The Unseen World of the Pelagic Thresher Shark with Rafid Shidqi

[upbeat music] Oh, hey, and welcome back to World of Sharks, a podcast all about sharks, rays, and the ocean that they call home, brought to you by the Save Our Seas Foundation.

If you haven't heard this podcast before, I'm guessing you found your way here because you either really love sharks, or you're just curious about them and wanna find out more.

Or maybe you stumbled upon us during a late-night scroll and thought, "Hmm, why not?" [laughs] Either way, welcome.

Come on in.

My name is Isla, and I'm a scientist and professional shark nerd for the Save Our Seas Foundation, and every episode, I get to sit down with experts in shark science, conservation, education, and storytelling to take you on a glorious deep dive into a different part of the weird and wonderful world of sharks.

Our last episode was a wee while ago, our 100th episode.

I still can't get over the fact that we've done 100 of these bad boys, and we still have stuff to talk about.

But I guess that is the beauty of sharks.

They are the gift that keeps on giving, a never-ending fountain of mystery and nerdiness for us to explore.

Thank you for all the love on that milestone.

I do read every comment and review and grin like an idiot every time, and I do try to reply to each one, so please be patient with me if I haven't got back to you yet.

I really do love hearing from you and hearing what you'd like to discover, and something I do know is that a lot of you are very big fans of the subject of today's episode.

Today, we're talking all about one of the ocean's most sleek, stylish, and yet incredibly anxious-looking creatures, [laughs] the thresher shark, AKA the Indiana Jones of the sea.

They somehow manage to be simultaneously badass and seriously cute at the same time, with a whip for a tail that snaps so fast it can create shock waves capable of stunning an entire shoal of fish, but a face that looks like it hit reply all by accident.

For these reasons, threshers are a real fan favorite.

But thresher sharks are not just meme material.

All three species are at risk of extinction.

They are facing severe population declines due to overfishing, driven by demand for their fins and meat, and their vulnerability as bycatch.

So it's not just important that we admire them, but also that we learn more about their movements, life history, and the threats facing them so that we can safeguard their populations well into the future.

And we are so lucky because our guest today has eight years of experience doing exactly that.

Rafid Chikky is the co-founder and managing director of Thresher Shark Indonesia, a nonprofit that aims to understand the vulnerability of thresher shark populations in Alor, an archipelago in Eastern Indonesia.

Here is a critical habitat for the elusive pelagic thresher shark, an endangered species and possibly the least well-known of the thresher shark family.

They are also the primary target for the small-scale fishing communities living on Alor Island, serving as both a crucial source of income and protein.

Rafid has dedicated his career to understanding how these sharks can be better protected from fishing mortality while also securing the well-being of Alor's communities.

In this episode, we hear all about Rafid's experiences and what he has been able to discover about pelagic threshers.

We discuss thresher sharks themselves, the different species, what we know about them, and of course, that incredible hunting technique, and hear Rafid's stories from the field where he has tagged and swam with pelagic thresher sharks, something not very many people can actually say.

But this is also a story about working with and understanding people.

Rafid and his team have spent countless hours with fishers and the coastal communities of Alor, learning their practices, their needs, and their perspectives.

So while this is an episode focused on threshers, it's also about the people who rely on them and the incredible work that Rafid has done and continues to do to find solutions for both sharks and people.

I was lucky enough to get to see Rafid deliver a keynote presentation at the most recent Sharks International in Sri Lanka, and it was without a doubt one of the best I'd ever seen, and I've been to a lot of conferences.

So I knew he would be a brilliant podcast guest, and we were very fortunate to get to sit down with him.

Rafid is one of these unbelievably busy people that you're like, "When do you sleep?" [laughs] Not only does he direct Thresher Shark Indonesia, which, as we'll talk about, has a lot of different facets to it, but he is also a Save Our Seas Foundation project leader and studying for a PhD at Duke University Marine Lab.

As I can attest to, PhDs are a crazy amount of work.

So a massive thank you to Rafid for joining us today and telling us all about these whip-wielding, big-eyed goofballs.

You can find out more about Rafid by heading to our show notes, which you can find over at www.saveourseas.com/worldofsharks/podcast. Now, without further ado, grab your tagging equipment, your snorkel gear, and watch out for that tail, and let's dive in to our episode.

[upbeat music] Oh, hey, and welcome back to World of Sharks, a podcast all about sharks, rays, and the ocean that they call home, brought to you by the Save Our Seas Foundation.

If you haven't heard this podcast before, I'm guessing you found your way here because you either really love sharks, or you're just curious about them and wanna find out more.

Or maybe you stumbled upon us during a late-night scroll and thought, "Hmm, why not?" [laughs] Either way, welcome.

Come on in.

My name is Isla, and I'm a scientist and professional shark nerd for the Save Our Seas Foundation, and every episode, I get to sit down with experts in shark science, conservation, education, and storytelling to take you on a glorious deep dive into a different part of the weird and wonderful world of sharks.

Our last episode was a wee while ago, our 100th episode.

I still can't get over the fact that we've done 100 of these bad boys, and we still have stuff to talk about.

But I guess that is the beauty of sharks.

They are the gift that keeps on giving, a never-ending fountain of mystery and nerdiness for us to explore.

Thank you for all the love on that milestone.

I do read every comment and review and grin like an idiot every time, and I do try to reply to each one, so please be patient with me if I haven't got back to you yet.

I really do love hearing from you and hearing what you'd like to discover, and something I do know is that a lot of you are very big fans of the subject of today's episode.

Today, we're talking all about one of the ocean's most sleek, stylish, and yet incredibly anxious-looking creatures, [laughs] the thresher shark, AKA the Indiana Jones of the sea.

They somehow manage to be simultaneously badass and seriously cute at the same time, with a whip for a tail that snaps so fast it can create shock waves capable of stunning an entire shoal of fish, but a face that looks like it hit reply all by accident.

For these reasons, threshers are a real fan favorite.

But thresher sharks are not just meme material.

All three species are at risk of extinction.

They are facing severe population declines due to overfishing, driven by demand for their fins and meat, and their vulnerability as bycatch.

So it's not just important that we admire them, but also that we learn more about their movements, life history, and the threats facing them so that we can safeguard their populations well into the future.

And we are so lucky because our guest today has eight years of experience doing exactly that.

Rafid Chikky is the co-founder and managing director of Thresher Shark Indonesia, a nonprofit that aims to understand the vulnerability of thresher shark populations in Alor, an archipelago in Eastern Indonesia.

Here is a critical habitat for the elusive pelagic thresher shark, an endangered species and possibly the least well-known of the thresher shark family.

They are also the primary target for the small-scale fishing communities living on Alor Island, serving as both a crucial source of income and protein.

Rafid has dedicated his career to understanding how these sharks can be better protected from fishing mortality while also securing the well-being of Alor's communities.

In this episode, we hear all about Rafid's experiences and what he has been able to discover about pelagic threshers.

We discuss thresher sharks themselves, the different species, what we know about them, and of course, that incredible hunting technique, and hear Rafid's stories from the field where he has tagged and swam with pelagic thresher sharks, something not very many people can actually say.

But this is also a story about working with and understanding people.

Rafid and his team have spent countless hours with fishers and the coastal communities of Alor, learning their practices, their needs, and their perspectives.

So while this is an episode focused on threshers, it's also about the people who rely on them and the incredible work that Rafid has done and continues to do to find solutions for both sharks and people.

I was lucky enough to get to see Rafid deliver a keynote presentation at the most recent Sharks International in Sri Lanka, and it was without a doubt one of the best I'd ever seen, and I've been to a lot of conferences.

So I knew he would be a brilliant podcast guest, and we were very fortunate to get to sit down with him.

Rafid is one of these unbelievably busy people that you're like, "When do you sleep?" [laughs] Not only does he direct Thresher Shark Indonesia, which, as we'll talk about, has a lot of different facets to it, but he is also a Save Our Seas Foundation project leader and studying for a PhD at Duke University Marine Lab.

As I can attest to, PhDs are a crazy amount of work.

So a massive thank you to Rafid for joining us today and telling us all about these whip-wielding, big-eyed goofballs.

You can find out more about Rafid by heading to our show notes, which you can find over at www.saveourseas.com/worldofsharks/podcast. Now, without further ado, grab your tagging equipment, your snorkel gear, and watch out for that tail, and let's dive in to our episode.