the New Jersey Shore Was the work of a single Rogue bull Shark 100 years later and halfway across the World is the same thing happening in Hawaii Now it's been suggested that the cookie Cutter shark attacks on humans in the Molokai channel in 2019 could have Involved a rogue cookie cutter sharks The answer lies in the bite marks left On the swimmers who were attacked these Are all classic cookie cutter shark Wounds all of them have this circular Form to them now when we look at all of These wounds we see a lot of similarity Because all of these have those telltale Signs of a cookie cutter shark having Been involved in the attack now some of These attacks even happened in a pretty Close proximity similar times to each Other distinct bite patterns could be The very clue investigators have been Waiting for in addition to comparing Bite wounds from the 2019 survivors Dr Huber also analyzes the bite wounds of The first ever Hawaii cookie cutter Attack that of Mike Spalding while Mike And Isaiah's attacks appear to have come From cookie cutter sharks that were a Very similar size potentially the same Shark

Outer balls attack was definitely from a Smaller shark so there's no way that the Same shark could have been responsible For each of these attacks It's highly unlikely that there was a Single cookie cutter shark attacking Swimmers in 2019. To unlock the secrets of this elusive Creature investigators turned to someone Who has encountered them on many Occasions it's extremely rare to Actually see a cookie cutter shark first Time I saw a cookie cutter shark I Didn't realize I was looking at a Shark Cookie cutter sharks are by far the Weirdest looking shark I've ever seen Josh lambus is an award-winning Photographer specializing in night Dives Known as Black Water Dives In 2008 he became the first person known To capture a living cookie-cutter shark On video You know as far as I knew it was an Elusive shark that no one got to see and That it wasn't until we started black Water diving with some regularity that We we actually got to see him Josh believes a clue could lie in a key Aspect of cookie cutter shark behavior One that is part of a much larger Natural phenomenon that occurs in the Ocean every single night To demonstrate he heads towards the side Of the 2019 attacks

The Molokai Channel The movement of sea creatures from deep Water to the surface is called vertical Dial migration this migration that we're Seeing each night during a black water Dive is actually the largest migration On the planet the animals we come across Out there are completely out of this World I sometimes think that if we Somehow came across an alien species we Wouldn't even know that it was an alien Species Just like the 2019 attacks all of Josh's Cookie cutter shark encounters occurred At night and near the surface Foreign These sharks swim up from the deaths Also be the reason for the spike in Attacks on humans cookie cutter sharks Spend most of their time in pretty deep Water down to depths of about three Thousand feet but each night they make a Migration up towards the surface in Order to follow their prey and as they Work their way up towards the surface This puts them potentially in Greater Contact with people While the presence of cookie cutter Sharks near the surface at night is Clearly a factor in the attacks it Cannot explain why the spike occurred There must be something else In 2019 the scientific community in Hawaii witnessed another unusual Marine

Phenomenon one that could unlock the Secret to the mystery once and for all In 2019 when the people got attacked by The cookie cutter sharks we started Seeing a lot of these very unusual deep Water fish which no one has seen in Hawaii coming up into shallow water by The hundreds These fish are called knife jaw fish Knife jaw fish are found deep below the Ocean's surface They are named after a strange Characteristic of their teeth which fuse Together to form a razor-sharp beak In ancient Hawaiian history there is no Record of knife jaw fish in the Hawaiian Islands turns out that these knife jaw Fish live in the deep water Canyons Offshore Hawaii 500 feet all the way Down to about 2 000 feet deep could the Surfacing of the rarely seen knife jaw Fish in 2019 provide the evidence needed To solve the case Marine biologist Terry Lilly believes There's a connection between the Sightings of the knife jaw fish and the Cookie cutter shark attacks For over 50 years now it has been well Known by the scientific community and The U.S military that sonar coming off Of submarines underwater affects the Behavior of our whales dolphins sea Turtles fish and sharks Could a change in deep water military

Exercises answer the rare cookie cutter And human Clash cookie cutter sharks do Move up and down they do this for a Variety of reasons it could be to find Food to avoid predation it could be a Lot of things but most things that are Mobile can and will find their comfort Zone of preferred habitat Now that the military has told us that They moved this activity none of these Problems currently exist So I think that shows us that this Underwater submarine activity really did Have an effect on our marine life in This 2019 time frame Was the alleged increase in Deepwater Military activity enough to explain the 2019 attacks There's been military activity Navy Activity in Hawaii for decades it's a Very important base for the Navy so I Don't think there's been any change in The naval or other kinds of activity it Could account for a putative spike in Cookie cutter shark bites Deep water military activity in the Channel does not explain the spike There is one critical clue still to Explore The water itself Before 2019 there was only one recorded Cookie cutter attack in Hawaiian Waters But that year there were three vicious Attacks

Something In The Water must have changed Dr Don Kobayashi and his team have Identified a key difference in the Marine environment that occurred in 2019. once we heard about the 2019 Spike My colleague Dr Ryan rikazewski and Myself started to explore the Oceanography of the channel region Particularly with respect to Sea surface Temperature 2019 was a very very odd Year and that it started out cooler than Usual ended up much warmer than usual so It wasn't a cool year or warm year per Se but it was a little bit of both To their surprise the researchers found What is referred to in the scientific Community as an anomaly by anomalous sea Surface temperature we mean it fell Outside the range of the 10th or 90th Percentile respectively for cooler or Warmer sea surface temperatures so we're Still trying to figure out what causes That and it's probably related to this Large gyre a gyre is a system of Rotational currents Hawaii resides in The North Pacific gyre which moves Clockwise and is formed by four ocean Currents the North Pacific the California the north equatorial and the Kuroshio The temperature of the ocean will depend On the speed of that gyre and how fast That water is moving around in that very Very large wheel which was known to be

Spinning a little bit slower that year So this had pronounced effects on the Oceanography around the Hawaiian Islands Most of the jars slow rotational speed Water temperatures around Hawaii in 2019 Started off colder but heated up to the Second highest surface temperatures on Record by mid-summer Right around the time of the last cookie Cutter attacks of that year But how would these warmer temperatures Affect the behavior of sharks we have Some hypotheses that perhaps a change in The vertical distribution of the cookie Cutter sharks might put it in that Overlap region with a human swimmer near The surface of the ocean they could also Be changes in the cookie cutter sharks Predator prey Dynamics like perhaps it's Hungrier or the food has changed its Location but given that the oceanography Seems to have changed there's probably Something going on with the cookie Cutter shark behavior that brings it More into contact with humans in that Year Dan Huber believes this plays into a key Predatory characteristic of many Marine Creatures including sharks this feeds Into a physiological process called hunt Warm rest cool Sharks will move into warmer Waters in Order to hunt because in those warmer Waters they'll have a higher metabolic

Rate and their muscles will perform at a Higher level But once they get their food in those Warm Waters they Retreat into colder Waters and when they do so their Metabolic rate is going to go down which Means that the meal that they just got Is actually going to last longer So because the water is off the coast of Hawaii we're warmer than normal during The summer of 2019 This could have resulted in more cookie Cutter sharks more actively feeding in Those shallow Waters and potentially Being the contributing factor that Explains the spike in 2019. An unusual swing from cooler to Record-breaking warmer Waters in The Molokai channel is likely the answer to The 2019 Spike [Music] Thank you [Music]