I have the distinct pleasure to introduce to you, Forrest Galante.
For most of you, Forrest Galante is not a new face. Forrest is a wildlife biologist and adventurer who you might have seen on the discovery channel or being the Joe Rogan Podcast. Forrest has dedicated his life to studying wildlife and sharing his passion and love for our amazing planet with his hundreds of thousands of followers.
Galante has captured evidence of the existence of eight animals once believed to be extinct, and the Outdoor Journal has named Forrest the “Modern-Day Charles Darwin.”
You won’t want to miss this one!
The best way to follow Forrest is through instagram or youtube! Forrest has taken on his next big media adventure by fully dedicating his time to his Youtube channel. He promises more excellent content coming on the horizon.
Youtube :https://www.youtube.com/@ForrestGalante
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forrest.galante/
Website: https://www.forrestgalante.com
Show: https://www.forrestgalante.com/television
The Wild Times Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/c/wildtimespod
Sources:
Rediscovering the Fernandina Tortoise: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CPgJTnYAY-_/
Dog Scuba Diver: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cztn8mALjlh/
Lightning Strike: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1IMSlTuPFW/
Yellowstone Wolf: https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wildlife/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/
Thylacine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine
WEBSITES:
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What’s going on everybody we have a fantastic guest for you today forest galante from the Discovery Channel you’ve seen him on Shark Week you’ve seen him all over the place he started out on Naked and Afraid and then he had a show called extinct or Alive which I
Think is really really cool where he would look for Animals thought to be extinct we had a great conversation here today about how that work has anything to do with wildlife conservation and what his ideas of Wildlife conserv are and how we can all do a better job of
That I really like that we talked about sharks in Florida so I love it that he was on I think you’re going to love it too share it with somebody that you like or know and uh we’ll be back next week with another awesome guest just like
Forest so here we go with Forest galante I’m wildlife biologist forest galante and this is the Tom Roland podcast Forest what’s going on man how are you Tom I’m doing great I’m doing great I’m really uh I got to say say man I’m a fan and uh I’ve been following you
On social media you have an incredible um Instagram really oh thanks buddy man the the engagement that you have with your audience is is really impressive it’s very very good um but just all the stuff you’re doing man it’s it’s really cool so um I’m really excited to to talk
To you about a bunch of this stuff yeah well thanks for having me anytime I can kick back and chat fishing with somebody who gets it uh makes me happy so I’m I’m stuck to be here man so what’s your story with fishing how how how did you
Become such a a fisherman uh did that start as a young a young kid with some with a mentor or how did you get started in fishing yeah I mean it uh I can actually tell you the exact moment so my family you know I grew up in southern
Africa and my family spent most of their time in the bush and uh I don’t particularly remember this but I’ve been told the story by my mother many many times when I was four years old we went to mosan Beque which is where we used to take our Beach vacations and uh we
Pulled up a spotted rock cod that was about 12 in long and apparently my eyes just went the size of saucers and that was it I was hooked all I wanted to do was fish from then on and growing up in Zimbabwe you know we had the zambesi
River uh I had a dam on the farm that I I grew up on so I was fishing for bream for what we call tilapia here um tiger fish vundu which are giant catfish I mean I spent that fishing was truly my first first love of anything wild in the
Pursuit of anything wild and from as little as I can remember I remember like you know our dam was pretty far from our house but bombing down to the dam on my little motorbike or or running all the way down there and having a bamboo
Fishing rod with a piece of string and a tiny little hook and we dig for worms on the on the banks of the dam and then just catch these little bream like little tilapia that were two inches long skewer them and make a fire and roast
Them with a bit of salt and I mean I’ve been doing fishing yeah I’m still I’m fanatical about it so yeah excited to chat about all of it that’s awesome you know there’s so many people that I know that um you know fishing was was their intr uction into biology or something
Like that and and for so many people and myself included uh wasn’t really that interested in school but when I started fly fishing and all a sudden I found myself being an entomologist and reading books about yeah entomology and my biology teacher couldn’t get me to pay
Attention for 5 seconds but the the act of fishing and knowing man if I know what that bug is then I can probably catch that fish that hooked me and it really you know it’s it’s really engaging but I wish that you know schools would do more of that kind of
That well that’s that’s kind of the thing is like if if a teacher could could look at a student and say you know what you’re G to you’re going to get this if I show you this and I take you fishing and you see this I would have
Been all in but I never made that connection in the classroom you know but then later in fly fishing it’s like okay I got to understand this and I got to understand the life cycle and why am I not catching any fish because I don’t know what’s going on and uh you find
Yourself reading books and all kinds of stuff were you now you’re you’re like a a super student you’ve become a wild life biologist were you always that way or or did was it tough in the classroom at any point Tom I was a solid C minus student through most of I barely barely
Got into University um so just like what you just sort of explained my passions came from I’m very singularly focused it’s on animals and all animals right so fishing’s one element of it reptiles mammals Birds you name it that’s the thing I’m interested in I am a complete
And utter Philistine when it comes to Music Arts pop culture any of those things I can’t play you I can’t do any of them uh you know I barely know anything about sports outside of rugby which is another big passion of mine and uh you know like I’m just I I know
Nothing outside of Wildlife and that’s that’s always been the case and you know funnily enough like talking about in the classroom you know one of the hardest classes I ever took was as an undergrad allegedly hardest classes was the biology of fishes right and everybody said oh this is a really tough upper
Division class but because I was such a fanatical fisherman and free diver and spear fisherman I walked into that lab and walked out 15 minutes later with 100% on the final exam and yet I could barely barely squeak Through Chemistry right because it had nothing to do with
Wildlife and so you know I I I’ve always been good at the stuff that I’m passionate about and pretty useless at everything else well but you know it’s it’s it’s all about connecting and and getting that that breakthrough that that leads you to studying or or being you
Know interested in something and for me that was fishing sounds like for you it was fish certainly fishing in the outdoors I’m interested in um you know your career I didn’t realize as I was you know I said I’d followed you on social media and listen to you on Joe
Rogan and all that but um I didn’t realize that you were on Naked and Afraid not my proudest moment but yes I was I was indeed um that was sort of the little light bulb that went off for me was doing that show because uh you know
Long story short I did the show we can dig into it as much as you like but when I came off of the show uh you know I’ve been working as a biologist for for several years and I looked at a paper that I published that got 400 reads 400
Reads by like-minded scientists that already knew the subject matter and then I looked the next day that Naked and Afraid came out and four million people saw me jiggling my junk naked in the jungle right and that’s a tongue twister for you and like wow one of these two
Things has the potential to reach a lot more people and so that was the that was the very day at which I switched from traditional Wildlife science to to Wildlife media and um it’s been a good switch Yeah and then to your show um that that you have now that and and that
Came from Naked and Afraid you know the the the popularity that you received on Naked and Afraid kind of launched this new show is that how it happened or or how no I W I wish that were the case that that sounds so great and like such
An easy path no so Naked and Afraid got completed and um the show did really well like the series right it’s still going and its umth season who knows how long and I was very successful on the show I was one of the highest rated survivalists in the show’s history and
Blah blah blah and so like everybody that does an ensemble cast show whether it’s the Bachelor or Survivor or whatever you get your 5 Seconds Of Fame in your local town now I live in a town of Santa Barbara 200,000 people it’s not a big place and uh you know the tiny
Little news outlets here the Santa Barbara independent and the the evening news on Channel 3 whatever it’s called reached out to talk about it and I just said no thanks and they’re like what do you mean I was like I don’t really want to talk about naked and fright it’s not
That interesting if you want to talk about you know the largest lobster that’s ever been caught in the state of California I’ll show you that I caught that last year if you want to talk about the time I got bitten by a hammerhead 500 miles outside of its nautical known
Range I’ll talk about that and then they most of them were just like no thanks click and a couple of them were like yeah okay we’ll see if we can weave a story out of that cuz I was way more interested in the biology and a few of
Those stories went completely viral um like Daily Mail you know all these big sensationalized things that just blew up because here is this like sort of dorky kid freaking out about a lobster getting chased around by a hammerhead on a crappy GoPro and it was just the right
Sort of time and place for that kind of sensationalized media right when Daily Mail was picking up and then I got approached by a couple different real sleep easy sort of used car salesman agents that were trying to make a you know Junior Talent agents that were
Trying to make like a quick Buck off of this like splashy media that had had picked up this virality that had taken place and uh they sent me Pitch decks of TV shows and they’re like hey do you want to do this TV show and Tom I got to
Tell you some these these were some of the biggest crappiest things you’ve ever seen I mean one of them was like a naked dating show which I think ended up happening another one was like a guy challenging a bear I don’t know it was just like they were so stupid and you
Know like as a scholar as someone who’d spent a lot of time you know learning I was like these I I saw what a TV show pitch was and what a deck was and I was like this isn’t complicated I can do this so I spent three years from when
Naked and Afraid came out until I got the very first pilot of my show extinctor alive to go forward where I created it I wrote all the materials I pitched it to literally every single production company in Los Angeles and got the door slammed in my face at
Everyone and then finally saved up enough money to fly out to New York and the second production company I walked into in New York was like all right let’s partner on this and give it a shot then it was another year from that until the show got made so we spent years
Living on my wife’s part-time teacher salary eating a lot of Top Ramen driving a broken down car I mean it was pretty rough and then uh and then all of a sudden things started to click I love that I love that story I mean it’s got some Sylvester Stallone in it of of
Knowing what you want to create like he wanted Rocky right and he gets a door Slamm they’re they’re like yeah we’ll make it but not with you like and he just stayed with it just like that um you know we have three TV shows as well they’re all fishing shows uhhuh and my
Um uh story is similar to that that I was on a bunch of different fishing shows and I thought this can’t be that hard um and I was naive and uh it was it was much harder than I thought it was but we we got it going all right so
Forest this is the part of the show where we’re going to put you on the hot seat to get to know you just a little bit better and also to um to have a little fun here we’re going to ask a bunch of questions there’re either or
Questions you just answer as quickly as you can try to get through it in about a minute and then we’ll get back to um all the other questions I want to ask you here so you ready to go let’s do it all right chocolate or vanilla vanilla 1
Million now or 10 million later 10 million later text or call text always you want to search for animals on land or in the water in the water would you rather be bitten or stung GH neither strangest creature that comes to mind um sea pig sea pig I’m want to
Learn about that here in a few minutes favorite country that you visited ah my home country of Zimbabwe surf or snow ski surf sunrise or sunset sunrise mountains or beaches beaches no problem audio book or paper paper spring or fall o spring cat or dog dog would you have a
Reptile as a pet I have about 20 somehow I knew that was going to be the case uh would you rather swim with sharks or walk with bears oh walk with bears only because I’ve done so much Swimming with Sharks okay uh favorite holiday Christmas baby it’s coming it’s around
The corner right now would you rather be naked or afraid h both always okay and then two two a little bit more serious questions the best piece of advice you remember being given uh just my grandfather when we were stuck on a really long walk in the
Bush and he just said to me just never quit never just take the next step just keep taking the next step I love it piece of advice I ever got I love it and then tell me something that you’ve changed your mind about in the last five years
Conservation I used to think of conservation as this Grand IO Sleek beautiful thing that people were striving and thriving at doing and when I learned when I really sort of got into the nitty-gritty of conservation which I’ve been doing my whole life but when you really get into the politics of it
Especially American conservation you realize that conservation is a war that we have been losing since the day that it started we might win the odd battle here and there where salmon get put back into a creek or one Critters numbers rebound but we are losing the war of
Conservation every single day more and more animals are being driven towards Extinction more and more habitat is being developed more rivers are being damned and I used to think conservation meant we were saving the world and the cynical side of me the RE the realist in me realizes that conservation has been a
Losing battle since it started and uh it’s really shifted my whole perspective to think how we can help try and turn the tides of that war what uh how how do you think that what what has shifted in your perspective how do you think that we can do that more
Effectively well two parts to that my perspective shifted because you know on face value when you think about conservation you think about WWF or I don’t want to nameth throw but some of these organizations you’re like wow look at that they’re saving the panda they’re
Saving the thing but when you put all of it together you still see that we’re losing species at a dramatic rate we’re losing habitat at a dramatic rate you know 80% decline in Birds 70% decline in Ocean blah blah blah I’m making those numbers up but you know it’s um it it’s
Just such a big decline so the the perspective shift for me came from not not that you shouldn’t support all those groups and organizations and support the things they’re doing because you should but it’s how do we quit all this excuse my language like infighting and bureaucracy and nonsense
I don’t know if you know about this but right now the whole world is giving the China back all of their pandas like we don’t have a choice the P the pandas are gone there are no pandas left in North America do you know that Tom they’ve
Taken them all back because every Panda that ever left China was on loan from China and for whatever reason you know there are some theories there are some conspiracy theories whatever China’s like give us back all our pandas that’s great except what happens if a disease
Breaks out in China right that’s the end of all the pandas so now all those Insurance colonies that were at the San Diego Zoo and this that and the other place they’re gone and so it’s it’s it’s greed it’s human greed and this just a micro example but it’s human greed and
It’s uh just this this ridiculous ridiculous like system that’s been developed where people that work in the sciences and in conservation in particular they’re all fighting for their next Grant they’re all fighting for their next paper they’re not actually fighting for the animals because that’s the system that’s and how
It’s been designed they’re fighting to win more money to continue their job to maybe make a difference as opposed to everybody coming together as a hive mind as a collective and going how do we fight to actually fix things and stop this I’m not I’m like you Tom I’m a
Sportsman I love fishing I love diving I love spe ing stuff I love catching my own dinner but it doesn’t mean I want it to go away right we need to be realists and the whole like green piece tree hugging that side of thing is ridiculous and to kill everything murder everything
God put it here for us to take it side of things is ridiculous like where is the common ground that all people Sportsmen conservationists Tree Huggers whatever can come together and go how do we fix everything and that’s the problem with conservation is it’s all pocketed into these little things with this
Broken model where everybody’s fighting for money everybody’s fighting for their next paper or their next headline and there is no one Collective means by which we can actually work on restoring and saving things yeah that’s it’s interesting to hear you talk about that because the infighting even just in the
Fishing I talk about that all the time of like man we’re going to get run over if bait fishermen and fly fisherman can’t get along I mean come on man we got to we’re all fishermen but the thing about what you’re talking about is like when when I see conservation misses it’s
Like you know the the Greenpeace Thing versus the kill everything there’s something in the middle which is an ethical angler or an ethical Hunter where a lot of what you are buying is a self there’s a self-imposed tax on that that is going to Wild Life conservation officers boat ramps all the different
Things that are going on there a lot of people don’t know that certainly people are listening to this podcast they do know that and take great pride in that but when I see a lot of by the way yeah when I see a lot of the the conservation
Organizations or or you know so-called conservation organizations it’s like what what money are you putting towards this like yeah you’re raising money but how do we know that that’s actually going there and that with the hunting and fishing at least there’s this tax that has been put on all of our
Equipment that is going towards you know as much as anything just Wildlife officers being out there and uh and that’s a huge thing that a lot of people a lot of people don’t really know about but the conservation I thought it was interesting that you you touched on that
On the on on Rogan when you were talking about your work and how that affects um Wildlife Conservation especially when you’re looking for um species that that we’ve thought were extinct and when you when you start doing like that and for people that may not know you that well
That’s that’s kind of your your thing right now extinct or alive and that’s where you go and you look for these different species and I got a tremendous amount of question questions about that like which one like I don’t I’m just interested to know like when you you you
Come up with a whole list like I know how to create a TV show and a in a season and you’re going to come up with a list of ideas and you’re going to think okay we could go here and here and here and you got a budget and you’re
Trying to figure out how you make all this work well when you’re when you’re looking at okay there there are these species that could possibly exist like what amount of of data sighting uh rumors video photos I don’t know actual you know the last time that one
Of these has been seen how much of that do you have to kind of discern and decipher through before you decide okay this is a pretty good Target I think we actually have a chance at maybe finding this tortoise like you did um like like just walk me through like how you
Decided that that was something that you wanted to to go after and sure so first of of all uh and this is where I differ from many scientists a big part of it is just gut feeling right and um that’s not the scientific way that’s not the
Scientific method right I know a lot of hunters and fishermen have a gut feeling well let’s go fish that bank let’s go to check that Reef right it’s just a gut feeling so I Rely a lot on that but outside of that which is pretty ethereal
Um you know there’s a checklist that we go through and the checklist is like first of all this didn’t this field let me preface this by saying this Tom this field of looking for extinct animals didn’t really exist before we started this you know and it’s become
Like a big thing now there’s whole organizations dedicated to it and it’s it’s because I don’t want to say it’s because of what we did but it’s because we were one of several groups that were able to prove that just because some stuffy guy in a smoking jacket in an
Office in London said that something’s extinct doesn’t actually mean that it is right and uh what’s sad about Extinction is once that label is applied that’s it all funding dries up all hope for the species is gone it’s L it’s given up on so you know we when we when I created
Co-created extinctor alive which isn’t going any longer by the way we’re doing various other shows but when I I co-created that the idea was hey it’s arrogant for human beings to think that they know it all and they can say we’ve checked everywhere these animals are all
Gone and once we label something as extinct or lost or whatever everybody gives up that’s the end of it nobody keeps going let’s go against the grain let’s go look for these things and if we can prove that one or two of them are still there that’s going to speaking of conservation
That’s going to open up all kinds of doors to the conservation of not just that species but the habitat and so on and so forth so it’s a long-winded answer but to answer your question before we actually set out on an expedition you have to realize that one
Of these exped expeditions to look for these extinct animals is the culmination of years of research months in the field and you know weeks of editing and things like that to bring it to bring it to fruition and um you know we go through a a check list where was the animal last
Seen who declared it extinct why was it declared extinct is there still sufficient habitat for it does it still have sufficient prey or or food sources is um are there local sightings for it if so oh look at that are there local sightings for it if so how many where
Are they coming from are those sightings credible or are they toothless tinfoil hat people uh how remote is this area are people actually going in there regularly so there’s this whole lengthy checklist that we go through and my team and I you know we’ sort of slowed down
On on the is it extinct isn’t it extinct stuff because we’ve been doing some some sort of bigger more grandio conservation things but um we we had a list of 1,600 species that have been declared extinct that we thought had potential to still be there so 1600 you think could
Possibly be alive correct 1600 animals that were lost to science that we thought could still be out marine animals and land animals or everything Birds bugs frogs lizards fish uh sharks you name it and so you know we have to take this database of 1600 animals these ridiculous horrible looking Excel
Spreadsheets and um you know every time we we hear of a sighting or we find something or we talk to a scientist or whatever it changes their ranking orders and what’s funny is like with the Fernandina Island tortoise that animal had only been seen once one specimen in
History had been collected 14 years prior and that was it there was no other recent stuff but I just had a gut feeling I looked at satellite images I looked at the green spaces I spoke to um an older scientist who’ been there some 30 years prior who said he swore to God
He’s a tortoise scientist he saw saw tortoise bite marks on the cactus and I was like screw it let’s go you know like that’s it like let’s just do it I I I believe it I believe it could be there just because nobody’s looking and so sometimes it’s got instincts sometimes
It’s it’s just data points and it’s it’s bringing it all together that’s that’s wild and then when you find something like that that’s got to be I mean was that the big biggest thing that You’ found that tortoise well look we we found eight animals that have been lost to science
And I think for me because the tortoise was the first one that I literally picked up an extinct animal you know you see it see it here on the cover of my book there I literally picked up an extinct animal you know holding literally the rarest animal in the world
One of the species that is known to exist the crown jewel of Rarity and you want to talk about being a you know a sportsman a hunter or a fisherman but imagine finding literally the rarest animal on the planet and so to like dive into this bush which was way over
Dramatic and unnecessary but I was just that excited and pick up this 40 lb tortoise literally the rarest creature on earth to me and it was the first time I’d ever tangibly touched an extinct animal like that was it was a whole another level so don’t let my wife hear
This but I think it was the best moment in my whole life right it was just it was just so freaking exciting yeah we’ve got I think we got a Ben pulled up a clip of you going in there right now yeah here I am diving in the bush like
Like I’m chasing a cheetah now so when you when you’re thinking about this animal there’s only been one ever caught before do you have any IDE I mean is that what you thought it was going to look like is that the size you thought it was going to be like what what did
You how did you identify this like if there’s only been one before like could this be like the size of a box turtle or could it be the size of a sea turtle or like how do you know what you’re looking for even so this was a female um so here
The the short of it is there’s only one species on this island on East Fernandina so if we found a tortoise it had to be the Fernandina Island tortoise unless something really bizarre had happened such as somebody had decided to move one over there or something but
This is a remote island in the middle of nowhere galpagos you know 600 miles out to seea so it’s very unlikely that people were just moving tortoises around for fun so we knew if we found a tortoise it was likely to be the Fernandina Island tortoise I was always
Hoping it was going to be a male although it’s worse for the species the males and and you can look the up are called like Saddleback tortoises or whatever um is Saddleback is that the right term I don’t know there’s a common name for it but basically these giant
Golobos tortoises that get these big giraffe-like necks so the males of that species get like that whereas the females are a little bit more bland generic looking like the one you just saw so regardless we knew it was a Fernandina Island tortoise she had the blue eyes the little pig pink like nose
The right ridging on her shell and it was the only species of tortoise that had ever been documented on that island the only species that could be you know the galpagos is famous for having all of its uh little pockets of evolution at these different Islands right um and
That’s where their Charles Darwin formulated his theory because different animals on different Islands so we knew if we found a tortoise there it was going to be the fernandi island tortoise so to see one was just it was crazy yeah it was so exciting that’s so wild man I
Mean I mean just like just in my own fishing it’s like okay you’re looking for a world record or something like that and you’re thinking somebody comes to you and they’re like yeah we want to book you and we want to try to catch a you know this fly record you know King
Fish or something on fly so you look at the book and you’re like okay well uh it’s it it only needs to be 12 pounds so you’re like okay well where can I catch a 12b kingfish where there’s not you know a lot of you know debris and
Everything else that are going to cut the line because it’s going to be light line and so you just kind of narrow this down and you kind of go with this gut feeling you’re like okay I’m pretty sure that you could probably do it here you strike out sometimes you don’t but when
You don’t strike out and you actually get it it’s such a incredible accomplishment for you I mean you’re just kind of like I knew it like I knew this was G to be there exct and that’s so cool that you did it with that and eight other things so when you’re when
Like what are you doing now with these other conservation deals does it have to do with rare species or or oh yeah yeah yeah always I I don’t think I would ever sort of walk away from critically endangered edge of Extinction stuff so
I’m doing a lot of stuff I mean I have a bunch of shows on Discovery Channel Shark Week specials a series called mysterious creatur features which is about mitigating human Wildlife conflict a whole bunch of different TV shows but honestly I’ve sort of lost the I don’t want to come off as
Ungrateful or or or arrogant or anything else but I’ve I’ve lost the like desire for TV when you know and and here’s why right Tom Cable’s dying right cable television is dying and I’ve been a discovery guy since I I began and in the beginning it was very prestigious and it
Felt like you could reach gazillions of people and all that now as we all know every single year less and less people are watching TV they’re all tuning off they’re certainly canceling their cable subscriptions you know and watching Tik Tok and things like that so I’m doing a
Couple other things we just started a YouTube which I’m excited about because I don’t have a boss on YouTube right like I I can just create the content that I want to create so that’s fun there’s the social media side which I’m I’m not very good at I mean I you said
Something very flattering earlier but I don’t try I don’t know how to do it yeah well thank you listen man you’re pretty good at it I’m looking at I’m looking I was looking over it this morning and there’s like I don’t even know if this
Was your dog but you got you got a video on your on your page of 27 million views taking dog scuba diving uh which I is pretty cool like I’ve never seen a dog scuba dive before you know but I mean that’s that’s insane uh but you’re
You’re I mean you for for you to say you’re not good at it I mean I think that that might be what makes you good at it is like you don’t think that you’re good at it but you have content that resonates with a lot of people not
Trying to dress it up and do it in some kind of inauthentic way you’re you’re just putting out there what’s there and that’s what I’m interested in about your YouTube channel is like yeah like when you look at um the one that we shared uh
In in in um advance of the podcast was you getting struck by lightning right and that got you know on on our thing it got I don’t know I think the last time I checked it was like at 880,000 views and we just put it up this morning I think
And so people are interested in what you’re doing but what was interesting about this clip is that you got struck by lightning and you you you made it but it’s also like get this whole behind the scenes kind of thing like there’s your cameraman and and it’s like you’re doing
This you’re obviously doing this pitch and and then this happens and and and you’re not in this you’re not really in this remote swamp you’re I mean there’s a road right there and all that but you know and so you’re seeing all this behind the scene stuff and that’s what I
Was going to ask about your YouTube like are you going to bring in more of that kind of stuff because people love that man they they love to see like what goes into doing what they like to watch you do maybe even more so than the than the
Original definitely I think so too and that’s the thing right uh Tom and I think it’s why people have lost interest in television for the most part which is because what you get on TV is this nice shiny polished picture that you decide to paint whereas on YouTube I mean that
Video that clip I was doing a Garmin commercial right for the for the watch and for the thing and I was like I’m out here here in this remote swamp and then bam the water gets hit behind me and I’ve got lightting shooting at my butt but um you know what’s cool about
YouTube is we don’t have to deliver an inauthentic shiny polished scored beautiful thing we’re still going to have good production quality because that’s that’s what we do but it’s going to be real and raw and if there’s down moments there’s going to be down moments and if nothing’s happening there’s going
To be nothing happening we’re not going to do like on all of the the shark shows I do you you’ll respect this cuz you do the same thing on our fishing shows you know we’ll fish for five nights and then finally catch the rare shark that we’re
After to put a tag in it and then it gets to TV world and it’s like oh line goes out tick tick tick oh he’s got a bite you know and and 15 seconds later you’re reeling in this thing that you’ve just spent five days targeting and I
Think you know am I going to put five days of fishing content with nothing happening on YouTube no but you know I think to show the reality of the situation which is here are the guys sleeping on the beach waiting for a bike all the cameras are up it’s pouring rain
Nothing’s happening I changed bait 700 times and still not got a bite you know like just showing like the reality of it I think is um and not being confined by a 44 minute spot with ad breaks and act outs and all of that stuff I think it’s
Going to be a lot of fun so I’m really excited about that it’s weird I I think I’m the first TV star in history to want to be a YouTube star versus the other way around right I I don’t I don’t know that you are like really I mean we have
You know it’s a similar thing and and we have developed this whole format for the TV show and and it’s it’s almost like it’s almost like you almost need different people like to to film and edit the the the YouTube stuff and the Social Media stuff but I’m fascinated by
It and I’m fascinated by the fact that you know you can you can have on I mean we’re on the Discovery Channel too yeah on Saturday mornings not not in the time slot that you’re on but um you can have like that audience that likes that type
Of content but then you can have the social media audience that that likes a different type of content right and the numbers are are quite different you know like like you got 27 million people to watch that or or 27 million views on the the scuba diving with the dog right
Right but you’re not going to get 27 million views on a fulllength TV show no never and so for you like you’ve got a message here you’re trying to further a message of conservation or or whatever it is that you’re that you’re you’re trying to get in front of as many people
People as possible so it’s I in my opinion it’s not either or like TV TV is still good even though it’s even though it’s declining but streaming is going up right so like right you know that’s good but then the social media and the YouTube and and all of the different uh
Things are are still very very important um my my goal is just to inspire as many people as possible to care about wildlife and conservation right and that that means writing books being on TV going on Tik Tok which I despise but doing it you know having YouTube videos
All these things and so you know if I agree with you it’s not either or it’s doing both but I used to think like okay I’m on this pedestal of Television this is the you know I don’t need any of these other things I only got Instagram
Like three years after I started doing TV because I just didn’t want social media you know and now I I like kick myself because Instagram was so much better in the beginning right it grew so much faster and people were so much more interested in it and I wish I’d earlier
Cuz if I had five times the amount of followers on Instagram that’s five times the audience that I could reach not necessarily with scuba diving dogs but with the me the overall message of you know hey let’s all let’s all care a little bit about these animals and these
Things and and I think what’s funny with my social media I just put up what I like like whatever I think’s interesting when I remember what I feel like like it doesn’t it all has a Common Thread which is animals because I like animals but not there’s no like big message or big
Picture it’s just whatever I feel like on that day or what I’m thinking of or what I’m like hey remember that time I did that I’m I’m going to post that um and yeah seems to most of the stuff that’s coming off of your uh going onto
Instagram or something like that is that coming off like your own phone or like do you have like that that’s kind of the way I do it too is like I’m out there you know during the TV show I’m like oh that’s cool take a little video and then
That’s kind of what ends up on the social media but just exactly lately we’ve been going through the hard drives and stuff like that going man we’ve got like hours and hours and hours of pretty good stuff and only 22 minutes and 30 seconds of it makes it into the show you
Know so I mean we we can figure out how to put some other stuff on there um so I got to ask you this about um as you’re as you’re getting all these pitches and you’re thinking about which way to go and you do this you do this show that’s
Called extinct or alive you’ve got to have some of these producers saying you know what about urban legends and urban myths and I know you get asked this all the time and I want to ask it in the most respectful way because you’re like a Ser but you’re like a serious
Scientist right you’re not like just out there trying to get views or whatever but like when it comes to like and and and I found this really interesting when you’re talking to about the thilosene yeah you know and and that that could possibly like the way that you described it that there could
Possibly have gotten some that were released and then maybe that could kind of intersect with where people thought that they saw a chupacabra or whatever and it’s like okay well does that make sense like that there is like this strange creature that people are apparently seeing or whatever and does
It have like a real root to a real animal that we know came through this area at some time and could have possibly been released or like where where do you draw the line on like those kind of things like certainly like like um you know a yeti in the the Himalayas
Right like like a very remote area where there’s been a tremendous number of sightings urban legends call it whatever you want to uh even somebody like Ryan hold Messner has like a a really famous climber really says dude I I was yeah it was there Yeti was there and how do you
Not believe that guy like he’s not out there saying crazy things all the time he came back from a Expedition and was like I don’t know if I’m going back to that place like that was I don’t know what that was but it was pretty scary
Like where do you where do you draw the line on something like that of you know you’re trying you you you’re you’re a legit real scientist but do where does something like that have Merit I guess is where I’m what I’m asking I I think all of it has Merit right because every
Lore every Legend every rumor is founded in some form of Truth and I’ll give you a perfect example if you don’t mind have you ever heard of a creature called the Ozark howler no okay so uh this crypted called the Ozark howler if you if you
Google it you’ll get all kinds of images of this werewolf esque type creature and the Ozark howler is an animal that allegedly howls and terrorizes people in the high Ozarks right now you ask yourself what what is this creature what is this Ozark howler how could there be
You know so take a look at like maybe that second picture there right um doesn’t really matter take a look at anyone you like but the theory around the Ozark howler is that this creature this demonic creature would Howl in the night and terrorize people well now if you break down there’s me
Talking about one but if you break down the Ozark howler and you figure out well when did the Ozark howler come into existence where did this start that’s me with a fox I’m not really sure why that’s there but it doesn’t really matter but like when did the Ozark
Howler coming to come into existence why was this uh pertinent like what was happened well you realize that the legend of the Ozark howler popped up at the same time as prohibition well what was happening in uh in the Ozarks during prohibition moonshining was happening right so Moonshiners were out there and
They were howling and perpetuating this myth of this howler but what was it founded in why was there this howling why why was something happening is there anything that’s in reality tied to this Well turns out at that exact same time frame the North American Red Wolf the
Most critically endangered wolf in the entire world only 200 animals left in the world of which only 12 or so are in the wild started to go extinct locally extinct well what happened to a pack of wolves when they’re trying to find other wolves or or when they’re going extinct
They howl they call for each other they look for each other so here you have a bunch of Backwoods Moonshiners hanging out in the woods hearing these remote howls on on at night time you know and they’re going oh what’s that it must be this demonic howling creature then
They’re further perpetuating this myth to keep liil L and and law enforcement out of their distilleries out of their moonshining locations and before you know it you have an entire Cryptid created the o Zar howler which is all founded in reality and Truth which is this beautiful red wolf that is getting
Driven towards Extinction so you have to take every single you have to take every single one of these myths with some grain of truth and reality because it’s founded in something and it’s likely founded in some real animal it’s just about getting through the nonsense to
Figure out what is it and you know that’s why I like that example of the Ozark Hower because it’s this Trifecta of things that created this crypted the reality is the crypted is just this beautiful Sleek Little Wolf that was being driven towards Extinction that was
Trying to find a mate but leave that to people’s imagination and it’s like shot I saw it and it was 12 feet tall and it made the craziest noise and it yeah it was a tree it was a tree on the hill you know and and then they turned around and
Ran and then they’re like it was right there uh no and It Go people go crazy with it but and we see what we see what we want to see Tom and I I’ll give you another good example if you don’t mind and I guarantee you you’re listeners are
Going to get offended by this and then you’re going to have people riding in telling me I’m wrong but but it’s it’s the scientific truth I’ll tell you this have you ever heard of black panthers in North America oh yeah ever seen one um I have not seen a black panther right but
You’ll find thousands and thousands of people who tell you they have check this out a panther as you know or a mountain lion a cougar a puma there’s never been a black one recorded in history doesn’t exist there is no such now there are black leopards there are black jaguars
Those are other animal but everybody that’s ever seen a black panther in North America has allegedly seen a melanistic mountain lion Puma cougar that doesn’t exist that animal the Puma does not get melanism its coat does not turn black so the human mind from pop culture like movies like black panther
From Black Panther Mascots from black panther books and reading and comics and everything else we now see a panther in the Everglades wherever it is in the shadows covered in mud in the dark at night whatever and our mind tells us that it’s black yes because because
We’re so influenced by the media around it now we’ve seen a panther oh it’s a black panther it isn’t it’s a beige mountain lion but you have decided it’s a black panther and like I said you’re going to have people writing in going this guy’s full of I swear to God I
Saw a black panther maybe they will swear right like but it was black to them like what you’re saying it was black to them exactly my buddy dandas just uh just got a panther on on camera uh on his cell phone camera and this is one of our like he’s got really good
Cameras and stuff but he just happened to have his cell phone camera and he um captured a uh a panther in the Everglades walking down and it was not kind of what I thought like I thought the Everglades is a place where you’re going to have a panther that is um you
Know huge and big and they have so much to eat and everything and it was the skinniest little I mean it was a probably an adolescent Panther uh is what what it looks like but it was skinny and and very small I mean I think it was smaller than a than a laborator
Retriever but it’s about right yeah it was still you wouldn’t want to mess with a thing so as we’re talking about wolves and stuff what do you think about um the recent Colorado wolf uh reintroduction you know I just saw the news yesterday I think that whole thing is very
Interesting the whole wolf re introduction they first of all I think wolves should be in their historic range I want to be clear on my standpoint on that not everywhere obviously we don’t need wolves in downtown Denver right but wolves should typic be in their historic range because they’re a keystone species
Which mean they manage prey populations which infect which affect riparian habitats and grasslands and everything else so wolves should be in their historic range where they were before if and this is a big if this is important if the ecosystem can manage that meaning there is enough prey sources there is
The right amount also the abundance of wolves needs to be regulated right you can’t just put 500 wolves in and go perfect we fixed it no cuz now you’re going to have a predator prey equation where you’re going to crash the ulet population the elk and deer population
Blah blah blah blah right so it’s just a delicate balance where everything needs to be managed I just read about the Colorado wolf re introduction something I read said that it’s the you know it’s a subspecies or it’s not a grey wolf blah blah blah I need to look more
Closely into that so I don’t want to comment on that because I’m not sure what the correct read part I saw the picture of the first one going out and it was black and it looked big like a wolf I’ve seen in Yellowstone I mean it
Y it looked it looked like a real wolf I don’t know subey or whatever it looked big yeah um but there’s a lot of controversy there but at least they have um something to to go on with the reintroduction of the wolves in Yellowstone you know like how long did
It take for them to reach a certain density and how many how many are in a pack and how many packs are there now and there’s some of the most interesting animals some of those books um that have been written about the wolves in Yellowstone are so cool man these people
Will just watch them and watch them and watch them and and and with the radio and then they’ll take the the radio collor information that’s available and they’ll they’ll know that this one went over to the other y uh U pack and then challenged this and and there are these
Wolves wolf books that are written about the wolves in Yellowstone that um it’s like a soap opera right like of of things that are going on in the way that this one wolf challenges the other ones and and this particular particular wolf like always eats last and makes sure
That you know they make the kill but then they always eat last and people are observing this for years and it’s fascinating fascinating like the communication that the wolves have and and all that so I like wolves as a species I don’t know I know that ranchers don’t particularly like them
And that’s where some of the controver or tremendous amount of this controversy is coming in Colorado but you know in Yellowstone or in Wyoming Montana and Idaho you have this Yellowstone where this is the largest national park that we have okay are they going to get out of there probably that’s what everybody
Said and they did but you know there’s a tremendous amount of of habitat and and uh land for them to be in that is a national park in Colorado don’t know they don’t know what that’s going to look like yep well it it goes back to it’s similar first of all
We fear what we don’t know that’s a human instinct right these ranchers these Hunters the everybody everybody that hates the wolves and on both sides of the coin by the way but everybody that’s really anti-wolf fre introduction doesn’t know them they’re scared of them because they don’t know them they think
They do they’ve read about them they they know they’re going to kill their elk they know they’re going to kill their their sheep on their Farm their cattle whatever you don’t actually know them so you’re scared of them because of their Legend and their rumor you don’t
Know them and the truth is we live in a time and place in this on this planet where every bit of Wildlife has to be managed now especially in North America not globally but in North America so we have to manage how many wolves are going in what areas they’re going into how
That’s going to affect things we might have overp populations of wolves in which case we’ll have to shoot some and bring them down we might have uh underp populations in which case we’re going to need to add more we need to do our very best as dosant of this planet to balance
These ecosystems just because you love shooting mule deer or whatever white tail deer and you can go out in you know some of these Midwestern states and see hundreds or thousands of deer that’s awesome but that doesn’t mean that it’s a good balance for the ecosystem right
That’s creating its own set of problems I get that Hunters love it I get that Hunters are there to to bring those deer numbers down and all that but there’s still problems in that ecosystem right and bringing in a keystone species which means an animal that can actually have a
Cascading effect through the food chain that’s what’s going to regulate those problems and it’s the same thing with the thyine right the phocine uh you mentioned that very briefly for those that don’t know it’s a Tasmanian tiger also known as a Tasmanian wolf it’s a marsupial carnivore imagine a cross
Between a kangaroo and a wolf and a tiger it’s a weird weird super cool animal we drove it to Extinction in Tasmania because of our fear of it destroying sheep farming reality was it likely had very very limited impact on any sheep farming whatsoever but since the Tasmanian Tiger this beautiful
Animal you’re seeing here was driven to Extinction there’s now no apex predator in Tasmania so if you go drive down the road in Tasmania Tom you’ve never seen anything like it there is roadkill every 15t it is just littered with dead Wallabees dead wombats dead animals because those middle species have
Exploded without a predator there to uh to regulate them now why is that a problem it’s a problem for a bunch of reasons one it drives all of the vegetation down right it destroys crops it destroys native grasses and bushes and shrubs but two there’s major disease
Is breaking out and you know if you look up a picture of facial tumor disease in Tasmanian devils or mange in um in wombats it’s crazy and it’s a rampant in these places because if you had phocine in the ecosystem every mangy uh wombat would be killed and eaten immediately
And the mange wouldn’t spread but because you don’t have an apex predator to take out the weak the disease just spreads and spreads and spreads and becomes rampant and it affects the health of everything every animal in the ecosystem every plant every leaf every human living there is now exposed to
These diseases because you don’t have a keystone species that’s able to regulate that ecosystem so it’s so important to have these bioregulators to have these creatures that are in that are doing their job in an ecosystem and that’s all when it comes to Wolf when it comes to
Predators when it comes to thyine any of it you just have to realize it’s just a balance right it’s not about hating wolves and loving deer it’s not about any of that I guarantee you the same people wouldn’t care if you’re talking about adding more elk to the population
Right but it’s it’s it’s just realizing that it’s a balance and that’s all it’s about you can still hunt you can still fish you can go and enjoy the wildlife we just have to keep things balanced so that it doesn’t get so out of whack that the whole system crashes you know the
People that seem to know the most about the balance are the people that are out there the most which are the hunters and fishermen even more even more so than a lot of the biologists that question you have to do your paperwork and stuff like that the hunters are they’re just out
There all the time so with the with the uh discussion of balance what about the balance of sharks in Florida do you have an opinion on that I do yeah I do and and it’s I wouldn’t say it’s an unpopular opinion but it might not it
Might go against the grain a little bit look shark populations are down globally by like 80% right and you can fact check that it’s something around there but it’s the global decline is massive what you have in Florida yes the sharks have come back a little bit not overall you
Know not like wow they’re they’re at 300% capacity but what you have in Florida is sharks that have been conditioned to go to fishing and Diving areas that are looking for something to eat and the reason being there’s there’s shark diving operations that feed them sharks know the sound of a boat they
Know the sound of a fish on a line they know the sound of a of a spear gun firing and so all these fishing hotspots and all these zones where fishermen love to go and fish are full of sharks right which makes sense it doesn’t mean that shark populations are great and we
Should call Sharks and you know there’s good more sharks than ever and we need to manage it what it means is we have conditioned these sharks to be around people to look for food because we’ve for so long now been feeding them even if it’s invertedly and so what’s kind of
Sad is and I’ve seen it myself by the way I’ll jump in on the Jupiter ledge to go shoot a Cobia and there’s 300 bull sharks around I’m like holy this is scary I wish there were less sharks here right like I’ve I’ve been there myself but the reason they’re there is because
Me and every other Yahoo with a spear gun has jumped in there to try and shoot a Cobia and they know that that means that The Dinner Bell is being rung so you know what we really need to do is figure out how to either spread out the
Fishing pressure or mitigate the issue where sharks are taking by catch you know from fishermen taking catch from fishermen as opposed to like there’s too many sharks we need to kill the Sharks that’s not the right management the right management is figuring out how to live more in Harmony and in balance with
All of these creatures as opposed to we need to call them we need to kill them you know it’s the wrong number because the statistics back that up which as I said we see just this GL Global decline of this massive number so it’s just more about balancing everything and I’m on
The fisherman side by the way I I hate having my fish stolen I hate getting in the water being chased out by sharks it sucks but the the the resolution is figuring out how to mitigate that not killing sharks yeah well I don’t um disagree that sharks are very uh
Intelligent and that they can uh discern the the the sound of a spear gun or the sound of a a fish on the line line and come to that but I can take you to some places where there’s just sharks everywhere and we’re not even fishing
Like I mean there’s so many and like you go to Flamingo or something and you get up on the flat and where we used to see you know eight or 10 you see 400 yeah that’s crazy I mean it’s it’s a number and maybe I’m exaggerating or maybe I’m
I’m I’m undere exaggerating but it’s like it’s so many more that nobody that I know has ever seen that many this and Tom I’ll be the first to admit I’m sitting here in my office in California basing what I’m saying on papers that I’ve read and statistics and you’re the
Observational fisherman you’re the person who’s been there on the flats and honestly I think both points are valid but you’re the one who’s actually out there seeing it I’ll be the first person to sit down and say I’m sorry you’re probably right let’s go take a look at
It so maybe on those specific Flats maybe in those specific areas you are right maybe those sharks have become overpopulated in small in small locations but it goes back to the war versus the battle sharks are down globally there’s no ifans or buts about it so how do you manage that you don’t
Want to kill sharks from one place that has too many just because you know when you know there are other places that don’t have enough because you know those sharks will spread out right so how do you balance that I don’t have the answer
I don’t know the answer to that but I I completely believe you when you say there are flats that didn’t used to have sharks that have tons of a beach out this window that you can’t see that for the first 15 years I lived in Santa Barbara California nobody had ever seen
A great white shark I can go there right now with a drone and find five and it’s been like that for the last six seven years and I don’t know where they’ve come from I don’t know why I know they’re there to eat stingrays it’s a nursery they’re juveniles where the hell
Have these white sharks come from look at white shark statistics their numbers are down globally no question they’re I could show you six of them where there didn’t used to be any you know I don’t know why well I mean that that’s interesting about being able to just go
There and see them anytime but then you have other things like uh the the O search people and all the other people that are tagging sharks we’ve had we’ve had a guy uh in um South Carolina uh he tags great whites and has a permit to do
It and all that and he he catches them regularly and uh and and then you can follow the track of where they are yeah and these are places where if you know I don’t know 15 20 years ago 30 years ago if you had said no this is a place where
Great whites are even the Florida Keys like people are like n man you never seen a great white here I’ve seen a great white there’s but but you know there’s a lot of things right that’s exactly right and that was the that’s the transition is like is um you know you have everybody’s
Got a phone in their pocket everybody’s got a GoPro uh sport fishing has a you know sport fishermen have cameras going off the back you can see all of this stuff that that we weren’t able to see before and all of a sudden uh you know you’re you’re catching something
Something big comes up and bites it you just saw saw something big and dark you’re like I don’t know it’s big I don’t know what CAU it but now it’s like well I’ve looked at the O search research and and and great whites come right through here and then you can go
Back and look at the camera and you’re saying that was a great white and so then people are like yeah we have great whites here but what I think is going on with the with the sharks in Florida and this is total Bro Science sure but I
Think that there could be very likely just like you see in other species there could be a global decline but in certain areas there could be an explosion and how awesome is that Tom that means we’ve managed that ecosystem well enough that the apex predators are able to survive I
Wish I wish the whole world could learn from that right cuz that’s awesome man like that’s the greatest thing ever I’m not saying you’re wrong maybe we do have too many sharks in Florida that’s because we’ve done such a good job managing the resources overall that those sharks are able to thrive and
That is incredible I wish we could do that more globally but I think that a lot of people aren’t um or they don’t want to probably is the right thing they don’t want to believe that in certain areas there could be an explosion and there could be uh the the
Specie could be thriving because like what you’re talking about about all this infighting and everything else there a lot of the people that are that are uh shark uh Advocates sure they’re kind of making a living being a shark Advocate and the fact that the global numbers are
Down benefits their social media it benefits their views it benefits their Foundation or whatever they’ve got and so to admit that well in this area there’s an explosion means that you know I don’t know maybe maybe a lot of what they’ve been preaching isn’t necessarily correct but I think that it’s like you
Need to be able to or it’s great when you’re mature enough or or or thoughtful enough to think well you know it happens with turkeys and deer and other things that you could have you know there are areas where we have none and then there are areas where there’s way way too many
If it can happen there why can’t it happen in the ocean but I mean if you talk to any fisherman that’s out there or guide or whatever Captain it’s like dude call it whatever you want but there are a lot of sharks here and again it comes down to that middle ground and
You’re right by the way Tom like that is the problem human greed just clouds our judgment right if I’m writing a paper on shark explosions and I go hey there’s two there’s way there’s enough sharks let’s not worry about it I am now not to do another project onks right and that’s
That’s the broken model that we were talking about at the top of the show but um you know I I completely agree with you and I think that’s where there needs to be a middle ground where everybody and it’s I don’t I don’t have the
Solution by the way I’m a guy who makes TV shows on animals but me too uh yeah but I think that I wish there was a little bit more neutrality in on both sides where it’s like okay there are a ton of sharks here but there aren’t any
Sharks here like how do we fix this how do we make this Balan so that there’s the right number in Florida but there’s also the right number in Cuba or whatever right I’m making that location up but so you know I don’t know the answer to that I think that just
Constant study and research and being a little bit more neutral is going to give us those answers and also taking information from observational scientists like yourself is incredibly important um well I think that it’s also important that that uh when you’re in a position like you or me or any of these
Scientists you’re not necessarily trying to be right like I don’t want to necessarily be right I just want to present the observations right and and just just be able to understand that there could be too many here and not enough here and maybe there’s something
That we can do about it or maybe there’s not maybe that’s just just being able to accept that observation that yeah they’re doing fine over there they’re not doing fine over here that’s exactly right so the work needs to go over here right so uh I know we’re running out of
Time but I want to get to um your spir fishing just quickly your six time six time world uh six World Records I guess is that what that means so what are what are your world records on spear oh man I got to think about it so uh so they’re
All on pul spear so I love the Primitive stuff right I I love Prim primitive uh fishing hunting survival all of that so it’s all on pul spear all done with gaku pul Spears and um let’s see I have or had I don’t know which are still
Standing I’d have to check I USA standings but white seab bass which is like the gold gold standard for spear Fisher in Southern California in Southern California that’s where you got yeah yeah we call them the grey ghost they’re beautiful beautiful fish amazing animals um so white sea bass the Yellow
Tail which are our two big game Fish I I had or have both of those uh the spectacled flounder which I shot in Panama which was totally bizarre but we just found this bed full of giant flounder um the hump head which is a fish from the sea of Cortez and Baja the
Malibar grouper um shoot what’s the sixth one oh cabria spoted or leopard grouper from the sea of Cortez as well so those are the six world records that at one point in time I had and you know how this works Tom you’ve been doing a long time
So you know go down you’re hunt like I’ve got a pulse beer I’m hunting for whatever the best biggest fish I can find to eat is and you know I’m always chasing this dream of getting the biggest one ever taken with a pulse beer and uh by some miracle I managed to do
It six times yeah that’s so cool do you have do you have some species that are like on your on your life list that you would love to have a chance to go after or get something really big if that what would it be for you yeah good question I
Mean I I’d love to get a big dog tooth tuna I’ve never gotten a dog G to say that you know uh cam konell oh yeah I know I mean he he has got some incredible records he’s another level of spear he’s really he’s really good I
I’ve had him on the show before he’s he’s fantastic but he does so much with his pole spear too yes so much but that dog tooth tuna I mean I I’ll be happy to try to spear one I’m not that level of a spear fisherman to do that but I
Certainly can catch one from on top of the water and I would that’s that’s that’s one that is on my list for sure the dog to tuna it’s so cool it should be on every Fisherman’s Speer Fisherman’s list because it’s just it’s this weird Fusion between a mackerel and
A tuna with this like shark like mouth and this unbelievable power and this crazy feeding response and they like to stay deep I mean they just like check all the cool boxes basically yeah they’re such wicked fish I’ve got a few small ones in popw New Guinea when we
Were there uh two years a last year two years ago yeah and uh but and I saw a 200 pounder that I uh it just destroyed all my gear you know the uh New Guinea trip is one that I’ve wanted to go on I I went to Australia and we fished in the
In the Carpenteria region so it’s yeah it’s like the Florida Keys it kind of comes up to the north of like that and then then New Guinea is just cross the ocean right there but um they have that New Guinea bass over there which is basically this giant Snapper and black
Bass right God they call those things are like you take our our closest thing would be like a kubara um but the New Guinea bass is like I remember Lefty cray uh went to one of his presentations and he was just like man you just got to
Take your take your reel you got a star drag on your reel and then crank it down and then get a pair of pliers and then crank it as far as you possibly can with a pair of pliers and then good luck trying to land the thing and I was like
They couldn’t be that tough you know but then you know if you catch a big kubara or something like that it’s like they if okay a fish twice this size five times this size yes it could be that tough it could be that tough and they could be
Just all muscle that but that New Guinea what did you think about New Guinea quickly man Tom it’s a crazy place when in the few weeks we were there we saw two two groups group of Machete fights break out where people were hacked uh we
Got yeah we we went deep into the jungle to find this tribe to talk to them about shark lore and they told us outright that they were still active cannibals even though everything you read online says there’s no such thing as active cannibalism anymore I’ve heard that man
I’ve heard that like when you’re when I’m planning this trip I’m like I’d love to go see New Guinea bass and you know some of my friends that are pretty well traveled they’re like be careful you know where they live right like they’re back there you might not come back
Ser at least from the group that we encountered like they weren’t like okay we’re going to eat you it was just like having conversation and talking and they’re like yeah it’s it’s a it’s a thing we still practice you know we we go to war with the other tribes and it’s
Part of part of our culture it’s like respect you know please don’t eat me um so yeah I mean it’s it’s amazing but I love Pap when nugini I I love all these places that are just sort of wild and free and Lawless and you know it it’s
Got that romantic element to it just being being able to do anything you can think of and Papu new guini is one of those places Baja Mexico is like that where it’s just north of sort of the east cape it’s all just Lawless and wild
And you can kind of do anything you can think of and uh papa is like that too and it’s I loved it I absolutely loved it I wouldn’t take my wife and kids there but to go back for an expedition or an adventure to look for the
Thilosene which is on my list in Western Papa I mean Count Me In I I’d go anytime catch catch a big bass yes please yeah that sounds awesome man so uh what about this year where can people find you this year as we’re bringing this to a close
What how can people support what you’re doing or or follow you or or get on the YouTube channel what how do we uh follow learn more about you yeah I got a couple big headliner shows coming up on Discovery towards uh early summer that I’ll be excited to talk about when I’m
Allowed to um and uh you know other than that the YouTube is great I’m having a lot of fun with that that’s where I’ve been putting most of my media generation into for the last few months and intend to continue that and I have all the regular social channels you know
Instagram’s by far the one I’m the most active on but I’ve got the tick talk and whatever Twitter is now and all of that so yeah I’m I’m there I’m doing it you know we’re we’re staying wired in as much as we can that’s awesome man well
I’ve really enjoyed this and uh open invitation for you to come back I feel like we barely scratched the surface I had so many uh things I want to talk to you about and we’ve probably got some friends in common but um for sure you’re uh you’re you’re you’re doing it man
You’re out there you’re you’re just living an incredible life and you’re you’re um you’re you’re staying true to your mission of of wildlife conservation so it’s super cool and you got a different approach to it which I think is is is good and fresh and needed of
Stopping the infighting like if if there was anything that we talked about that I could get behind the most is it’s that because the people that love animals whether you’re a hunter or a fisherman or a bird watcher or somebody that would never kill something
We all are after the same thing we want habitat we want the species to thrive and I would love it if you could be the wizard that came up with a way that that we don’t infight anymore and we all work towards the same goal of preserving wildlife and habitat and that’s what
We’re all after man absolutely you know so good luck it’s it’s a tough challenge it’s a tough chall so much dude I I agree and I appreciate it I appreciate you having me on sorry I don’t mean to talk over you I just thank you so much for saying that that’s really exciting
Yeah well it’s I’m I’m all about it and and you know it’s something that we all strive towards is like trying to figure out how we accomplish the goals that we’re trying to accomplish and and and a lot of times that doesn’t that means not alienating other people like we have
This one little thing just really quick we have this this uh uh water issue in Florida Florida right like the the that you probably very aware of it some people aren’t but the lake okobi and it it creates all kinds of problems and you’re getting um no water coming into
The Everglades and lots of fresh water going out where it shouldn’t go and lots of fertilizer and we have this group called captiv for clean water and they have done the best job in my opinion because they were like well it’s not just a fishing problem like this is a
Real estate problem and people that own restaurants and people that you know the Airlines and people want to come down to Florida like if the beaches are full of dead fish and they stink nobody’s coming exact right so it’s not a problem that we that fisherman alienate everyone else
It’s like no let’s let’s all get together and realize that there is a solution to this and we can do something about it and that’s super cool to me so I see what you’re trying to do on a much larger scale than that and also greater challenge but you know you’re the man
You can do it thanks Tom I appreciate it I appreciate you having me on and I already look forward to the next one yeah we’ll do it man thanks Forest I appreciate it everybody go follow him he’s got an incredible Instagram and his YouTube channel is going to be cranking
For sure with back behind the scenes stuff you can see him get bit and stung on your YouTube channel I’m sure all of it all right thanks Forest I appreciate it we’ll see you take care
