Claudio Barría: "After Spielberg's film, mass shark killings were organized in the United States."

BarcelonaClaudio Barría has spent many years of his life debunking Steven Spielberg's film SharkThis Chilean biologist, based in Catalonia, has focused his research on these animals—currently at the University of Oviedo but previously at the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM)—and is now one of the leading experts on Mediterranean sharks, probably the leading expert. It was precisely at a film forum for the 50th anniversary of this film, in which he participated, that the idea for the book arose. Sharks, together with Ana Colmenero (ICM), within the collection What do we know about? published by Catarata and the CSIC. Both the book and the conversation exude a wealth of knowledge and, above all, an enormous love for these animals, which are invaluable to marine ecosystems.

How did you begin studying sharks?

— My mother's side of the family were fishermen in Chilean Patagonia. When I was little, I would go with them to their boats and watch them pull in the fish. But there were some animals they always threw back into the sea dead; they weren't interested in them because sharks aren't eaten there. Sometimes they would let me have them, and I would look at them and analyze them. All of this inspired me to study marine biology. I did so at the University of Chile, but at that time no one was studying sharks, so I started by studying plankton and carbon fluxes. And to do my doctorate, I came to Barcelona with a project on jellyfish, which I also liked, especially the stinging ones. All the animals that people hate, I liked.

Because?

— I've always been a bit of an outsider, which is why I like animals that other people reject. My mother used to say I was a devil's advocate. But now I've formed a group of people who share the same tastes; they're all in love with sharks.

The CatSharks Association, Sharks of Catalonia. What are its objectives?

— It was created in 2019 as a result of the research we were conducting, primarily in Catalonia, on Atlantic and Mediterranean sharks. We are almost 40 people, including scientists, graphic designers, artists, diving instructors... all shark enthusiasts. The association has three objectives: the scientific study of sharks, schools, and chimeras; public outreach; and ensuring this information reaches policymakers and decision-makers. Because one of the most challenging aspects of science is translating it into effective management or conservation practices.

But don't focus on the sharks of Catalonia...

— Sharks know no borders. Being from Catalonia, we're primarily concerned with the sharks off our coasts, but also with those in the rest of the Spanish Mediterranean, which are the same. There are sharks in every ocean in the world: in the Arctic, near Antarctica. There are sharks in rivers, in estuaries. Currently, 560 species have been described worldwide. And they exist at all depths; the deepest known are around 4,000 meters. Below that, we don't know if they exist, because we know less about the depths of the sea than we do about Mars. But keep in mind that whenever I talk about sharks, I'm referring to sharks, rays, and chimeras.

Because they are from the same family.

— All three have cartilaginous skeletons. Furthermore, sharks and their families have gills directly exposed to the outside, unlike bony fish. They also share the characteristic of being very long-lived. In fact, the longest-living vertebrate today is the Greenland sleeper shark, which can exceed 400 years of age. Another thing they have in common is that they have very few offspring and long gestation periods: the Greenland sleeper shark has a gestation period of about 10 years. But the smooth-hound, for example, has a gestation period of 2 years. And this makes them more sensitive to human pressure: large population declines can occur because there are not many of them and they reproduce infrequently.

This also happens with whales.

— Yes, whales and turtles are also very unproductive animals. But what's the big difference? One, sharks have a very bad reputation; people fear them and they're largely unknown. And the other, which is particularly intrinsic to Spain and Catalonia, is that they are consumed. Here, shark is eaten, like marinated dogfish. On the Costa Brava, they were also used to make oils to heal wounds. Whales were also hunted, and cetaceans are still consumed in Norway, for example, but there was a time when, perhaps because they are more similar to us as mammals, there was a huge awareness campaign and the mass slaughters stopped. Now, nobody would dream of a dolphin appearing in the stands. But there are many endangered sharks that continue to appear in the stands because of a lack of awareness, making them more difficult to conserve.

And is all this Spielberg's fault?

— Primarily, yes, but it goes back further. In Polynesia and Oceania, and in Mesoamerican culture, there has been a relationship of great respect, even protection, for sharks and their pods since ancient times. You've seen Moana, Right? In oceanic cultures, they're considered protective animals. But in Western cultures, especially during the time of the slave trade from Africa to America, slaves were often thrown overboard, and then the sharks would arrive, because they were thrown overboard along with many other things. This was depicted by artists of the time and generated fear. And then came Spielberg's film.

Shark.

— After this film, the shark was forever associated with a killer animal. There are 560 species of sharks, and suddenly only the great white shark existed. A tiger shark also appears in the film, but nobody remembers it. It's based on the book by Peter Benchley, who collaborated with Spielberg and later regretted it because of the impact it had. Following the film's release, mass shark culls were organized in the US, and entire shark populations along those coasts were nearly wiped out.

And did he write his book to debunk this film?

— We want people to see that sharks aren't evil animals and that they're actually very important to the ecosystem: they play a key role as predators, they're at the top of the food chain, and therefore they regulate the populations of fish and other marine animals below them. But they aren't predators of humans. Humans aren't part of their diet, basically because we don't live in the sea. If we appear in the sea, the shark leaves, because we're an unknown element. But sharks also have different personalities and behaviors: within the same species, some sharks are more curious than others.

How do they study their behavior?

— They can be marked with a kind of piercingwhich is a spaghetti There's a phone number that the fisherman who finds the shark can call and report where he saw it. There are satellite tags that send a signal every time the shark surfaces, allowing you to track its georeferenced position. There are other, much more expensive tags that detect temperature, salinity, depth, and oxygen levels, and are automatically released after a few days using a float. This way, you can see how deep it has dived.

But you said they have personality, how do you know this?

— For example, we have a study in the Basque Country where we analyzed more than 200 different blue sharks. When we're in the water, we can see it: some sharks come right up here [in front of your face] and start staring at you, and then they swim away; some are more active, others more calm. There are sharks with different tauronities.

The book says that sharks are older than dinosaurs.

— Yes, dinosaurs appeared about 100 million years ago, sharks about 450 million years ago. To date, they have survived five mass extinctions. Now we are in the midst of the sixth, supposedly caused by us. 30% of shark species are currently threatened with extinction. Perhaps this sixth one will be the final one.

Did the megalodon exist?

— Yes, and it coexisted with many sharks we have today, like blue sharks, 30 million years ago. In Catalonia, there is one of the few places, if not the only one, where there was a megalodon nursery. The remains have been found near Vilafranca del Penedès, but it was a cave; the sea used to reach that far, and fossils can still be found there.

Movies like Sharknado and MegalodonHave you seen them too?

— Yes, almost all of them. If you ask me if there's a movie that doesn't have a negative view of sharks, apart from documentaries, there isn't. In the 2000s there was the Shark ExploitationMaking low-budget shark movies that were very popular were so bad they became a genre in themselves, like Sharknado, Shark vs. Piranha-cvibeBut that's just absurd. The movie that did the worst job portraying sharks was SharkAnd yet the shark appears for no more than five minutes in the entire film. What generates the fear is not knowing what lies beneath the water and the music composed by John Williams. They had many problems with Bruce—that was the shark's name in the film—which was a machine that kept going underwater and malfunctioning. They had to make it so that only the fin was visible, and that, along with the music, created the fear of the unknown.

Is the perception of sharks changing?

— Yes, sharks used to only make the news when there was a bite somewhere in the world, even if it was on the other side of the planet. When in reality, shark accidents are extremely rare: fewer than 10 a year worldwide. More people die taking selfies or balconing. But now there is increasingly diverse news about sharks, not just bites, now it is also explained that they are in danger of extinction.

In fact, you are part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which compiles the list of threatened animals.

— Yes. Two years ago, at the IUCN, we created the first Special Areas of Importance for sharks and rays in Spain. First, there were those in the Spanish Mediterranean, and then those in the Atlantic.

What is the main threat to sharks: fishing, climate change?

— Fishing. Globally, it is estimated that around 100 million sharks are killed. Shark fishing is minimal in the Mediterranean, but Spain is the third largest shark fisherman in the world and the largest in the European Union. It primarily fishes for blue sharks, which are critically endangered in the Mediterranean Sea. This is done for food, as with dogfish. But what is most sought after is the fin, for export to the Asian market. Dried shark fin, which costs less than 5 euros per kilo here, can fetch over 600 dollars per kilo in many parts of the world, used to make shark fin soup or for medicinal purposes. Many Asian cultures believe it to be an aphrodisiac.