Do Sharks Sleep With Their Eyes Open or Closed?

Griffin asks: Do Sharks Sleep With Their Eyes Open or Closed? What a great question! Mike and Chanel get down to the bottom of Griffin's question with the help of shark expert, Alex McInturf from Oregon State University's Big Fish Lab. Not only do they answer Griffin's question, but they also talk about other shark facts that will blow your minds!

Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Dr. Alexandra McInturf received her PhD in Animal Behavior from the University of California, Davis in 2021 and is currently a Research Associate at Oregon State University’s Big Fish Lab and Graduate Faculty in OSU’s Departments of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences and Environmental Sciences.

Her research generally focuses on how marine organisms respond to biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) environmental variables and uses this information to contextualize and predict behavior, movement patterns, and survival. Alex explores this topic in threatened marine fishes. She is currently examining the foraging ecology of salmon sharks in Oregon and Alaska (including microplastic ingestion), the distributions of Chinook salmon and their overlap with salmon sharks, the movements of Pacific spiny dogfish, the social lives of sharks generally, and many more species and topics! SO COOL!

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Credits

• Hosted by: Mike Bennett & Chanel Hason
• Guest: Alex McInturf
• Produced & Edited by: Jon Richardson
• Music by: Gretchen Lohse & Thomas Hughes of Carol Cleveland Sings
• Intro Animation by: Silas Bell & Kyle Bell of Castle Animation
• Artwork by: Fuzzzbrain

Special thanks to

Griffin & Griffin's family, Alex McInturf, Michele Kraus Bennett, Cayley Pater, The Elakha Alliance, Teddy Albertson, Sharks in general