Sharks, jaws, Great white. The Big Five 2018 HD Documentary.

the ocean like Africa has its own big five shox shock there are few words that are such attention-grabbing the power the most Fiat is the great white [Music] there's also the biggest fish in the ocean the whale shark Oh shark swim alone or in loose groups but hammerheads can congregate in their hundreds to be surrounded 360 by sharks is for some a must-do experience the tiger of the ocean is one of the few sharks that is known on rare occasions to kill people [Music] but the bull shark claims the title of the most dangerous to humankind [Music] at up to 6 meters long and the biggest predatory fish in the ocean this is the shark many crave to see yet hope never to meet unexpectedly [Music] Close Encounters from a boat provide a powerful natural high it's a definitive adrenaline bus that's only topped by caged IV with these all inspiring fish [Music] freediving the ultimate experience is only for professionals you know the lie of the ocean floor and which sharks are relatively safe to swim with remarkably the scientists have found each one has a different character some are shy and cautious others bold and confident the fact that freediving is possible at all shows that the propaganda surrounding great whites generated originally from the infamous film jaws is largely unfounded [Music] this monster movie terrified audiences it exploited the iconic image of the dorsal fin as a symbol of death at sea initially the impact of the film had tragic consequences to great whites and many other shark species jaws did irreparable damage to the great white sharks reputation every time there's another shark attack panic reactions and hyped press coverage reinforce the old stereotype killing sharks was regarded as ridding the sea of a pestilent Menace but sharks have been in the ocean for 400 million years they deserve our respect and to be better understood to many people's surprise jaws also had a positive knock-on effect it inspired fascination and changed the world by raising ocean awareness in the Bahamas a dead bull shark is brought in for a scientist to discover the cause of death it's a perfect opportunity to teach the next generation just how amazing sharks fifty years ago it was extremely hard to get finds to study sharks now the world is hungry for information about [Music] [Music] marine biologists and educators have urged people to shed the perception of the great white shark as a vengeful man-eating machine in favor of a complex misunderstood ancient sea creature great white sharks are not wanton killers and in fact they don't want to reach humans at all they do occasionally bite people but it's now thought that this is due to curiosity or mistaken identity in South Africa surfers and swimmers are warned not to go into the sea when the water is rough or murky [Music] when they can't see clearly great whites are thought to mistake the outline of a swimmer or surfer for seals their natural prey stealthy skilled predators the Sharks launched their attack from death fighting as they closed in on their target when they grasped a human they more often than not let go the triangular serrated teeth of the great white are efficient cutting tools for biting large chunks from mammalian prey tragically for they're mistaken human victims their first bite can cause fatal damage the reason they let go is because it's thought that people are not nutritious enough for great white to be worth hunting seals and sea lions are the mainstay of an adult's diet these marine mammals have a good layer of blubber to keep them warm in a cold sea fazt produces twice the energy of muscle so it's an ideal food for these sharks surprisingly great whites are not like most fish cold-blooded they can regulate their body temperature raising it up to 14 degrees in cold seas being relatively warm-blooded is one of the factors that have allowed great whites to inhabit temperate waters that are too cold for many other shark species a warm body allows the Sharks muscles to work more efficiently and it is this that enables them to produce bursts of energy needed to catch their prey the great whites living off the coast of California hunt elephant seals as well as sea lions and harbor seals off the coast of South Africa here near Cape Town they target Cape fur seals the common name white shark is a misnomer although the shark does present a striking white belly when hauled out of the water it's more slate-gray than white an adult swimming close to the seabed is well camouflaged and hard for a seal to spot from above unable to see them but knowing sharks may be below adult seals travel fast they present the great whites with a speeding objective that is hard to target pups still learning to perfect their swimming skills are easier to catch [Music] [Music] ceil milk is rich the pups grow fast and at weaning 50% of their weight can be found the seals give birth on offshore islands researchers have found that the Sharks congregate near the islands when the weaned pups intervention to the open ocean to hunt for fish great whites are thought to grow about 25 to 30 centimeters a year so need rich food to enable them to achieve this the young seals are not yet fast or proficient swimmers they can't hold their breath underwater for long and they're high fat content makes them buoyant they have no experience of sharks and haven't learned how to evade an attack [Music] [Applause] [Music] a good seal meal may provide enough energy to sustain a shot for a week or more the Sharks themselves bear the unmistakable tooth marks of their own kind the subordinates get put in their place with bites from dominant individuals [Music] great whites are Mavericks among sharks they have colonized cold temperate waters where seals are abundant by gorging on seal fat the shark derives thermal energy from the same insulating tissue that keeps his prey warm [Music] and they can travel great distances research has shown that sharks from California can swim to Hawaii and back [Music] another tagged in South Africa showed up in Western Australia there's new information about their movements and habits of the coast of South Africa young great whites swim along the coast hunting bottom-dwelling fish once they grow a little bigger they bigger fish like mackerel tuna and bonito only when they reach about three meters long do they start feeding on seals and sea lions tagging research has shown that great whites come inshore much more frequently and much closer to people than anyone had previously suspected the very small number of attacks by great whites again suggests that people are not on their menu paddles are now known to rest ensure where there is a slack in the current or tied an open water species great whites generally avoid kelp forests [Music] smaller species like The Pajama and other cat sharks seek shelter in the forest [Music] [Music] sevengill sharks also frequent the kelp although they hunt the smaller species at night there seems to be an uneasy truce as they rest in the forest during the day while some great whites stay near the coast all year round others move offshore and remain in deep water for four to six months the more we find out about great whites the more we turn previous beliefs about them upside down fascinating and intriguing they are wanton man-eaters they are not even so people should be wary of all big sharks except for plankton feeders like the whale shark tourists worldwide make great efforts to swim with the whale shark despite being the world's largest fish which is no threat to us [Music] here in Mozambique snorkeling or diving with one of these incredible fish can make for an experience of a lifetime it's one that is on a par with seeing Africa's better known terrestrial and iconic Big Five Lions rhinos leopard buffalo and elephant whale shark ecotourism is worth millions of dollars annually worldwide with many small communities benefiting financially [Music] practically nothing was known about the biology of this shock up until about 15 years ago since that time there has been a veritable explosion of interest in the world's largest fish [Music] a fish not a mammal the whale shark originated about 60 million years ago it can reach up to 14 meters and probably live up to a hundred years old [Music] it is migratory and seasonally turns up at regular food sources [Music] between November and January every year of the coast of Djibouti at the Horn of Africa hundreds of mainly male juvenile whale sharks gather to feed offshore upwellings and rich surface waters this phenomenon triggers plankton blooms that in turn can initiate a spectacular gathering of giants it's obvious that these sharks are all young as the tails of juveniles have larger upper than lower lows the spots and patterns are unique to each individual photographic records enable scientists to count populations and assess which sharks return each year very similar spot patterns support the idea that some sharks may be littermates the Djibouti aggregations are exceptional in that they contain the smallest whale sharks found in the world some only 2 meters long [Music] it's thought that at this length the Sharks are just reaching their first birthday where they are born and spend their first year of life is unknown [Music] it's possible that this region is a sort of entry point for young whale sharks when they grow bigger and can compete with larger whale sharks they move on to other aggregation sites [Music] where they come from where they go and why there are more males than females at Djibouti remain unanswered questions whale sharks feed on plankton fish eggs and small fish they actively gulp in water and filter food from it using their pink gill rakers [Music] the Sharks feed day and night maximizing their intake when food is available [Music] in the Maldives plankton blooms generally occur between May and November the surfeit of food attracts whale sharks but they are not alone in exploiting this resource bonanza [Music] spectacular feeding trains of hundreds of manta rays glide by in a steady stream barrel rolling and intent on feeding the mantas often bump into each other as well as the whale shows [Music] [Music] when the plankton sinks to the seabed the mantas bottom feed turning their calf alak loads outwards rather than inwards to maximize the flow through their gill rakers [Music] the whale shop has a circum global distribution in tropical and warm temperate seas [Music] moving between seasonal food sources means they can travel vast distances [Music] the longest recorded whale shark journey spanned 13,000 kilometers and took over 36 months [Music] [Music] researchers have discovered that whale sharks make very deep and long dives down to 1280 meters where temperatures drop to around 3 degrees this is the deepest dive of any sharp [Music] tags that record depth and acceleration have revealed that deep dives may make traveling long distances more efficient the sharks glide deep down and then gently beat their tails and ascend at a very shallow angle in this way the whale sharks travel a maximum range with minimum energy expenditure once back at the surface they rest and warm up they cannot regulate their body temperature to the same degree as great whites the secret life of this colossal yet elusive giant is very slowly beginning to be unraveled but there is still so much to discover [Music] in Scottish waters another huge ocean traveller the Basking shop is the second largest living fish while not in the top five it is a close contender so deserves recognition [Music] recent research has revealed cutting-edge discoveries about this shot too [Music] in contrast to the whale shark the basking shark is a passive feeder that is unable to pump water across its gills [Music] the plankton that it feeds on is filtered out by pinkish brush like gill rakers [Music] every so often it closes its jaws and gulps three to five times to swallow basking sharks are seen feeding at the surface but as deep-sea shrimps have been found in their stomachs it's apparent they feed a depth as well [Music] a feeding basket can filter up to 2,000 tons of water per hour [Music] many adult basking sharks bear white scars [Music] those on the pectoral fin may be due to the male biting the female in a mating embrace the Sharks rubbing against one another during courtship can result in abrasions on their noses [Music] below the caudal fin on the back of this shark are some long white scars caused by lampreys [Music] lampreys are alike jawless primitive vertebrates these are parasitic feeding on the flesh and fluids of their hosts [Music] [Music] while lampreys may be an irritation they are not the reason for the Vasquez dramatic decline basking shark numbers are now at an all-time low there are possibly only 8,000 left worldwide they're protected in British waters but recent research has shown that this is not enough satellite tags have revealed that some of these sharks make remarkable transoceanic migrations a female tagged off the west coast of England travelled over 9,500 kilometers sometimes at a depth of around 1,200 meters all the way to Newfoundland of the east coast of Canada while transoceanic migrations take the sharks out of protected areas recent evidence points to a slow recovery of the species in British waters no such positive story for the scalloped hammerhead their numbers have recently plummeted a tragedy not only for the Sharks but for the people whose dream it is to swim with them [Music] spectacles like this of the coast of Costa Rica are high on many divers must-see list hammerheads have long been regarded as dangerous but it's been found that these sharks generally do not attack unless provoked and there have been no fatalities [Music] [Music] [Music] hammerheads have a fused upper jaw and small mouth they're not adapted for prey the size of humans but to grab fish squid octopus and crustaceans [Music] their hammer-shaped head is thought to have evolved to maximize the area of electrosensory pores in the skin these special sensors provide the shock with a sort of The Sixth Sense they're used to detect chemical physical and thermal changes as well as the electrical fields of prey species including those buried in the seabed the hammer shape allows these sharks to scan significantly larger areas than other shark species [Music] the positioning of the eyes mounted well out on the sides of the head also give them good 360-degree vision so they can see above and below at all times just like humans scalloped hammerheads can get a suntan when swimming in shallow water or close to the surface sharkskin produces more of the pigment melanin and darkens considerably to protect sharks from the ultraviolet light of the Sun recent research revealed that these hammerheads congregate in schools near seamounts or underwater mountains by day [Music] [Music] the Mount is a vital cleaning station where wounds can be tended and parasites and dead skin removed by cleaner fish the Sharks invite the cleaners to them by floating or swimming slowly just above the mound [Music] [Music] hammerheads are not the only sharks around the seamount threatened whitetip reef sharks resting sheltered crevices these small sharks can suck water into their mouths and pump it out over their gills to breathe unlike the hammerheads they can remain stationary to sleep during the day while hammerheads migrate visiting the seamount seasonally when the water is warm the whitetips stay within a particular area for years time and again returning to the same shelter [Music] why hammerhead should swim in schools was a mystery [Music] prey fish congregate to gain safety in numbers but hammerheads are at the top of the food chain so have little need to gather together for protection painstaking research using video cameras and acoustic tacks has revealed the schools may be mating aggregations most of the Sharks are females that compete with each other for a central position [Music] males select mates from those around the core and then the pair leaves to mate in seclusion at night hammerheads swim out each one alone to feed up to 20 kilometres away [Music] the whitetip reef sharks also become active after dusk but they hunt in groups they're reelin gated bodies allow them to wriggle into crevices and between rocks to flush out hidden prey a [Music] turtle is unfazed by the pack of sharks and carries on picking algae off the rocky seabed [Music] the Sharks are after smaller prey like crustaceans and sleeping fish [Music] [Music] blushed from a hiding hole fish face a host of hungry mouths communal life is not for all sharks the great hammerhead swims alone the largest species of its kind it is reported to reach around 6 meters in length endangered unwary it's not often lured within range for scientists to study although potentially dangerous it rarely attacks humans it sometimes behaves inquisitively towards divers and like all large sharks should be treated with respect great hammerheads are heavily fished for their large fins for the Asian shark fin soup trade in some areas numbers are down by 80% all large shark species are suffering including the stunning tiger of the sea striped like its namesake this shark not only shares a title with the world's biggest cat but also a reputation as a maneater [Music] the tiger shark is a stealthy powerful predator that is found worldwide in tropical and subtropical waters they're opportunistic feeders that will scavenge and are sometimes known as the trash cans of the Seas they do occasionally kill people that are not man hunters they don't go out to feed on swimmers but with their undiscerning palate they don't swim away after biting a person as great whites frequently do recent research in South Africa has shown that the larger Tigers tend to stay offshore only the younger immature sharks come inshore and when they do they avoid people and divers this better understanding reveals that tiger sharks are not as dangerous to humans as previously thought many Tigers spend time in deep open ocean far offshore then move inland - shallow seas they have the ability to drastically switch their habitats comfortably few other shark species show this flexibility one that does is the bull shark this large predator is just as at home in deep seas as it is in shallow coastal waters people enter its domain on a daily basis this close proximity to humans and the Sharks bold inquisitive and fearless nature make it the most dangerous of all sharks it's thought that it was probably bull sharks not great whites that caused the deaths of the five people bitten and killed in 1916 that sparked the story of Jaws bull sharks get their name from their short blunt snout as well as their pugnacious disposition and a tendency to headbutt their prey before attacking [Music] like most shark scientists swiss-born biologist Erik Ritter believes that people are not part of any shark diet even with balls it's a case of victims being in the wrong place at the wrong time to prove his point Erick waded into four shark-infested shallows keeping relaxed with his heart and breathing rate low he walked among them [Music] sharks use their jaws to mouth and investigate unfamiliar items in their domain a ball test zarok to find out what he is although most sharks have good eyesight the water can be murky in low visibility sharks investigate anything unusual with their mouths tragically even just a test with a shark's razor-sharp teeth can be fatal for a thin skinned human in 2002 a bull bit Eric while he was filming a shark special though he was seriously injured Eric believed the attack was a mistake he said that the shark took an exploratory bite and then got stressed [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] balls make no such mistakes when taking chunks out of mantarays at first it was thought that great whites were biting the Rays wings when in doubt blame great whites research into bite size and jaw shape has revealed that the mantas are most likely being bitten by bull sharks like scalloped hammerheads the mantas regularly visit seamount cleaning stations keeping the wound edges clean probably stops the spread of infection no one knows where or when bull sharks target these rays in some areas bull sharks don't bite rays at all perhaps it's learned behavior with sharks copying each other in specific locations to perpetuate the hunting technique for an ultimate shark encounter hi Shark Reef off Pacific harbour in Fiji is a top destination here people can dive with balls and seven other shark species to attract the Sharks local divers collect fish heads and awful from a fish factory the bait is lowered into place in wheelie bins tawny nurse sharks have learned how to get at the prize within thousands of fish congregated to pick up scraps and grab what they can sharks are vital to the health of the ocean take them out and the pyramid that is the food chain collapses and the ocean becomes out of balance we all need the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide and recycle fresh water [Music] the sea needs its top predators we lose sharks at our peril [Music] it may seem foolhardy to hand-feed bulls but the Fiji shark divers know how to work and swim with them safely the Sharks are conditioned through food rewards to approach only from one side and to take food from one particular diver identified by their different colored hoods researchers and the local divers have found that the Sharks are trainable and have individual personalities the feeders know which ones are very gentle and which ones need reminding of their manners occasionally [Music] in Fiji thousands of people have had thrilling dives with these incredible predators [Music] no one here has been attacked or bitten the odds of being a victim of a shark attack worldwide are extremely low about one in six million in the United States in fact people are at a greater risk of being bitten and killed by a dog than a shark [Music] the opportunity for such close encounters like this with bull sharks is a truly amazing experience an ultimate shark hi [Music] [Music]

Channel: Roberto Channel

Views: 2,504,300

Rating: 4.5374279 out of 5

Keywords: hammerheads, tiger sharks, bull sharks and the colossal whale shark, Sharks, jaws, Great white. The Big Five 2018 HD Documentary.

Id: XiDyaebx3FQ

Length: 52min 0sec (3120 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 24 2018