First live broadcast from BiH at the most prestigious shark festival on National Geographic WILD channel

(Patria) - As the culmination of this year's shark festival 'SharkFest', which aired for two weeks on the National Geographic WILD channel, the 'Shark Tales' team reported live from the Veterinary Faculty in Sarajevo on behalf of the Sharklab ADRIA organization, thus becoming the first team from this part of Europe to report live on the globally popular National Geographic WILD channel.

The 'Shark Tales' team is led by National Geographic researchers Andrej Gajić and Adla Kahrić, both from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"For almost 15 minutes, through interaction with over 150,000 viewers from around the world, we presented current studies on sharks being conducted within the Veterinary Faculty in Sarajevo, which is one of our team's many partner institutions," researcher Andrej Gajić told Patria agency, very satisfied with this success.

The broadcast from BiH on the National Geographic WILD channel began with a CT scan of one of the rarest deep-sea sharks in the Adriatic, the angular roughshark – Oxynotus centrina (L.) – on whose research these young scientists are working together with colleagues from the Institute of Marine Biology in Kotor. Gajić points out that they filmed the so-called 'head region' of the shark, with the aim of understanding the functional anatomy of the middle ear in this species of shark, which has not been done before in the world. "We also provided insight into current pathological studies, focusing on the most common diseases and the examination of selected pathohistological and immunohistochemical preparations," explains Gajić, author of the book 'Shark Teeth and Jaws of the Adriatic Sea', illustrated by one of the world's most renowned wildlife illustrators, Marc Dando from England.

"The entire team was extremely excited about the filming, given that this is one of the most famous shark-related festivals in the world, and that this is the first time anyone has reported live on the program from this part of Europe and much further afield – which, thank God, is certainly the greatest recognition for all our work so far," says Gajić.

"One of the most interesting moments was when my phone camera switched to the front, but I skillfully changed the topic and talked about pathological research while looking for the option to switch back to the rear camera," adds this young scientist.

Members of the 'Shark Tales' team are Andrej Gajić, team leader, and Adla Kahrić, Co-Principle Investigator (both National Geographic Society researchers), as well as researchers Kenan Baltić, Ermina Memišević, and Dalila Delić.

"We regret that colleagues Suvad Lelo and Hajrudin Beširović did not have the opportunity to attend this filming, and they are also an indispensable part of our team," points out Gajić.