October 27, 2005
‘An instinct to be afraid’: Gallucci to spotlight lure of sharks in upcoming lecture
The way we see them undulate through the water and their eyes — their eyes are dark without a flicker of life as you see in the eyes of a dog or cat or other animals — well, it’s just a primordial instinct to be afraid,” says Aquatic and Fishery Sciences Professor Vince Gallucci of sharks.
Gallucci, who’s studied sharks in the waters of Puget Sound, Alaska and the tropics, will give a free public lecture Nov. 3 on Sharks in Perspective: Predators, Prey and Art.
Those interested in attending the lecture, which is at 7 p.m. in 110 Kane, need to pre-register at the UW Alumni Association’s Web site, https://ealumni.washington.edu/events/EventView.asp?ID=181&Private=N.
Gallucci and his colleague Marc Miller, a UW professor of marine affairs, have traced the attitudes towards sharks from images from the time of Roman civilization, through the Renaissance and to the present. Whereas in the past, it would have been laughable to consider the conservation of an animal that evokes such awe and terror, there has been a change in thinking in recent times.
“In the last decade sharks have become the poster child of the marine animal world,” Gallucci says. That’s because of the growing recognition of their role in the marine ecosystem and, in some instances, because the greatest predator they face is now man.
Sponsored by the College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences, Gallucci’s talk Nov. 3 will focus on biological studies, historical perspectives on the changing image of sharks, species in local waters and predicting shark populations through mathematical models.
The Shark Research Lab headed by Gallucci has about 10 graduate students working on sharks, especially cold water ones. The students and associated faculty work primarily on six-gill, blue, salmon and dogfish sharks. Students earn their degrees from the School of Aquatic and Fishery Science or the Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management program in the Graduate School. See http://www.fish.washington.edu/research/sharks/.
Gallucci’s talk will come two weeks after news reports of a surfer in water off northern California who suffered a shark bite that stretched from her thigh to her calf and landed her in the hospital. The 14-foot shark was believed to be a great white.
“It puzzles me as to why people expect to enter onto the known turf of sharks — especially big ones — and not expect they are playing dice with their lives,” Gallucci says wryly.
“People who grow up in places like African savannas, jungles the world over or even in certain Arctic areas do not go strolling without taking precautions. To protect one’s self in such areas might suggest at least noisemakers — so as not to startle a bear, a tiger, or whatever — and perhaps weapons as well. Not taking precautions simply means that there is a higher probability of not growing very old.
“Of course, lots of us sky dive, paraglide, climb mountains and so on. Life can be summarized as a big probability function where you sometimes get to choose the odds,” Gallucci, ever the mathematician, says.
