1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:01,960
Speaker 1: Good morning, Forrest. How are you doing today?

2
00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:04,200
Speaker 2: Hey, how are you? Man?

3
00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:07,000
Speaker 1: Fantastic? Don't you think that Shark Weeks should actually be

4
00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:08,080
a national holiday?

5
00:00:09,359 --> 00:00:11,919
Speaker 3: I think we're pretty close, you know, after thirty five,

6
00:00:12,039 --> 00:00:14,439
thirty six years. I mean, I know people that take

7
00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:17,960
off days for work just to go and enjoy Shark Week.

8
00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:20,679
Speaker 1: So I'm all about it absolutely. Now I learned something

9
00:00:20,719 --> 00:00:23,519
this year from you. I did not know that there

10
00:00:23,559 --> 00:00:25,960
are sharks that have ven them What are you talking

11
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:26,480
about here?

12
00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:31,600
Speaker 3: Isn't that cool? So yeah, it's exactly what you just said.

13
00:00:32,039 --> 00:00:35,079
Some sharks evolved to be huge, Some sharks have allved

14
00:00:35,079 --> 00:00:37,520
to be fast, most sharks have alved to have big

15
00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:41,039
shark teeth to eat things, and some sharks evolved venom

16
00:00:41,079 --> 00:00:44,159
as defense. And so this show is about looking into

17
00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:49,960
that incredible unique adaptation that these sharks have and bringing

18
00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:52,159
that into the homes of millions, just like you said,

19
00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:54,000
you know, allowing people to learn about this.

20
00:00:54,159 --> 00:00:55,439
Speaker 2: And it's it's really cool.

21
00:00:55,759 --> 00:00:57,840
Speaker 1: You use the word defense. That tells me that the

22
00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:00,359
shark has enemies. I mean, I mean, who's who's going

23
00:01:00,439 --> 00:01:01,240
to go after a shark?

24
00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,159
Speaker 3: Yeah, well you're probably thinking of a shark in terms

25
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:07,280
of jaws, you know, a big old great white shark.

26
00:01:07,319 --> 00:01:10,079
These sharks that I'm mentioning, these venomous sharks are two

27
00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,200
feet long. They're not a big animal. And so yeah,

28
00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:15,719
when you're two feet long in the ocean, you're on

29
00:01:15,799 --> 00:01:18,680
the menu for a lot of things. And so with

30
00:01:18,799 --> 00:01:21,840
that being the case, they have to evolve some way

31
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,560
to evade predators, whether that's speed or hiding or in

32
00:01:25,599 --> 00:01:30,480
this case, a really venomous fine. And that's what we

33
00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:34,120
look into Inests down Under. The silliest title ever for

34
00:01:34,159 --> 00:01:38,439
a little, tiny, two foot shark. But it's a great show, nonetheless,

35
00:01:38,439 --> 00:01:41,799
and the venom is an incredible factor. And because it's

36
00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:45,680
a deep water, rarely seen shark species, it's something that

37
00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:48,920
we know very little about. And thus we caught the shark,

38
00:01:49,239 --> 00:01:52,640
we isolated and purified and diluted the venom, and tested

39
00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:55,680
it on myself the human body, to see what would happen,

40
00:01:55,799 --> 00:01:58,560
which was not great fun, but it was a cool show.

41
00:01:58,799 --> 00:02:00,439
Speaker 1: Did you at least catch a buzz from it or

42
00:02:00,439 --> 00:02:01,000
anything like that?

43
00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:06,879
Speaker 3: No, I mean maybe if you call being an excruciating

44
00:02:06,879 --> 00:02:09,360
pain for twenty minutes a buzz, then yeah, I guess so.

45
00:02:09,599 --> 00:02:12,000
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Well, how did you prep your body

46
00:02:12,039 --> 00:02:13,639
to go that deep in the water. I mean, I

47
00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:16,759
realize you're a pro, but you went deep into the water.

48
00:02:18,039 --> 00:02:20,879
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a good question. So we always dive deep.

49
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:25,039
My team and I are pretty experienced divers. However, this

50
00:02:25,159 --> 00:02:27,120
shark we were not able to find.

51
00:02:26,879 --> 00:02:29,120
Speaker 2: On a dive, so we ended up having to catch it.

52
00:02:29,159 --> 00:02:31,840
Speaker 3: So we fished deep and brought the shark to us,

53
00:02:31,879 --> 00:02:33,800
which was much better because I don't know how we

54
00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:36,360
would have centrifuged venom at one hundred and fifty feet.

55
00:02:36,599 --> 00:02:38,919
Speaker 1: Now, I've always been convinced, and this is just my

56
00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:41,680
own stupid research, but I always believe that these tropical

57
00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:45,080
storms and hurricanes bring the sharks from Florida up to Carolina.

58
00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:46,039
Is any that true?

59
00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:53,439
Speaker 2: I think so, you know, I really do. It's sharks

60
00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:54,960
are like us.

61
00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:58,000
Speaker 3: In the sense of if the weather's nice somewhere, they'll

62
00:02:58,039 --> 00:02:59,960
go there. If the weather's bad somewhere, they're going to

63
00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:02,240
avoid it. You know, if there's a big storm coming,

64
00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:04,520
they probably don't want to be in that storm. And

65
00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:07,759
so when a big cyclone comes in, moves water around,

66
00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:11,240
displaces things. There's better weather further north or further south,

67
00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:13,919
those animals are gonna move, and they're gonna occupy new areas,

68
00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,520
and that's when people end up encountering things that they're

69
00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:17,120
not expecting.

70
00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:20,000
Speaker 1: You just planted something inside my imagination. I never even

71
00:03:20,039 --> 00:03:22,360
thought about what's going on beneath the surface of the

72
00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:23,520
ocean during a hurricane.

73
00:03:24,599 --> 00:03:25,039
Speaker 2: Yeah.

74
00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:30,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, It's it's crazy how more tuned in with the

75
00:03:30,039 --> 00:03:32,560
world some creatures are than us. You know, we rely

76
00:03:32,719 --> 00:03:34,800
on the news to tell us when a storm's coming,

77
00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:37,319
But a shark that has a special organ called an

78
00:03:37,319 --> 00:03:40,439
ampulae of Larenzini that picks up electrical fields and can

79
00:03:40,479 --> 00:03:43,800
sense pressure changes can tell us storms coming long before

80
00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:44,120
we do.

81
00:03:44,479 --> 00:03:45,960
Speaker 1: That's so funny you say that, because I mean in

82
00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:47,759
this forest that I live in, I sit there and

83
00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,080
study the animals every single day because they, to me,

84
00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:52,879
are predicting the weather, forecast, whatever that cardinal is doing.

85
00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:55,400
If I'm not seeing the deer, something is up.

86
00:03:56,879 --> 00:04:00,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. And you know, sometimes that could be a

87
00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:02,719
predator in the woods. It could be a bit, it

88
00:04:02,719 --> 00:04:05,439
could be a car honking, who knows, And sometimes that

89
00:04:05,439 --> 00:04:08,080
could be an indication of bad weather or a low

90
00:04:08,159 --> 00:04:10,879
pressure system or something like that. And the animals know

91
00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,520
and it's we we think. I feel like we as

92
00:04:13,599 --> 00:04:17,639
human beings think in today's world that we know everything,

93
00:04:17,959 --> 00:04:20,319
but we really really don't and we don't even we

94
00:04:20,399 --> 00:04:23,120
don't even partially understand how that happens.

95
00:04:23,639 --> 00:04:25,959
Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Forrest Gollan coming

96
00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:29,879
up next. Hey, thanks for coming back to my conversation

97
00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:32,879
with Forrest Golant. A couple of years ago, there was

98
00:04:32,879 --> 00:04:34,959
a movie that hit the theaters that was about a

99
00:04:34,959 --> 00:04:37,120
bear that got super high and went on went on

100
00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:39,639
a rampage. And then to hear that you came there,

101
00:04:39,959 --> 00:04:43,160
Oh my god, dude, and now you're doing animals on drugs.

102
00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:46,040
I mean this, this is just amazing because the human

103
00:04:46,199 --> 00:04:48,079
is the screw up here, and it's because people are

104
00:04:48,079 --> 00:04:51,040
putting their drugs into the toilet or the water system.

105
00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:52,639
Speaker 2: Exactly right.

106
00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:54,839
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a it's it's a it's a loud title.

107
00:04:54,879 --> 00:04:57,480
I'm hoping it gets people to tune in, but the

108
00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:00,279
it is a very timely show. You know, animal don't

109
00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:02,279
have a choice. We have a choice whether or not

110
00:05:02,319 --> 00:05:04,519
we want to try, you know, meth and fetamines. But

111
00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:06,879
when a meth lab gets blown over by a hurricane

112
00:05:07,199 --> 00:05:09,279
or a cop us a house and they end up

113
00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:11,839
flushing all the drugs down the toilet. Those animals in

114
00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:14,560
those waterways do not have a choice. And it's how

115
00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:18,360
that stuff bio accumulates through the food chain. How fish

116
00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:21,079
infected by little tiny particles and then you eat one

117
00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:23,519
hundred fish as an alligator, how that adds up in

118
00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:24,120
your system.

119
00:05:24,319 --> 00:05:26,360
Speaker 2: And that's just one instance. You know, cocaine.

120
00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:31,319
Speaker 3: We have cocaine hippos which Pablo Esco are brought in,

121
00:05:31,319 --> 00:05:33,560
which are altering the environment. We have bears that are

122
00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:36,560
drinking alcohol, and the list actually goes on and on.

123
00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:38,399
There are a lot of animals, I believe it or not.

124
00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:40,240
Texas A and M just put out a study about

125
00:05:40,319 --> 00:05:41,639
dolphins on fentanyl.

126
00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:44,160
Speaker 2: You know things. There are crazy things happening in the

127
00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:46,279
world and the animals have no control over it. And

128
00:05:46,319 --> 00:05:47,000
it's pretty sad.

129
00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:49,040
Speaker 3: So the show's very I don't want to be sad,

130
00:05:49,079 --> 00:05:50,959
but it's sad that those things are happening.

131
00:05:51,199 --> 00:05:52,000
Speaker 2: And this show.

132
00:05:51,879 --> 00:05:54,079
Speaker 3: Digged into that and sort of allows the viewer to

133
00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:56,279
understand how to be a little bit more responsible. So

134
00:05:56,360 --> 00:06:00,319
hopefully these animals, which are innocent bystanders, are not ending

135
00:06:00,399 --> 00:06:01,360
up in these situations.

136
00:06:01,399 --> 00:06:03,199
Speaker 1: I was going to say, yeah, it's sad, but what

137
00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:06,480
you're creating is awareness, You're creating conversation. This is how

138
00:06:06,480 --> 00:06:07,920
we make changes.

139
00:06:09,399 --> 00:06:11,120
Speaker 2: Exactly right, exactly right.

140
00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:13,519
Speaker 3: By if we're talking about it, we're doing something right

141
00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:14,519
and then we can fix it.

142
00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,000
Speaker 1: So let's talk about those those hippos with Pablo and

143
00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:20,480
how are we going to change that? And can it

144
00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:21,079
be done?

145
00:06:23,279 --> 00:06:25,720
Speaker 3: That's a very good question, aro To be honest, I

146
00:06:25,759 --> 00:06:28,519
don't know the answer, you know. So we went down there.

147
00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:31,279
We worked with the Colombian government, which was an absolute joy.

148
00:06:31,319 --> 00:06:34,959
Bornarre is the organization down there, and we help formulate

149
00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:39,199
a blueprint for how to mitigate the situation. You know,

150
00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:40,959
it's not going to resolve it, but it's going to

151
00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:44,199
slow it down. The if you read online, you'll read

152
00:06:44,199 --> 00:06:46,199
that there's one hundred and forty hippos that are stemmed

153
00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:49,319
from four. The truth is there's closer to, if not over,

154
00:06:49,399 --> 00:06:51,519
two hundred hippos, and I can tell you that from

155
00:06:51,519 --> 00:06:54,759
firsthand experience. And the problem is it's exponential growth. You

156
00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:58,000
start with four, four becomes eight, eight becomes sixteen, and

157
00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:00,680
so on and so forth. And now the hippos have

158
00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:04,920
no natural predators. They're literally literally killing people because hippos

159
00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:08,000
are a very dangerous animal. They're altering the environment things

160
00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:10,439
that people don't talk about, like the endemic species of

161
00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:13,519
real magdalena turtle which nests on sandy beaches.

162
00:07:13,519 --> 00:07:15,959
Speaker 2: The hippos are crushing their eggs, you know. So they're

163
00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:17,279
a big problem down there.

164
00:07:17,319 --> 00:07:20,759
Speaker 3: And because it's such a difficult environment, I mean you're

165
00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:24,000
literally talking about, you know, the South American jungle, like

166
00:07:24,079 --> 00:07:28,639
think Amazon jungle, and it's impossible to track and catch

167
00:07:28,639 --> 00:07:30,600
all these hippos. So we came up with a sorry

168
00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:32,000
if I'm boring you, but we came up with a

169
00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:39,560
three tiered approach where we have chemical castration, sterilization, and relocation.

170
00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:41,959
So you catch some hippos and move them to zoos.

171
00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:44,639
You use a thing called gonocon which is a chemical

172
00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:48,040
to stop mature hippos from sexually maturing, and they still

173
00:07:48,079 --> 00:07:50,240
grow up, but their gonads don't develop. And then you

174
00:07:50,319 --> 00:07:52,079
catch the big ones and cut their nuts off. And

175
00:07:52,079 --> 00:07:52,959
we did all three of.

176
00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:55,639
Speaker 2: These things, and it was it's an adventure. I'll tell

177
00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:55,879
you what.

178
00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:58,040
Speaker 3: When you're catching a hippo to choppa's nuts off, he's

179
00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:00,079
usually not very friendly about it.

180
00:08:00,439 --> 00:08:03,079
Speaker 1: Now there's one area of this world that I'm really

181
00:08:03,079 --> 00:08:05,800
worried about, and because you're so close to all animals,

182
00:08:05,839 --> 00:08:10,360
all living things. Alcatraz, Alligator Alcatraz is scaring the hell

183
00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:11,959
out of me. And the reason why is because you're

184
00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:14,639
messing around with something that's completely natural and you're putting

185
00:08:14,639 --> 00:08:15,439
the human being there.

186
00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:19,079
Speaker 2: Yes, but we've done it for a long time, you know.

187
00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:22,000
Speaker 3: That's what Alcatraz was, That's what Robin Island in South

188
00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:25,920
Africa is, you know where. It's kind of interesting if

189
00:08:25,959 --> 00:08:28,720
you think about it. What we're doing is using a

190
00:08:28,839 --> 00:08:31,480
natural system to create a barrier, you know, and that

191
00:08:31,639 --> 00:08:34,559
system is one of a lot of predators that if

192
00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:37,039
human beings enter into that system, they can end up

193
00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:40,159
dying and it creates a fearful situation where people try

194
00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:43,320
not to escape. So, you know, I'm not like throw

195
00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:47,159
alligator Alcatraz or anything like that, but I can understand

196
00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:53,679
why people use these systems to enforce containment because I personally,

197
00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:56,080
well I personally would like to go and see if

198
00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:58,279
I can get away from out later Alcatraz, but I

199
00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:00,799
wouldn't like to have done that. Swim for Robin Island

200
00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:02,799
knowing the population of white sharks out.

201
00:09:02,639 --> 00:09:04,159
Speaker 2: There, you know, I wouldn't have made it.

202
00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:07,000
Speaker 3: I know that, and that seems scarier than trying to

203
00:09:07,039 --> 00:09:08,559
crawl over a barbed wire fence to me.

204
00:09:08,799 --> 00:09:09,000
Speaker 2: Yeah.

205
00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:10,960
Speaker 1: But the thing that scares me, though, is because i'd

206
00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:12,759
be here in the Caroline is we have these things

207
00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:16,879
called flat land swamps, and I really want to take

208
00:09:16,919 --> 00:09:19,679
care of the life that lives inside these flat water swamps.

209
00:09:19,799 --> 00:09:22,039
And that's what reminds me of what's going on down there,

210
00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:23,960
is that it's like you're messing around with nature.

211
00:09:25,039 --> 00:09:29,200
Speaker 3: Sure, sure, and that's understandable, and you know, it's it's sad,

212
00:09:29,240 --> 00:09:34,799
really because the Everglades ecosystem is such an incredible wetland

213
00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:38,240
ecosystem and it has been so ravaged by people, not

214
00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:40,720
just in the sense of development, which is a big component,

215
00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:43,559
but invasive species. You know, if you go drive around

216
00:09:43,559 --> 00:09:46,480
the Everglades, you're more likely to see things from South

217
00:09:46,519 --> 00:09:49,080
America and Asia than you are to see things that

218
00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:51,320
are from that part of the world because that system

219
00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:54,639
has been so disrupted by people. And it's it's it's

220
00:09:54,679 --> 00:09:57,039
sort of crazy what we've done. But at least for

221
00:09:57,080 --> 00:10:00,000
the most part, taking alligator alcatraz an invasive species out

222
00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:03,519
that we are on a whole working to protect it,

223
00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:04,720
which I think is a good thing.

224
00:10:04,879 --> 00:10:06,320
Speaker 1: I love it. Man, dude, you got to come back

225
00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:08,240
to this show anytime in the future. I love that

226
00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:10,799
you love animals and I'm an animal freak.

227
00:10:12,679 --> 00:10:14,559
Speaker 2: Well I love that. So there we go. We make

228
00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:15,200
a good team.

229
00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:19,919
Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today? Okay, sir, Yes, sir.

230
00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:20,279
Speaker 2: Thanks