Marine biologist here, there is a 75% chance that shark reached lethal cortisol levels due to this handling. Just because it swam away doesn’t mean it survived this event
Yeah, I couldn't help but wonder about this. Like, I can't imagine being unable to breathe for this long and not having permanent damage, if not just straight dying. There's obviously a cut between the first part, and given the one guy isn't even visible before, I'd guess that cut takes at least a full minute, if not longer.
And I'm pretty sure he says "stronger (longer?) set of pliers" which makes me think or someone else had already tried a different set of pliers or at least offered them, which also isn't on video, so the cut could be much longer.
Turns out not all fish are equally cold blooded. Some can be partially or fully warm blooded. The moonfish (opah) is the only fully warm-blooded fish, while tuna, swordfish, and some sharks (e.g., white, mako) are regionally endothermic
Sure? I'm not going to rewatch it because it isn't really relevant to my point, so I'll take your word for it. My point is that the video is a couple minutes long, and there's a cut bit of time, that is probably at least a minute long itself, because he approaches, reacts, gets on the shark and is holding its snout up already at the end of the cut.
Ya I was just reading that sharks will swim away with the last bit of strength and then sink to the bottom of the ocean and die. A lot of bodies wind of back on the shore
Not a marine biologist, but I wondered this while watching the video: what would happen if they had buckets of sea water and were pouring it on the shark's gills while it was out of the water? How would that affect things? I was thinking that maybe it would help keep them moist enough to a tiny bit of oxygen.
While it certainly would help, sometimes the stress of just being caught or landed is enough. You know how light you feel in the water (buoyant) sharks are not used to the weight displacement on their body when on land. Pressure from deep water is different because it affects all sides equally.
Yes, it's very sad. Chickens can die of stress too; sometimes they get so scared or are chased so much that they have heart attacks and drop dead. Poor animals.
Fishing seems utterly psychopathic to me. Imagine someone in a diving suit under water. They throw a baited hook above water and catch a kitten by hooking it in its mouth. Because they want to weigh the kitten and take pictures with it, they drag it under water for a few minutes. The kitten is still moving when it's thrown back to dry land, so hey! That must mean that it'll survive!
It's really gross how people justify recreational fishing.
No no, I never said that. Just get them back in the water quickly, or drain the circulatory system by cutting the artery between the heart and the gills (technically a vein, fish are backwards from us) before harvesting that sweet, sweet fish meat
Yes, I agree with that. I didn't think that you were saying it was okay to do what they did with the shark. It was directed to the dude in the video who apparently thinks it's cool to fish for sport.
Could he not have cut the line and left the hook to rust out? I know it wouldnt be ideal for the shark, but it could most likely still eat and would survive.
My cousin dreamed of swimming with whales. Became a marine biologists and ended up working for a chemical company because of the salary.
Besides, I’m not saying that this fine marine biologist above is wrong. I’m just pointing out that some species are far more resilient to catch-and-release.
I would tell the marine biologist exactly that if he were here talking to me. Scientists are wrong about a whole lot of shit, all the time, even though we are told to revere them and believe whatever they tell us.
This is such a Reddit moment. Of course they are, but you don't think the guy has the bare capacity to identify a shark given a joe shmoe can? There's a difference between coming with actual data and a random hunch
I think they meant “if” instead of “on”. One of the parent comments believes the person removing the hook is also the one who threw it in order to catch a shark.
E:
There would have been a 100% chance of death had the boy not helped that shark.
True. Not sure why you were being downvoted. Someone else said the “helper” wasn’t necessarily the one catching it.
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u/Artistic-Gap-45 Mar 27 '26
Marine biologist here, there is a 75% chance that shark reached lethal cortisol levels due to this handling. Just because it swam away doesn’t mean it survived this event