Steve Palumbi
spalumbi.bsky.social
Steve Palumbi
@spalumbi.bsky.social
Extreme Life of the Sea
Death and Life of Monterey Bay
Microdocs.org
#oceanwildlife
See the volume 1 season 1 of our book about sharks and people Born Predators on stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...

With season 2 to follow!
September 16, 2025 at 4:23 PM
It’s #sharkweek and an estimated 2 million sharks will drown this week. Shark researcher Kinney Austin saves one shark in our book Born Predators. See how she does it on substack Born Predators.
July 23, 2025 at 8:00 PM
It’s Toothsday of shark week, and our new chapter of Born Predators has Kinney finally in the water with sharks. Is she terrified? No, she’s trying to save a shark from drowning. How do sharks drown and how does Kinney save it? Read it on Substack.

July 22, 2025 at 11:32 PM
In our substack book #BornPredators Kinney Austin has an evidence problem -- was Hennessey the #shark really where her satellite tag said she was?
July 15, 2025 at 12:08 PM
In Chapter 7 of our Substack serial novel Born Predators, researcher Kinney Austin shows Hennessey the shark was not really in Hampton Bay the night of the shark attack. Her friend Will asks the obvious question…if someone altered Hennessey's online track....why?
July 13, 2025 at 2:52 AM
On Toothsday July 8 we posted another Born Predators chapter on our Substack site
July 11, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Substack book series Born Predators Chapter 6: Are the beaches safe? That ‘s one of the questions anyone asks after a shark encounter. Our shark researcher Kinney walks into a maelstrom – a press conference about whether white shark Hennessey is a danger

stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...
July 2, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Why is it the hottest day of the year across Europe? A #heatwave is not a surprise. Climate Change is Real! see our version of Cruel Summer Climate Change....also at youtu.be/acSOHZvgSM8
July 1, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Shark teeth tell us a lot In our substack book Born Predators, Kinney looks closely at wounds “A Bull shark has cutting teeth in the upper jaw for slicing and stiletto points in the lower for grasping. I don’t see that.”
“So, not a Bull shark,” the coroner offered
“No,” Kinney said. "Something else"
June 29, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Best wishes going out to folks hit by the first cruel summer heat wave of 2025. The fundamental message is that climate change is real.Hunker down and stay safe.
June 26, 2025 at 3:13 PM
#jaws50th 50 years after Jaws we know a lot more about sharks. Big white sharks are usually female. They get pregnant and give birth to young in the summer looking for a warm shallow cove Was that the Jaws shark? In our book Born Predators Hennessey the shark is doing just that but gets into trouble
June 20, 2025 at 10:03 PM
#Jaws50 Today we know a lot more about sharks. Can they be wildlife not monsters? In our new novel Born Predators the shark biologist sets out to prove the shark Hennessey didn’t attack anyone – but it turns out that people are more complex than sharks.
stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...
June 20, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Suppose you were the shark? TODAY! The 50th anniversary of JAWS, which defined the movie thriller by having a monster in the water. If you were the shark and had to live with that label for 50 years, how would you tell the story differently?
stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...
June 20, 2025 at 2:42 PM
June 19: Sharks and Juneteenth. The horrors and inhumanity of slavery included fear of sharks. “…the shark functioned as an integral part of a system of terror utilized by the slave ship captain.” From: Rediker, Marucs. (2008). Atlantic Studies, 5(2), 285–297.
June 19, 2025 at 3:39 PM
2 DAYS TO THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF JAWS. Shark teeth do not lie. Prof.James Estes told me a story of sea otters-where the cause of death was impossible to tell. Until they found grooves on the otter bones that matched serrations only in white shark teeth
stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...
June 19, 2025 at 2:30 AM
3 DAYS TO THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF JAWS How do sharks use their teeth. How are they different between species? The shark researcher in Born Predators, Kinney Austin, shows us the differences, & what teeth tell us. And she does it from the coroner’s office.
stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...
June 17, 2025 at 10:04 PM
COUNTDOWN TO 50TH ANNIVERSAY OF JAWS THE MOVIE - 5 DAY: stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...

THINGS WE KNOW NOW - HOW SHARKS GROWTH THEIR TEETH SHARP
June 15, 2025 at 6:30 PM
The invention of sharp, replaceable teeth gave sharks their biological brand in the new world of predators that evolved in the dawn sea. Innovations are key to the success of new groups—in this case the first invention of teeth for a global ocean predator. stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...
June 14, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Why did they call the movie #Jaws when it was really the teeth that mattered? Let's spend a few moment learning about shark teeth in the next few posts....how do sharks make them so sharp? How are they so strong? How do they make so many all their lives?
June 12, 2025 at 9:40 PM
8 DAYS TO THE JAWS 50TH ANNIVERSARY What did the marine biologist in JAWS really know about the sensory, migration or social systems of white sharks? In Born Predators, Kinney Austin knows a lot about these and they cause her to doubt the shark attack
stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...
June 12, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Our white shark character Hennessey in Born Predators swims in sensation: sight, sound, smell and even the electric pulses from the nerves of her prey. But when she can not tell what a possible prey item is and those senses don’t tell her. She has one option left. She has to taste it.
June 11, 2025 at 11:28 PM
9 DAYS TO THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF JAWS: In our book Born Predators, social media knows that Jamie Brinson was killed by a shark. But his friend Puja saw a different killer. In the face of social media pressure Puja doubts what she saw and doubts herself
stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...
June 11, 2025 at 2:52 PM
June 10: In ten days it will be the 50th anniversary of the release of the Movie Jaws. And our book Born Predators celebrates all that we now know about sharks that we didn’t before. And it celebrates a different shark biologist – and a different shark.
stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...
June 11, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Today in Born Predators: Why would you need a shark biologist to investigate a slam dunk shark attack? Well, she knows a lot about the way sharks behave and can say what’s normal. And what might be unusual. And what might be impossible
stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...
June 10, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Shout out to Lewis Pugh for his amazing swim around JAWS filming location Martha's Vineyard. And to understand the sharks he was worried about a bit more, see the new installment of our book Born Predators every Toothsday: stephenpalumbi.substack.com/p/born-preda...
June 5, 2025 at 6:40 PM