Speaker 1: SJA in This Afternoon on Lunch Now. In nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: one movie forever changed how we saw sharks and indeed
Speaker 1: how we saw movies. Now, fifty years later, Jaws is
Speaker 1: still sending ripples through pop culture and also the conservation world.
Speaker 1: This July National Geographic honors the blockbuster that redefined summer
Speaker 1: with Jaws at fifty The Definitive Inside Story. It's a
Speaker 1: brand new authorized documentary featuring never before seen footage, personal
Speaker 1: home videos, and exclusive interviews from everyone from Steven Spielberg
Speaker 1: to James Cameron, Emily Blunt, Guillermo del Toro, and shark
Speaker 1: scientists like Felippe Gusto. It's part of this year's Shark
Speaker 1: Fest lineup, and it's more than just movie nostalgia. It's
Speaker 1: a celebration of storytelling, of science and the sea. One
Speaker 1: of the voices featured in the documentary is that of
Speaker 1: Gibbs Gurguru, a Kenyan shark scientist whose work explores the
Speaker 1: a of these incredible animals, and he joins us now
Speaker 1: to talk at sharks and science and also what it
Speaker 1: means to undo decades of myth and misunderstanding. Gibb's good
Speaker 1: to have you with us on Cape Talk this afternoon.
Speaker 2: That's a pleasure listen.
Speaker 1: You've you've worked with with some of the most the
Speaker 1: ocean's most or inspiring sharks. What what first drew you
Speaker 1: to study sharks?
Speaker 2: You know, I my passion for studying sharks was actually
Speaker 2: bequeathed to me from my study advisor. During my bachelor's
Speaker 2: I was studying medicine and with you, I wasn't good
Speaker 2: at it. And if you know, if I ended up
Speaker 2: becoming a medical doctor, it's like a malpractice suit waiting
Speaker 2: to happen. So he's like, maybe you better dive with
Speaker 2: sharks instead, And I was like, all right, you know,
Speaker 2: I might as well. You know what I got to lose.
Speaker 1: And I mean, it's they are. They are such fascinating creatures.
Speaker 1: Did you have any idea when you first essentially kind
Speaker 1: of got into the water, just how your love and
Speaker 1: fascination of them would develop.
Speaker 2: Honestly, no, because truth be told, I just sort of
Speaker 2: went there almost just to see what was going to happen.
Speaker 2: And every day I just tried something different. I practiced
Speaker 2: my skills. And after it's been like what like almost
Speaker 2: fifteen years that I've been working with these animals. I
Speaker 2: actually think I'm getting kind of good at it at
Speaker 2: this stage. So and the passion also follows with you know,
Speaker 2: just showing up every day, and I think that's I mean,
Speaker 2: that can be said for anything you do in life,
Speaker 2: whether it be art or science, or music or business.
Speaker 2: You know, to show up.
Speaker 1: You focus on shark DNA, won't you just tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit about what that research involves and how
Speaker 1: it helps us understand sharks shark species in their behavior.
Speaker 2: You know, the thing I love the most about DNA
Speaker 2: is that it sort of tells you the hidden stories
Speaker 2: that you're never going to be able to tell just
Speaker 2: by looking at the animal. You know, everything that that
Speaker 2: animal has experienced from generation to generation is imprinted into
Speaker 2: their DNA, and all it takes is just a tiny
Speaker 2: piece of tissue and some technology, and we can read
Speaker 2: what that code says generation after generation and then sort
Speaker 2: of understand what these animals are living like, what they're
Speaker 2: going through, where they like to live, who they mat with.
Speaker 2: All of these are the things that we can we
Speaker 2: can understand just by learning about the tiny molecules hidden
Speaker 2: in every cell.
Speaker 1: You are one of the voices featured in Jewels at fifty.
Speaker 1: Just tell us how it came to be. Gives that
Speaker 1: you were involved in the documentary and what does it
Speaker 1: mean to be part of this tribute to such an
Speaker 1: iconic film.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Laurent Bozzrow, I hope I'm saying his name properly.
Speaker 2: He's a director of the film. He was clearly he
Speaker 2: was approved by Steven Spielberg himself, and he was, you know,
Speaker 2: looking for some voices, and I guess he found me
Speaker 2: as a sort of an alternative voice and just said,
Speaker 2: you know, would you like to share some of the
Speaker 2: the impacts that you've seen from the Jaws film? And
Speaker 2: I heard you say earlier that it was the first
Speaker 2: horror movie that you watched. I mean, it was also
Speaker 2: one of the first that I watched as a kid
Speaker 2: growing up in Kenya. But there's so many firsts with
Speaker 2: regard to Jaws. You know, it is a mass piece.
Speaker 2: It was the the first summer blockbuster ever, So I mean,
Speaker 2: we have like summer blockbuster season and it was literally
Speaker 2: Jaws that started them. I mean, what how can we have,
Speaker 2: you know, our current existence without Jaws. It almost feels
Speaker 2: like there's there's plenty plenty to be said, for how
Speaker 2: it's impacted many cultures, many lives around the world.
Speaker 1: It's also impacted, it's fair to say, how we view sharks,
Speaker 1: and an awful lot of people might credit Jaws with
Speaker 1: really sparking a kind of global shark fear. Do you
Speaker 1: think that the film, I guess, unfairly demonized sharks or
Speaker 1: maybe conversely helped raise awareness of them in its own way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I kind of feel like we were always afraid
Speaker 2: of sharks in some way, or at least afraid of
Speaker 2: the ocean, and then Jaws came along, which, by the way,
Speaker 2: excellent filmmaking. I mean, if you saw what Spielberg and
Speaker 2: the team was able to do in nineteen seventy five
Speaker 2: with the technology they had of the day, absolute masterful
Speaker 2: artistic filmmaking. However, you know, when people watched it, they
Speaker 2: became afraid of sharks because now the fear of the
Speaker 2: ocean had a face and it had a name, and
Speaker 2: the same was Jaws, the Great White Shark, you know,
Speaker 2: whereas Bruce we like to call it, and I have
Speaker 2: to just say this, why is it that we can't
Speaker 2: just enjoy the film without having that film inform how
Speaker 2: we feel about real world issues. You know, it would
Speaker 2: be like if I watched Jurassic Park and you know,
Speaker 2: the next time I stepped into the jungle, I was like,
Speaker 2: you know, just just waiting for a t rex to
Speaker 2: creep up on me. It's you know, it's a film,
Speaker 2: but it's not a scientific documentary. And I think that
Speaker 2: that's for me as a scientist. I have seen Jaws
Speaker 2: a lot of times. I appreciate the the artistic presentation
Speaker 2: for the people that actually studied sharks and you know,
Speaker 2: tried to understand what a shark looked like, how it moved.
Speaker 2: But I don't see that as as any way as
Speaker 2: like as a real world portrayal, a true portrayal of
Speaker 2: great white sharks. And if you have any question for
Speaker 2: how sharks actually live or how they exist, get on
Speaker 2: social media. Find sharks. Scientists like Jasmine Graham, like Melissa Marquez,
Speaker 2: like Jessica Kramp. These are people that are you know,
Speaker 2: exposing the true nature of sharks in such a beautiful
Speaker 2: way that it's like you don't need to get on
Speaker 2: the news, just just get on social media. It's free.
Speaker 2: You know, the news has been democratized. We have the
Speaker 2: freedom to see the truth from our peers, if.
Speaker 1: You're just joining us this afternoon on lunch, I'm chatting
Speaker 1: to Gibbs Kuguru, who's one of the voices featured in
Speaker 1: a new national geographic documentary it's called It's called Jaws
Speaker 1: at fifty The Definitive Story. It's fifty years since that
Speaker 1: movie really forever change not only how we saw sharks, but,
Speaker 1: as Gibs just said, how we saw movies. And it
Speaker 1: forms part of this year's Shark Fest line up more
Speaker 1: than just movie nostalgia, really a celebration of storytelling, of science.
Speaker 1: It's featuring brand new, never be seen or never seen
Speaker 1: before footage, some personal home videos, and exclusive interviews with
Speaker 1: people like Gibbs and Steven Spielberg James Cameron. In terms
Speaker 1: of how this documentary reframes the legacy of Jaws, Gibbs,
Speaker 1: is it helping to kind of shift the story from
Speaker 1: that fear that we just spoke of to respect and
Speaker 1: curiosity and then in turn towards conservation.
Speaker 2: Oh, one hundred percent. And that's actually one of the
Speaker 2: main reasons why I feel comfortable sitting on the panel,
Speaker 2: of course with absolute giants like Spielberg and Jordan Peel
Speaker 2: and Glmore Gaielmore de tour. I can't say that name,
Speaker 2: g del Toro, but you know, for me it was
Speaker 2: such an honor because you know, we're actually understanding the
Speaker 2: behind the scenes of what actually happened behind the making
Speaker 2: of Jaws, and also what can be said about how
Speaker 2: we can use this ex pose on sharks to protect sharks.
Speaker 2: And you know, no message could be any more important
Speaker 2: to me as a shark scientist and understanding how best
Speaker 2: to exist and coexist with the wildlife that inhabits our environment.
Speaker 1: You are doing really kind of cutting edge work in
Speaker 1: marine science. So what's it like being a shark researcher
Speaker 1: on the African consonant and how how are our waters
Speaker 1: shaping shark research not just here on the continent but globally.
Speaker 2: That is the best compliment anyone has ever given me. Like, honestly,
Speaker 2: I'm floating on cloud nine, Sarah Jane, So thank you
Speaker 2: for that. What I can say as an African shark
Speaker 2: scientist and just well just a shark scientist in general,
Speaker 2: is that there are so many frontiers yet to be explored,
Speaker 2: so many voices yet to be heard, and you know,
Speaker 2: so many mysteries yet to be uncovered. Because sharks are
Speaker 2: you know, as much as we know about sharks, and
Speaker 2: I think shark science, you know, I want to say
Speaker 2: it's you know, close to thirty or forty years old,
Speaker 2: as like as like a cohesive field. We still know
Speaker 2: very little about these animals. And what I would love
Speaker 2: to see is more young folks getting out there and
Speaker 2: pushing the edges of what we understand with regards to
Speaker 2: sharks and marine conservation. I am just, you know, just
Speaker 2: just a cog in the in the gigantic machine. That's
Speaker 2: that's going to continue for generations. So if there's any
Speaker 2: shark scientists or or versioning shark scientists that are listening,
Speaker 2: you know, don't ask for permission, get in the water,
Speaker 2: start exploring. We need we need you.
Speaker 1: Gibbs. It's been wonderful to speak to you. I'm so
Speaker 1: looking forward to catching this this documentary. Thanks very much,
Speaker 1: indeed for making time for us at this Sarteny and Gibbs.
Speaker 1: Gaguru is a Kenyan shark scientist whose work explores the
Speaker 1: DNA of these remarkable animals, and he's also one of
Speaker 1: the people featured in this documentary on National Geographic honoring
Speaker 1: that block blockbuster movie from nineteen seventy five that redefined
Speaker 1: summer its Jaws at fifty, the definitive inside story,