Great white sharks are still just beyond scientists’ reach. Little is known about how they mate, reproduce, and migrate, but advances in tracking and tagging technology are starting to fill in some blanks. At the forefront of this new wave of discovery is Redondo Beach contractor Keith Poe, who appeared on a Shark Week episode last Tuesday tagging, by hand, an 18-foot female white shark weighing in at 2,500 pounds.
“That [tagging experience] was overwhelming emotionally,” Poe said in an interview this week. “After it was done I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was so amazing. The tail was taller than I am and the shark was much larger than our boat. I was so grateful to be part of the team doing it – that was the largest shark I’ve ever tagged and it was the first in-water spot tag ever.
“Everyone asks me [whether I was scared] and for me that’s perplexing because I don’t have any fear at all. I have a very healthy dose of respect but I have just an admiration for these creatures. I think they’re wonderful. I am enamored with them.”
Shark Week is the Discovery Channel’s annual foray into all things shark-related. It has insinuated itself into popular culture; social media users herald its coming months before the first episode airs. Poe appeared on Spawn of Jaws alongside Hollywood A-lister Paul Walker and a team of researchers led by Dr. Michael Domeier tagging sharks off Guadalupe Island, with the aim of finding out where they mate and deliver their babies. Their goal was to pinpoint the exact spot these creatures visit to give birth in order to prioritize that area’s protection.
Poe said the “revolutionary” tagging method employed allowed them to tag the sharks in the water, rather than having to lift them out of it.
Poe, 51, has consistently ranked amongst the Department of Fish and Game’s top taggers. He joined the department’s volunteer shark tagging program in 1994 to feed his hunger for knowledge about mako sharks. He collected shark data for the government until funding for its tagging program dried up.
That prompted him to launch his own non-profit, Tagger International, which attracted a 100-strong volunteer base and for a time collected data for the Department of Fish and Game and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
Poe has caught and released thousands of sharks. The Sunday before last, he caught and released a 12 ft. mako off Catalina.
A passionate conservationist, Poe speaks at seminars, writes excerpts for books, gives interviews to journalists and radio hosts, and appears on major TV networks to raise awareness about fisheries management and to oppose destructive commercial fishing practices.
“It’s a wonderful resource we have to protect,” he said. “It’s a nursery out here and everyone needs to know that. There are people wiping out the white shark nursery and that’s part of the tagging – getting data to be able to protect these sharks and keep commercial fishermen out of these areas.”
Spawn of Jaws aired last Tuesday, and is available for purchase on amazon.com. It can also be viewed anytime until Sept. 5 on DIRECTV (channel 1278). To track or donate to Domeier’s research, visit marinesci.org.
