Sharkwater
For as long as I can remember...
...I've been drawn to sharks.
They're the most amazing
and mysterious animal on Earth.
About balance in the ocean
and how to survive on Earth.
That the one animal
that we fear the most...
...is the one we can't live without.
Predator of the sea...
...terror of all men
who enter the ocean...
...the very symbol
of lurking danger:
That is the shark.
What is he really?
We know little,
except the shark was here...
...before the continents
...before the dinosaur lived,
and he is still here...
...essentially unchanged.
One of the oldest living things
on Earth.
How has the shark survived...
...when almost all that lived
in the beginnings...
...has either perished or changed?
Man must know all there is to know
about this enemy.
Whether the shark
is really an enemy.
If he is...
...how to protect against him.
If he isn't...
...how to live with him.
You're told your whole life,
since you're a kid...
...sharks are dangerous.
too far into the ocean...
...but then finally
you're underwater...
...and you see the thing
you were taught...
...your whole life to fear,
and it's perfect...
...and it doesn't want to hurt you...
...and it's the most beautiful thing
you've ever seen...
...and your whole world changes.
Ever since I was little,
I've loved the ocean.
Like many kids,
I tried fishing...
...but realized I was much happier
swimming with fish than catching them.
Sharks were my favourite animals
on Earth...
...but all I'd heard about...
...was how dangerous they were.
and realized the only way...
...to find out the truth about sharks
was to meet one for myself.
I became
an underwater photographer...
...and a biologist...
...and from that point on,
I followed sharks.
So little is known
about what they really are...
...and how important they are
to life on Earth.
Two-thirds of the world's surface
is water...
...and over 80/ of life on Earth...
...lives in the ocean.
I learned to dive
so I could get close to sharks...
...but photographing sharks
was harder than I thought.
They're so afraid of us.
Sharks can see us
with more than their eyes.
They can sense our energy...
...and they viewed me as a threat.
Sharks have been here
for more than 400 million years...
before the dinosaurs...
...when life had just begun on land.
There was little oxygen
in the atmosphere...
...and only two continents.
Sharks were shaping this world.
Life on Earth
evolved from the sea.
single-celled organisms...
...that gave rise to algae, coral...
...and tiny planktonic animals.
More invertebrates followed,
including squids and mollusks.
One of the first vertebrates
with jaws...
...and the only large animal
that's remained unchanged...
...for 400 million years...
...is the shark.
New animals to evolve in the ocean
have been shaped by their predators...
...the sharks...
...giving rise to schooling behaviour...
...camouflage, speed,
size and communication.
Sharks control
the populations below them...
...eliminating species
that were easy prey...
...and creating new ones.
Even though sharks
have very few young...
...and take up to 25 years
...they've managed to survive
through five major extinctions...
...that wiped most life
from the planet.
They're architects of our world.
Most of what people
know about sharks...
...they've heard from the media.
The more time I spent with sharks...
...the more I realized that they're
nothing like what we're told.
They are perfect predators...
...that hold the underwater world
in balance...
...the lions and tigers of the seas.
I spent so much time underwater...
...so I could gain their trust...
...and get close enough
to film them.
Everything moved together...
...lived together...
...and died with a purpose.
This shark and his relatives...
...are long-established
enemies of man.
He is a wicked,
unpredictable opponent.
If sharks are in the area...
...you can repel them with sounds...
...by striking the surface of the water...
...with your cupped hand.
Or you can shout underwater.
Among the visual methods
of preventing attacks...
...are directing a stream of bubbles...
...from your life preserver
in his direction.
Tearing up paper
into small pieces...
...and scattering them...
...all around the raft.
If a shark threatens to attack you
or damage the raft...
...do not try to shoot or knife him.
Chances are you would only
slightly injure and infuriate him.
Remember...
...his front end
is practically all mouth.
Once in your raft...
...stay there and remain quiet.
Remember that as a human being...
...you are smarter than a shark,
if you use your head.
Elephants kill more people
each year than sharks do...
...so there's some deep-seated
psychological revulsion...
...about a cold-eyed monster
coming out of the deep...
...and picking you to pieces,
but that is the myth, not the reality.
have such a bad reputation...
...because they really hardly bite.
If we go into the statistics,
they are not the ones...
...who bite the most.
Definitely not.
And it's very hard, actually,
than to actually lure him in...
...bring him in,
and then trying to interact.
So I think the main reason
why people are still afraid...
...of a white shark
...and the misconception
And I think a big part
as Jaws.
Three people were hurt Saturday
Time magazine is calling
it the "Summer of the Shark. "
And of course the question
being asked by some is:
When will it be safe
to return to the water?
We love to have a monster,
we love to hate. So...
And it's not good television...
...if, you know, this monster
that we presented all these years...
...actually is a very shy, hesitant animal...
...that has a hard time,
like any other animal as well.
So we like to have the monster...
...and that's why
it's still portrayed this way.
I was on an assignment...
...photographing
the Galapagos Islands...
...in the middle of the Pacific...
...in total isolation...
...from the rest of the world.
...full of species
found nowhere else on Earth.
This is where Charles Darwin...
...developed his theory of evolution.
What I believe
is the whole planet was like this.
I think animals
were amazingly abundant;
I think whales
were amazingly abundant...
...fish were amazingly abundant;
turtles, birds, everything...
...before man got in there...
...and really hacked
I travelled 160 miles
from the centre of the Galapagos...
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"Sharkwater" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/sharkwater_17946>.
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