view . fall 2008
5
A
ssociates say Aaron Fisk is single-minded in his pursuit of
his research. However, as a fan of the Discovery Channel’s
runaway hit show
Dirty Jobs
, Fisk acknowledges that he was
– briefly – distracted and a little nervous about his initial encounter
with the program’s popular host Mike Rowe.
“The guy has incredible presence and as soon as he walks into the
room, you can see why he has that star quality,” says Fisk, an associate
professor in UWindsor’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental
Research. “He’s very engaging, very funny and very charismatic.”
Dirty Jobs
is a program that focuses on people who have
particularly unpleasant occupations. Fisk and his researchers
qualify. And in April, Rowe and his crew spent several days
in sub-zero temperatures near Cumberland Sound, Nunavut,
filming Fisk and his researchers catching, and in some cases,
gutting Greenland sharks. In mid-summer, Discovery aired the
episode four times for its 240 million international subscribers.
The last week of July was Shark Week on Discovery when
many of the network’s most popular programs focus on shark-
related material. Over the last few years, Rowe’s contribution
usually involved him jetting off to more tropical climes. This
year, he wanted a different approach. As a result, his producers
got in touch with Steve Campagna, a researcher at the Canadian
Department of Fisheries and Oceans and a collaborator of Fisk’s
who has extensive experience working with Greenland sharks.
Soon, the film crew was headed thousands of kilometres north.
Fisk, who completed his MSc in biology at UWindsor in 1994 and
returned in 2006 after a four-year stint as a professor at the University
of Georgia, has also devoted a considerable amount of time focusing
on the lethargic and mysterious mammoth beasts. He is examining the
impact that climate change is having on the eco-system in the Arctic,
and to help measure that change he researches the feeding habits of
Greenland sharks. Specifically, he examines chemical tracers – stable
isotopes, such as carbon and nitrogen, as well as contaminants, such
as mercury – that can be found in animal tissue samples and provide
molecular evidence of what a shark has been eating. To that end,
Fisk and his researchers catch, and sometimes need to examine the
innards of, the sharks. That, for Discovery, counts as a dirty job.
Among other prey, the sharks feed on ringed seals – also a
primary source of food for polar bears and Inuit hunters. Fisk’s
A Sense of Discovery
BY STEPHEN FIELDS
team examines the correlation between changes in sea ice and
the sharks’ ability to hunt seals. Polar ice has been unreliable
over the past few years, hindering the ability of hunters and polar
bears to access this source of food and there is evidence to show
the Greenland shark may be able to hunt seals year-round.
“The continued health of the marine mammal population
is critical to the Aboriginal people of the Arctic,” says Fisk, a
Canada Research Chair, who also draws funding for his work from
International Polar Year, a 60-country scientific consortium dedicated
to researching topics in the Arctic and Antarctic. He also gets support
from institutes in Norway where, in addition to the Greenland shark,
he is conducting work on the Great Skua, a predatory seabird.
As well as collecting tissue samples, part of Fisk’s work involves
planting global positioning tags on sharks that get caught in fishing
lines before they are released. The tags collect a wealth of data about
the sharks’ migratory patterns for several months, then break loose
and float to the ocean’s surface. Then, their data transfers to a satellite
and the research team downloads and analyses the information.
When the team had to sacrifice sharks to examine the
contents of their stomachs, the film crew tried to avoid making the
process too graphic for general audiences. Still, a highlight of the
show was watching a freezing cold Rowe and Bailey McMeans,
Fisk’s PhD candidate, slicing open a shark on the polar ice.
What impressed Fisk most about Rowe, in addition to his wealth
of knowledge about sharks, was his professionalism and discretion
in handling the sometimes bloody and potentially politically sensitive
issue. After they finished cutting up the dead shark, Rowe invited
Fisk into the shot and asked him to “make this right,” offering him
an opportunity to explain why they needed to sacrifice the animal.
Fisk rose to the occasion and spoke eloquently about how much
they disliked having to destroy such a beautiful creature, but that
it was necessary for the nobler cause of managing the species.
“If you’re trying to manage a species, you need to
know what they’re eating,” Fisk told
VIEW
. “Understanding
the impact of Greenland sharks on these marine
mammals is needed for future management of these
populations and marine ecosystems in general.”
The Discovery program contributed to a much broader public
appreciation of the Fisk team’s contribution to science.
❍
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