JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the release of "Jaws," a movie that terrified generations of beachgoers. And in honor of that anniversary, this week our friends at WNYC's Radiolab are exploring the science of sharks. Here is a small slice of that, featuring Radiolab cohost Lulu Miller and reporter Rachael Cusick.
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RACHAEL CUSICK: Like, Lulu, if you had to guess for 2024 - last year - do you want to guess, like, how many people died from shark attacks around the world?
LULU MILLER: How many people died?
CUSICK: Yes.
MILLER: I don't know - like, maybe 970.
CUSICK: OK, so take that number and subtract 963.
MILLER: Seven. So seven - seven people.
CUSICK: Seven people.
MILLER: Seven singular people.
CUSICK: Seven confirmed fatalities from sharks...
MILLER: OK.
CUSICK: ...Last year.
MILLER: OK.
CUSICK: So just to put that into perspective...
MILLER: Yeah.
CUSICK: ...These are a few of the things that will kill more humans than sharks every year.
MILLER: OK.
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CUSICK: So at the beach alone, the things that are way more likely to get you...
MILLER: Yeah.
CUSICK: ...At the beach are rip currents...
MILLER: Water itself.
CUSICK: ...The water itself...
MILLER: OK.
CUSICK: ...Skin cancer - huge one. And those are just at the beach.
MILLER: OK.
CUSICK: Zoom out a little bit.
MILLER: Yeah.
CUSICK: Lightning strikes are huge.
MILLER: Are more than sharks?
CUSICK: Yeah, 24,000 people a year, apparently - selfies.
MILLER: That's so sad.
CUSICK: It's a really bad way to go.
MILLER: OK. So you're saying, like...
CUSICK: Wait - sorry - one more, one more.
MILLER: Yeah. Yep.
CUSICK: The one stat that I just love as a New Yorker is that you are 10 times more likely to be bitten by a New Yorker than you are to be bitten by a shark (laughter), which...
MILLER: I kind of believe that.
CUSICK: ...Honestly, stacks up.
MILLER: I get that.
CUSICK: Yeah (laughter).
MILLER: I get that. OK. But, but, but, but, but...
CUSICK: Yes.
MILLER: ...But, but, but...
CUSICK: Yes. Yes.
MILLER: ...But sharks, man, like, they are so fast and so big. And, like, I can hear these statistics but if we're at the beach and you tell me there are sharks in the water, I'm not going to go in. Could it be analogous to a snake kind of fear where it's just, like - or, I don't happen to have it, but a spider fear, where it's like, we are - we come out ready to be afraid of these things 'cause it would have served us?
CUSICK: Yeah. Well, according to the scientist I spoke to named Chris Lowe...
CHRIS LOWE: Professor of marine biology and the director of the shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach.
CUSICK: ...That is totally true for some animals.
LOWE: There are land animals that we coevolve with that we have innate fear.
CUSICK: But not for sharks.
LOWE: Psychologists have done studies where they've shown babies pictures of snakes and spiders, and they react with fear. Then they show them a picture of a shark, and there's no reaction.
CUSICK: Chris pointed out the obvious fact that...
LOWE: We're not an aquatic animal.
CUSICK: For most of human history, people had very few interactions with sharks.
LOWE: It was this beast that people were told about that they rarely get to see.
CUSICK: And Chris says when all you have are stories...
LOWE: What happens is it allows people's imaginations to take over.
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CUSICK: Like, we didn't have goggles until, like, the 1950s. So we didn't - we knew that things were taking us. We never actually ever saw these creatures. Like, the most we might see is the fin.
LOWE: We're given a few pieces of information, and then we begin to develop this image of what these animals are like. We make the monster in our head.
CUSICK: And making the monster in our head, that's exactly what made "Jaws" a perfect horror movie.
LOWE: You really didn't see a shark very often.
CUSICK: You get an hour into the film without seeing a shark.
LOWE: And I think that was actually the brilliance in the movie.
CUSICK: All you get is that iconic score.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN WILLIAMS' "THEME FROM JAWS")
SUMMERS: Radiolab's Lulu Miller and Rachael Cusick, talking sharks this week in honor of the 50th anniversary of the movie "Jaws." For more wild stories about sharks that glow, sharks that fly and sharks that might even be able to cure cancer, swim on over to your podcast app and check out Radiolab.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN WILLIAMS' "THEME FROM JAWS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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