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00:00Good evening. I'm Emmett Miller. Is it possible that a prehistoric shark measuring 70 feet long
00:16and weighing 50 tons is still roaming our oceans today? One year ago, the Discovery Channel aired
00:23the documentary Megalodon, The Monster Shark Lives, after a deadly incident involving a
00:28fishing boat in South Africa.
00:33After that attack, marine biologist Colin Drake examined the sunken fishing vessel and started
00:52comparing it to other incidents that have happened around the world. His conclusion, Megalodon
00:58is still among us. In the wake of that documentary, reactions from the scientific community were
01:04mixed. There's undoubtedly more to this world than we know. I have to remain skeptical until
01:10any hard evidence is found. But the response from the public, with many people claiming
01:16sightings of their own, has only added fuel to the fire. And it was like a big wave and
01:21we thought, okay, something is going on, something is under the boat.
01:25All the seals are scurrying up the rocks, they're fleeing from something.
01:28I was looking out the airplane window and I noticed this huge shadow in the water.
01:33More than 26 million people experienced the documentary since it aired last year, with around 70% convinced
01:40by the evidence that Megalodon is still out there. It spawned a wave of mania that spread
01:46from social media to video games and even celebrity shout outs. And now, there are reports of an
01:56enormous cannibal shark prowling the waters in Australia. Many are convinced it's Megalodon.
02:03Megalodon. Drake has spent the last year pursuing all the new leads, from physical evidence, to
02:10satellite photos, to eyewitness video, and he reveals his findings tonight in Megalodon, the new evidence.
02:19What the f**k?
02:21We welcome to our studio the man at the center of this heated controversy, Mr. Colin Drake.
02:29Thanks for joining us, Colin.
02:31Pleasure. Thanks for having me.
02:32So, what about all the reaction this story's been getting?
02:34Yeah, you know, as you saw from the responses, it was kind of a mixed bag, but it was encouraging
02:39to see some people are open to a big claim like this.
02:41A big claim. That's putting it mildly. What leads you to the conclusion that Megalodon is
02:45really still out there?
02:47Well, because of the, you know, the initial attack on that boat, the way that it was ran from underneath,
02:51the fact that it was essentially bitten in half, uh, the evidence all said shark, and the biggest
02:57shark of all time.
02:58You realize, of course, critics are going to point out that Megalodon
03:01disappeared from the fossil records two million years ago.
03:04Yeah, you know, uh, yeah, that's true, but as we discussed in the documentary, this is an
03:08established phenomenon. There's even a name for it, the Lazarus taxon.
03:11Lazarus, kind of like the biblical Lazarus.
03:13Who was raised from the dead, yeah. Uh, you know, the most famous example is the coelacan,
03:17thought to have gone extinct 65 million years ago. Uh, and then in 1938, it was discovered,
03:22coincidentally, just off of the coast of South Africa. Uh, you've also got the Megamoth shark,
03:26only found in 1976. Uh, the giant squid is only recently found, and the pygmy wright whale,
03:31thought to have gone extinct two million years ago, was also only recently discovered.
03:35These are some pretty large animals we're talking about here.
03:38Yeah, sure. I mean, you know, you have to remember how large the oceans are,
03:40though. They cover two-thirds of the planet. Uh, you know, take a look at this, the recent
03:44tragedy with that missing jet from Malaysia. Now, that's a 777. You know, it's got transponder
03:49communication. It's got radar tracking. It's meant to not get lost, and it disappeared in the ocean. So,
03:53if that can stay hidden for such a long time, then why not a reclusive shark?
03:58All right. So, you claim that you found additional leads in this past year that actually say that
04:03Megalodon still exists. Yeah, I have. All right. One of those is a nighttime sailing expedition. We'll
04:07get to that in just a minute. Pretty hard coming across that video. That was a journey in itself.
04:11Catch us up just a little bit. You're in South Africa when we last left you. Right. When you were there,
04:16you had an up-close encounter with what could have been, or in your case, what you say was Megalodon. Right.
04:20Yeah. We had people in the water, and they managed to put an electronic tag in it. But,
04:24unfortunately, it went offline almost immediately. All right. So, what happened after that? Uh,
04:28right after that, nothing happened, unfortunately. Uh, for five months,
04:31the investigation hit a dead end. Uh, there were no more leads, no more incidents. And you guys are
04:35monitoring the water the whole time? Correct. Yeah. We had none of the water
04:38camera going. We took regular sonar readings, but there was nothing, you know, nothing of that size
04:42that could have taken on that boat. We're seeing some of that footage now as we speak. Right. Uh,
04:46so, while that was striking out, I, I tried to identify other places this creature might have
04:50gone. And, uh, I used great white behavior as a guide. Is that because great whites and megalodon
04:55are apex predators, basically top of the food chain? Yeah, sure. Um, you know, and also,
04:59we've learned some really surprising things about, uh, great whites over this past decade. For
05:02instance, we used to think that they were exclusively coastal creatures, uh, staying near to seals and
05:07other shallow water prey. But a tagging project in California proved that they not only wander far into
05:11the ocean, they'll stay there for months at a time. Doing what? Uh, we're not sure.
05:17Could have to do with their mating habits or their feeding habits. But it got me thinking that
05:20maybe the creature that we tagged was in deeper waters too. Uh, so I put word out to shipping
05:24companies, other maritime operations crossing the Atlantic to keep an eye out. It's a big ocean
05:29though. It's like a needle in a haystack though. So no leads there? No, not for those five months.
05:33Uh, at which point the South African government declared that I was creating a shark fear that
05:37wasn't necessary. And, uh, so they declared there was no megalodon and the investigation was over.
05:42So basically the government just pulled the plug on you. Yeah. Yanked it out. Yeah.
05:47So how do you go about finding new evidence without funding? I tried to fund things as much
05:51as I could on my own. Uh, but the good news was the documentary got my name out there. So people
05:56from all around the world started sending in new leads. All right. The question is how many of
05:59these are credible? Most were not, you know, I mean, it took some time to sit through them all.
06:04All right. We do have one that was going around the internet. We want to show folks at home
06:08labeled as megalodon hiding in the Marianas trench. There it is fish cruising by and then look at the
06:13size of the thing that's coming up next to it. Whoa. Right. Yeah. Without scale, it looks pretty impressive.
06:18Um, you know, if that first fish is the size of, let's say, a tiger shark, then this new guy is
06:23definitely a monster, but proper skill is provided by that bait cage. Let's roll that one more time
06:27just to get a good look at it. Right. Okay. There. So, so that's a standard size bait cage. It's about
06:31two feet across. So this monster, while definitely large at about 23 feet, it's no megalodon. It's a
06:37type of sleeper shark. Um, and also this footage is taken, uh, in a bay just off of Japan, which is
06:42about 6,000 feet deep, not 36,000 feet, uh, like the Marianas where the pressure would crush a shark.
06:48And we've got some other megalodon, alleged megalodon leads for you to check out like this one.
06:52Right. Yeah. Some of these. And another one trying to grab a helicopter.
06:56Yeah. People are pretty creative with their photo software. How about this one?
06:59That one actually happened. All right. But seriously, how difficult was it for you to
07:04find legitimate new leads? Uh, it was tough. Uh, but in November, I got some video evidence
07:09that couldn't be ignored. All right. Tell. Uh, well, the footage was taken one night, uh, from a sailboat
07:15crossing the Atlantic, which fit my search parameters, uh, going from North Africa to the Caribbean.
07:20Um, and the footage was taken pretty early in the trip one night, just off of Cape Verde.
07:24All right. Let's take a look at that.
07:27Hey, got a pod of, I'm counting about six whales that I've seen so far heading North.
07:34Hey there, Big Bertha! What's shaking?
07:37Big Bertha! The Caribbean's great this time of year! Spin on around and we'll go share a-
07:44Whoa! What the ?
07:47All right. It's pretty intense. But what exactly was it? That's the question. To give us more
07:58insight into that video, we welcome via satellite the man who actually shot it, Jake Skelton,
08:02coming to us live from his latest adventures along the Amalfi Coast. Mr. Skelton, welcome.
08:08Hey, how you doing? First, give us a little background. What was going on at the time that
08:12footage was shot? You know, a buddy and I have been wanting to do a trans-ocean trip,
08:17so we charted a route from the Canary Islands to Martinique in early November when you can ride
08:22the trades across the Atlantic. All right, so tell us about this night. What exactly were you doing?
08:29Okay, it was our fourth night at sea. I was above deck while my shipmate was napping in the galley.
08:34Moon was about a quarter full and I spotted some whales off the stern and I decided to film them.
08:39Uh, if I may, even with the moonlight, you can see from the shape of the large round foreheads
08:45that these are sperm whales. Now, these guys get up to about 60 feet long, just in case you're
08:49wondering about the scale here. All right, let's take a look at that footage again.
08:55The Caribbean's great this time of year. Spin on around and we'll go share our-
08:59Whoa! What the ?
09:04Honestly, my reaction to this, it's heart-stopping, but I can't tell what it is. Mr. Skelton,
09:09do you have any idea what you just saw?
09:13No, no. I mean, I could guess, but there was no way to know for sure.
09:17So, what are you thinking?
09:20I was thinking I wanted to get the hell off the water, you know? Because we're sitting there in
09:24just a 30-foot sloop and, I mean, I had seen Colin's documentary last summer.
09:29All right, but listen, couldn't this just be one whale breaching on top of another? Wouldn't that be the
09:34most logical explanation? Well, when Jay contacted me about the footage, you know,
09:38I considered all the options, a breaching whale being the obvious first choice, but
09:42then I started to work with the video, adjusting the contrast, and what I saw was pretty telling.
09:47All right, I'm interested to see that.
09:48The Caribbean's great this time of year! Spin on around, and we'll go share-
09:54What the f**k? What the f**k?
09:58All right, now we're seeing something that could be a giant shark.
10:00Yeah, I'm sure of it, and you'll notice, too-
10:02Hang on, just a second. I want to see the freeze frame of that if we can.
10:04I'm sorry, go ahead.
10:05Right, okay, so there, that looks like a tapered snout, and the twist of the body shows what could be
10:11the tip of a pronounced dorsal fin. So you're saying that those features rule out another whale, right?
10:17Yeah, exactly, and the animal is attacking one of the larger whales in the pod, and the attacker is
10:21even bigger. I'm estimating 65 to 68 feet. Now, that's enormous. Yeah, sure. Well, remember,
10:26Megalon was assumed to consume 2,500 pounds of food a day, so they'll take on the largest whale,
10:32giant squids, anything. Mr. Skelton, if I may, what was your reaction when you saw this enhanced image?
10:36Well, I realize I wasn't paranoid, that's for sure. I mean, seeing it now gets me pretty rattled.
10:46I think I'm pretty lucky. I'd say so. Now, Drake, this is a strong find. Has this video silenced any
10:52of your critics? Not as many as you might think, but I knew in order to make my case,
10:57I'd need more than just one video. All right, and you've got some more evidence coming up next,
11:00is that correct? I do, yeah. All right, we'll get to that in just a second first. Mr. Skelton,
11:04thank you very much for sharing your story with us. Yeah, you bet. When we come back,
11:10we're going to sink our teeth into what might be the strongest evidence yet that Megalodon is still
11:15alive today. Plus, what do these shots of great whites have to do with the Megalodon mystery? But
11:21first, Drake presents a satellite picture that could be worth a thousand words.
11:42And we're back with Colin Drake, the man who investigated the monster shark Megalodon off the
11:47shores of South Africa last year. He's just presented us with a new video that appears to
11:51show Megalodon attacking a whale near Cape Verde. And now he says he's got even more evidence that'll
11:57validate this animal's existence. Colin, when did you find this new evidence? It came to my attention
12:02in January. Okay, and where's it from? Well, the source is a United States government agent who
12:07wishes to remain nameless. The evidence itself is from Brazil. Now, Brazil, that's got to ring a bell,
12:12right? Yeah, yeah, Megalodon's been sighted in those waters before. Okay, let's first see that clip.
12:17This is last year's documentary. Right, it was taken by the Coast Guard during a rescue op in 2012.
12:23Wow, look at that, that huge shape in the water. All right, so what's the new evidence now? A
12:30satellite photo near Sao Paulo. All right, this I want to see. Let's take a look at that.
12:35It was taken by NASA and it caused some immediate concern amongst the environmental community.
12:39All right, first blush, it looks like a giant oil spill, right? That was the fear. Yeah,
12:44you know, there's a lot of offshore drilling along the Brazilian coast. Fortunately, though,
12:47it turned out to be a swarm of microbes known as marionecta rubra, and they're not hazardous to
12:52marine life. Why was this brought to your attention, then? Well, during the initial investigation,
12:57the agent who was studying the swarm noticed something out in the water. Okay, kind of a speck.
13:03Yeah, well, at this resolution, it's a speck. When they zoomed in, though, they got this.
13:07It's a little fuzzy, but I'd say that's a shark. And not just any shark. If you look at this other
13:14satellite photo I brought, it was taken at the same resolution of a school bus yard in nearby
13:19Sao Paulo. Now, those are 40-foot buses, and when you compare them next to the first photo,
13:24I'd say that's a 70-foot shark. All right, let's ask the obvious first question here. Do you really
13:29think that this is the same animal that was spotted two months earlier on the other side of the ocean at
13:34Cape Verde? Look, that's a 3,000-mile trip. And, you know, it sounds like a lot, but great whites have
13:39been tracked going 1,500 miles in a month. So for Megalodon, that would be nothing. Also, sharks are
13:44known to revisit old haunts. Great whites, for instance, have been tagged leaving the east coast
13:49of the U.S., going on a random winding trip through the North Atlantic, and then returning a year later,
13:54almost to the day, to the same spot that they were tagged. So similar behavior for Megalodon makes
13:58complete sense. If indeed this is Megalodon. And to broach that question, we've invited an expert
14:04on satellite reconnaissance to weigh in on this whole thing. Linda Strong is from the Media Relations
14:09Department, the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. She joins us live now via satellite tonight.
14:15Miss Strong, welcome. Hi. First off, how much of your agency's work is actually devoted to maritime
14:21surveillance? Uh, quite a bit, actually. I mean, the Earth's surface is 71 percent water, so while
14:28that's not where most people are, it definitely commands our attention. You've seen these photos
14:34already, yes? I have. And your immediate reaction? Uh, it's certainly fun to speculate, isn't it?
14:44But while the object definitely appears large on the scale that Mr. Drake suggests,
14:48this. My first reaction is to consider whether it's some type of flotsam. What type of flotsam could
14:54it be? It could be virtually anything transported via cargo ship. Inventory falls overboard more than
15:02anyone would care to admit. But this item? For instance, this could be a bundle of industrial ducting
15:08or of lumber. Maybe even an entire shipping container. Drake? Shipping container? Look, I appreciate
15:16Miss Strong's deliberate nature. I, you know, I do. But this looks decidedly animalistic to me,
15:20you know, from the, the pointed ends to the pretty obvious appendages. Miss Strong, what say you? Could
15:26it be an animal? Sure, it could. Though I would surmise a whale or a whale shark first. If I may, sorry. Um,
15:34if you look at this picture, there's a definite line on this creature's back, which suggests a full-sized
15:39dorsal fin. Now, that rules out any large whale. Then, when you look at the front, it comes to a point.
15:44Megamouths and whale sharks have got round heads. I got some photos here to demonstrate that.
15:49Okay. I think we've got those up right now. Sure. Okay. Now, the, the basking shark would be the
15:53best example, as it does have a tapered snout. But notice the pectoral fins are much higher on its
15:58body. There's a space between them and the dorsal. On this animal, the back of the pectorals lines up with
16:04the front of the dorsal, much more like a predatory great white. Of course, great whites don't get this
16:08large, and neither do any of these other sharks, so. Okay. Ms. Strong, your rebuttal to that.
16:16Well, uh, keep in mind, I have no vested interest one way or another whether megalodon is out there.
16:23As a purveyor of intelligence, my interest lies solely in being accurate. And I would remind the
16:28viewers that anything underwater is subject to light refraction at the surface, which could distort the
16:34image. So you're going on record saying this is not megalodon? I can't say that, no, but I'm not.
16:42I would certainly not claim that it is. I would rely on a more common explanation. All right. Ms. Strong,
16:50thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Well, I got to say, considering the resistance you've been
16:57getting on this whole thing, even having her acquiesce a little bit has got to seem like a victory to you.
17:01Sure. Yeah. Maybe a little. Yeah. But you weren't ready to bring this to the public yet.
17:05No. The phrase I kept hearing from detractors is they wanted hard evidence. And you say you found
17:09that now. I did. All right. We'll take a look at that in just a minute. Coming up, one of Drake's
17:14former team members dredges up an earth-shattering find. And a little later on, underwater footage
17:19that Drake claims will change this debate forever.
17:33three, two, one. Awesome. That's going to do the job. That is seriously going to do the job.
17:48Now, basically, I would call this power jumping. Reload, Thomas.
17:56Go. Yes, man. Get out of the way.
18:03If you jump, it'll come. Go.
18:08That was a clip from last year's Megalodon, The Monster Shark Lives. And tonight, we're following up with the man
18:13behind that investigation. Colin Drake. Quite an operation you ran down there in South Africa, huh?
18:19Yeah. The hunt employed a life-size whale decoy. And we created the largest chum slick
18:24ever done. About five square miles. You know, it almost worked. I mean,
18:27you attracted something. You just couldn't quite confirm exactly what it was. I bet you were anxious
18:32to get back there and try again. Well, look, the cost, unfortunately, was prohibitive. And there was
18:36also a good chance the same tactic wouldn't work twice. And why is that? You're talking about an animal
18:41that's probably more than a hundred years old. You know, it would never have survived that long
18:45if it wasn't an efficient learner. You think Megalodon is a hundred years old?
18:48Yeah. Any evidence to support that idea? There is, actually. I brought a photo,
18:52if we can put up that pic of the weapon fragment. Okay. And a weapon, huh? What kind of a weapon is
18:57that? This is the tip of a bomb lance, an explosive projectile used for hunting whales back in the 1880s.
19:03All right. Now, it was found embedded in a bowhead whale caught in 2007. 2007. That's 120 years
19:09after it was most likely shot. Now, this is a whale that not only absorbed the blow,
19:13but then managed to avoid any similar incidents for the entirety of the 1900s, which shows not
19:18only how long it can live, but possibly how quickly it can learn. Now, Megalodon is a different species,
19:23but as a similar sized aquatic creature, it most likely fits the same mold. All right. Once again,
19:28that's if any of these incidents actually were Megalodon. And of course, that brings us to the new
19:33hard evidence that you've been talking about. Yeah. Well, even though I wasn't allowed to
19:37investigate in South Africa anymore, some of the guys that I worked with kept an eye out. And
19:40eventually one of them, a fisherman, Peter Nicholson, found something and he sent it across
19:45to me. I assume that's a shark artifact, right? Yeah. That was Peter's thought too,
19:49which is why he sent it across. And I'm glad he did. All right. Mr. Nicholson right now is involved in a
19:55busy fishing season, as you can imagine. But we sent a producer down there to try to catch up with him and
19:59see exactly how he came across this item. Let's take a look. I'm yet to tell you the story about
20:06something that I found on a fishing trip a couple of months ago. You see, we were trawling hike.
20:11And during the long summer days, they go right down to the bottom of the ocean. So we take trawling nets
20:19and we scoop them up. One day, a couple of months ago, we were trawling around that area where that
20:27fishing vessel sunk. That's when I found something. I found this. This does not belong to any fish that I
20:35know. So I'm glad to hear that it's helping you in your investigations and all that. So best of
20:41luck and cheers, Drake. All right. Joining us in the studio now is fossil expert Marina Malik from
20:48the U.S. Geological Survey's paleontology department. Dr. Malik, great to have you here.
20:52Great to be here. All right. The object in the photograph. Is that the same object here that
20:57Drake brought you for examination? It certainly looks like it. Okay. And what do you say about it when he
21:01brought it to you? All he told me was that he had a marine artifact that he wanted examined.
21:06Yeah. I didn't even mention the word shark. I didn't want it to have a preconceived notion
21:09before she looked at it. And so what was your reaction upon first seeing this?
21:13I thought it was a megalodon tooth. Really? You sound so confident about it.
21:16Well, I know these teeth well. Megalodon left them behind by the millions. So wait a minute. One look
21:21at this and you say 60 foot shark. No, I say megalodon. No one knows for sure how large these sharks
21:27were because they left no skeleton. Their frames were made of cartilage. But these teeth are
21:32irrefutable. But can you really conclude that this is a megalodon just from this fragment? Well,
21:38this fragment tells us a lot. You see how far down this edge goes? Sure. Well, this is where the root
21:45would start on the largest shark teeth today. Now, this is from an adult great white. Okay. And if you
21:51can tell by the difference. Okay. This is the root here. And this is the edge. So this fragment
21:58represents a much larger animal. It's also quite a bit thicker. Thicker, yes. But what's most telling
22:04is the wide angle of the tip. Modern day sharks exhibit a variety of teeth, but none with this
22:10broad of a point. Now, over there is a full size megalodon tooth. More specifically, an upper tooth from
22:17the megalodon, which is the broadest tooth that megalodon ever grew. And if you compare to the
22:23specimen. Wow. Look at that. That's a pretty good match, actually. If you hold them side by side.
22:33Mm-hmm. Wow. Careful. These teeth are extremely sharp. Yeah. I guess it'd have to be to bite through
22:38a whale skull, huh? Well, combine these teeth with megalodon's bite force of about 35,000 pounds. Yeah,
22:43they'll slice through anything. It's true. Even an ancient tooth can still cut you. But this
22:47fragment is even more dangerous. More dangerous? Why? Because it's not ancient. It's a modern day
22:53tooth. All right. That's a pretty big limb you're going out on there. What evidence do you have about
22:57all this? Well, my first hint was the different color. Okay. The color like the lighter means newer.
23:04Generally, yes. In some cases, it could simply reflect the characteristics of the environment
23:09of which it was deposited. But as a rule of thumb, lighter means newer. So I did a scientific dating on
23:16the fragment. Scientific dating. Now that's a little controversial, isn't it? Yeah. Back
23:20in 1959, a megalodon tooth was discovered and dated as being 10,000 years old. But that finding was
23:26criticized by many in the scientific community. Why is that? Well, it was dated using manganese
23:30dioxide deposition, which doesn't work at a constant rate and is affected by environmental factors.
23:35It makes it too unreliable. So what's a better approach? A radioactive decay is your best bet
23:41for establishing a proper age. Carbon 14 dating being a standard one. And this piece has carbon
23:4714 levels that are identical to currently living organisms. So this is your professional opinion.
23:53This is a modern day megalodon tooth. Other extreme possibilities do exist. This tooth could be from
24:00an as yet undiscovered species. But it's clearly from an enormous predatory animal that is still swimming
24:07out there. As of now, megalodon would be the logical conclusion. It could be a game changer,
24:11huh, Drake? Yeah. Let's just say there are a number of people who I hope are watching tonight.
24:17All right. It's a very strong claim. It demands a response. And we're prepared to get one after the
24:22break. When we come back to South Africa, have a more convincing explanation for what happened to
24:27that fishing vessel and footage from a shark diver that Colin Drake claims could open up a terrifying new
24:33possibility. It's going to be amazing. Yeah. That's going to be, uh, pretty fine.
24:57Tonight, we've seen new evidence that megalodon, a prehistoric shark the size of a tractor trailer,
25:03might still be in our ocean today. Video of a whale being attacked, a satellite photo,
25:08and a modern tooth fragment would seem convincing to many. But last year, Drake, you didn't have any
25:13of that. What brought your investigation to an end? Well, the biggest reason the government shut it
25:19down was because after months of silence, uh, they were convinced that the boat attack was a one-time
25:23isolated event. And do you think that's a fair assumption? Oh, yeah, to some degree, yeah. But,
25:28you know, for my money, no, not really. Uh, it's true that sharks as a rule don't attack people on
25:32purpose. Yeah. It's usually going after seals or whales in this case, right? Correct. Yeah. Yeah.
25:36It's a case of mistaken identity. But, you know, this happens 50 to 70 times a year with five or more
25:40of these events being fatal. So it's fair to assume that it could happen again. All right. So one of
25:45your hired hands comes up with a tooth fragment and you're thinking to yourself, maybe this opens up the
25:49investigation in South Africa again. Yeah, we were hoping so. Uh, but by that point, they had come up
25:54with an alternate theory and they were sticking to their guns. All right. To give us that theory,
25:59we're now being joined by the Assistant Director Gavin Curring from the South African Department
26:04of Environmental Affairs. Mr. Curring, welcome. Thank you. First off, at what point did you and
26:10your fellow officials decide that Drake's case had run its course? Well, it was our considered opinion
26:17that Mr. Drake was not properly following the evidence. And why do you say that?
26:21Obviously, an investigation like this drew a lot of attention. And Mr. Drake's findings caused a lot
26:32of people to question his research and his methodology. So we brought in some third-party
26:38scientists to examine all the data independently. And I take it they came to a different conclusion?
26:43Yes, in fact, it was their determination that the incident was perpetrated not by a shark, but by a lone
26:54orca. A killer whale? Yes, a killer whale. Okay, Mr. Curring, you saw this photo taken by one of your
27:01shark eye spotters shortly after the boat attack, didn't you? Yes, I did. Do you agree this looks like a
27:09humpback whale being attacked? It would appear so, yes. And the fin of the attacking animal,
27:18you think that's an orca? Yes, it's certainly possible. There are some considerations, of course.
27:24A fin appears to be gray as opposed to black in the photograph, but this is not a deal breaker.
27:30There have been gray orcas known to exist both in the wild and in captivity. Drake, your response to this?
27:39Yeah, first, what Mr. Curring is saying is true. Gray orcas do exist. I brought some photos here of
27:44gray orcas in the wild. Are they common? No, in fact, not. The gray coloration is caused by a rare
27:50genetic condition called Chediakigashi syndrome, and it cuts an orca's life short. So a gray orca would
27:56never get as large as the predator in question. Okay. Mr. Curring, can you... Sorry to interrupt.
28:01If I can, just one more thing. You'll notice the shape of the fin. Now, we estimated that fin to be six
28:06feet tall. Now, the largest orcas do have fins that tall, but they're shaped like an isosceles
28:11triangle. They don't have the curvature of that fin. If you check out this, compare and contrast.
28:15Okay. Mr. Curring, can you see these photos?
28:19Yes, I can. And what do you think?
28:21I think Mr. Drake would rather us believe that there's a 70-foot dinosaur shark down there than
28:28a lone orca with a strange fin. But sir, what does that explanation actually gain you? If it's a
28:33monster orca instead of a monster shark, don't you end up with the same problem?
28:37Orcas do not attack people. Until this incident, there have been precisely zero proven instances
28:49of an orca killing a person in the wild. That's why we contend that this is an isolated incident and
28:56highly unlikely to reoccur. Okay, so then how do you respond to the
29:00tooth fragment that appears to be from Megalodon?
29:02Well, as has been noted, the full size of that tooth is pure speculation. Also,
29:10there's something that Mr. Drake has failed to mention is that radiocarbon dating is usually
29:15today taken with a large grain of salt. Something that occurred today could quite easily have occurred
29:22several hundred years ago. There's a significant margin for error.
29:26What about the video footage off Cape Verde taken last November?
29:30As much as we'd really love to follow up all the leads that we get from around the world on this
29:36subject, we just don't have the resources to do that.
29:40Is this purely a matter of money? How much did you spend on Drake's investigation?
29:46I'm not at liberty to discuss that. What I would like to say though is that we do greatly respect Mr.
29:53Drake as a scientist. But at this point in time, we are satisfied with our own conclusions.
29:59Okay. Mr. Curry, thank you for your time. I certainly appreciate it.
30:06So, even after all your evidence, people continue to still have doubts.
30:10Yeah, I think he's just a politician playing politics. But to be fair, the next thing that I
30:15came across gave me some doubts of my own.
30:17Really? What was that?
30:18Well, ever since I started on the case, I've been tracking this animal's movements around the world,
30:21relying on confirmed video evidence and not just hearsay.
30:25But the next thing I was about to find would cause a problem, if I can talk you through that.
30:29Lay it on me.
30:30Okay. So, the earliest confirmed clip that we came across was this.
30:34We aired it in the documentary last year.
30:35What is that?
30:38Look over there.
30:40What is that?
30:41Here we see the carcass of a whale washed up on a shore in Hawaii with its tail missing.
30:47This was in 2009. Now, although not an actual Megalodon sighting, I'd argue it's unmistakably the
30:53work of Megalodon.
30:54Okay.
30:54The next thing we found was an actual sighting, and it was an underwater camera just off of Chile.
31:00This was also in the documentary. Based on the size and the spacing of the fins,
31:04we estimated the creature to be 62 feet long. That was in 2010. That's a reasonable time frame for
31:10Megalodon to make that journey.
31:12Okay.
31:13Then we come across the initial incident in Brazil.
31:15Okay. And that's the Coast Guard footage we saw a moment ago.
31:17Correct. Yeah. During the rescue off, they see this massive shape in the water past beneath them.
31:20Sure.
31:21And that was in 2012. Again, plenty of time for Megalodon to make that trip.
31:25Sure.
31:26Then came the initial attack on that fishing boat in South Africa, which led to our whole
31:33investigation and resulted in the cage getting destroyed and the whale decoy getting taken down.
31:37Sure.
31:37Now, that was in 2013.
31:40We also now have the tooth fragment that corroborates Megalodon's presence there.
31:45Seven months later, we get Jake Skelton's video in Cape Verde, which according to his coordinates,
31:49is right here.
31:51Okay.
31:52So far, nothing unusual about this path.
31:55However, there is a problem with Megalodon showing up in Brazil again two months later.
31:58And what's that?
31:59Well, remember how we tagged Megalodon in South Africa last April?
32:03Presumably. But that tag you used stopped working almost immediately, as I remember.
32:07Well, that's the way that it seemed. But then in January, it reappeared.
32:10Where's that?
32:11Well, that's the rub.
32:12Five days after that satellite photo was taken in Brazil, the tag bopped to the surface right here.
32:17Well, it seems as though that presents you with a bit of a conundrum now, doesn't it?
32:22Yeah, a huge conundrum.
32:23Unless Megalodon can swim from Brazil to the middle of the Indian Ocean in five days.
32:27I highly doubt that was the answer to my question.
32:29But I would imagine you do have an answer.
32:31A very solid one, yeah.
32:32Hang on to that thought. We'll get to that when we come back.
32:36Coming up next, Drake presents one final piece of evidence he says will solve the
32:41Megalodon mystery once and for all.
32:44Pretty cool how, uh, pushed.
32:46Yeah, you know, I mean, the biggest thing is kind of fun.
32:57All right, let's go.
33:06We've got one chapter, right?
33:07No window.
33:08All right, all right, all right.
33:10You guys hear me down there?
33:32I saw a big shadow behind me and the cage started shaking like crazy.
33:36So I aimed the spear gun and shot.
33:45And that was a scene from last year's Megalodon documentary,
33:48where Colin Drake's team tagged a huge underwater predator.
33:52Since then, Drake has tracked this monster around the world,
33:55but his latest findings cast confusion on the entire investigation.
33:59Last year, in South Africa, Drake,
34:01how convinced were you that you'd actually tagged Megalodon?
34:04Oh, at the time, 100%.
34:06I mean, there was no doubt in my mind.
34:07You never got a good look at it, though.
34:09Well, the thing is you have to...
34:10And neither did your people in the water, Mike Bana or Madeleine Jobert.
34:14No, but it destroyed their cage and it took down the whale decoys.
34:17So whatever it was, it was a massive aggressive predator.
34:20All right, Mike and Madeleine got out okay.
34:22What happened after that?
34:23Well, the tags started tracking, descending into a deep dive,
34:26and then it just stopped working.
34:27And why would it have stopped?
34:29Well, the animal went below 6,000 feet.
34:32And although these tags are designed for deep water,
34:34we had to deduce that the pressure became too much and it simply got crushed.
34:39But obviously, that's not what happened.
34:41Well, the live tracker was definitely broken.
34:43That's why we lost that signal initially.
34:45But the tag had a backup ping system that would communicate via satellite
34:49whenever it came to the surface.
34:50And it finally did in January.
34:53Suggesting that the animal had gone east into the Indian Ocean.
34:56Well, yeah, right, except we just spotted it in Brazil.
34:59So how do you reconcile that?
35:01Well, given the clarity of the satellite photo in Brazil,
35:04I started to think that maybe what we tagged in South Africa wasn't Megalodon after all.
35:08All right, if not Megalodon, then what?
35:11Could it have been an orca like the government suggested?
35:13I can't see how.
35:14I mean, orcas breathe air.
35:15It would have come to the surface on a regular basis.
35:17Our tag stayed down there for nine months.
35:19Could it have been a basking shark?
35:21I considered all the options, all the biggest sharks.
35:24Basking shark, whale shark, megamouth.
35:26These all eat plankton.
35:27They're quite harmless to humans and other large prey.
35:30What we tagged was trying to eat a whale.
35:33Is it possible the tag popped out and then floated out there by itself?
35:37Again, it would have come to the surface right away.
35:39It wouldn't have stayed down there for months.
35:41All right, so in the end, what did you finally come up with?
35:43Well, to get to that, I had to use Occam's razor.
35:45And Occam's razor is basically the simplest answer tends to be the right answer.
35:49Correct.
35:49And in this situation, the simplest explanation is as simple as it gets.
35:54These two appearances are two different megalodons.
35:59Okay, that's a pretty huge claim.
36:01Yeah, it's very huge.
36:02And I didn't want to make it until I had proof.
36:05The key was finding validation that the megalon that we attacked was indeed crossing the Indian
36:09Ocean in January.
36:11And to find that, I had to connect the dots.
36:15To Australia.
36:17That's where I found this last bit of footage taken by a shark diver.
36:21All right, let's roll it.
36:25Keep an eye out.
36:29It's a big one, eh?
36:3015 foot and easy.
36:32Gorgeous, mate.
36:37Can't run at you.
36:38Okay.
36:41What is...
36:42What is that?
36:44See, it's staying.
36:45Stay on the spot.
36:46Stay on the spot.
36:46That's huge.
36:49Wow.
36:49Intriguing video.
36:53And now to elaborate more on it, we welcome to the studio the man who shot it, Mr. Martin
36:58Isaacs.
36:58Thanks for being here, sir.
36:59Thanks for having me.
37:00Okay, what do you do for a living, sir?
37:01Well, I'm a researcher and filmmaker for the Australian Marine Biodiversity Project.
37:07That's an organization dedicated to protecting our coastal environment.
37:11And how did you get involved in Drake's investigation?
37:14Well, Colin contacted our agency and a lot of other ocean-based organizations,
37:19asking us to let them know if they saw any unusual shark sightings.
37:23So when I got this on video, I called.
37:26All right.
37:26Tell us about this footage.
37:27Well, I was in Western Australia.
37:30It was in March during the shark cull.
37:33I was diving.
37:34All right.
37:34So, whoa, whoa, whoa.
37:35What's a shark cull?
37:36Oh, but that's a new policy this year where they're catching and disposing of large predatory
37:41sharks in areas where people have been killed recently.
37:45Okay.
37:45Like thinning the herd kind of thing.
37:46Yeah.
37:47Yeah.
37:47It's pretty controversial.
37:48They say they're just doing it this once, but, you know, who knows?
37:51So you're documenting this.
37:53How?
37:54Well, I'd go out on the water and film the harvest
37:57whenever it was happening.
37:58And when it wasn't, I went diving with schools of great whites to get some beauty shots.
38:05All right.
38:05Let's take a look at that footage once again.
38:09All right.
38:09All right.
38:10Yep.
38:10Here we go.
38:11We were just shooting these clips to celebrate the grace and beauty of these animals.
38:18And then you caught this.
38:20Right.
38:21What is that?
38:21Yeah.
38:22I saw some shark go by that didn't quite fit in.
38:25What'd you make of this thing?
38:26Well, at first, I thought it was a great white with some kind of skin condition or,
38:33I don't know, it had sustained damage.
38:35Drake, did you have the same initial assessment?
38:37What was yours?
38:37Well, it certainly is the size of a great white, but there's more going on than just the skin.
38:41Take a closer look at its back.
38:43Okay.
38:43You can see bumps along its spine.
38:45Right there on both sides, right?
38:46Yeah.
38:47That's more than just an abnormality.
38:48That's a genetic structural difference in its cartilage, which suggests a much sturdier animal.
38:53So, in your estimation, this is not a great white.
38:56No.
38:56And there's something else, too.
38:58Uh, take a closer look at that pectoral thing.
39:00Okay.
39:00Right.
39:01On the back edge, right near the body, you see that point?
39:04Yeah.
39:05That doesn't fit the taxonomy of great whites either, or any other large shark known today.
39:09But it does match another animal.
39:11If we could get that picture back up.
39:13The freeze frame.
39:14The freeze frame.
39:15Yeah.
39:15All right.
39:15So, here's the freeze frame from Jake's skeleton's saline footage, right?
39:18And right over there, right near the body.
39:22Well, I'll be darned.
39:23A point on the pectoral fin.
39:25Yeah.
39:25This is the same species, just a much bigger animal.
39:28Which means that the shark in Australia is not an adult gray white.
39:31It's a baby megalodon.
39:32Phew.
39:33Unreal.
39:34Mr. Isaacs, this is the footage just as you shot it and nothing's been altered?
39:38Mm-mm.
39:38Straight from my camera to your studio.
39:40Have you ever seen anything like this before?
39:4217 years I've been in this business and I've never encountered anything like it.
39:48Well, this was the logical conclusion to my theory.
39:50If megalodon is still around, then of course there's more than one and of course they're reproducing.
39:55And now you appear to have proof.
39:57Well, this video makes sense of the other events too.
39:59The attacks in South Africa happened 11 months earlier.
40:02When you consider that the gestation period for many sharks is well over a year,
40:06it's possible megalodon was so voracious back then because she was already pregnant.
40:10She's already pregnant.
40:11And eating for a whole brood.
40:12Unbelievable.
40:13And the reason the tag was out of contact so long
40:16is because she was swimming in a deep protective mode toward her birthing grounds.
40:20Well, I gotta tell you guys, this is stunning news.
40:22Mr. Isaacs, thank you so much for your part in bringing this to light.
40:25My pleasure.
40:26Well, I haven't even told you the craziest part yet.
40:28You're telling me it gets crazier?
40:30We discussed in the documentary last year the changes in our oceans over the past century.
40:34Sure.
40:35Changes in climate, earthquakes shifting the ocean floor, tsunamis redistributing marine life.
40:40I personally believe that conditions are right for megalodon to make a comeback.
40:44We have to stop denying that they exist and do something about this issue now.
40:48Wow.
40:49Mr. Drake, Mr. Isaacs, thank you so much.
40:53Well, there you have it.
40:54The case has been made and the closing arguments delivered and now it's up to us to render a verdict.
41:00Do we accept the evidence and adjust accordingly or just dismiss it and stay the course?
41:05Either way, we have to admit nature is much bigger than we are and we should diligently continue the quest to understand it.
41:13I'm Emmett Miller.
41:14Thanks for watching.
41:16Guys.
41:17Is megalodon still out there?
41:18Weigh in on the evidence at megalodonevidence.com.