Everything Ocean Podcast

This week on Everything Ocean, I sit down with Shanan, who grew up fishing, diving, surfing and shell collecting around Esperance, WA, before becoming a commercial abalone diver as a teenager.We talk about growing up in that remote pocket of Australia, buying a 21-foot boat with twin 85s at 16 without a licence, learning to tow surf and spending years diving in shark-heavy waters.Shanan then recounts the 2013 day fellow abalone diver Greg Pickering was attacked by a great white near Esperance, including the hours-long rescue mission to get him help. Greg survived and still dives today. Shanan also opens up about the mental-health toll of the attack, another close encounter and the later death of his friend Chris Boyd.Those experiences led him to create Shark Eyes—a low-cost, non-invasive shark deterrent using eye-spot stickers and the principle that predators rely on surprise. We discuss the theory behind it, the Botswana “eye-cow” study and Shanan’s views on drone programs, drum lines, shark tagging and changing white shark behaviour.Content note: This episode includes a graphic account of a shark-attack injury. The person involved survived and is doing well today.Shark Eyes:https://www.sharkeyesglobal.com/https://www.instagram.com/sharkeyesglobal/Boardsox:https://www.boardsox.com.au/https://www.instagram.com/boardsox/Surf coaching and tours:https://www.deewhysaltysurfschool.com.au/https://www.saltysafaris.com.au/Got a guest we should talk to? Drop them in the comments.Timestamps:0:00 — Intro0:20 — Growing up in Esperance1:50 — Leaving school at 15 and buying a boat at 164:40 — Spearfishing, scuba and the Esperance Archipelago7:00 — Discovering big-wave and tow surfing11:00 — Learning to tow in Tasmania and King Island16:00 — Starting commercial abalone diving19:20 — First great white encounter at 1520:00 — Why white shark encounters feel different20:15 — Greg Pickering’s 2013 shark attack (graphic detail)25:00 — The improvised, hours-long rescue28:30 — Greg’s survival and return to commercial diving30:00 — The mental-health toll and Chris Boyd’s fatal attack34:00 — Heather finds Shanan gluing eyes onto a wetsuit38:30 — Eye spots, biomimicry and the element of surprise39:00 — Professor Neil Jordan’s “eye-cow” study43:00 — Building Shark Eyes into a business47:00 — Testing, formal proof and government pushback50:00 — The upcoming Shark Eyes documentary53:00 — Shark drones, alerts and public complacency55:30 — WA’s lethal and “smart” drum-line programs58:00 — Do great whites learn to target people?60:00 — Shark tagging and possible behavioural changes63:30 — Don’t live in fear: get educated and prepared65:00 — Where to find Shark Eyes and outro

Grant Williams (@surfingwithgrant) is a surf coach, retreat host and one of the most relatable surf content creators going around. In this episode we break down the real progression path from beginner to advanced — why almost everyone drops to a smaller board too early, the one paddling "cheat code" that fixes half your surfing, and how to actually manage fear when the waves get bigger. Grant also opens up on the early, cringe-worthy days of building an audience and why he stopped caring what the haters think.

Mike Psillakis is a Northern Beaches surfboard shaper whose twin brother Mercury was killed by a white shark at Dee Why, the first fatal shark attack on Sydney's northern beaches in around 80 years. I was working at Dee Why Beach that day.We talk about growing up together, the connection twins share, the day everything changed, and how Mike and his family turned grief into action, becoming a driving force behind the NSW drone shark-spotting program with Surfing NSW and the state government.We also get into why shark activity along the coast has shifted, bull sharks vs great whites, what's actually working to keep people safer, and Mike's take on where shark mitigation should go next.Content note: this episode discusses a fatal shark attack and grief.Boardsox: ocean-first apparel and boardsox.https://boardsox.com.au/ Surf coaching: Dee Why Salty Surf School / Salty Safaris.https://www.deewhysaltysurfschool.com.au/https://www.saltysafaris.com.au/Got a guest we should talk to? Reach out via socials or email.

Sydney has had a run of shark bites over the past six months, and the headlines — and social media — have been loud about it. So we sat down with someone who actually has the data.Dr. Robert Harcourt is an Emeritus Professor at Macquarie University and leads Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) animal tracking facility — a federally funded program that has tagged and tracked 180 species of fish, including every dangerous shark species in Australian waters, for the past 20 years. He's also a lifelong surfer and diver who's in the water most days.In this episode we cover:Why the "bull sharks are exploding in numbers" narrative doesn't hold up against 20 years of tagging dataThe vested interests behind some of the loudest voices in the shark conversationWhy you're statistically far more likely to drown than to be bitten by a shark — and why that doesn't make the fear irrationalThe dawn-and-dusk hunting myth (it's wrong)Bull sharks vs. tiger sharks vs. white sharks — how to tell them apart by behaviour and seasonShark nets vs. smart drumlines vs. AI-powered drones — what actually works, and what doesn'tThe real history behind Sydney's shark net program (Coogee and Malabar in the 1930s)Why the ocean is warming faster than models predicted, and what that means for the East CoastA genuinely hopeful stat: humpback whale numbers off Australia's East Coast have gone from ~500 to ~50,000 since whaling was bannedRob's rule of thumb after 40 years in and around the ocean: "If it feels sharky, get out. You can always surf another day."🎙️ Follow Everything Ocean for more conversations on the science, stories, and people behind our relationship with the sea. 🏄 Boardsox — boardsox.com 🏄 Surf coaching — DIY Salty Surf School / Salty Safari Surf Tours

We sat down with Steve Pearce, CEO of Surf Life Saving NSW, to get the full picture on the state's $120 million shark drone surveillance program — the largest drone shark-spotting operation in the world.Steve has spent 37+ years across fire and rescue and NSW State Emergency Service, and now leads an organisation of 76,000+ volunteers and members. He breaks down exactly how the drone program works, what triggers a beach closure, and the surprising side of this technology that's already saved four lives — and it's not about sharks.Topics covered: the scale-up to 500,000 drone flights a year, the real protocol when a shark is spotted, AI cameras saving rock fishermen at Little Bay and Malabar, busting the shark net myth, and what this all means for nippers and beach culture heading into summer.🎧 New episodes of Everything Ocean every week. Follow the show and leave a rating if you enjoy it — it genuinely helps.