- 11 years ago
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00:00Ben Cropp is a famous shark hunter.
00:06His defence is to hold the spear between himself and the shark.
00:10Now armed only with a camera, he joins the shark a metre away.
00:15In 52 years of diving, there have been many changes in Ben's remarkable career.
00:22Ben began diving back in 1950 and became a champion spear fisherman at a time when the
00:28pristine reefs were teeming with fish.
00:31In 1963, he swapped his spear gun for an underwater camera and turned to making shark hunting
00:37films.
00:38Now, 40 years later, with more than 100 wildlife documentaries, Ben Cropp has become a living
00:45legend.
00:46This is the story of a shark hunter.
01:01Picturesque Port Douglas has been Ben's home base for the past 23 years.
01:06His little mate Tuffy enjoys a daily beach walk.
01:14Ben's vessel, Freedom, is parked right in front of his home.
01:18Old dive buddies regularly drop in.
01:25Former shark hunter and filmmaker John Harding has dived with Ben over the past 40 years.
01:30Good to see you.
01:31Yeah, likewise.
01:32Well, Ben, I like the new boat.
01:35You've certainly come a long way since those days of a 14-foot tinny.
01:38Well, before that, John, it was a surf ski for 10 years, you know, much, much smaller.
01:43Well, tell us about the early days.
01:45Well, I guess I had my first dive when I was about three, and that was up in Booker, in
01:50the Solomon Islands, where my father was a missionary.
01:53And I fell headfirst into our pool, bottoms up.
01:56And I would have drowned, only my sisters saw me and raced in, grabbed me and pulled
02:00me out.
02:01And I guess that started my love of the water in a strange way.
02:05But I also loved fishing.
02:07I was mad on fishing.
02:09About January 1950 in Ballina, I was watching these Torres Strait Islanders from a mission
02:15boat, and they were spearfishing.
02:17And they had primitive goggles and a long spear, and they were getting fish.
02:22And I thought, wow, you know, this looks like a good way of getting fish.
02:25So I went home and I made my own equipment.
02:28I got the inner tube of a motorcycle and fashioned a rubber mask, which had a pane of glass and
02:35a strap around it.
02:36And I got the foundry to make me a long spear.
02:40And off I went and started spearfishing.
02:42I guess I mucked around for a couple of years, didn't know whether I was any good, just brought
02:47home a feed.
02:49And then we moved up to Tweed Heads in 1953.
02:53And that's when I teamed up with two really top divers, Ron Cox and Frank Kirkham, who
02:58became Australian champions shortly afterwards.
03:01And that year they had the first Australian championship.
03:04And I got in the team, and surprisingly, we won.
03:09And I went on to win six Australian spearfishing titles and represented Australia at the world
03:16titles.
03:18I wasn't necessarily the best, John, in those days, but I had that determination and stamina.
03:23You know, I just refused to give up.
03:26And when I finally lost that, then I just couldn't win anymore.
03:30I always wanted to make my living out of diving, because I loved it so much.
03:34And I had two choices.
03:35One was abalone diving down south in the cold, and I went, no, thank you, or underwater filming.
03:42So I took that up, because that took me up into the warm climbs.
03:46And I took on the subject of sharks and shark hunting, because no one was really filming
03:52sharks in those days.
03:53Now, what you saw of me spearing sharks with an ordinary spear gun, I mean, that was good,
03:58but it was frightening, because sometimes, you know, I was pretty close to being chewed
04:02up.
04:03So a friend and I, we invented an explosive head that used a 12-gauge shotgun cartridge
04:09that screwed on the end of a hand spear.
04:11And when I lunged at the shark with this weapon, the shell exploded on impact, and the shark,
04:17well, it was just killed instantly by the shock.
04:20It was very effective on the slow-moving grey-nosed sharks, as you remember, John.
04:25And then other divers followed, and it became a sport.
04:28Almost put the grey nurse into extinction.
04:31Then another diver started to use a .303 Army Issue cartridge in the explosive head.
04:38And we found that was much more effective with the faster-moving sharks.
04:43Now, this uses a .303 Army Issue cartridge, and we have a movable firing pin here, so
04:49that when the whole lot is screwed up together, all it has to do is hit the shark, and this
04:54blasts the charge straight into the shark.
04:56And if it's hit anywhere in the head, it will kill it instantaneously.
04:59Originally, Ben's shark hunting began as a search for a repellent.
05:04Then the invention of the explosive head in 1963 was a new, instant confidence booster
05:09for all the adventurous.
05:11Yet it was to be misused by an over-enthusiastic minority.
05:18Now, you'd remember just how popular these shark hunting films became after Shark Hunters.
05:24And I ended up winning the International Underwater Photographer of the Year award
05:29just after Cousteau and Hans Hassett won it.
05:31Two diving legends.
05:34All because of a shark hunting film, the second one I did, called Shark Safari.
05:48Now I'm sorry for all this shark killing.
05:50In fact, I truly wish that we'd never designed the explosive head in the first place.
05:54Because I feel that, well, the shark is a beautiful, streamlined creature.
05:58He fits in well in the environment.
06:00He's not really the rest of us.
06:02And I feel that, well, even this shark has a right to live.
06:08Then along came the film Jaws, you know.
06:11Everyone had this massive fear of white sharks that didn't exist before.
06:16You may remember a promoter came to me and said,
06:19I'll give you a million dollars if you fight a great white.
06:23Bill Sargent, I think.
06:24And it was supposed to be a fight to the death.
06:27It got an enormous amount of publicity worldwide.
06:29Not good publicity, totally.
06:37Wasn't Evil Knievel and Muhammad Ali involved?
06:40They were to be the judges.
06:42Anyway, it never happened because the promoter died.
06:46And the shark lived.
06:47Well, the big change came for me in 1964.
06:51And I'm sure you recall that that's the time that George May and I
06:55met and rode on this absolute monstrous whale shark.
06:58Yeah, down at Montague.
06:59Yes, and it was front page headlines, you know, around the world.
07:03And it just changed me totally, you know,
07:06to be sitting on the back of this absolute giant.
07:09And I sort of thought after that, you know, who wants to go and kill sharks anymore?
07:15I stopped hunting sharks and I became a conservationist
07:19and I started doing films about the creatures rather than hunting them.
07:24Some people find it hard to believe that you're able to change,
07:27but you need that experience in order to see the light.
07:31That's right. It's a progression.
07:46I guess that was my greatest scoop, you know, up till then.
07:49And even National Geographic magazine used my photo as a three-page foldout.
07:56But a couple of years after that, John, I met another whale shark.
08:00And this was off Surfers Paradise.
08:02And at that time, they had a shark spotting plane up overhead
08:06and it was relaying live down to the people on the beach
08:10through the loudspeakers as to exactly what was going on.
08:15From a Skywatch aircraft, we've presently been circling a very large whale shark
08:19just been sighted off Main Beach.
08:20It's very large. This fish looks most spectacular from up here.
08:23The rest of the coast seems to be quite free of marine life,
08:26but this large fish is right off Main Beach,
08:28right about 200 yards out, swimming northbound.
08:31And we'll keep you advised as to its movements later on today.
08:34We believe Ben Croft is on his way down to have an attempt at righting this whale shark.
08:45These scenes of a giant, docile and harmless shark
08:49were a sensational hit worldwide,
08:51heralding a new and intelligent era in our attitude
08:54towards the most feared and most misunderstood denizen of the deep.
09:07Ben acknowledges that the earlier hunting era was a necessity,
09:12a natural progression to the popularity of scuba diving
09:16and the respect and protection of marine life.
09:21Well, Ben, out of all those books you've written,
09:23the first one, Handbook for Skin Divers, I really remember well.
09:27Instructions on how to make a spear gun were terrific
09:30and, of course, tips on underwater photography
09:32was exactly what I was after in those days.
09:34Ben, 50 years now, underwater experience.
09:37I guess the question everyone asks, though,
09:39but what was the worst experience you ever had with sharks?
09:42I remember the worst.
09:44And it was out in the Coral Sea and we want to film sharks
09:47so we did the usual thing of spearing fish.
09:49And that was fine, getting good footage.
09:51But then in came six more sharks at the end of it.
09:55They'd missed out on the food and they looked at me
09:57and probably thought, well, we're going to get this guy.
10:00And all six of them just screamed in at me.
10:03And I literally panicked, you know, I kicked backwards
10:06and at the same time I was kicking them, trying to kick them off me.
10:09I kept the camera running all the time that was happening
10:12and it seemed to go on for an eternity.
10:15I was totally exhausted.
10:17And then later when I replayed the film, it only lasted 15 seconds.
10:37Mostly I had close encounters with sharks in dangerous situations.
10:42Not necessarily, you know, life-threatening like that attack.
10:46For example, one time we found a leathery turtle.
10:49Now, leathery turtles are rare.
10:51And this leathery turtle was actually rolling around upside down.
10:55And then we realised that a great white shark was hanging around close by
11:00and this was an evasive tactic by the sharks.
11:04An evasive tactic by the turtles.
11:13Foolishly, I jumped in the water.
11:18The shark's back!
11:26Where's the turtle?
11:27I don't know, but the shark's back.
11:28What? Where?
11:29I don't know, he was here a minute ago, he's probably under the boat.
11:34And I got filmed, but I was very, very brief
11:36because as soon as that white turned away from the thrashing of the turtle
11:41and turned towards me, I thought, ah, he's going to take me instead.
11:45And I jumped out of the water quite quickly.
11:48Did you see him?
11:49Oh, yeah. I don't like him. Don't trust him at all.
11:52There he is.
11:55Big one, about four metres.
11:57Now, with great whites, it's really risky, you know, being in the water with them.
12:02And so in all my future filming with them, I really got in a cage.
12:06This was down at Albany in Western Australia
12:09and it was just before whaling was closed totally in Australia.
12:14And Hugh Edwards and I, we got this cage and we put it right beside this dead whale,
12:19this harpooned whale, and filmed the great whites coming in.
12:23And these sharks would come in and take dinner-size chunks
12:26out of the whales with each bite.
12:29The great white, or white pointer, is the most awesome marine animal of all.
12:34These sharks pursued migrating pods of whales to prey upon the weaker newborn.
12:39Or, in this example, the harpooned whales brought into the old whaling station
12:44at Albany, Western Australia.
12:59Then the shark would turn around and see us in the cage
13:03and would come up to the cage and ram the cage, bump it,
13:06and eventually it almost got too dangerous, you know, even to be in the cage.
13:29Another time we were out at Middleton Reef near Lord Howe Island
13:34and we wanted to do a feeding frenzy to film it.
13:37So we did the usual thing, we got a whole lot of fish carcasses,
13:40dropped them on the bottom, and very soon these whaler sharks came in.
13:44Not big ones, quite, you know, four or five foot.
13:47But there were dozens of them.
13:49In fact, we counted about 40.
13:51And these whalers were going in and out around us,
13:54almost between our legs, eating up this food.
13:57There was a certain amount of danger because, you know,
13:59to meet one shark or be bitten by one shark is bad enough.
14:03But with 40 sharks, you know, it really multiplies the risk.
14:23That's a lot of sharks. I'm glad I wasn't there.
14:25All the time that we were down there,
14:27we didn't realise that just beyond our vision was this big tiger shark.
14:32He was watching us, waiting for his turn to come in.
14:42And he didn't come in until we actually stopped filming the whalers.
14:46Well, Wally, in those days, was still mad keen on shark hunting,
14:51so he quickly grabbed a 303 head, screwed it on, jumped back in the water.
14:56It just came straight up at him.
14:58I mean, it probably was an attack.
15:00And Wally met it head on, hit it with the 303,
15:03and the shark just kept coming in a headlong rush,
15:07hit the surface, but was mortally wounded.
15:21Then a few years ago, I came across 200 sharks, big sharks,
15:26and they were feeding on these massive black pilchards
15:29off Cape Cuvie in Western Australia.
15:31I've never seen anything like it, these sharks just swimming in and out
15:35of these pilchards and rushing through and trying to grab the food.
15:39It was one of the... It was the greatest feeding frenzy that I'd ever witnessed.
15:43So I decided, well, I'd better get down amongst them
15:46and try and film them underwater.
15:48But when I got down there, it was just too dangerous,
15:51far too dangerous to get in the water.
15:53So I just used a simple method of putting the camera in over the dinghy,
15:57and I got wonderful shots.
15:59I got probably the same as if I was swimming and kept all my lens intact.
16:19And then after that, in came two whales, bride's whales,
16:23and they would come in and roll over and open their cavernous mouth
16:27and just swallow, you know, a tonne of pilchards.
16:31It was the most awesome feeding sight that I've ever witnessed.
16:36Wobbegong sharks are an endangered species,
16:39and also they're very important protectors of rock lobsters.
16:43These sharks eat the octopus that prey on the lobster.
16:48Catching a toe on a non-aggressive shark was acceptable in the 1960s, but not today.
16:54A young evocrop found it was fun playing with this leopard shark
16:58about 1967 off Tweed Heads.
17:08Crusher plates for teeth.
17:10A little leopard in captivity at Marineland has an octopus for lunch.
17:15There are a few underwater experiences that equal a close encounter with this giant.
17:20Ben Suns joined Dad's expedition to Western Australia's Ningaloo Reef
17:24to swim with the plankton-eating whale sharks.
17:28Dean and Adam were the first to try it,
17:31and it was a great experience.
17:33It was a great experience.
17:35It was a great experience.
17:37It was a great experience.
17:39It was a great experience.
17:41It was a great experience.
18:09Ben Crop's earliest inspirations came from his fascination with the sea
18:34and the drive of a young man with a quest for knowledge
18:37in what was then an unknown realm.
18:41An early form of professional diving was to capture sharks alive with a spear gun.
18:47This now primitive technique actually worked very well.
18:50Ben places his spear in the dorsal fin of a grey nurse shark
18:54he once alive for Marineland on the Gold Coast.
18:58A grey nurse will give birth to a pair of pups,
19:08but often the first shark to develop will cannibalise the other before birth.
19:12Marineland was a landmark attraction on the Gold Coast,
19:20and Ben was one of the original owners.
19:23Grey nurse sharks adapt well in captivity,
19:26being twilight and nocturnal hunters,
19:28they have a docile nature by day.
19:33Eva Cropped wouldn't attempt this type of contact with the same shark in the wild.
19:56At dinner parties Ben's mango daiquiris are a specialty.
20:05Ben still loves to spear fish and today's catch is on the menu.
20:09His own recipe for battered fish on the barbie is simply delicious.
20:16November 16, 1977.
20:19Ben's expedition in search of the famous Pandora
20:22made Australia's maritime discovery of the century.
20:26Lost since 1791 on the far northern section of the Great Barrier Reef,
20:31the Pandora was returning to England with some of the captured mutineers of Captain Bly's bounty.
20:37Dean and Adam's mother Lynne Cropp and Wally Gibbons
20:41are in the process of salvaging the large earthenware jar.
20:48This British naval ship is a significant time capsule of history
20:52and the most important maritime archaeological discovery in Australia.
21:00The salvaged relics now fill an entire museum in Townsville.
21:16In what has become a 40-year quest involving all of Australia's vast coastline,
21:21Ben has now found more than a hundred sunken ships.
21:32Rising compressed air rapidly expands through this tube.
21:36This creates an underwater vacuum cleaner.
21:39Sand is removed to reveal whatever treasures lie hidden below.
21:51An antique brass lamp is in great condition despite a century in the sea.
22:17The assignment of brass alarm clocks also survive well in the depths.
22:25The non-government sponsored salvage of any shipwreck in Australian waters
22:29more than 75 years old is now forbidden.
22:33Divers are still allowed to explore the wrecks, but relics must remain untouched.
22:39That's the sperm whale oil.
22:42That's what started off all the sperm whales being slaughtered.
22:45This one's in very good nick.
22:48October 21, 1884. That dates the wreck.
23:08For scuba divers worldwide, their most popular shipwreck
23:11is off Cape Bowling Green just south of Townsville.
23:15Here, the 3,500-ton steamship Yungala
23:19disappeared during a cyclone back in 1911 with all 137 hands on board.
23:26There were no survivors.
23:30Few had dived the wreck since it was discovered.
23:33Then, in 1977, Ben, Lynn and Wally
23:37begin a salvage to establish what was to become
23:39Ben Cropps Shipwreck Museum in Port Douglas.
23:47On the first deep penetration of the wreck,
23:49Lynn locates a storeroom of spare brass lanterns which are nicely preserved.
23:57Ben, of all the shipwrecks you've taken me to,
23:59the Yungala's the one I enjoyed the most.
24:03Well, we certainly took a lot of stuff off her in the early days.
24:07We can't do that anymore.
24:11Years of marine growth and a partial collapse of the steel structure
24:15make Wally's discovery of the Yungala Bell even more significant.
24:24Any similar future discoveries to equal this
24:27seems certain to come from the technically difficult realm of very deep diving.
24:42It's heavy.
24:43I'll say it's heavy.
24:44I think I've solved the mystery of why it sunk.
24:46All the portholes on the wreck are open.
24:49Some of them are closed, but they haven't been dogged down.
24:51Oh, that's right. That other one was closed, but it wasn't there.
24:55This means probably when the cyclone hit it, the porthole being open,
24:58she's got into a heavy seaway and all the water's come in through the portholes,
25:01and she's found it.
25:02Yeah, well, if she heeled over to the wind in the cyclone
25:04and all the water poured in one side, she'd go down.
25:07Because she's laying on the side, too.
25:09That's right.
25:10She's going down like that.
25:11Yeah, well, this could be the answer to the mystery.
25:13Yeah, well, might clean it up. It's a good little relic somewhere.
25:18Cracked, eh?
25:19Look at this.
25:20Adelaide Steamship Company.
25:22Yeah.
25:23Isn't that good?
25:24It's got a brand name on it.
25:27How would you like to eat your tea off this tonight?
25:30I think we'd have to give them a wash first.
25:34The ultimate find, the ship's belt.
25:37There's that, eh?
25:55The importance of the Yongala's relics
25:58occupy a large section of Ben's shipwreck museum.
26:10It's looking pretty good now.
26:12This cannon has been sitting for the last ten months
26:15in the special treatment bath,
26:17but now all I've got to do is dry it out in the sun
26:21and give it a couple of coats of epoxy varnish.
26:24But the sea has treated this cannon pretty harshly
26:26whilst it's been on the reef.
26:28It's full of corroded pockmarks, but it is fully preserved,
26:32and soon it'll be on display in my shipwreck museum.
26:35Now, relics like this are a time capsule of our past,
26:38and that's why I find wreck hunting such a rewarding adventure.
26:42Pencroft Shipwreck Museum was established in 1980
26:45and is now relocated in Cairns.
26:48The museum is operated by the local Maritime Archaeological Association,
26:53who now care for a lifetime's work of collecting
26:56these historic treasures of the Australian sea.
27:19You know, John, bureaucracy's really dampened my enthusiasm
27:23for going out these days and, you know, search for sunken ships.
27:27The government now has regulated that any shipwreck over 75 years old
27:32is deemed to be historic.
27:34You can't touch it.
27:35And yet there's hundreds of shipwrecks out there,
27:38even yet to be discovered, that are not historic.
27:41They're just shipwrecks.
27:43And if you find a wreck and you don't report that that's a crime,
27:47Really?
27:48Oh, yes.
27:49But worst of all is if you take a relic off it, disturb the shipwreck,
27:53even if it's for my museum, that's a big crime.
27:56And you can go to jail, or you can pay a horrendous fine for it.
28:00For making a discovery?
28:02Well, if you make a discovery and do nothing else, that's all right.
28:06But the moment you touch things or take something out of there,
28:10that becomes a crime.
28:12And it's really, you know, it's really curbed my enthusiasm.
28:15And I do miss those old days of discovery and salvage.
28:22A passion that's never been dampened
28:24is Ben's love of diving the Great Barrier Reef.
28:27His base at Port Douglas is right on the doorstep
28:30of the greatest coral wonderland in the world.
28:33This is Ben's role.
29:15The Great Barrier Reef
29:46The Great Barrier Reef
29:50The Great Barrier Reef
30:13Well, Lynne Roberts, you're a very graceful diver.
30:15How did you get into diving?
30:17It was while I was filming my first film with Ben in Benawatu.
30:20I did a dive course on the President Coolidge.
30:23And that's a massive, spectacular shipwreck.
30:26And it's the best in the world.
30:29And it was around the time when Ben received his Order of Australia.
30:33Ah, could we see the medal by any chance?
30:35I'd love to show you.
30:39The Order of Australia
30:41A great honour and recognition for services
30:44to marine conservation and wildlife documentaries.
31:00Another big achievement for Ben,
31:02with the help of Valerie Taylor and the Sydney media,
31:05was to convince the government to protect
31:07the colony of performing potato cod
31:09at the now famous Cod Hole.
31:15The battle to save the coast from overdevelopment
31:18and to protect existing mangroves
31:20was far from easy.
31:22Ben lost many battles at first,
31:24before the tide turned in favour of the environmentalists.
31:33The deadly box jellyfish.
31:35While testing an Aboriginal cure for its sting,
31:38the adventurer becomes a guinea pig
31:40in the name of scientific research.
31:42I'm hurting on this arm, I'm hurting on this,
31:44and it leaves the legs.
31:46It's OK, I guess the inner thigh, that's very sensitive,
31:48just whack it on there.
31:52I'm sorry that I said that, it hurts!
31:55That's a very sensitive area.
31:58OK, take it away.
32:01OK, try this stuff.
32:05There's not even any juice coming out.
32:07I remember the Aborigines rubbed it,
32:09but they didn't like that
32:11because all they started doing
32:13is making any nematocysts fire again.
32:16Is it working?
32:19Vinegar, vinegar.
32:23A bit more.
32:26Look at the redness there.
32:28That's better?
32:30Forget about this one, I'm stuck with vinegar.
32:32I'm going to lie down.
32:35This is the Great Barrier Reef,
32:37wonderful, beautiful, and alive.
32:41But soon it may well be one of the few
32:44remaining live reefs around the world,
32:47because around the world the coral reefs are dying.
32:51Scientists predict that within 20 years
32:54one third of the world's coral reefs will be dead,
32:58and in 40 years, two thirds will be dead.
33:02Some of the reefs are dead already,
33:04and the causes are many,
33:06but mostly it's man's interference with nature.
33:10Ben travelled the world to assess the disaster
33:12and meet with leading authorities.
33:14Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic,
33:16they're in really bad state.
33:18People are overusing reefs
33:20and exploiting them too heavily.
33:22There's too much stress on coral reefs
33:24by human populations.
33:26Actually, a few years ago,
33:29Actually, a few years ago,
33:31the coral around here are very, very good.
33:34But when we have development,
33:36particularly tourist development,
33:38that causes a lot of deterioration to the reef.
33:41Grecian used to be a vast coral gardens
33:44from one end to the other.
33:46Beautiful, beautiful Elkhorn coral,
33:48particularly on the southern end of Grecian rocks.
33:51Now there today, the Elkhorn coral is still there,
33:54but it's skeletons, it's all dead
33:56but it's skeletons, it's all dead
33:58and taken over by algae.
34:00The latest of many awards
34:02is a tribute to 50 years of diving.
34:11Ben's busy organising yet another filming expedition,
34:14a television series up north.
34:17Adam Kropp and Pete West
34:19load food for sharks.
34:22Lin and Tuffy are regular crew.
34:26Boom!
34:30Dean is Ben's elder son.
34:32Both the Kropp boys share their dad's love for the sea.
34:36Ben is multi-talented,
34:38a film producer, director and cameraman,
34:41astute to include his family in adventures with broad appeal.
34:47That wharf is Ben's old home.
34:50He lived there for 20 years.
34:57The quest this time, tiger sharks,
35:0015 nautical miles off Port Douglas.
35:11Too many bombs here, Adam.
35:15I can't get through here.
35:19I'll get around to the left.
35:27CLICK
35:32Very shallow, two metres.
35:35A lot of reef, isn't there?
35:37Like a labyrinth.
35:39The passage into Bad Reef Lagoon
35:41is a treacherous maze of coral outcrops.
35:44This looks good.
35:46Nice big sandy area.
35:48We can see the sharks from a long way away.
35:51I think we'll drop anchor.
35:57Drift a fair way out.
36:03This is great, this pole camera.
36:05You know, we have an old saying,
36:07there's bold divers, there's old divers,
36:10but there's no old bold divers.
36:13And when I was young like you,
36:15I used to do silly things with sharks.
36:17As you get older, you get more cautious.
36:19You still get the same shots,
36:21but when things get nasty, I take this pole camera.
36:24I use that and I won't get bitten.
36:35In tropical waters, tiger sharks are known
36:37to come into very shallow water day and night,
36:40looking for sleeping rays and turtles.
36:43It's now a matter of watch and wait.
36:46Can you load this, please?
36:48We might need it.
36:50OK, do you want the red filter?
36:52No, we're going to stay in the shallows.
36:57Adam is following in the footsteps of his dad
37:00and is already an accomplished cameraman
37:02and commercial diver.
37:09The camera's ready, Dad.
37:14Two hours later,
37:16low tide,
37:18a solitary shark
37:20and its shadow appears.
37:22Yes, you're excited, Tuff.
37:24We're going to get a big shark soon.
37:28Roll, Adam.
37:30Rolling.
37:35Dean, just pull it in slowly, slowly.
37:38Pull it in, just a little bit.
37:45Oh, this is great, Adam.
37:48Beautiful shark.
37:53Tawny sharks are not dangerous,
37:55but their feeding activity will send signals
37:57to the tigers that food is available.
38:00The pole camera is unobtrusive,
38:02unlike a diver with a camera.
38:06Now there are two tawnies.
38:18Come on, tawnies.
38:22Go for it.
38:40Dad, there's a lemon coming in over here.
38:47Go for it.
39:13Oh, a little bite.
39:15Let's put together another one.
39:17He's left one on the bottom.
39:19See, over there.
39:21You want to jump in and get it?
39:31He's up again.
39:33I can see a shark there, Dean.
39:35Is it dark?
39:37Yeah, he's dark.
39:39About how long?
39:41Oh, he's about three metres.
39:43Just ease it in.
39:45Right up behind it.
39:47Slowly bring it in.
40:06Oh, the tiger took it all.
40:08I'll have to try again tomorrow.
40:14What about a night dive, Dad?
40:16No way, Adam.
40:18There's too many tigers out here.
40:20Just too dangerous.
40:22They come in at this time of the night
40:24in the shallows to feed.
40:26You know, about 30 years ago,
40:28when I was young and silly,
40:30we went down and fed sharks.
40:32At night, took lamps down.
40:34It worked fine at first.
40:36I mean, spooky, really spooky.
40:44The sharks came up,
40:46took the fish from us,
40:48and we thought, wow, this is good.
40:58So we came back up
41:00and got more fish,
41:02and we got a really big fish,
41:04and thought, OK, this is going to make good film.
41:14Out of the gloom
41:16came this big shark,
41:18and he came up to the fish,
41:20and just as he opened his mouth
41:22right up to grab it,
41:24the lamp blew.
41:26It was just a panic.
41:28I mean, it just went absolutely black.
41:30I had no idea where the shark was.
41:32My last vision was a metre away
41:34with his mouth open,
41:36and we just all went straight to the surface,
41:38hit the surface fast.
41:40Oh, lamp blew.
41:42That'll get them in.
41:44You and Adam, you know,
41:46you've been in so many of my films,
41:48and people have actually watched you
41:50grow up in each of those films.
41:52That one just sounded like Star Wars.
42:00There's three titans now.
42:02They're all circling.
42:04It means really much to me.
42:06Watch out. Watch out.
42:14Do you feel that you've benefited from all this?
42:16Yeah, absolutely.
42:18People twice my age haven't seen the things
42:20or been to the places I've been.
42:26It's just so much fun.
42:28It's just so much fun.
42:30It's just so much fun.
42:32It's just so much fun.
42:34All I wanted to do
42:36was sit down for a rest.
42:38Move away.
42:50Making documentaries,
42:52it's been a really, really good head start
42:54into becoming a news cameraman.
42:56I use things I've learned out here,
42:58out in the water,
43:00and shooting animals.
43:02Into everyday shooting life
43:04back in Sydney.
43:06And also you've got the advantage
43:08that you can do underwater for them.
43:10I love underwater.
43:12It's the most enjoyable part of my job
43:14when I get to.
43:20The sharks are not attracted
43:22to the bait,
43:24but Ben knows the tigers live here
43:26and often prowl the shallow lagoon.
43:32The former shark hunter
43:34knows he has to go out
43:36and find them.
43:42In today's high-tech world,
43:44Ben still follows his golden rule
43:46with underwater equipment.
43:48Keep everything as simple as possible,
43:50especially when filming sharks.
44:02That reef is home
44:04to lots of large marine creatures
44:06including big stingrays,
44:08a natural food of the tigers.
44:12His turn.
44:14He's moved off.
44:16He's going around this way.
44:20The tiger is about
44:22four metres long,
44:24cruising in water barely
44:26two metres deep.
44:30He's got a big mouth.
44:32He's got a big mouth.
44:34He's got a big mouth.
44:36He's got a big mouth.
44:38He's got a big mouth.
44:40He's got a big mouth.
44:42He's got a big mouth.
44:46Just a little to the right.
44:48That tiger's rolling on his side
44:50and he's looking back at me
44:52as he's swimming away.
44:58He's chasing something.
45:12Taking a calculated risk, feeding tigers are not easily distracted once their mind is set
45:20on their prey.
45:29I got close but I didn't like it at all, I think I swallowed the rest from the dinghy.
45:41Adam, there's some splashing, 200 metres, this way, it's a tiger, he's after a turtle.
45:50He's got it, he's got it by the flipper, it's getting closer.
46:00Just a little closer, that's it.
46:08Oh, that's wild, really wild.
46:15Young dugong make a favourite meal when a tiger is hungry.
46:19These strange looking air breathing mammals are often seen on bat reef but are shy and
46:25difficult to approach underwater.
46:37Ben feels and sees no danger, the lagoon is shallow and clear with Adam on lookout,
46:54the shape of a shark could be seen 100 metres away.
46:58You're not afraid of sharks, are you, he doesn't know about sharks, he thinks they're toys.
47:26As you know Dean, I've seen enormous changes in my 50 years of diving, in fact my shark
47:32hunting exploits, I mean the killing of those sharks, that pales into insignificance when
47:37you look at the millions and millions of sharks that are killed every year just to make shark
47:42fin soup and all around the world the coral reefs are dying, countries where I've dived
47:47and there were absolutely beautiful coral reefs, now there's only 5% of that live coral
47:53left.
47:54In a way I feel fortunate that I've lived in an era where I've been there at the beginning,
48:01I've been the first to dive or discover something, I've dived on these absolute pristine reefs.
48:08I think sadly you're never going to see what I saw 30, 40, 50 years ago and in a way I
48:16feel that nature has lost its virginity and it's never going to come back.
48:30Ben receives his greatest honour, at the Cayman Islands he is inducted into the first international
48:36scuba divers hall of fame, in attendance are the world's diving greats.
48:41It is especially fulfilling for me to welcome you to the official launch of the international
48:47scuba diving hall of fame.
48:49Talk about success, Ben Cropp, how did Ben get there?
48:54Well he started out as a spear fisherman, he was a champion, but one day he traded in
49:00the spear gun for camera and this is what I find so fascinating, these pioneers that
49:08started so long ago and are still working at their craft today, it's as though none
49:14of us want to give up what has become our passion in life.
49:19So at this time I'd like to invite Ben to come up here and receive his.
49:25G'day everyone, 50 years ago it was a very humble, quite primitive beginning, I guess
49:41my real hero was Hans Tass, which I'm very, very sorry not to see here tonight because
49:47he's a very dear friend, but go back 50 years ago, Hans was my hero and as a 14 year old
49:55I wanted to be just like Hans Tass and have a girl like Lottie, go out diving, I think
50:01I went through a few Lotties in my lifetime, but I'm very, very pleased to be up here
50:11receiving an award along with people like Hans Tass and Jacques Cousteau, thank you.
50:17This is the swan song of Ben's extraordinary career, first the Order of Australia and now
50:23the Hall of Fame.
50:31Some of diving legends have recently passed away, Jean Michel, the son of Jacques Cousteau,
50:37pays tribute to the memory of his famous father.
50:55Ben Cropp's life of adventure has now passed the half-century mark.
51:01He is by far the most successful person in his field, a champion and a mentor to divers
51:07the world over.
51:11His work brings a better understanding of the mysteries of the sea, we are all richer
51:15for this.
51:17Ben will continue with more ocean adventures, for his underwater world of corals, shipwrecks
51:23and sharks is truly his way of life.
51:27Watch out, watch out, watch out, watch out.
51:35Hi Ben.
51:37Good to see you.
51:39That's nice, the blister pearls.
51:41Yeah, that's one of our ones from Broome.
51:43See you.
51:45How are you Ben?
51:47Good, how's that one, thanks.
51:49Yep, he's a beauty that one.
51:51Hey, what have you been doing with yourself?
51:53Oh, the usual, filming sharks.
51:55Good to see you.
51:57What a beautiful sunset.
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