this is the team’s third expedition to
these shark-filled waters below Mexico’s
Guadalupe Island captain bread knows
this harsh environment well the island
itself kind of beers what goes out of
the water they just look up there as
much hospitable rugged like you would
have a hard time surviving anywhere up
there you can get hurt real easy just
like right here in the water Guadalupe
is one of a handful of locations around
the world where great whites gather and
dr. Domeier thinks they come here to
breed for many years I thought that
white sharks are very likely mating at
these adult aggregation sites but I’ve
never been able to figure out a way to
prove that by having these white sharks
on the deck of the boat I was able to
start looking for stuff like blood
hormone levels and sperm finding sperm
was the first thing that really started
pick up this idea yes they are mating
here but I couldn’t just say I saw sperm
I had to actually collect it and and and
stain it and put it underneath the
microscope and take a picture to prove
it to the world oh hang on we got
something just yesterday he thought he
finally had a good sperm sample from a
14-foot male named a bite face oh that’s
huge let’s get this guy back in the
water
but he and associate nicole lucas
quickly discover they were wrong here’s
our sample it’s the right color we might
have a sperm cell here but it is not
moving it was his first attempt to
examine great white sperm under a
microscope it’s not sperm swimming all
around in this sample I kind of expected
to see things wiggling around later he
recognized his mistake he needed to look
for something called a spermatophore in
the seminal fluid shark reproduction is
a bit different than what you might
expect the sperm in males actually comes
out in his little packets cough
spermatophores and it look like grains
of rice so I’ll be looking for those on
this trip now 24 hours later he needs a
new sperm sample to try and isolate
those grain like patterns it’s the proof
he needs to finally determine if males
are here to mate
these shark-filled waters below Mexico’s
Guadalupe Island captain bread knows
this harsh environment well the island
itself kind of beers what goes out of
the water they just look up there as
much hospitable rugged like you would
have a hard time surviving anywhere up
there you can get hurt real easy just
like right here in the water Guadalupe
is one of a handful of locations around
the world where great whites gather and
dr. Domeier thinks they come here to
breed for many years I thought that
white sharks are very likely mating at
these adult aggregation sites but I’ve
never been able to figure out a way to
prove that by having these white sharks
on the deck of the boat I was able to
start looking for stuff like blood
hormone levels and sperm finding sperm
was the first thing that really started
pick up this idea yes they are mating
here but I couldn’t just say I saw sperm
I had to actually collect it and and and
stain it and put it underneath the
microscope and take a picture to prove
it to the world oh hang on we got
something just yesterday he thought he
finally had a good sperm sample from a
14-foot male named a bite face oh that’s
huge let’s get this guy back in the
water
but he and associate nicole lucas
quickly discover they were wrong here’s
our sample it’s the right color we might
have a sperm cell here but it is not
moving it was his first attempt to
examine great white sperm under a
microscope it’s not sperm swimming all
around in this sample I kind of expected
to see things wiggling around later he
recognized his mistake he needed to look
for something called a spermatophore in
the seminal fluid shark reproduction is
a bit different than what you might
expect the sperm in males actually comes
out in his little packets cough
spermatophores and it look like grains
of rice so I’ll be looking for those on
this trip now 24 hours later he needs a
new sperm sample to try and isolate
those grain like patterns it’s the proof
he needs to finally determine if males
are here to mate
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