The Cuddly Shark (Shark Documentary) | Real Wild

[Music] [Music] the clear blue waters and rolling surf of California and Hawaii are a perfect playground in the Sun they're also a hunting ground the great white is one of the few sharks big enough to attack and eat people John Ferrara felt the force of one such attack when it first hit me i was it's a hard blow it really hit hard and it folded me in half so quickly I didn't have any idea what was bought on it was it deliberate man hunting or did the shop make a mistake rod or as often asked himself the same question and that shark had buried this bottom piece into my face here through my nose and the top teeth were in my neck I think he realized that I wasn't a seal at that time but the why didn't fish biting the head off white and fresh I don't know just luck of the draw new research throws some light on why the attacks happen but killer whales and grizzly bears before them large sharks are beginning to inspire respect rather than fear among the people who choose to share the oceans [Music] the Farallon Islands are a National Wildlife Refuge administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service they lie just 32 kilometers off the coast of California west of San Francisco in thousands of years of Native American legend their sinister jagged peaks were said to be the islands of the dead for millions of years they have been a regular feeding place of the white shark every autumn these forbidding rocks attract a group of the huge predators sharks have small brains compared with other vertebrates but their acute vision and sense of smell make them highly skilled and successful hunters rough seas and rugged wave washed cliffs make this an excellent hunting ground there are a few other places in the world where white sharks can be so closely observed in the act of killing among their principal prey is the California sea lion adult males weigh up to 500 kilos a worthwhile meal for a white shark they share the islands with northern elephant seals Peter Pyle is a biologist working with the team at the point raised Bird Observatory who spend six months of the year on the Farallon studying birds in the autumn his interest turns to pinnipeds seals and sea lions and to the sharks that prey on California sea lions haul out here to rest throughout the year basking on the shore and often enduring plagues of flies as the price of their respite from the sea in the autumn they are joined by juvenile elephant seals coming ashore for the first time for months the seasonal concentration of young naive elephant seals draws white sharks like a magnet landing on these rocky shores is no easy matter especially at high tide huge waves can wash the seals into the sir when they find themselves in the water the seals have to swim along the shore looking for a place to fall out the sharks are waiting for them and Peter pile is waiting for the Sharks shark is a visual predator white shark here more than anything it stalks in the depths probably behind ridges against the rocks where the pinnipeds are going to have a harder time seeing it and then when the time's right it will rush up from below and strike the pinniped at the surface so I think that background coloration gives the shark an advantage to hunting over rocks as opposed to pan where the silhouette of the shark would probably be clearly visible from above the researchers on the Farallon see as many as 80 attacks everyone [Music] in the course of their annual hunt they occasionally attack people as well [Music] every year tens of thousands of Sun seekers migrate to the beaches and surf of California thousands more have settled here to enjoy the eternal summer beneath them the sharks are watching sharks have increased in number along with the populations of seals and sea lions which are protected by federal law many of the best surfing beaches are near their breeding colonies or reefs where they rest in 50 years there has been a total of 60 attacks on humans in California six of them fatal with the rising number of people in the water it's surprising that there haven't been more but are they acts of deliberate hunting on just cases of mistaken identity a surfer paddling out to sea arms waving and feet trailing must look to a shark remarkably like a sea lion curve Johnson and John Ferrara a dedicated surface both survived attacks by white sharks Kurt Johnson was kicked by an immense force I really didn't know what was going on I had no clue of what was going on until the thing started shaking me really hard and I knew what was going on then I started reaching back and hitting the shark on the head in the mouth and the face my hand and it was still shaking me is about five feet underwater shaking me pretty hard and the shark was right next to me at the dorsal fin right next to me and then farther back the tail fin about eight feet back tail fin just sitting there right next to me not moving at all so I screamed at it and kicked out and kind of start swimming backstroke away from it they just let go of me and I came to the surface in the water was turning all dark around me with blood but this thing was huge it was it was at least fifteen feet probably came behind us about staying very large I I describe it as about the size of a Volkswagen the body of it just the girth and the fin of it was about three feet out of the water while I was just going past me very slowly and you pretty much know exactly what it is it's something one to eat you you know and you want to get the hell out of there typically among surfers who have been attacked both men returned to the water as soon as they could John Ferreira within a month of his encounter with the shark but both now avoid surfing near places where seals are numerous rocky reefs where they haul out to bars are often attended by sharks seals and sea lions have been the prey of white sharks for at least 20 million years they prefer cold waters but being warm-blooded they're Swift and agile and difficult for the Sharks to catch some of them have had narrow escapes California sea lions are attacked far less often than elephant seals this might be because they travel and rest in groups with more pairs of eyes on the lookout for danger white sharks have evolved to catch their nimble prey by a remarkable adaptation they maintain an internal temperature a few degrees higher than that of the surrounding water warm mussels allow the shark to attack in a sudden burst of speed out of its ambush on the sea floor another advantage of being warm-blooded is that it helps the shark to digest the blubber of seals or whales a very rich source of energy the great whales before their decline might also played an important part in the diet of the white shark especially as carrier its immensely thick layer of insulating blubber makes a whale a huge reserve of energy for a shark big enough to bite into it now though humpback whales are scarce along with blue whales and sperm whales and to find a karpas washed up on a beach as a rare treat for the foraging shop but if there is one to be found the Sharks acute sense of smell will detect it this humpback whale having died of unknown causes provides a huge meal for hungry sharks scientists studying the fuel economy of sharks have found that 27 kilos of whale blubber is enough to sustain a great white for 45 days but today scavenging whales is not a reliable source of food a large predator must have easy access to an abundant source of living prey a tannin waiver on the coast of California the beach is paved with elephant seals their huge blubbery bodies represent an overflowing louder for white sharks one that is regularly rated the rather elegant females can only watch and try to keep out of the way because the dominant Bulls fight for their favors [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] forty years ago this colony contained $25,000 now it's ten times as big at a quarter of a million this increase in food supply is good fortunate for the white sharks the seal colony is literally a factory as soon as they're weaned the babies will have to leave the beach and start to feed themselves it will be six months before we see land again many of those now feeding contentedly are their mother's sides will find themselves seeking shelter on the wave swept rocks of the Farallon Islands it's as well that they have no way of knowing what awaits them there [Applause] [Music] even the big old bulls have no defense against adult white sharks the great white shark is an apex predator that feeds on marine mammals when they're young they feed on fish as they grow older they begin feeding on strictly marine mammals and that puts them at the top of the food chain the elephant seals considered to be there the preferred prey at the Farallones and that they're solitary animals they're easy to capture because they're slow swimmers and they tend to be naive and when they're young and they sit at the surface which they should do it's very exciting to see a shark in the water these sharks are huge you know we're talking 15 to 18 feet with a weight of maybe three to four thousand pounds and they have an amazing presence in the water as they move through the area they're very controlled they know where they're going before they get there and so you just are kind of in awe of this silent huge predator moving through the water [Music] as it patrols beneath the waves a shark can see the silhouettes of seals and sea lions at the surface it relies on stealth and surprise sea lions moving in packs are hard to surprise but elephant seals are often alone [Music] the sharp rushes up from the bottom in an ambush attack and bites the seal so that it dies almost instantly a lethal bite ensures the seal can't fight back and enjoy the show it's a very violent aggressive attack the seal dies quickly from loss of life to take bites out of the carcass the shark must swing its head back and forth in a sawing movement cutting through muscle and bone while its huge tail drives it fall ten centimeters of blubber provides high energy food for the predator the human body even a fat one would be bony by comparison Peter Pyle monitors the attacks from his vantage point high on the island most attacks take place in the high-risk zone within 500 metres of the shore once the location is pinpointed Pyle hurries to the boat landing if it's a big seal it may take the shark half an hour to eat it this gives the team time to get on the water and alongside the kill [Music] they're grateful when the sea is relatively calm their boat is only just over four meters long [Applause] when they reach the seal the two men lower underwater cameras beside the boat [Music] other sharks will try to move in for a bite at the prey but if the original killer is a big animal they stay away scars on their skin show that white sharks often fight over their food these marks together with the shape of their dorsal fins enable Pyle and Scott Anderson to identify individual predators we were out there getting as much video as we can on these sharks and a lot of them have scars of various types some of them look like aggressive scars where maybe one shark has come in and bitten another to kind of worn it away from the carcass a lot of the females seem to have scars along the gills which may relate to mating scars and these stars are pretty permanent they look white at first and then they turn black and after a while you know we will walk down all the spots where these scars are and we'll be able to use those in our individual ID in eight years of work Scott Anderson has identified more than 50 white sharks of the Farallon Islands 20 of them returned time and time again he finds that large individuals tend to feed in the same place each year patrolling areas where they've been successful before smaller sharks less well established in the hierarchy move around the island much more looking for chance encounters with prey after the initial violent attack sharks feed in a controlled almost calm manner contrary to the popular idea of a feeding frenzy a 180 kilo milk will be finished in between five and ten bites of 13 to 23 kilos each the biologists watch individual sharks for periods of anything from one day to over four weeks they think that once a shot has had a successful hunt here it moves away from the islands to the seal breeding colonies and Hall outs on the mainland coast they have seen as many as 80 attacks in one season from this they estimate that at least 27 white sharks regularly hunt seals of the Paralyzed [Applause] working in a boat that's smaller than the sharks that surround it takes courage it's a it's always a thrill when you've got white sharks that circling around below you I don't think we'll ever get over that thrill you know we don't feel any real threat from them they're just there they're looking at us they're curious it's interesting in that the biggest one seem to be the smartest about it and no sooner that we're not edible and disappear quicker it's actually the little ones that we're a little more worried about maybe the 9 to 12 footers that we see here because they're less experienced we don't know what they're going to do they're less predictable as far as I'm concerned they're the ones that may end up getting a little excited near the boat I think they're also the ones that might be hitting surfers more off the coast or the small ones because when a shark hits a surfer or a surfboard or the boat for that matter it's making a mistake it doesn't really want to do that it's not gaining anything from it so I think when a surfer gets attacked it's probably the smaller ones but don't realize what they're doing quite as much as the bigger more experienced sharks well last year I was scared by a shark that came up to investigate the board that I had out when it was really close to the boat actually bringing it into the boat about a foot away and when the shark attacked it it went violently through through the area incredibly quick credibly loud and it really scared me so made me realize that there are certain times when you when when dealing with these animals where there is some danger but most the time when they're around the boat they're very controlled they're looking for food and it usually seems pretty safe to me for the most part it's safe for the most part for other people working underwater close to the Farallon Islands their abalone fishermen collecting highly prized shellfish for the market abalone are plentiful here but rare in other parts of the California coast one reason for their abundance of the farallon's is the danger from attack by white sharks divers are most vulnerable while they're on the surface or in the water column on the seabed they're relatively safe from anguish there the sharks no longer have the natural advantage of camouflage as they measure the abalone to make sure that they're above the legal minimum size the divers keep a sharp lookout for cruising great whites thousands of sport divers also gather abalone but they do it by snorkeling without the benefit of scuba gear they must return repeatedly to the surface to breathe and this is when 90% of shark attacks take place rado holds the dubious distinction of having been attacked twice in his pursuit of abalone just at the edge of vision I saw something and but I didn't realize what it was and then the little light dawned what I could see was the gills on this white shark and the shark was like 10 11 foot long and it closed on me when I looked back at it had closed the distance by half and then it started coming in fast and I knew it was after me and but I tried to get behind this rock and when I try to get behind it the shark came in on my left side his mouth just opened up and his jaw actually just came out of his mouth and I had a roll he parks up in my scalp where he sit down and the worst damage was probably to my nose until my lower eye because I had a hole to the upper eyelid and the bottom eyelid all I could see was really was the teeth out of my you know for my left eye I could see the water down there and I could see all the teeth on the top jaw and the bottom jaw but I was facedown in it and it was just like they look huge it looked like there were three inches long I know they weren't that big but they were just all Hawaii they were I can see about how you see about ten or twelve teeth I thought it was about 12 feet but they measured the bite marks and I figured he was like 15 to 17 but I reached up on him II felt like a few it was huge why did the shock spit rod odd most probably he felt wrong instead of having a deep layer of blubber his head was hard and bony without enough fat to make a worthwhile meal in Hawaii tiger sharks include prey with just such a bony exterior in their diet Hawaii has some of the most famous surfing beaches in the world it's where the sport was invented in fact the Hawaiians it's more than a sport it's a way of life with cultural even religious overtones the clear blue waters are a playground for thousands of people and home to an enormous variety of marine life including the tiger shark the old Hawaiians had a special word for sharks that heat Eagle mooing even before natural prey such as large fish and lobsters monk seals and green turtles have been reduced by over hunting the tiger shark was known to take people local surfers reassure themselves in different ways about the dangers of serving in shark-infested waters I'm not worried about the tiger shark because I feel like that's my all before which means it's a religious release that Native Hawaiians have about about the shark depends if there's a lot of people around I don't worry about it too much the odds are getting something it's probably a little left but then you go surfing other secret spots and stuff nothing you're always like looking down checking it out this song if you were to go surfing go snorkeling when it's flat you see a million turtle and that's what the tiger shark is green turtles are a regular part of the tiger sharks diet whole shells have been found in their stomachs if white sharks sometimes mistake people for seals do Tigers think surfers or Turtles David Silva thinks they might we're at on the inside on the island of Kauai and the speech card where we will be I got attacked off this point here about 75 yards out from shore to me I think he thought I was a turtle because my board is yellow and with my hands telling in the water it makes me more look like a turtle so I think he thought that I was a turtle and he came for me it's severe this is the top part of the jaw he was lying on the surfboard the bottom jaw got the bottom of the board so from here to here is the corner of the mouth so it came on to the back of the leg this way it never got the back of the knee but it got into the ligaments and some of the muscles David Silva was lucky other surfers had died in recent years from tiger shark attacks he was badly hurt but able to paddle his board safely to the shore it's commonly believed in Hawaii the turtles of the preferred prey of tiger sharks and observers paddling their boards look too much like turtles for safety green turtles are listed as a threatened species since overfishing depleted their numbers and their nesting beaches were destroyed by tourism for years it was rare for a scuba diver or a snorkeler to see one in the wild there are nowhere near as many Turtles as surfers but after years of protection their population is recovered considerably the increase in the turtle population has coincided with a rise in the number of shark attacks on people can there be a connection marine biologists keep a check on the total population although it is rising it's still at risk and far below the numbers that were once here the scientists catch the turtles by hack to study their progress they're still not coming but they're surprisingly unwary over the sandy bottom one mile off on a moon Georgia palace is a research biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Honolulu he's not convinced - the link between turtles and sharks our research program started in 1972 22 years ago we have specifically gone to places in Hawaii that are the best sites for turtles and in all those years of diving we have never once I have never once encountered or even seen a tiger shark one would think that if I'm exposing myself to higher risk being with the turtles that I would have would have at least seen one and such has not been the case I think anybody's should have a health and fear of sharks but - to think that they look like a turtle I think is no basis for whatsoever any object in the water at or near the surface could be liable to be snapped at by a shark you don't have to look like a turtle in order to be eaten by a predator the first confirmed killing of a person by a shark in Hawaiian waters for three decades took place in 1991 and there have been others since there was a public outcry much of it from the tourist industry the state of Hawaii set up the shark task force to work out a management plan for shark attacks at that time little was known about tiger shark movements the shark task force had to make an immediate decision as to the best way to protect people but they were aware that further research was needed well as soon as people started their shark attacks that were happening and a few people were killed by sharks is a huge public outcry to do something about the situation the removal of a couple of tiger sharks from an area and after an attack is going to have a very minimal effect on the ecosystem because we were making a decision if we're going to do any fishing we're going to try and do it to make sure that we got the fish that actually was the cause of the attack otherwise I don't think it's biologists we just go out and randomly kill sharks to appease public opinion it was our best guess if we went within 24 hours we might catch the shark that did it we also know we need a lot more research to know about the biology of these animals to know what are the chances of actually catching that animal within 24 hours will it be there or won't it to answer the questions raised by the task force now why instead legislature funded a study of tiger sharks the principal investigator is dr. kim holland a scientist with the hawaiian institute of marine biology he follows their movements around Oahu is densely populated coastline we don't know if the same fish come back to the same area day after day we don't know if they have a home range that they patrol on a daily basis or a weekly basis we don't know if that what the size of that home range is if there is one we don't know if in fact there's just a continual stream of new sharks coming past any given point on the shoreline set until you know those kinds of things but their movement patterns any control mechanisms or in control programs you might want to put in place won't have any scientific direction after each attack the state of Hawaii caught and killed tiger sharks 11 in all private fishermen thought this wasn't enough they killed 44 in a single year and so every time there's an attack the state takes out one or two sharks and they call it quick so I want to just keep consistent basis of bringing out sharks I can make a few bucks on it is fishing slow if sharks whina I'm not gonna do who's gonna do it yeah the state doesn't want to do it on a regular basis they don't to pay anybody they don't have to take any contracts all so I'll just do them all killing a shark any shark might make the surfers and the travel agents feel that something was being done but Kim Collin points out that not enough is known about tiger sharks and their habits in his study a female tiger shark hooked on a floating line is held on her back a position in which he's helpless an incision in her belly will contain a small radio transmitter which will give away her position after she's released 0:03 set before she can be set free someone has to take the hook out of her MA [Applause] [Applause] one of the other things they're finding long exams that these sharks have no qualms about going offshore into deep blue water one of the preconceptions was that these animals were coastal this isn't the case at all Arland study is the first to explore the movements of tiger sharks which have been a mystery until now they drop an underwater antenna to listen for the signals from the radio it has a range of one and a half kilometers the ship will stay on the trail for as long as their stamina and their fuel hold out usually for about 48 hours on one trip they found themselves 60 kilometres offshore in this time well as often is the case when you finally get a chance to see an animal or observe an animal in its own environment you you get surprises things you can anticipate common folklore holds the tiger sharks patrol a small coastal area a shark's personal territory instead the researchers are finding tiger sharks traveled great distances from island to island and plunge as deep as 300 meters the deepest recorded for tiger sharks we had no idea that these fish and its ability to go so deep so easily and without apparently any restrictions on their movement times so again these are the kind of things that you can't find out without observing the animal in its own environment and this is the first chance that we've had to do that with tiger sharks [Music] Tim Holland's findings suggest that it's probably pointless to try to cull rogue sharks after attacks the fish responsible would be long gone and any shark killed will be replaced by another coming in from elsewhere [Music] it seems that the single hunting shark can cover a huge area it might return to the same place to feed again but only after traveling an enormous distance the same sharks that hunt around Oahu might travel 800 kilometers to a group of sandy atolls known as the northwestern islands of Hawaii breed life here is less disturbed and therefore much richer than that of the main islands large predatory fish called Lulu are still abundant in this wildlife reserve elsewhere they're heavily over fished because they're very good to eat the northwestern islands of the home of the Hawaiian monk scene and endangered species that has become rare in the main islands there are about 1400 of them here they're only breeding phase [Music] the monk seal is part of the regular diet of the tiger shark some of them here have white scars and mrs. rivers mementos of a lapses [Music] the atolls white sandy beaches aware the monk seals breathe nails come here to seek receptive females during the season finding on the bright coral sand a haven beyond the reach of the patrolling sharks you this female is not yet in breeding condition she rebuffs the male's advances sending him on his way to look for a mate who will accept him this puts him back in the water among the sharks but tiger sharks are not as selective in their choice of preys great whites they will hunt anything that looks edible at this time of year black-footed albatross chicks are learning to fly this their first time in the water is a bewildering experience all around them dark shadows move beneath the surface individual sharks know this seasonal abundance of prey some of them have been here for a week waiting for the first chicks to reach the water these are the first fledglings to venture from their nests the sharks are hungry but they must maneuver in water only a meter or so deep for the first few days the Sharks find it difficult to come to grips with their prey [Music] they're out of practice they haven't tried to catch albatross chicks since this time last year and it takes time to get back into the knack of it the chick fights back pecking at install mentor instinctively aiming for the Sharks most vulnerable spot it eyes during the first few days of pledging many chicks escaped in time to learn to fly when the wind slackens had known the chicks stop trying to fly and return to the island surrounded by shallow water rich in fish the islands are ideal for seabirds more than fourteen million seabirds fifteen different species come here to nest there's hardly movement for the north they cover every inch of ground and even the smallest trance there are boobies which leave hills and the black tropical turns known as Nadi's black-and-white Tern the most numerous making up almost 3/4 of the bird population some of the smallest populations are of the largest birds the Laysan albatross one meter tall has a wingspan of two meters its chicks grow rapidly in size and weight on a rich diet of regurgitated fish by mid-june they will be fed less and less often with smaller amounts and finally with nothing soon their parents will leave the island and the chicks will wait for food in vain [Applause] without food the chicks slimmed down to their flying weight and take every chance to exercise their flying muscles each morning when the wind gets up they face into it and flap their wings the parents return to feed them one more time and then prepare to leave not to return for another year the chicks make their way to the open beach where the breeze is strongest once on the wing they might not return for three years and they will not mate until they're eight years old if they survive that long now they must become airborne and survive the sea on a calm day this is very difficult and dangerous the Sharks have had time to learn since their first encounters with albatross chicks a few days ago they know now that they must reach high out of the water to be sure of engulfing the bird and they must strike fast before the prey escapes if it misses a chick on the first strike the sharp turns and follows it up wind eventually the young muscles tire and the bird districts down to the water again about 1 in 10 albatross chicks fall victim to sharks each year more of them die of starvation or get drowned in sir sharks and birds have coexisted here for millennia without the bird population suffering from this level of predation people have an option that is not open to albatross chicks they can keep out of the shark's way and allow the magnificent predators their own rightful place as apex predators in the ocean native hawaiians with many generations experience of tiger sharks say that it's folly to play in the surf around sunrise or sunset it said that is the time when sharks come to feed in shallow water Kim Holland's work does not bear this out he thinks that there there all the time but the odds against being attacked are a million to one one thing to bear in mind is that if these powerful adaptable hunters wanted people they would and nothing will stop it wouldn't be sixty attacks in fifty years but one a minute if sharks really were man hunters surfing would never have been invented as it is they're only occupying their rightful place at the top of the marine food chain if they sometimes make a mistake it behooves us to keep out of their way [Music]

Channel: Real Wild

Views: 1,204,273

Keywords: nature documentary, full documentary, documentary movie, wildlife documentary, english, hd, deep sea, discovery channel, national geographic, bbc, natgeo wild, Nature documentaries - topic, Animals - topic, sharks - topic, sharks vs humans, sharks attack, shark week, shark vs seal, shark attacks albatross, phelps vs shark, sharks vs turtles, tiger sharks, great white shark, shark victims, shark kills, are sharks dangerous, fish documentary, shark documentary

Id: a-FwbFjnYds

Length: 49min 52sec (2992 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 24 2017