SHARK QUESTIONS

• Have you ever seen a great white shark?

Yes. We dove with a great white shark in South Australia. In The Ocean Adventure program, The Australia Great White Shark Expedition, we show you one of the great white sharks we have worked with.

• Have you ever been bitten by a shark?

Mr. Brown: In California, about 20 years ago, a shark did try to bite me, but it was my fault. I was holding a one foot (30 centimeter) long horn shark for someone to take pictures of. I was holding the horn shark for a long time and the shark didn't like that. When I let the horn shark go, it turned around and tried to bite me, but I punched it in the nose and it swam away. Even if the horn had bitten me it would have hurt very much because horn sharks don't have big, sharp teeth. Horn sharks only have small, flat grinding teeth for eating crabs with hard shells. In The Ocean Adventure program, The Island of the Blue Dolphins Expedition, we show you some of the horn sharks we have seen.

• Have you ever petted a shark?

Yes. We have petted different kinds of sharks underwater all around the world. When you pet a shark their skin feels rough, like sandpaper. The largest shark we have petted was a 15 foot (4 1/2 meter) long great white shark.

• Do you like sharks?

Yes, because they are fascinating animals and there are still a lot of things scientists don't know about sharks. In most of The Ocean Adventure programs, we show you some of the sharks we have worked with around the world.

• Are you scared of sharks?

We are not scared of sharks. We like to see sharks underwater. The problem is that the sharks usually don't like to see us. The sharks are more scared of us than we are of them. We are as big or bigger than most sharks and we look very strange to them. As we breathe underwater we make big bubbles that make a loud sound. To a shark we look like a big, scary, roaring monster coming to get them. The sharks are scared of us and turn and swim to get away from us. The only way we can get the sharks to hang around with us is to bring them food to eat. Sometimes they are so scared of us even having food will not make them stay around us.

• How big are sharks?

Most sharks are smaller than you are. Of all the different kinds of sharks (about 370 species), 80% grow less than five feet (1.5 meters) long. Of those sharks half of that 80% grow less than 3 feet (1 meter) long. One of the smallest sharks in the world is the pygmy shark. When the pygmy shark is full grown it is less than 9 inches (23 centimeters) long. A few sharks are bigger than you are. The biggest great white shark ever measured was 26 feet (8 meters) long. The largest shark is the whale shark. The whale shark is the biggest fish on our planet. The largest whale shark ever seen was about 60 feet (18 meters) long.

• Why do sharks attack people?

Once in a while a shark may bite someone. Being bitten by any kind of shark is a very rare thing. Most people unlucky enough to be bitten by a great white shark usually survive. Sharks bite because that is how they feel and taste things, by biting them. To find out what something is a shark will bite it. A baby human is like a shark because the baby likes to bite things to feel them with its mouth. Sharks don't go looking for people to eat, but once in a while a shark may bite someone. Being bitten by any kind of shark is a very rare thing. Most people unlucky enough to be bitten by a great white shark usually survive. Sharks usually bite because that is how they feel and taste things, by biting them. To find out what something is a shark will bite it. A baby human is like a shark because the baby likes to bite things to feel them with its mouth. A shark may bite also someone to make that person leave his territory. This is just like a strange dog that might try to bite you if you get into his yard. A shark may also bite someone by mistake if it thinks you are its favorite food, like a seal or a sea lion. When a shark bites someone the shark usually just takes one bite, swims away, and doesn't try to eat that person. More people are killed by being struck by lightning or bee stings or from falling airplane parts, than attacked by a shark. In fact, in the United States more people are killed by farm pigs each year than by sharks! People are more dangerous to sharks than sharks are to people. Each year people kill about 100,000,000 sharks.

FISH QUESTIONS

• Do you know how many kinds of different fish there are?

There are about 25,000 different kinds (species) of fishes.

• What is the most common fish in the sea?

The most common fish in the sea are the smallest fish, sardines and anchovies. (Do you like anchovies on your pizza?) These small fish are an important part of the ocean food chain, since they are the fish many other animals, even people, eat.

• Have you ever been bitten by a fish?

Yes. We get bitten by fish all the time. Fortunately the fish that bite us don't have big, sharp teeth. Sometimes we get our hands and fingers bitten by the fish when we are feeding them. When the fish bite us they usually don't even scratch our skin. The worst that happens is that being bitten by the fish is like being scratched by sandpaper.

• What is the most dangerous fish in the ocean?

There are many kinds of dangerous fish in the ocean. They may be dangerous because they have poisonous spines, electricity, or sharp teeth. Just because fish are considered dangerous does not mean they will try to bother us. The reasons that fish have poisonous spines, electricity, or sharp teeth, are to protect themselves or to catch their food. The fish considered dangerous are usually scared of us and will try to stay away from us. In most of The Ocean Adventure programs we show you so-called "dangerous" fish we have worked with.

• What is your favorite fish?

Mr. Brown: My favorite fish is the frogfish. The frogfish is the fish that fishes for fish. Mrs. Brown: My favorite fish is the queen angelfish. The queen angelfish is the prettiest fish in the Caribbean Sea. In The Ocean Adventure program, The Caribbean Sea Expedition, we show you frogfish and queen angelfish.

• Do you eat fish?

Yes, but we don't eat any fish we know personally.

WHALE QUESTIONS

• Have you ever seen a whale?

Yes. We have seen gray whales, blue whales, killer whales, fin whales, minke whales, sperm whales, northern right whales, and humpback whales. We have seen gray whales from a boat while we were around the California Channel Islands, but not while we were diving underwater. We have seen and swam with humpback whales underwater while we were studying them in the Silver Bank, near the Caribbean Sea. In The Ocean Adventure program, The Silver Bank Humpback Whale Expedition, we show you some of humpback whales we have worked with.
Mr. Brown: I swam with a blue whale three summers ago off the coast of Southern California. The blue whale I swam with was over 65 feet (20 meters) long.

• How many kinds of whales are there in the world?

There are 78 different kinds (species) of whales that have been identified so far. This includes all three whale (cetacean) groups: porpoises, dolphins and whales.

• How many whales are there in the world?

No one knows for sure how many whales there are in the whole world. We are not even sure how many kinds of whales there are. Every once in a while some one discovers a new kind of whale no ever knew existed. Before 1900 there were probably about 3 million whales in the world. Of all the different kinds of whales in all the oceans, seas and rivers, there are possibly less than 2 million whales living today.

• Why are all whales mammals?

We call whales mammals because of certain things they have in common with other animals we call mammals. We are mammals. The five special things that mammals have in common are:
(1) breathing air with lungs
(2) having warm blood
(3) giving birth to live babies (not laying eggs)
(4) feeding babies milk from the mother
(5) having hair.

MANATEE QUESTIONS

• What is your favorite animal?

Our favorite animal is the Florida manatee. In The Ocean Adventure program, The Crystal River Florida Manatee Expedition, we show you some of the Florida manatees we have worked with. Visit our interactive internet expeditions and click onThe Crystal River Florida Manatee Expedition and you can learn about manatees.

• I wonder why manatees are so kind?

Manatees are called the "gentle giants". Manatees are the only marine mammal that only eats plants. Manatees don't have to chase their food. Manatees don't have to sneak up on their food. Manatees are so big that none of the other animals bother them or try to eat them. Manatees don't have to worry about catching their food or being eaten. Manatees don't have to defend themselves, so they haven't learned how to act mean.

SCUBA DIVING QUESTIONS

• How many years have you been scuba diving?

Mrs. Brown: I have been diving over 34 years and have made over 2,000 scuba dives.
Mr. Brown: I have been diving over 25 years and have made over 5,000 scuba dives.

• Is it fun going scuba diving?

Yes. There are lots of funny and unusual animals that live in the oceans. We like to feed and play with many of the underwater animals we meet.

• What's it like to scuba dive?

It is like being Superman. We can fly. We can pick up things that are usually too heavy to pickup out of the water. When you get to be 12 years old you are old enough to learn how to scuba dive. Even if you don't scuba dive you can still explore underwater just by putting on a face mask and putting you face in the water. In our other Ocean Adventure programs we bring special scuba diving equipment and talk about how we use it.

• How far have you gone down?

The furthest underwater we have been scuba diving was 200 feet (60 meters) down. We were exploring shipwrecks that were sunk by a huge volcanic eruption.

• How old do you have to be to be a scuba diver?

You have to be at least 10 years to learn to scuba dive.

• Where do you get your scuba diving equipment?

The equipment came from a company called Aqua Lung / U.S. Divers. Aqua Lung / U.S. Divers makes snorkeling and scuba diving equipment. This company was started by Jacques Cousteau. Aqua Lung / U.S. Divers is the oldest and largest manufacturer of scuba diving equipment in the world. Aqua Lung / U.S. Divers is in California, near where we live. Some of our scuba diving equipment we bought from scuba diving stores. Most of our scuba diving equipment was donated to us by Aqua Lung / U.S. Divers. Aqua Lung / U.S. Divers is the world's oldest and largest maker of snorkeling and scuba diving equipment. We bought our underwater camera equipment from camera stores.

• How do you fill up your air tanks?

How do you fill up your bicycle tires? We fill up our air tanks the same way. We use a great, big air pump, that runs on a big motor, and pumps air back into our tanks.

OTHER QUESTIONS

• How deep is the ocean?

The average depth of the oceans is about 12,000 feet (3,700 meters) deep. The deepest part of the ocean is the Mariana Trench in the South Pacific Ocean. The depth of the ocean here is about 35, 839 feet (10,927 meters).
(Can you find the Mariana Trench on a detailed globe or world atlas?)

• Have you ever seen a sunken ship?

Yes, we have seen many sunken ships. We have been diving on shipwrecks all over the world.

• Have you ever found gold or silver?

No. We have found old shipwrecks with cannons, but we have never found any gold or silver.

• Have you ever been on TV?

Yes. We have been interviewed on Nickelodeon, our great white shark expedition appeared of Australian national TV, our humpback whale expedition appeared on local Florida TV, and Mr. Brown's Russian Kuril Islands expedition appeared of Japan National TV,