National Geographic: The Fox and the Shark Page #2

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the truth just a little.

I wasn't really after revenge.

What I was frightened of

was going back in the water

and being bitten again.

And so I was quite keen to try out

the new explosive powder head

that had been invented.

And I went underwater and I shot some

of these sharks on file to

show that man could

protect himself underwater.

Rod's on a killing frenzy,

intoxicated with his

successes overriding his fears.

This is exactly the scene he

had been in need of.

I n fact, Rodney's attitude

was beginning to change

a fact obscured

by the dramatic film script.

I didn't realize or understand

much at that time but I thought,

that's not the right attitude.

We've got to look at it

further than that.

We've got to learn more about them

and understand them

and learn to live with them.

As Rodney's appreciation for

the great white began to grow,

so too did his expertise

as a shark tracker.

I n 1969, he was called into work

on a shark movie unlike

any that had gone before.

Has that cage been checked out?

Film Producer Peter Gimbel

turned to Rodney to deliver

the sharks for his cameras.

Well, generally, after

they've had a taste,

they start really to tear into things

and really start to be active.

And then you'll let

us get into the water.

I'll push you.

The result the critically

acclaimed documentary,

"Blue Water, White Death."

I n the crew was diver

cameraman Stan Waterman.

The two men would

become lifelong friends.

There's gotta be 12!

Oh, yeah.

Rodney had already done two films

about the great white

and Rodney probably knew more about

how to chum in the great white

very important that,

chumming, the putting out

of what was called burley

in Australia to attract them.

So that Rodney was the natural

man to set up the scene for us.

Rodney didn't have a cage back then.

Gimbel had the cages.

Rodney knew where to

find the burley, the chum,

and set up the boats.

And way back then, in the beginning,

Rodney was your man in Australia

if you wanted to film the great white.

Sorry about you cage, fellah,

wait 'til you see it.

How bad is it?

What a mess.

He bent the cage, Stan?

Oh, wait 'til you see.

The carnage of earlier films

was not repeated.

"Blue Water, White Death" marks the

beginning of a new kind of relationship

between white sharks and human beings

one that allows the sharks

to survive the encounter.

For Rodney Fox, the occasional

filmmaking stint was not enough

to support his young family.

So he took up abalone diving,

a dangerous but lucrative profession.

It would put food on the

table for 18 years.

But always, the sharks

weighed heavily on his mind.

One of the hardest things

to do over that

I was abalone diving

was when I had to return

to abalone diving the week

after I'd been out filming sharks.

We had attracted maybe

around the boat during the week period.

We had them biting

on the cages and taking baits

and showing these enormous teeth.

When the film crew had left

and everything had quieted down,

I had to make my living again,

and go back in the water

only a few miles from where we'd

seen all these sharks.

I had to put on another hat

and say to myself,

Sharks don't like abalone.

They generally don't eat humans.

You'll be okay.

But the first couple of days

I imagined those sharks

were looking at me.

And sometimes when my knee

would hit a soft sponge,

I wondered whether that was

a soft shark's belly

and whether it was biting my leg off.

But I knew that it was fear in myself.

The danger to abalone divers

was genuine enough.

Some of the best abalone beds

were near seal colonies

where white sharks liked to hunt.

But instead of killing the sharks,

Rodney and his colleagues designed

a protective working cage

for the abalone divers.

Then they tested it

in shark infested waters.

Watch out for that... Hurry up!

Break a leg!

It really proves that the cage is safe

to abalone divers

because you've been involved

with five sharks down

here swimming around, attacking it,

and they've only taken the hose.

And if you've got

enough air to survive

and you can get up to the surface,

you'll be safe.

Makes the adrenaline pump, doesn't it?

The adrenalin really started

to pump in 1974

when Rodney was contracted to coordinate

the filming of live sequences

for the greatest shark film

of all time.

He had had experience with filming

great whites in the wild,

but "Jaws" was a

different kind of project.

They had sent over a small stuntman,

a midget diver and a small cage

so that the sharks would

look bigger because Jaws,

of course, Bruce was a 25 footer

and our sharks were only 14 foot.

And as we were dressing the little guy

one of the sharks came in and grabbed

hold of the propeller on my boat

and actually shook the boat physically

and it was well over 14 feet long,

and a very strong shark,

and as it swam along the side,

I'm saying to Carl, Quick,

get in the water, get in the water!

The cameraman's ready,

here's the shark,

and he kept saying, No, no, no!

The stunt diver wasn't the only one

who didn't want to go in the water.

"Jaws" was great entertainment,

but the public was terrorized,

and the perception of sharks

went from bad to worse.

Nobody realized at that time that it was

going to be a horror film

that was going

to frighten so many people,

including a lot of my friends,

out of the water.

I had people say to me,

I wouldn't even go in the bath now

after seeing the film Jaws!

For Rodney,

"Jaws" was the turning point

the moment he finally realized

that the sharks needed a champion.

And so he set out

to debunk the old myths.

He started a business an expedition

business taking filmmakers, scientists

even tourists out into

the South Australian seas

for face to face encounters with

the real great white sharks.

These days,

his business serves two ends

it contributes to marine science

and it satisfies Rodney's rather

large appetite for adventure.

Some experience, I'll tell you!

This scientific expedition will drop

anchor in the Neptune Islands

off the rugged coast of

South Australia to find, film,

and study great white sharks.

Rodney's son Andrew

has taken over the necessary,

if noxious, chore of mixing the key

ingredients of burley

a kind of foul stew that sharks seem

to find irresistible.

Blood, ground tuna, and a little

sea water that's the recipe.

Andrew will create

a smelly slick stretching several miles

down current from the vessel.

Any sharks in the area will find the

invitation very attractive.

Marine scientists from the University

of Adelaide want to test

the strength of a great white's bite,

and to identify the telltale sings of

shark attack for forensic purposes

a grisly but necessary study.

The sharks must be induced to bite a

specifically designed pressure plate.

First, they need to be worked

into a biting mood.

Ready now?

Okay, drop her in, Andy.

Now that the shark has the idea,

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