Shark Dive | What Sam Sees

[Music] I'm Sam and I'm gearing up for a dive in the Atlantic Ocean to check out one of the biggest and baddest predators sharks they sometimes get a bad rap but what if I told you that the scariest oceans are those with out sharks so let's dive in and find out just how important sharks are [Music] [Music] life under the waves hide some of the most diverse and beautiful species the cute and the cuddly the creepy and the crawly the microscopic and the gigantic they all play a part in keeping a marine ecosystem healthy today I'm so excited because I get to go on my first ocean dive with sharks these ancient creatures are often misunderstood so I'm ready to dive in and learn more I'm in West Palm Beach Florida meeting up with Mike Dorn Ellis also known as reef hunter to check out these big beautiful fish up close [Music] see some sharks we're gonna see some sharks today what are we gonna see possibly bull sharks maybe some sandbars maybe some silkies who knows there are more than 400 shark species that live in the oceans around the world swimming in all kinds of depths and temperatures from the very cold to the more tropical and temperate like here in Florida we're heading out about three to five miles from the shoreline to find some sharks for safety reasons Florida Fish and Wildlife requires that we avoid bringing them near swimming beach areas this is to help the Sharks not associate food with humans [Music] most sharks are timid and even docile so we'll need to use Chum to attract them Chum is like bait a combination of oily fish scraps ground up that will scatter in the water to encourage them to eat [Music] the captain heard that there are some sharks in the area I can't wait let's go [Music] the water is so clear and blue look there's a shark sharks are opportunistic hunters primarily feeding on smaller fish [Music] Borna has different species of sharks that range in size from just a few feet to more than 40 feet this one looks pretty big more than six feet long and watch its tail it helps the shark control its movement providing balance speed and direction here's another shark they don't seem to be afraid of us at all they're just swimming right up to feed sharks don't chew their food they swallow it whole oh no this shark has a fish hook in its mouth one of the many reasons shark populations are on a decline is from commercial fishing the shark is showing it's comfortable with us so Mike's going to gently remove the hook he gave it a tug and out it came that was awesome the shark seems so happy it's swimming fast around us like it's saying thank you nice job Mike this was a peaceful encounter but it's best to avoid sharks unless you're an experienced professional according to my dive computer we've been down here about 55 minutes already time to come up and learn all about what we saw with Mike [Music] mic that was an amazing dive pretty nuts so we saw three sharks right so what type were they those were silky sharks and what are silky sharks so silky sharks are pelagic species they travel the oceans they travel in the warm waters they're very long and sleep they've got that beautiful copper color with the white underbelly yeah just a beautiful shot so how long would you say that they are those sharks I'd say we're around 780 is that Mac size no they can get a little bit bigger those were pretty big selfies that was a fully-grown at all I know sharks can look scary but they swam so peacefully around us I think most the fear comes from media hype you don't see too much media about the beauty of sharks yeah when you do see something on the news sadly it's a shark attack or a shark bite so that type of media obviously brings negative attention towards sharks they're very peaceful there was so cool when we were down there we were just hanging out with them they knew we were there we saw them but we were just swimming together I could tell you were comfortable it was amazing I wanted to get in and get close I know and you can feel how strong they were - yeah you know I try to keep as hands-off as possible when I do touch them it's usually to try to remove hooks or a fishing line that's wrapped around them things like that so sometimes you don't have the choice whether you know you either back up or you place your hand off and kind of redirect them when I touched its skin it felt just like its name silky smooth motions have scales which actually bristle like dog fur pushing water off the shark so it can move more efficiently and I think it's an amazing experience for someone to be able to connect with an animal like that especially a shark when it allows you to it was amazing you just want to keep your space and your distance and hope that you'll get to see sharks right yeah and you know the perfect scenario we come out here and dive and the sharks would come up and hang out with us and that would be amazing you would never need bait but the tough thing is in Florida we have a 3-mile law actually you have to be three miles or more officer to even be able to Chum in the water for sharks thing that I noticed when we were diving was that two of the Sharks had some really big hooks in their mouth that was really sad and this is how big it was Mike was able to get one of the hooks out but the other sharks swam away is this what people hunt sharks with yeah that were bigger actually it's the good sized hook right here and that's the sad thing you know a lot of fishermen land that all the hooks rust down three or four days which is completely false the problem with these big hooks they are for to target sharks so you know when you have small fishing hooks that accidentally get hooked in the Sharks we leave them alone because they do rust out and they don't cause major damage to shut it so what can we do having less fishing line end up in the oceans it's just cleaning up after you you know you fish and if you see it on the shores or anything like that pick it up and throw it away on most beaches there are actually little disposable things that you clip fishing line and old hooks and stuff in the trash Mike so what can we do to help stop the depletion of shark species I think public awareness is one of the most powerful tools okay and today with social media and film and pictures you know you are able to really push out in the public a positive image of sharks instead of seeing them as killers and mean creatures you know to see them as these beautiful majestic animals that deserve to be protected just like many other apex and keystone predators in the world thanks Mike that was such an amazing guy sharks aren't so scary after all they're apex predators but that doesn't mean that they're man-eaters that just means those are at the top of the food chain sharks are so important they create balance in our oceans if shark populations decline it can cause a ripple effect all the way down the food chain from the larger predators to the smaller fish so we have to protect them we can coexist with that we can scuba dive and have an amazing time without being afraid we just need to promote awareness so let's get out there and do it [Music] [Music]

Channel: National Geographic Kids

Views: 1,769,206

Rating: 4.5078864 out of 5

Keywords: what sam sees, scuba diver, scuba diving, national geographic kids, nat geo kids, kids, kid, for kids, national geographic, nat geo, animals, making stuff, educational, Sharks, Ocean, Fish, Shark Dive, 400 shark species, shark species, oceans, oceans around the world, marine ecosystems, healthy, episode, More than 400, live in oceans, how sharks help, keep marine ecosystems healthy, PLQlnTldJs0ZQHiJtBZwH91UMHdXPB3elF, ecosystems, species live, species, PLQlnTldJs0ZR56MScVzlbeucr3brcHb-e

Id: Cr8xuQjCzLk

Length: 8min 45sec (525 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 04 2018