Dr. Mikki McComb-Kobza interview:
Victoria:
Our guest this week is Dr. Mikki McComb-Kobza. She is the executive director of Ocean First Institute, a non-profit organization with the mission of ocean conservation through research and education.
Her research focuses on the sensory biology and ecological physiology of sharks, skates, and rays. Mikki is involved in several collaborative projects that include multi-species census and tracking movements aimed to guide conservation. She has been invited to speak, educate, and conduct research at labs and institutions in South America, central America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The Ocean First Institute supports expeditions and a variety of education initiatives, which have reached over 110,000 students in 35 countries.
This week’s questions were submitted by students at Bromwell Elementary in Denver, Colorado, and by the listeners through emails and on social media.
Thank you so much for talking to us today.
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Oh, thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Victoria:
We’re excited to hear all of your answers to these questions.
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Fantastic! I am ready.
Victoria:
(Ella – What is the biggest shark tooth you’ve ever seen?)
(Maeve – What is the biggest shark you’ve ever seen?)
All right. We’ll start off with a bunch of shark questions. We had a lot of people submit questions about sharks. So, jumping right in, these are two questions that go together from Ella and Maeve, and they want to know what is the biggest shark tooth you’ve ever seen, and what is the biggest shark you’ve ever seen?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Ooh. Okay. These are great questions. Biggest shark tooth that I have ever seen belongs to a very exciting shark called the megalodon. And the megalodon is a shark that went extinct about 2 million years ago and grew upwards of 60 feet. And its teeth can fit into the palm of your hand: they’re the size of, just about the size of your hand.
So they’re huge. And they fossilize pretty well. And you can find them all over the world, especially in places like the Carolina and Florida. There seem to be a lot of megalodon teeth. And so, you can find those fossilized teeth, and those are the biggest shark teeth really that have ever been discovered.
Victoria:
Wow, there is a movie that came out pretty recently, right? The plot of it was that the megalodon wasn’t extinct. Have you seen that?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Oh yeah, it’s pretty good. The premise is that the megalodon was trapped in a layer under the ocean, and it was disturbed, and then it came to the surface and terrorized some underwater explorers. You know, the shows are ridiculous. But they’re, you know, if you take them with a grain of salt, they’re really pretty fun as well.
Victoria:
(Noah – What is the smallest shark you’ve seen?)
This is a good follow-up question from Noah. What’s the smallest shark you’ve ever seen?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Oh, so I’ll back up, and I’ll let you know the biggest shark. I forgot to answer that the biggest shark that I’ve ever seen is the whale shark.
I have been swimming next to a whale shark, and whale sharks are the largest sharks swimming in the ocean today. They can be upwards of 50 feet long. And I actually went next to them with my son, who is 11 years old. And people would say, why would you do that? Doesn’t that sound a little dangerous? Well, whale sharks are filter feeding sharks, and they’re completely harmless. They eat tiny plants and animals called plankton. And so, they are totally harmless. They have very, very small teeth in their jaws. And again, adult whale sharks can grow upwards of 50 feet in length. So that’s pretty incredible.
And they’re beautiful. There are polka-dot markings on them and some stripes, and they spent a lot of time near the surface, and their chest is absolutely beautiful.
And the smallest shark that I’ve seen. I was on a research cruise many years ago in the Gulf of Mexico. And we brought up a lantern shark, and lantern sharks can fit into the palm of your hand. They’re very, very small sharks, and some of them can actually glow in the dark, which is pretty incredible if you think about it. They use chemicals inside their body to create light called bioluminescence. And so, these lantern sharks can glow, which is really quite amazing.
Victoria:
That is so cool.
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Yeah, they’re called the velvet belly lantern shark and their bellies glow, kind of a blue, green color, which matches the downwelling light. And so, it acts as a camouflage strategy nearly like a Harry Potter invisibility cloak or something like that. It’s really pretty clever.
Victoria:
(Josh – What is the oldest shark you’ve seen?)
Oh, my goodness. That’s awesome. All right. This next question is from Josh. What is the oldest shark you’ve seen?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Now that is an interesting question. It’s hard for us to understand, unless we look at sizes, you know, the age of a shark. And there are many different techniques for us to try to age and understand the age of different sharks. So, it’s hard for me to say. I’ve worked with adults. and I’ve also worked with pups. So, the young sharks are called shark pups. So, I’ve worked with really very young sharks, and I’ve worked with large adults, which it depends on the shark species. Some sharks can live a life span of maybe 15 years and others can live upwards of 70 years, like the great white shark. And then this is amazing. The Greenland shark new research tells us that shark can live upwards of 400 years.
Victoria:
Oh my goodness.
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Yeah, that’s amazing. It could be the world’s longest lived vertebrate. So really incredible new research coming out, you know, and we just still, we’re still learning so much.
Victoria:
Wow, this isn’t a question that any of the students wrote, but this is something I just thought of. Do sharks keep growing for their whole lives, or do they reach a point where they don’t get any bigger?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
That is a really interesting question. They do reach a maximum size. And so, for instance, we might have a specific species like a dusky shark, and we’ll know that the total length of that shark can range from a certain amount of centimeters to a maximum length. But I think they continue to grow throughout their lifetime. They just slow their growth as they get closer to their maximum size.
Victoria:
(Tallon – How do you find sharks?)
(Dan – Where can you see sharks in real life?)
Okay. Back to the questions from the students. These are two questions that go together from Tallon and Dan. How do you find sharks, and where can you see sharks in real life?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Great. So how do I find sharks? Well, there’s a couple different ways, and it kind of depends on what it is that I’m trying to do. If I’m trying to do research, or if I’m scuba diving, there might be some different ways. If I’m doing research on a shark and I am working with that shark in the field or the laboratory, I would find that shark out on a boat and I would use bait to attract the sharks so that we could bring it to the vessel to tag it or to draw blood for hormone analysis, whatever it is we’re doing. So, I might find a shark by fishing for it. And then I might find a shark by scuba diving and you know, collecting data while I scuba dive. So, there’s a couple of different ways that I collect data on sharks. And some of that is fishing on a vessel, and others is diving with the sharks in the wild, which is really probably my most favorite way.
And where can you see sharks in real life is a question from Dan, and the answer is all over. So, we have sharks that live in the deep ocean, where no sunlight even penetrates. We have sharks that live on the coral reefs. We have sharks that live in fresh water systems: they can move in and out of fresh water. And we have sharks that live under ice in the polar regions. So, really, sharks, because they’re such a diverse group, you can find sharks in nearly every aquatic habitat on the planet.
Victoria:
(Joel – Why can’t we successfully keep Great Whites in captivity?)
Oh, wow. All right, this next question is from Joel. Why can’t we successfully keep great whites in captivity?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Well, Joel, that’s a great question, and no one really knows the answer. For many, many decades, those that run aquariums have always wanted to have great white sharks in captivity because they are such a, you know, a famous shark, and a shark that everyone would want to see in captivity. However, they’ve had such trouble with keeping great whites alive in captivity, and some of it has been perhaps not having enough space and water. But we really don’t know. These animals, these great white sharks, they just do not do well in captivity. They had one at the Steinhart aquarium, they had one at Monterrey. So yeah, it’s a fascinating thing to think about, but there’s something in the great white sharks’ physiology that just does not lend itself to captivity. And they’ve even had great white sharks in what are called fish pens, that’s kind of an open ocean enclosure, and they were okay there. But the people that had that shark decided not to keep it in captivity indefinitely. So, it’s a great question. And I think we just really don’t know the answer.
Victoria:
(Ben – Why are sharks scared of orcas?)
Yep. This question is from Ben. Why are sharks scared of orcas?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Well, Ben, sharks have good reason to be scared of orcas. Orcas are incredibly intelligent pack hunters. They communicate in their pods to each other. And one of the things that orcas have been observed doing is killing great white sharks.
And in particular, one of the orcas’ strategies is really quite incredible. When a shark is turned upside down, there is a physiological response, and they go into something called tonic immobility. Basically, when you flip a shark over, it stops moving. It goes into kind of a trance. And it’s been observed in the wild that orcas will flip a great white shark over, putting it in kind of that trance, and allowing the great white shark to basically drown. Because great white sharks are ram ventilators: they have to continually swim in order to survive. And then the orcas will eat the great white shark’s liver. And that sounds so awful, but the shark has a very large liver, and it’s full of squalene oil, which is very high in energy. And so, the orca whales love to eat the liver lobes, there’s two of them inside of the great white sharks, to get that extra energy from their liver.
Victoria:
Wow.
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
That’s kind of scary, isn’t it?
Victoria:
(Colson – What do sharks eat?)
Yeah. All right. Speaking of eating, this is a good transition. Colson wants to know what do sharks eat?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
So, Colson, this is another really interesting question. And the answer is it depends. And you’re going to hear me say that a lot. The sharks are so diverse that their diets are also quite diverse.
So, there are some sharks that eat grass I’m not even kidding. So, there are some that eat sea grass, and they also are eating crabs. They just happened to get a big mouth full of grass, and they digest that grass. Those are the bonnethead sharks.
And then there are other sharks that eat seals and sea lions, like the great white sharks as adults. There are sharks that eat other fish. There are sharks that eat other sharks, if you can believe it. So even their own kind isn’t off of the menu. And some sharks eat stingrays and other fish. So really quite interesting to see there’s a tremendous diversity in the diet of sharks.
Victoria:
(Hanna – How many species of sharks are there?)
Wow. Speaking of the diversity of sharks, Hannah wants to know how many species of sharks are there?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Well Hannah, there are over 500 different sharks swimming in the ocean today. And what’s really fascinating about that is when I first started researching sharks, there was around 474, and we’ve been discovering and describing new species ever since. And so, as I say, there’s over 500, there will be many more in the coming years, as scientists are discovering new species and describing them. So, what an exciting thing to know that, you know, we don’t know everything. There are still sharks out there that have not been described by science. And that’s really exciting.
Victoria:
(Dylan – How fast can sharks swim?)
Wow. Dylan wants to know how fast can sharks swim.
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Ooh, this is a great question. So, Dylan, there is a shark out there. It’s the cheetah of the sea. It’s called them mako shark, and the mako shark can swim upwards of 50 miles an hour. So, imagine driving in your car on the highway or your parents driving you in the car, and you look up the window, and you see a mako sharks swimming next to you. That’s as fast as these sharks can go. They are super swimmers. They have long fins. their whole body’s streamlined for speed, and they swim after very fast-moving fish for their meals. And it’s interesting because their whole physiology is adapted for that speed. Their eyes are superheated so that their eyes can work really quickly and fast in that fast-moving environment. So they’re incredible.
And then there’s other sharks. That sit on the bottom of the sea floor all day long and barely move at all. So, you really, again, have that rainbow of diversity when it comes to the speed at which sharks maneuver.
Victoria:
(Jude – Are some sharks yellow?)
Wow. Okay. This next question is from Jude, are some sharks yellow.
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Yes, Jude, there are yellow sharks, there really are. And they are called lemon sharks. Go figure. you can see why they got their name, their yellow tinge. And they’re absolutely beautiful. I spent many, many moons in Bimini in The Bahamas. I’m working on lemon sharks, learning about the nursery areas that these juvenile lemon sharks spend their early years in, trying to understand their movements with other researchers. And lemon sharks are really, really beautiful sharks.
Victoria:
Wow. That kind of makes me want lemonade or something.
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Lemonade, shark lemonade.
Victoria:
(Griff – How do sharks sleep?)
All right. This question is from Griff. How do sharks sleep?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Well Griff, we don’t know, that’s the answer. Scientists really have no data on what happens to sharks and how they go into these restful states.
It’s thought, but again, there’s no data here, it’s thought that they are able to shut down parts of their brain, while still allowing other parts to continue to function like breathing, swimming. But they go into these times where they’re more restful, and that restful time is enough for them to be all right. So, they don’t really sleep as if you and I do, when we kind of go unconscious for eight to 10 hours a day; they’re continually kind of in an alert state.
So, it’s a question that needs to be researched. And maybe as you get older, you can ask that question. It would be a really neat one.
Victoria:
(Abbey – Have you ever found fossil sharks?)
Abbey wants to know. Have you ever found fossil sharks?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Yes, I absolutely have. And what’s interesting to note is that sharks are the cartilaginous fishes. And so that, what that means is their bodies, they have skeletons on the inside just like you and I do. But instead of that skeleton being made of bone, like ours is, theirs is made of cartilage, which is the stuff at the end of your nose and in your ears. And so, they are the cartilaginous fishes, and because of that, their bodies don’t fossilize very well.
And so typically what we get in the fossil record for sharks is their teeth. And so, we have to kind of reconstruct a lot about a shark by looking at its dentition or its teeth. And I have found many sharks teeth. And you won’t believe this, in the rocks of Colorado. Because we used to have a sea coming right through Colorado a couple of times, which is really quite amazing. So not far from my house, there’s a ridge, where there are sharks’ teeth in the rocks. It’s amazing.
Victoria:
(Zoey – How long do sharks live?)
That’s so awesome. Okay. This next question. I think you’ve already answered, but I’ll ask it just in case you want to add anything to it. Zoey wants to know how long do sharks live.
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Yeah, so great question. And again, it depends on the species. And we mentioned earlier, the Greenland shark might live upwards of 400 years. A great white might live around 70. And other species might live a lot shorter lifespans.
But what’s interesting is trying to figure out what that is. And there’s a lot of different ways that you can do it. And one in particular that is pretty useful is to use the vertebrae of a shark: they are pieces that their backbone. They have rings almost like a tree that are laid down in their vertebrae. And when you cut through the vertebrae and look at that, you can actually add up the rings and figure out how old that animal is. So, that’s one way that scientists have been able to age and validate that method to age sharks.
Victoria:
(Bobby – What does it feel like to see a shark in person?)
Cool. All right. Switching gears a little bit. Bobby wants to know what does it feel like to see a shark in person?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Well, I can tell you this. I’ve been swimming with sharks since I first became a scuba diver, when I was 16 years old. And I fell in love with sharks when I was seven years old. And, to this day, and I’ve been diving for over 35 years. When I see a shark in the wild, I still get giddy and excited. Sometimes I’ll kind of, you know, hoot and yell underwater, kind of silly. But it’s an amazing feeling to see a shark swim by, to look them in the eye, to have them observe you and know that they’re checking you out. There’s no other feeling like it. It’s like facing a wild animal in a wild environment, and I’ve always felt like it’s a privilege to be able to share space with these incredible animals that have such an amazing history, and it’s just a remarkable feeling. And I hope someday you all become divers, and you can have that experience on your own.
Victoria:
(Zade – Are there things we don’t know about the ocean?)
That would be amazing. Okay, this next question is from Zade. Are there things we still don’t know about the ocean?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Yeah, Zade, there is. We’ve only really explored about 5% of our ocean. We know more about the surface of Mars than we do our own ocean. It’s really shocking.
And so, we have a lot of work ahead of us in order to understand the deep blue ocean: how it works, what the inhabitants are, how those inhabitants interact with each other. There’s so much we don’t know. We just had a woman go into space, and also she was the first woman to go to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana trench, off the coast of Guam. You know, so we are just in the very early stages of ocean exploration. And I am so jealous of your generation, and what you’re going to discover in your lifetimes.
Victoria:
(Maddie – How are sharks being affected by climate change?)
Okay. Maddie wants to know how are sharks being affected by climate change?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Well, Maddie, sharks definitely are being impacted by our changing climate.
And in particular, what we’re seeing is because of temperature change, we’re starting to see shifts in fish migrations, in the timing of their migrations; and as any good predator will do, they will follow their prey. And so, what we’re seeing now is sharks are shifting their migrations and their migratory patterns to that of their prey. And what we’re seeing is many fish species are moving away from the equator and moving more poleward. And so, we’re starting to see these shifts.
And changed as in shark migratory behaviors, their pupping grounds, so, where we have seen and observed sharks typically having their pups before. Some of those areas are changing. But again, we need more data. We need more information to help us understand these trends. and we need more people out there doing that research.
Victoria:
(Caroline – What did the ocean look like before humans were around?)
Wow. This is a good follow-up question. Caroline wants to know what did the ocean look like before humans were around?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Well, you know, I often, you know, think about deep time. It’s something that is exciting to me, and thinking about, you know, 65 million years ago with the time of the dinosaurs you know, sharks have been around on the planet for 440 million years. So, they arose way before the time of the dinosaurs, which we think of as a very ancient group. And sharks have lived through several mass extinction events.
But the oceans have had a whole cast of characters come, and go extinct. And so, all of these different species with their different adaptations, you know, the megalodon’s a great example of a shark that rose, grew very quickly over, you know, millions of years following whales, which was its prey. And then, you know, maybe because of changes in the environment, it was no longer well suited for its environment, and it went extinct. So, the ocean has been filled in the past with so many different animals that, you know, are no longer here. And some that have survived the test of time, and really have had a long run on our planet. But, boy, to be able to go back in time and see things like mosasaurs and ichthyosaurs, and, Oh, I mean, and megalodon’s; it would be amazing to be able to go back in time and see what the oceans were like.
Victoria:
Yeah. I wish I had a time machine.
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
We’d go with you.
Victoria:
Field trip.
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
I like it. Like it.
Victoria:
(Chandra – Do sharks get viruses like COVID?)
Okay, this question is from Chandra. Do sharks get viruses, like COVID?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Well, Chandra, it’s interesting. There’s a lot of kind of folklore out there that sharks don’t get cancer, and that sharks are immune to so many things. And there is research that shows to the contrary. So, sharks can get cancer; sharks can get sick; sharks can become ill. And the ocean is really an interesting place that has many viruses and bacteria in it. So, it is definitely a possibility for sharks to get viruses and to become ill.
Again, not that many people study these things, so we just don’t really have a lot of data on it. There’s only one person that I know of in the world that has been really studying and looking at that. And he works out of Mote Marine lab down in Florida and has dedicated his life to that very question.
Victoria:
(Sam – What do you do as the executive director of Ocean First?)
Wow. Switching gears again a little bit. Sam wants to know what do you do as the executive director of Ocean First?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Yeah, so my job is pretty diverse. I’m a researcher by training, and that is my passion. But I’m equally as passionate about outreach and, you know, sharing the story of sharks as kind of a hook to get people excited about the ocean. And to learn, you know, some of the things that they can do to be part of the solution — the ocean is definitely in trouble. And there are things we can all do.
So, part of my day is, you know, doing research, part of it is writing grants, part of it is managing, you know, volunteers, and employees that I have, part of it is going and doing talks like this, which is amazing. And then part of it is leading expeditions, where I go into the field and take students with me to train them how to collect data and to do research on sharks.
So, you know, nearly every day is a little bit different for me. And I really have a variety of things that occupy my time and that makes me really happy. I enjoy the variety. And I can’t think of anything more important than fighting for wildlife that doesn’t have a voice. That’s my calling and I get to do it. And I hope that the work I do has, you know, has an impact.
Victoria:
(Brady – What made you want to be a scientist?)
(Addalyn – In what grade did you want to be a scientist?)
It’s amazing. These are two questions that go together again. The first one is from Brady and Brady wants to know what made you want to be a scientist. And the second question is from Addalyn. In what grade did you want to be a scientist?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Oh, okay. Well, this is gonna sound really silly to you all, I’m sure. But when I was seven years old, I saw the movie Jaws. Yeah. I was so terrified. And I was living in Colorado. That’s where I was born and raised, and went home and I thought sharks were under my bed, and under the kitchen table, I was just terrified of sharks. And the only way that I knew to overcome my fear was to read about sharks. And the minute I opened my parents’ animal encyclopedia, and started reading about sharks, I haven’t stopped. I just love them, and they fascinate me, they excite me. And I think I wanted to become a scientist when I recognized that sharks needed an advocate and needed help, because many sharks are now in trouble, over the whole globe. And so, I felt by becoming a scientist, that credentialing and that training would help me help them have a voice and help in their conservation. And so yeah, that was my path, and what made me want to become a scientist.
Victoria:
(Katya – Do you go scuba diving a lot to see the ocean?)
Oh, that’s wonderful. Katya wants to know. Do you go scuba diving a lot to see the ocean?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Yes. Scuba diving really is one of my all-time favorite things to do, because it allows me to interact and see sharks. And, you know, when you go diving, it’s the world’s last great wilderness. You never know what you’re going to see. It’s absolutely incredible. And so, I go as often as I can, to go scuba diving all over. I go to Costa Rica, the Bahamas. I was just up in Palau, in Micronesia. It’s truly amazing to go diving into, to see what you can see.
I mean, when I was diving in Palau, I saw manta rays, about nine of them, surrounding me during sunset, and they swam around and looked in my eye and did flips and stayed with me for like 20, 30 minutes, a whole group. It was just one of those moments that you’ll never forget, and it will never leave you. You will always have those moments, those, you know, amazing encounters with wildlife. They become a part of you. And so that’s why diving is such an amazing, kind of a passport to the ocean realm. It’s just incredible.
Victoria:
Wow. Do you have a favorite place?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
You know, I think I, I really love Costa Rica because of the wildlife. They have a lot of hammerhead sharks, which is my specialty there. And I mean, you just never know what you’ll see. You’ll see humpback whales, sea turtles, sharks, manta rays. It’s just teeming with life.
And then, I love the Bahamas, because it’s just crystal clear, warm water. It’s like being in a swimming pool, and they’ve taken really great care in protecting sharks there. And so, on nearly every dive you do, you’ll be able to see a Caribbean reef shark. And, Oh my goodness. That is just a wonderful combination to have crystal clear water and sharks.
Victoria:
(Gavin – What is it like to be a scientist?)
Wow. All right. I think that the answer you just gave kind of covers this question, but maybe there’s more to it. Gavin wants to know what is it like to be a scientist?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Yeah. Being a scientist, I think for me is the most rewarding career I could have, because I’m able to ask questions about the natural world, and spend my time trying to figure out how things work. And in many cases, trying to find ways to protect these amazing animals that need protecting. And so, being a scientist is really being an observer and then trying to understand the way things work and the processes behind it, asking those questions, you’re almost like a sleuth.
And you know, one thing I’ve learned by being a scientist is I have to invent equipment sometimes to answer questions and do tests. And so, I’ve become an engineer, and I’ve done robotics, and, you know, I’ve made things I’d never thought I would be able to make. And you know, so it’s a really neat profession, because you have to be creative.
And I think you get to work on questions you’re interested in, and sometimes on animals you love and, that’s a wonderful intersection of things in your life to have, and to have that as your profession. It’s pretty special.
Victoria:
(James – Have you ever been on TV?)
That’s great. James wants to know, have you ever been on TV?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Yes, James. I have been on TV. I have been on the National Geographic Channel, and I have been on Discovery Channel Shark Week many a times. and I tell you what, it’s pretty fun. It’s really fun to get to talk about the research you’re doing and to explain why you feel like, you know, why you feel it’s important. And to share that out is just an extraordinary opportunity and is a lot of fun.
Victoria:
(Isabel – What is hard about being a scientist? What do you love about it?)
That’s awesome. Isabel wants to know what is hard about being a scientist, and what do you love about it?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
I think the hardest thing about being a scientist is that, you know, you might, and we try really hard not to have a bias going into something, but, you know, it’s interesting when you ask questions and you collect data, and things don’t turn out the way you might’ve thought they were. And then you have to kind of step back and try to reevaluate why is this the answer that I got. You know. And sometimes that can be frustrating, because you’re not sure where the data is leading you, or why you got this result. And so that can be a challenge, and sometimes it can be frustrating. But it can also be one of the most exhilarating parts of the job, because it leads you down paths you might not have ever thought to go down. And so sometimes out of frustration and out of kind of like a roadblock, something is completely unexpected is discovered. And I think that’s one of the neat things about it. It’s definitely hard, but it’s one of the rewards.
And I love, again, being a scientist, just because there’s freedom in asking questions that you think are worth asking and are important to the world and, you know, hoping that the science can move the needle forward for conservation. For me, that’s what’s so exciting about being a scientist, is trying to make a difference.
Victoria:
(Jude – What is your favorite thing to study?)
(Mariana – What is your favorite thing to do?)
All right. This is our last set of questions from Jude and Mariana. Jude wants to know what is your favorite thing to study, and Mariana wants to know what is your favorite thing to do?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Okay. Well, my favorite thing to study is definitely sharks, and I love to think about why sharks have some of the structures they have and the forms they have. And so, I’m really fascinated by their adaptations, you know, why does one shark have this body shape and this color, and why is this one totally different? And what does that mean in the way that they interact with their environment? And what does that mean in the way they make a living, and how does it all play into, you know, the whole ecosystem? So, I think knowing, you know, that each animal is part of a bigger puzzle and kind of looking at each individual and then looking at the big part of the puzzle is really fun. And so, I love to study those adaptations, and what does that really mean.
And my favorite thing to do, I think the biggest kick I get is being underwater and taking video of, you know, things that I see underwater and coming back and watching it and then sharing it out with people, and sharing the wonder and the awe and the amazement of what’s underwater right in, you know, our backyard sometimes. That to me is really an honor to be able to go down and document and record something and then share that with people and get them to say, “wow”, “whoa”, “I had no idea”, “I didn’t know that existed”. And to get that excitement is really fantastic.
Victoria:
That’s so cool. All right. Well, that is all of our questions. Thank you so much. Do you have any questions of your own for the listeners or any last comments or anything to add?
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
You know, I just think it’s great for all of us to kind of rethink the stereotypes that I think people have of sharks. And, you know, sharks are portrayed even to this day as, scary villains in so many movies and shows. And even sometimes on shark week, you know, the names of the shows are pretty dramatic. But, you know, I would encourage you to dig deeper than the great white shark and to dig deeper than, you know, some of those stereotypes and really think about sharks in a different way, and think about, you know, how long they’ve been on the planet and their tremendous diversity makes them really fascinating animals. And you know, some of them give birth to live young. Some of them lay eggs. I mean, there is so much diversity in the way they make a living, and how they survive and thrive. And I just challenge you to think a little bit more about them and think about them in a different way.
Victoria:
That’s awesome. Well, I think the answers to some of your questions today have definitely helped to do that.
Dr. McComb-Kobza:
Well, thank you. I sure hope so, that’s my goal.
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