B1 · Intermediate
9 min
marine wildlifepublic safetyenvironmental healthconservation
The Sea and the Shark: Fear, Science, and Closed Beaches
El mar y el tiburón: miedo, ciencia y playas cerradas
This week, Australian authorities closed several beaches in Royal National Park after sharks gathered around a washed-up whale carcass. We dig into sharks, fear, history, and the changing ocean.
Esta semana, las autoridades australianas cerraron varias playas del Parque Nacional Royal después de que los tiburones se reunieran alrededor del cadáver de una ballena. Hablamos sobre los tiburones, el miedo, la historia y el cambio climático.
8 essential B1-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| el cadáver | carcass, corpse | El cadáver de la ballena llegó a la playa durante la noche. |
| acercarse | to approach, to get closer | Los tiburones se acercaron a la costa porque había comida en el agua. |
| el nadador | swimmer | Las autoridades avisaron a los nadadores para que salieran del agua. |
| el varamiento | stranding (of a whale or marine animal) | El número de varamientos de ballenas aumentó en los últimos años. |
| la cadena alimentaria | food chain | Los tiburones están en la cima de la cadena alimentaria en el océano. |
| el depredador | predator | Sin depredadores, el ecosistema marino pierde su equilibrio. |
| cerrar | to close | Las autoridades cerraron las playas por razones de seguridad. |
| el equilibrio | balance, equilibrium | El cambio climático afecta el equilibrio del océano. |
Walk into any conversation about Australia and within five minutes someone mentions sharks.
This week, that conversation got very literal.
Sí, esta semana en el sur de Sídney, en el Parque Nacional Royal, las autoridades cerraron varias playas porque los tiburones estaban muy cerca de la costa.
Yes, this week in southern Sydney, in Royal National Park, the authorities closed several beaches because sharks were very close to the shore.
And the reason the sharks were there in the first place is the part I find fascinating.
A whale carcass had washed up on the beach, and the sharks came to feed.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Los tiburones pueden detectar la sangre y el aceite del cadáver desde kilómetros de distancia.
Sharks can detect blood and oil from the carcass from kilometers away.
Es algo completamente natural para ellos, pero es muy peligroso para los nadadores.
It's completely natural for them, but it's very dangerous for swimmers.
The Surf Life Saving service and National Parks both moved to close the beaches.
Which tells you something about how seriously Australia takes this.
En Australia, la playa es muy importante para la cultura.
In Australia, the beach is very important to the culture.
Cerrar una playa es una decisión seria.
Closing a beach is a serious decision.
La gente va a la playa todos los fines de semana, en verano y también en otoño.
People go to the beach every weekend, in summer and also in autumn.
Royal National Park is the second oldest national park in the world, incidentally.
Right on Sydney's doorstep.
Those beaches are packed on a good weekend.
Y el problema no es solo el cadáver de la ballena.
And the problem isn't just the whale carcass.
Cuando hay mucha comida en el agua, los tiburones se quedan en la zona durante varios días.
When there's a lot of food in the water, sharks stay in the area for several days.
No desaparecen rápidamente.
They don't disappear quickly.
Right, and this raises the bigger question I want to get into.
Australia has a complicated history with sharks.
This isn't new anxiety.
It goes back a very long time.
Sí, en Australia los ataques de tiburones tienen una historia muy larga.
Yes, in Australia shark attacks have a very long history.
En el siglo veinte, hubo muchos ataques mortales, especialmente en las playas de Nueva Gales del Sur.
In the twentieth century, there were many fatal attacks, especially on the beaches of New South Wales.
The 1930s were particularly brutal.
There was a series of fatal attacks in Sydney that basically traumatized the city, and the government responded by installing shark nets along the beaches.
Las redes están en muchas playas australianas todavía hoy.
The nets are still on many Australian beaches today.
Pero hay un problema: las redes también atrapan y matan a otras especies, como delfines, rayas y hasta tortugas.
But there's a problem: the nets also trap and kill other species, like dolphins, rays, and even turtles.
And this is where you get a genuine tension between public health and conservation.
The nets aren't even that effective at stopping shark attacks, the data is actually pretty contested.
Es verdad.
That's true.
Los científicos dicen que las redes no crean una barrera completa.
Scientists say the nets don't create a complete barrier.
Los tiburones pueden entrar y salir.
Sharks can enter and exit.
Las redes capturan tiburones, pero no impiden todos los ataques.
The nets catch sharks, but they don't prevent all attacks.
So what you have is a system that reassures the public psychologically more than it protects them practically.
Which is an interesting public health problem in itself.
Exacto.
Exactly.
Y la percepción del peligro es muy importante.
And the perception of danger is very important.
Estadísticamente, las personas tienen muy pocas probabilidades de morir por un ataque de tiburón.
Statistically, people have very little chance of dying from a shark attack.
Pero el miedo es muy intenso.
But the fear is very intense.
The numbers are genuinely striking.
In Australia, which has one of the highest rates of shark attacks in the world, you're looking at maybe five to ten fatalities a year on a continent of twenty-six million people.
Sí, comparado con otros peligros, es un número muy pequeño.
Yes, compared to other dangers, it's a very small number.
Las abejas matan a más personas cada año que los tiburones.
Bees kill more people each year than sharks.
Pero las personas no tienen el mismo miedo a las abejas.
But people don't have the same fear of bees.
A lot of that fear traces back to one film.
I shouldn't have to say the name.
Tiburón.
Jaws.
La película de Spielberg en 1975.
Spielberg's film in 1975.
Después de esa película, la gente tenía terror al mar en todo el mundo.
After that film, people were terrified of the sea all over the world.
Fue un cambio cultural muy grande.
It was a very big cultural shift.
Peter Benchley, who wrote the novel, spent the rest of his life doing conservation work for sharks.
He felt genuinely responsible for the damage the story had done to the species' reputation.
Y el daño fue enorme.
And the damage was enormous.
Después de la película, mucha gente cazó tiburones.
After the film, many people hunted sharks.
Las poblaciones de tiburones bajaron muchísimo en los años setenta y ochenta.
Shark populations dropped enormously in the seventies and eighties.
Which creates a very strange loop: the fear increases hunting, hunting reduces shark populations, but then paradoxically fewer sharks means a less healthy ocean, which can actually push the sharks that remain into coastal waters looking for food.
Los tiburones son muy importantes para el ecosistema marino.
Sharks are very important for the marine ecosystem.
Son depredadores en la cima de la cadena alimentaria.
They are predators at the top of the food chain.
Si no hay tiburones, hay demasiados peces pequeños y el equilibrio del océano cambia.
If there are no sharks, there are too many small fish and the balance of the ocean changes.
Let's bring it back to the whale.
Because whale strandings themselves are part of this story in a way I think people don't fully appreciate.
Sí.
Yes.
Los científicos creen que el número de varamientos de ballenas aumentó en los últimos años.
Scientists believe the number of whale strandings has increased in recent years.
Las ballenas están en aguas diferentes porque los peces que comen están en lugares diferentes.
Whales are in different waters because the fish they eat are in different places.
And the fish are in different places because the water temperature is changing.
So you follow this thread long enough and you end up, as you always do, at climate change.
El mar de Australia está más caliente que antes.
The Australian sea is warmer than before.
Los peces se mueven hacia el sur, donde el agua es más fría.
The fish move south, where the water is cooler.
Las ballenas siguen a los peces, y a veces se acercan demasiado a la costa.
Whales follow the fish, and sometimes they get too close to the shore.
And when a whale gets stranded and dies close to a populated beach, you get exactly what happened this week.
The carcass becomes a feeding station, and suddenly the beach is not safe.
Las autoridades tienen que tomar decisiones difíciles.
The authorities have to make difficult decisions.
¿Mueven el cadáver?
Do they move the carcass?
¿Cierran la playa por días o por semanas?
Do they close the beach for days or weeks?
No es fácil, porque el cadáver de una ballena es enorme y muy pesado.
It's not easy, because a whale carcass is enormous and very heavy.
Moving a whale carcass is an extraordinary logistical operation.
I looked this up.
A large whale can weigh fifty tonnes.
You can't just call a truck.
[chuckle] No, no es tan simple.
No, it's not that simple.
A veces las autoridades deciden esperar a que el cadáver desaparezca solo, pero ese proceso puede tomar semanas.
Sometimes the authorities decide to wait for the carcass to disappear on its own, but that process can take weeks.
Durante ese tiempo, los tiburones están cerca.
During that time, sharks are nearby.
So what's the modern toolkit for managing this?
Because I know Australia has been investing in alternatives to shark nets.
Drones, acoustic devices, that kind of thing.
Sí, en los últimos años algunas playas australianas usan drones para buscar tiburones desde el aire.
Yes, in recent years some Australian beaches use drones to search for sharks from the air.
También hay sistemas con boyas que detectan tiburones con marcadores electrónicos y envían una alerta al teléfono.
There are also systems with buoys that detect sharks with electronic tags and send an alert to your phone.
There's actually an app for that.
SharkSmart.
You can check it before you go in the water.
Which is both very reassuring and somehow very Australian.
Lo que me parece interesante es que Australia habla mucho sobre el peligro de los tiburones, pero al mismo tiempo protege a muchas especies de tiburones por ley.
What I find interesting is that Australia talks a lot about the danger of sharks, but at the same time protects many shark species by law.
Hay una tensión real entre el miedo y la conservación.
There's a real tension between fear and conservation.
The great white in particular has been protected in Australian waters since 1999.
You cannot legally hunt one.
Which makes the conversation about beach safety much more complicated.
Y esto es un debate en Australia.
And this is a debate in Australia.
Algunas personas dicen que la protección de los tiburones es demasiado estricta porque hay más ataques.
Some people say that shark protection is too strict because there are more attacks.
Pero los científicos dicen que no es tan simple.
But scientists say it's not that simple.
The increase in attacks is at least partly a function of more people in the water, not more sharks.
When you have a growing population that loves the beach, the exposure goes up even if shark numbers stay flat.
Oye, Fletcher, una cosa que dije antes, que los tiburones «se acercan» a la costa.
Hey, Fletcher, one thing I said earlier, that the sharks 'approach' the coast.
¿Notaste el verbo «acercarse»?
Did you notice the verb 'acercarse'?
Es un verbo muy útil en español.
It's a very useful verb in Spanish.
I did, actually.
«Acercarse.» My instinct was to reach for «llegar» but the two aren't the same thing, are they.
«Llegar» is arriving.
«Acercarse» is the getting closer part.
Exacto.
Exactly.
«Llegar» es el destino final.
'Llegar' is the final destination.
«Acercarse» es el movimiento hacia algo.
'Acercarse' is the movement toward something.
Puedes decir «el tiburón se acercó a la playa pero no llegó».
You can say 'the shark got close to the beach but didn't arrive.' They're two different parts of the movement.
Son dos partes diferentes del movimiento.
That's a distinction English handles clumsily.
We'd say 'approach' versus 'arrive,' but 'acercarse' has this reflexive quality that puts the motion right inside the subject.
It feels more vivid somehow.
Probably not useful information if you're already in the water with the shark, but still.
Si estás en el agua con un tiburón, el español no es tu problema más urgente, Fletcher.
If you're in the water with a shark, Spanish is not your most urgent problem, Fletcher.