"Across 400 million years" "Long before and long after the dinosaur ruled the continents the sea has remained the unchallenged domain of the shark." "Yet recently, another species has begun to intrude." "Lords of the land, we enter the ocean as potential prey." "But of 370 shark species, only about 30 attack humans." "Most, like the bottom shark maturing in an egg case are small or harmless." "Other young, however, born live from larger sharks are so aggressive they often devour one another inside their mothers before birth." "Now an extraordinary expedition begins to probe the true nature of these mysterious creatures." "Can we learn to live in their midst or will the shark ever remain our most frightening enemy in the wild?" "Renowned marine biologist Eugenie Clark never feared sharks and at 70 still swims among them." "I was nine when I saw my first live shark." "It was at the old New York Aquarium and they looked so beautiful." "I had my nose pressed up against the glass." "I wanted to be in there with them." "It never occurred to me that they were dangerous." "Dr. Clark believes sharks hold important secrets of survival which can benefit humankind." "They have an incredible immune system... perhaps the strongest in the animal kingdom." "They can fight off diseases including malignant cancer." "There are substances derived from sharks that can put some cancers in remission." "Dr. Clark feels that sharks deserve protection an opinion shared by her friend Rodney Fox despite a great white shark attack that nearly tore Rodney in half." "462 stitches later, he launched a career leading expeditions into shark-infested waters." "After my shark attack in 1963" "I really hated sharks but, after studying them for just a short time" "I've come to really appreciate them." "However, I'm really keen on these trips to find an effective shark repellent." "The central question is:" "Why do some sharks attack humans?" "In the hope of finding out" "Dr. Clark and Rodney Fox now embark on three expeditions to study the feeding and attack behavior of the great sharks." "...but today we're going to be using the leopard shark..." "Work begins at California State University, Long Beach where Dr. Don Nelson is testing a new shark repellent." "...namely when the chemical is evenly disbursed in the water." "A natural shark repellent discovered by Dr. Clark has proven impractical leading to a search for a synthetic alternative." "Effective in the lab the new chemical must now be tested in the wild." "In the Catalina Channel off Southern California the team enters waters home to sea lions, a favorite prey of many large sharks." "Some scientists believe that sharks often attack humans in error mistaking swimmers for sea lions." "Preying upon the less fit among their quarry sharks perform a vital evolutionary service and perhaps bear large responsibility for the sea lions' remarkable speed and agility." "Experiments with the new repellent begin in a notorious hunting ground of blue sharks adjacent to the kelp forests." "By spreading a chum of ground mackerel they hope to create a drifting scent trail leading sharks directly to the boat." "As a safeguard against shark bites" "Rodney Fox will don a special chain-mail suit." "Yet, as the scars across his chest and back suggest the suit would offer little protection against sharks as large as great whites." "Marine biologist Rocky Strong will release a new repellent using a pressurized squirt gun." "Divers stand by, please." "I feel like a knight in shining armor." "Wait till you put that helmet on." "My students, who know I'm in my seventies raise their eyebrows when they hear I'm diving with sharks again." "While Dr. Clark and Rodney Fox observe from a steel cage a safety diver in chain-mail will serve as lookout and attempt to lure the sharks with bait." "Hello." "This is Mandy." "Can you both hear me?" "Loud and clear" "Rodney, what is the visibility like?" "It's pretty good at the moment." "I don't see any sharks yet." "Our safety diver is almost in position." "The plan is to distract the sharks with the bait giving Rocky Strong a chance to fire the repellent." "Unexpectedly, the first arrivals are not sharks." "Genie, do you see what I see?" "The food offerings draw a flock of shearwaters, masters of underwater flight." "They're eating our shark bait." "Any sharks?" "Not yet." "Here comes the first one, Genie." "We've got three beautiful blue sharks around us now." "Make it four." "Though they rarely exceed ten feet blue sharks travel and can attack in packs." "Ranging widely, often feeding in a frenzy the blue serves as our most common image of a lethal shark." "There's a five-footer close to us." "Rodney's tempting it with bait." "How close to the front of the cage are they coming?" "Watch out!" "It's got my hand!" "His hand suddenly seized by the shark" "Rodney struggles to pull free." "I was feeding him and he nearly swallowed my hand." "At least the chain-mail kept him from biting through." "Ok, I see Don now." "While the shark's attention is on bait" "Dr. Nelson approaches with a tagging spear." "In the future if the shark is caught the tag will reveal its range, territory and growth rate." "The repellent test begins with a mild concentration released into the shark's mouth." "Oh, no, Genie." "He's coming back." "I think maybe he likes the stuff." "As Rocky Strong returns to the boat to reload with a stronger solution of the repellent, Rodney leaves the cage to assist the safety diver in keeping the sharks near." "As I was trying to keep the sharp around by waving the bait at him, I lost one of my fins." "And while trying to get it back on, I started sinking." "I dropped the weights on the outside of my suit and tried to reach the buoyancy inflator but it was out of reach, and I couldn't get to it." "I knew then that I'd have to take off the air tanks and risk dislodging my helmet in order to inflate the vest or I was certainly going to die." "Rodney, do you read me?" "Help me!" "Somebody help me!" "Rodney manages at last to inflate his vest and reach the surface where a safety diver rushes to his aid." "It was pretty frightening to be in the water and suddenly he's not there and to realize that your close friend is going down in that depth and there wasn't any way we could help him." "I thought we'd lost Rodney." "I couldn't find my inflator." "Uh, really, I thought I was going to die." "You all right?" "In the end tests of the repellent prove disappointing." "While the search for a defense against sharks continues the master of the sea prevails." "Along the coast of western Australia a team sets out on a rare mission to locate one of the sea's most elusive creatures... the giant whale shark." "On occasion whale sharks have been sighted near Ningaloo Reef but the reason for their appearances is unknown." "Dr. Clark and Rodney believe they may be able to solve the mystery and advance science... a prospect that draws a photographic team from National Geographic magazine." "We planned this expedition based on the theory that whale sharks would come to feed on a massive bloom of plankton triggered by coral spawning and that was the key because we knew that certain species of coral in Ningaloo Reef" "spawn for a brief few minutes one or two nights a year about a week after the march full moon." "Our first task was to locate an area of good spawning activity so that we would know exactly where to begin our search for whale sharks in the morning." "Builders of vast undersea structures corals are not plants but colonies of tiny animals." "Only recently, science has found that they often reproduce by releasing a storm of eggs and sperm that scatter in the currents like seeds in the wind." "At the appointed hour, bundles of eggs and sperm rise from the coral polyps by the billions in a blizzard of new life." "The mass birth is a banquet as well." "Swarms of worms emerge to feast on the spawn." "The prolific spawning may have been known to whale sharks for eons." "If so, can they predict its time and place?" "Are they en route to feed even now?" "Okay, George, we see the boat now." "No sharks just yet..." "Roger." "We'll dive as soon as you can set it up for us." "Okay, George, I'll find you a nice big one" "Right behind you now." "Roger." "By morning, the theory seems to be confirmed." "A whale shark is spotted right off the port bow of the launch." "Looks terrific from here, George." "Okay, we're going up to him now." "Just hang on there, and he'll swim alongside you." "Roger, roger." "Our divers are watching now as he comes in." "Obviously a photogenic type of fish, this blode." "So if the divers are ready to go, I'll leave it to you." "George:" "Divers, stand by." "Incredibly, it is the first of 12 to arrive this day... perhaps the largest gathering of whale sharks ever recorded." "We had no idea how long the shark would stay and nobody wanted to risk losing the opportunity so we all scrambled in." "Some of us wanted to tag the shark and plot its daily movement." "Others wanted photographs." "I wanted to experience the thrill of a close encounter with this alien creature." "Though it bears resemblance to a whale the whale shark is not mammal but fish... the largest fish in the world... so immense, it dwarfs some species of whales." "The whale shark's mouth... backed up by a body sometimes 50 feet long and 20 tons... seems capable of engulfing a diver." "Yet it acts merely as a strainer to capture plankton." "Like courtiers to a king, small fish attend to the giant perhaps cleaning away parasites and gaining a free ride on its bow wave." "As the big dorsal fin came by" "I just couldn't resist taking a ride." "Pretty soon, he decided I was a bit of a nuisance and shrugged me off like a fly." "The discovery of a whale shark feeding ground promises new opportunities to study these gentle creatures." "During the next expedition, however the team will need all the protection it can devise." "Near Port Lincoln, off the South Australia coast the expedition will attempt to encounter at close range the most feared creature in the sea the notorious great white shark." "They charter a vessel specially equipped to study great whites and bring aboard a new plastic cage nearly invisible to a shark underwater." "Oh, i think it'll be pretty safe." "A diver within should appear unprotected." "The team will investigate to riddle at the heart of our fascination with sharks:" "Why do sharks like the great white attack human swimmers... and in the often murky or dark sea, what attracts them to us?" "Are they drawn by smell or splashing movements or are they attracted visually to the sight of a human?" "Well, I hope to detect to see if they can... if the sharks can sense the invisible barrier and also to see if they're interested in me as a human shape." "If sharks do attack humans on sight they should attack Rodney on sight since the plastic cage is nearly invisible in water." "No sharks are seen but there is convincing evidence of their presence." "Okay, let's get the camera team and Rodney suited up." "Do your communications check." "Rodney Fox, camera team suit in, please." "Deck crew, prepare cages one and two and on my word put the camera cage in the water." "Lower Rodney into the water, please and hold at ten feet." "God, I hope this thing works." "I feel rather naked with all my pink bits showing." "What's the visiblity like?" "The water's very clear." "I'm surrounded by a school of small fish at the moment." "I feel like I'm the one in the goldfish bowl." "Rodney, behind you." "Ah, I think I've got a glimpse of one." "No, it's just the bait." "Last time I dove at night with the great whites they came in and smashed up the lights." "If they're out there tonight, they're being pretty shy." "Curiously... no great whites appear all night even though sea lions a favorite white shark meal, throng the waters." "Researchers believe that roaming great whites search the water for scent trails that lead to sea lions or their relatives then wait along the bottom to rocket upward in surprise attacks." "In hopes of luring the great whites a soup of minced fish and blood is pumped into the water." "Two days passed and still no sharks but I've been on expeditions where we've had to wait much longer before seeing our first shark." "I'm concerned that white shark populations." "May be in serious decline due to over-fishing and souvenir hunters who slaughter sharks for their jaws and teeth." "Okay, and Rodney has full flow." "How's this, Rodney?" "Do you read me?" "Testing." "Yes." "I can hear you loud and clear." "Oh, there's a big shark over there." "I'd like to have a closer look at the sharks on the bottom." "Lower the tube." "Set it on the reef, please." "Tube's at 20 feet... 30... 40... 50... 60... and at the bottom at 73 feet." "Here I was, about to meet an old enemy face-to-face." "I thought I'd be scared out of my wits but, when I reached the bottom" "I was overcome, not by fear, but amazement because, instead of one or two sharks there was a whole army waiting for me more great whites than I'd ever seen in one place before." "Oh, you ought to see it." "They're everywhere down here." "I think they know there's something here to eat and they're not sure what it is." "Oh, here comes two more." "At least six whites circled Rodney but none moves to attack." "Two swimming around at the surface." "Rodney, there's a sting ray behind you." "He'd better watch his tail." "Aware that nearly all attacks on humans occur near the surface they decide to raise the tube and see if the sharks grow more aggressive." "We had six, possibly eight sharks swimming around Rodney who appeared completely at their mercy and yet, not one of those sharks attacked him." "Though sight has not provoked an attack perhaps aggression will be triggered by sound, scent or the electrical fields emitted by all living things and detected by sharks." "Okay, people let's keep on our toes." "We're going to have three cages in the water this dive." "We're going to have six divers in." "Genie will be in the science cage with her team." "Rodney will be in the Lexan and the camera crew will be in the third." "Our cage had two clear plastic sides giving us a view nearly as good as Rodney's and to the sharks, we probably looked just as vulnerable." "Great whites have been documented as large as 20 feet and more than 7,000 pounds." "And there are unconfirmed reports of even larger individuals." "For all their size and power the great whites may simply be wary of devices and creatures never before encountered." "Yet an attack could come at any time from silent hunters that generally attack quietly from behind or below." "Rodney, there's a big one coming right at you." "Which direction is he coming?" "He's right on top of you." "It's scary the way they sneak up on you." "Great whites are believed to possess good long-range vision but, as the team looks on a near-collision occurs... perhaps evidence that their close-up vision is poor." "Genie just reached out and petted one." "Despite hours of circling, still no move toward Rodney." "Perhaps they aren't hungry." "For all their indifference to humans there is no mistaking their interest in tuna." "He cleaned up that tuna." "Like it was his first meal in a year." "Then he nonchalantly glides right by me as if I wasn't even here." "They're not the least bit interested in me." "They're still on the hors d'oeuvres." "Let's see what happens if we stop feeding them." "Rodney, we're going to stop chumming now." "Though blood still saturates the water bait is removed but for one fish dangled as a lure near the cage." "Oh, boy, look at that smile." "He's coming straight towards me, nose towards the cage." "Oh, he's going to hit the cage." "I've got to get a photograph of this." "Oops, he tried to bite the cage." "I've got to dance a bit 'cause my toes are hanging out." "Oh!" "He just bumped straight in with his nose into the cage and it wobbled like a jelly." "The shark now seems drawn more to the metal of the science cage than to the divers within... a result of sensory urges to test-bite anything creating electrical currents in water." "Here he comes back." "When Rodney was attacked in 1963, he was spearfishing." "The shark was probably attracted by the smell and thrashing sound of speared fish." "Now another great white heads aggressively for Rodney." "Oh, he's doing some tight circles." "Whoops, he's coming in." "I think he's going to attack." "He's going to bite the hose." "Pull the hose and the ropes in." "He's caught in the ropes." "He's caught in the ropes." "He's tangled." "He's trying to get away." "The diver's lost his air supply here." "Rodney's all right." "Yes!" "All right!" "Yes!" "Well, we were both okay, the shark and I." "I really believe that, in this case at least he was more curious than anything else." "He just got caught up in the ropes and was trying to get away." "I know that sharks, even white sharks are not the cold, mechanical eating machines of popular myth." "The truth is they've been around, thriving for so long with very few enemies until we entered their realm." "The legendary hunter that frightens humans enhances life in the sea." "Sharks may never inspire our affection like dolphins and whales but they are just as vital to the future of the ocean and as deserving of our appreciation and protection... not as monsters but ancient survivors with priceless secrets to share."