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00:00Crop and with a crew of young ocean explorers we are going on an epic
00:06adventure to visit some of the most pristine and remote parts of the Coral
00:10Sea. Hi I'm Loz, I'm a firefighter. G'day I'm Tyler. So my role on the boat is to
00:17take care of the crew if anything should happen to Dean. Hey I'm Div. I'm bang
00:21into my highlining, my climbing, adventures of any sort. I just swim with
00:25sharks. My name is Annika, otherwise known as Nunu. Hi my name is Melissa, a little
00:30freaked out, don't know what to expect. My name is Luis and I'm a musician from
00:34Brazil. There's seven of us crammed into my trusty catamaran barefoot. We're
00:41following in the footsteps of my filmmaker father Ben Crop. Dad was a nature
00:46adventure filmmaker back in the 70s. He actually started out as a shark hunter
00:51then he became a protector of sharks. And I feel the same way. We'll see if
00:58things have changed and we'll make discoveries of our own. It's really
01:04wearing me out. As we sail across an ocean frontier to somewhere so isolated no
01:11one ever goes there and it's one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
01:17Wherever the winds and currents take us that storm was much worse than I
01:22expected. We'll find out just a little bit about ourselves. And the wonderful
01:31world we live in. Come with us on an extraordinary coral sea adventure.
01:47It's the first morning of our blue water safari.
02:00So we're out of a bit of a secret North Coast location where one of our crew members has been
02:14there a bunch of days not seen anyone. We're gonna be the first people she's seen in a little while.
02:18So the next trip is to try and find her on the beach. We're picking up our last
02:24crew member Melissa. She's been hanging out in a crazy secluded spot on the
02:29North Coast of New South Wales. Mel. Mel. Hey. Yeah captain's looking for you.
02:36You should be you should be able to hear him. He's in a dinghy. Now I didn't expect this to be an adventure. We haven't even started yet.
02:45Captain can you see Mel? Mel maybe wave your phone?
02:49I can't see anything yet. I'm at the beach. But do you know where she is?
02:55Mel where exactly are you?
02:57She's just on the beach somewhere captain. Can you shine a light? I'll get her to shine one if she can.
03:05You're a little nasty. Where is she? Hang on.
03:10Okay. Okay. Maybe he's got you. Just keep shining it. All directions.
03:15Okay. Yeah. I see her. I see her. She's down the other end of the beach. Hang on. Stand by.
03:18He's got you. He's got you. Okay.
03:20Hi. Hi.
03:23Putting a crew together for a three month voyage is really difficult. There are so many things to consider
03:31when you're asking people to live together for so long in a confined space.
03:36Thank you. Welcome. Welcome.
03:52I've got this crew of six. Some I know really well and others I just don't. But everyone has a role to play on the boat.
04:01I don't know how they're all going to perform or how well they'll all get along with each other.
04:07A boat crew can really fall apart if you don't all get along. Things get really dangerous and it's hard to survive months at sea with someone you don't like.
04:17My hope instead is that out here lifelong friendships will be formed.
04:23It's so good. Bye land. We'll miss you and your granular beauty.
04:42Shootin' goodbye reception. Goodbye dad. Bye mom. Bye grandma. Bye grandma.
04:50I'm showing you.
04:54I don't know what to expect. I don't know what the weather will be or what amazing sea life will encounter or what dangers lie ahead.
05:02I don't even know if barefoot can last the distance. Whatever breaks, I really hope I can fix it. Time will tell I guess.
05:12We've set the sails now and we are heading offshore, out to Middleton Reef, away from civilisation, away from people.
05:20I'm so excited. Woo hoo. Wish the wind would give us a better direction.
05:26Despite the wind not being perfect, there's this welcome buzz of excitement and expectation on board.
05:34Helped along by the arrival of our very special escort. This huge pod of Pacific bottlenose dolphins.
05:42They're coming back! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!
05:52This is an incredible send-off for our adventure.
05:59Hey! I love dolphins.
06:02Woo! Woo!
06:04Hey, look at that. There's another 30 coming towards us.
06:20Bloody awesome. It's a really good omen to have dolphins playing on the bow as you leave.
06:25Those dolphins have made me a little more relaxed.
06:32And they've taken away that nagging feeling in the bottom of my stomach.
06:36Perhaps this expedition will be everything I hope for.
06:40Adventure. I feel like we're really, really lucky.
06:44Woo!
06:50From here is probably the toughest part of the expedition.
06:53We've got three full days hard sailing non-stop to Middleton Reef.
06:59Now we could run into a whale or submerged shipping containers.
07:03Gear could break.
07:04And the weather? Well, it can change so quickly.
07:07So the wind's getting a bit too strong for our screecher.
07:23Um, and so it's just kind of flapping around a little bit.
07:28So what's the sound of it, Gabby?
07:29Well, the wind came up a bit strong.
07:30We're now hitting over 15 knots and that big head sail just can't handle over 15 knots.
07:41So even though we were going nice and fast and we're moving really well, and now we're just changing sails over.
07:48We'll go for the small head sail, put another sheet on it to pull it back.
07:53Try and get everything trimmed so we can sail through the night without having to change too much.
07:56I've got to turn the boat into the wind, so we're head on.
08:04They'll blow the screecher hopefully back onto the boat and the boys can pull it down and we can all be safe.
08:11That sail change was actually quite fortunate for me.
08:23It's given me an early look into how the crew can work together.
08:27And you know what? They've done all right.
08:29Now, we're taking the same course my dad did out here to Middleton Reef.
08:42And when he was out here back in the 60s and 70s, he was hit by a five-day storm.
08:47It almost completely scuttled his whole expedition.
08:50Now, the weather's holding for us, so I think we're going to be fine.
08:53To sustain ourselves at sea for this long, fishing will almost be a daily activity.
09:03Now, we only catch what we need to feed ourselves.
09:08It always helps if the only thing you're catching are fish.
09:12Sometimes things don't always go to plan, though.
09:16Hey, Liam, we have a problem here, man.
09:19We've got a fishing line around the prop.
09:21So we've got to free it up.
09:25Or at least just check it, make sure that it's not all wrapped around it.
09:28Sometimes the prop spins so much that the line fuses onto the shaft.
09:33So we're going to hove to in the middle of the ocean.
09:37And I'm going to check the prop.
09:40As we're tacking, the boat reversed a little bit when we were running one of the engines.
09:46And as they tacked, we must have backed over the fishing line.
09:49And now it's trapped. It's caught and wound up on our prop.
09:53But if we keep running that engine, we could tangle it up so much that we damage it.
09:58And then we're in big trouble because we're out in the middle of the ocean.
10:01So Tyler's drawn the short straw. He gets to go in the water.
10:04But in some ways it's better I'm here to control the boat and it doesn't sail away on him.
10:11Just a note, it's about four and a half thousand metres deep here.
10:17Ready, Tyler?
10:19Better.
10:20We're like 600 kilometres away from mainland Australia.
10:25There's four kilometres of water underneath us and the engine's not working.
10:30This is actually a very dangerous thing to do.
10:44If a wave was to hit us suddenly, the boat could move, Tyler gets hit in the head, knocked out, and it's a long way down.
10:51It's a long way down.
11:21So there was the fishing line right down the prop.
11:34And it turned in such a way that it had all gotten right in this middle section.
11:38Really hard to get out.
11:40Especially with the boat going up and down all the time.
11:43You've got this prop shooting for your face.
11:44You've got to hold onto it and try and pry with a knife the rope out.
11:49And so you're holding onto the knife and you're moving as well.
11:51There's always a risk of stabbing yourself.
11:53And the boat greys up against me.
11:56Just small barnacle cuts, but in the tropics they can get infected really easily.
12:01So just going to treat them.
12:02But we should be good to go now.
12:04Should be good to start the prop and test it and see if it works.
12:12Yes!
12:14Well done, Tyler.
12:15Nice work.
12:40What a beautiful morning out here.
12:42We call this a glass-out.
12:44You don't get that this often in the middle of the ocean.
12:47It's completely flat.
12:48Absolutely zero wind.
12:50Which is massively horrible for us sailing.
12:55We can't get anywhere with this.
12:57But it is useful for one thing.
13:04A deep ocean swim.
13:05And it's not just a little deep out here.
13:06It's over four kilometres deep.
13:07And we are hundreds of miles from anywhere.
13:17And you get to swim in this endless visibility, this deep ocean that is almost, it's almost like having vertigo when you look down. It's like flying through a blue space.
13:35Not many people in the world get a chance to do this. And it's so amazing. It's inspired Nunu to poetry.
13:52Our sails are deemed useless.
13:53So we pause our journey and enjoy this rare moment. Gazing over the side down into the water. You would expect it to be deep dark blue, almost grey or black. You would be wrong. And pleasantly surprised.
14:10The sunlight dances into the depths. A royal, electric blue invites us in. Together we slip into the warm blue ocean. Nothing and no one around us. Four kilometres beneath our suspended bodies. We are merely in the ocean.
14:31In a vast body of water that covers most of our beautiful blue planet. A unique treat. We dance and play in an oceanic wonderland.
15:01Nunu gets right into the spirit of it. Breaking out the mermaid tail. Well, why not?
15:31I tried. Wait, is that a mermaid?
15:50For Divya and Lewis, every ocean crossing comes with one constant companion.
15:56Seasickness.
15:59You know, like when you wake up seasick, you spend the whole day seasick. Just the idea of recording something is making me feel seasick right now. I just, it's just like annoying.
16:11But there's always that one annoying person with perfect sea legs.
16:16Nah, I haven't felt seasick at all. So, I've been having a great time actually. I've been reading books, my Kindle, working off my laptop, stretching. Not sure what everyone else is feeling crazy about, really.
16:34Really.
16:38Are you feeling alright?
16:40Wow, it's incredible out here. Because all you see up the top are stars. There's nothing forever. And the sky is lit up, and now the sea is lit up.
17:05This is one of the greatest joys of nighttime sailing. This glow, or bioluminescence, is caused by microscopic plankton called dinoflagellates.
17:22It looks very psychedelic. I just woke up. But I'm still dreaming. This is dreamland. What is this? Reality. It's incredible.
17:35When they're disturbed in the water, they give off this microsecond burst of blue-green light. And when there's millions of them, they're all joined together in this crazy, eerie, sci-fi glow.
17:52And it's calm. The water's completely glassy. And there's just, there's just a stream of green, fairy dust, kind of like powder when you're skiing.
18:07It's just all so beautiful.
18:14We're almost there. There's a shipwreck just here, and that means that we're almost there.
18:31How do you feel? I'm excited. After some late nights, the 2 a.m. till 6 a.m. shifts, I'm ready. I'm ready to get to land. Not land, land.
18:48Can't call it land. There is no land. I'm excited.
18:53I'm excited to have some stillness. Have some quiet place that we can just rest.
18:59Not having this boat bouncing around, rocking with the crossing.
19:03So I'm really looking forward to have this anchoring side of the lagoon.
19:08I know it's beautiful there, so looking forward to it.
19:12We are almost there. It's been three days of sailing and motoring and rocking around.
19:20And here we are. We are just coming into Middleton Reef.
19:23Barely any sun left. We'll just make it into Anchorage for the evening.
19:28It's been such a good trip across, but I'm so excited to go explore this reef. It is so cool.
19:34And we can just see the runic, this big shipwreck just coming up on the horizon now.
19:38My dad called this place Tragedy Reef, and for good reason.
19:44The place is littered with shipwrecks.
19:47It's a totally submerged reef, really hard to see, and the outer reef edge is really treacherous.
19:54And the lagoon entrance where we want to anchor is super narrow.
19:58It's hard to find in daylight, let alone dusk.
20:01And we'll be there in about half an hour.
20:08And I think we've got barely half an hour of sun left to get into our anchorage.
20:13Whew! Pressure's on.
20:14This is super borderline. That sun is right on the horizon. Still got about ten minutes to run to the reef entrance. Five minutes, ten minutes to run to the reef entrance.
20:37And it's no coincidence that the wreck of the runics over my shoulder there just to remind me if I get this wrong, what happens to you at this reef if you run into the reef.
20:52Now I've got much more complex navigation systems than they did back then, but I can't see in the dark.
21:01So I just need a little bit of light to get through this reef.
21:04Otherwise we've got to sit out here in the deep water and roll around all night. I don't want to do that.
21:07I've got my more experienced crew on the bow of the boat. They're checking for reef bombings and measuring the depth.
21:17Now I've got to get this right or we'll end up as our own tragedy on this reef.
21:26Perhaps the crew have been feeling my stress about navigating this entrance.
21:31Tyler has found a way to break the tension.
21:33Not much light to see the things we could run into.
21:40Danger is all around us, yeah.
21:51We've pushed it right to the edge. This is much tighter than I would ever want to do this.
21:56But either we go in now or we sit out here and drift all night. I don't really want to do that.
22:11Let's just drop Nunu on the reef over there and she can be a channel marker. She's so high-vis.
22:16I can see the entrance. Even though it's quite dark, I can actually see. See the reef.
22:31But it's really borderline.
22:35Four metres.
22:36Four metres.
22:39Okay, nine metres.
22:41Seven.
22:43Six metres.
22:45Alright, sand coming.
22:49Three metres now.
22:53Very shallow.
22:54Alright, everyone, we're safe.
23:10Woo!
23:12Woo!
23:14Welcome to Middleton!
23:16Alright, someone get the captain a beer.
23:18Get it yourself!
23:19I'm on it.
23:21You're fired!
23:23You can't fire me, I live here.
23:25Woo!
23:29Woo!
23:31Look at you.
23:33Grazie.
23:35Nailed it, well done.
23:37Well done.
23:41Haide, nailed it.
23:43Kanpai!
23:45How exciting.
23:48Yes!
23:49It's time.
23:58So, it's our first morning in Middleton, and it's calm.
24:04It's crystal clear, blue water, and calm as anything.
24:12There is not a single soul in sight, except for our little family on board.
24:17And it's just a really nice time to get away from all the mayhem and really strip it back to what's natural.
24:25I want to see the sharks.
24:29I've been dreaming about my little sea puppies, and I want to explore some more wrecks.
24:36I want to kind of get to know a bit more of the history and see what it's all about.
24:39We are surrounded by the carcasses of ships just scattered over the shallow reef, completely surrounding this lagoon.
24:53And it's really wonderful to get to know the history of these ships and why they crashed here and what happened to the crew and what remains in the sun that's just bleaching and rotting and rusting.
25:05So, it's one thing to be able to see the shipwrecks from above when we cruise over the top of them.
25:10And that's really so we can figure out which ones we want to go and see a little bit more close up.
25:14Today, we're going to go and see the runic.
25:15The runic smashed on a Middleton reef in May of 1961 while travelling from Brisbane to New Zealand.
25:25But by some miracle, all 69 of her crew survived and they were rescued just days before a cyclone hit.
25:33That sealed her fate.
25:35Now we can get up close to it because usually the waves are going on the hull and the boat's moving and everything's a little bit crazy.
25:44You're not really sure if the anchor's going to hold where you want it to.
25:47And out here, you really want to be as safe as you can.
25:49So today, because it's so calm and smooth and beautiful, we're able to take the dengue right up to it and we can really get amongst this shipwreck.
25:56Get amongst this dead thing that still leaves some tales to be told by us going there.
26:01For we are the ones to tell the tales.
26:08My father came here and he was just taken aback by the beauty of this place and always shipwrecks.
26:16This treasure hunting thing is in our blood. We can't shake it. We love it.
26:21And I want to explore the whole place. I want to go everywhere. I want to check all of it out.
26:26It's not the smallest reef to swim around though. It's pretty long.
26:31It's just a place of wonder. It's a place of unknowns and it's got a really bad reputation so nobody comes here.
26:40It's a very eerie and beautiful landscape and place to be to explore.
26:46The fish, you know, love living in and around these shipwrecks and the birds, the seabirds that here are, it's the only thing they have to perch on and live on.
26:55Yeah, they're all rusted and decrepit and slowly decaying.
27:02It's really awesome to see what happens to stuff when it's just left out here and I cannot wait to check out underneath and go have a little swim.
27:13Go have a little swim.
27:43Go have a little swim.
27:51We dive down and there's just huge anchors and big pipes and all this machinery and just pieces of metal that have been like twisted and bent over time and it's so much fun to dive through it and feel like a treasure hunter.
28:02We saw massive rays, we saw a huge black cod, really big fish, all the other different types of fish as well, so many different colours, it's so beautiful down there and all of them are so inquisitive because it's a sanctuary here that the fish come right up to you.
28:16They've probably never even seen another human being before. They come right up to you and they feel like little puppy dogs.
28:21And the creatures here behave so differently to anywhere else because they're so not used to human contact, which is a pretty wonderful, unique experience.
28:34You know, the sharks and the fish are really curious about you because they're confused.
28:40They're not habituated, they're not used to having, you know, groups of tourists around them.
28:45They're just, you know, quite friendly and it's wonderful to have that experience to swim with these creatures that are, you know, curious and gentle and also a bit wild, you know, it's not all roses.
29:01There are apex predators out here that we need to be aware of, like tiger sharks, so we are in their home, we are visitors here, this is their home.
29:08So, um, we have to respect that. But with gratitude, it's beautiful. It's really beautiful.
29:15It's incredible. I never knew my new favourite thing would be swimming with rusty stuff and fishes.
29:27It's amazing. The shipwreck is just amazing.
29:34It's really crazy to think about how over so many years it's just slowly eroded and rusted.
29:42And not only that, but like swimming around it is just tropical fish everywhere.
29:47It makes it look really beautiful though, like this old man-made structures and these beautiful tropical fish that have decided to make it a home now.
29:56I saw so many things that I've never seen before. I saw fish with big like fins that came out flared out like this and lots of like fluorescent dots.
30:15I saw a manta ray or stingray, I'm not sure which one it was.
30:22There were these really long needle nose sort of things.
30:26There was one fish, it kind of looked like a starfish, but it was moving like an octopus and it was, and I picked up a rock and it was under there and it like cracked away when I picked up the rock and I kept picking up the rocks and I kept creeping back under more rocks.
30:38The fish here are of a tropical variety, so they come in all sorts of different colours and shapes and sizes.
30:49And there's so much treasure that's down there. There's so much copper that looks golden because it's been rubbed clean by the surf and by the cyclones in this area.
30:57Super vibrant, like really colourful. And all different kinds.
31:08While you can be easily distracted by the beauty and wonder out here, danger does lurk. Middleton is famous for sharks.
31:18You always have to keep your wits about you.
31:21So for me there is this like buzzing excitement that is happening all the time.
31:28You're one of the nature, like feeling alive all the time.
31:32Always like checking if there's sharks around or if there's like any big one around that you're not aware before and then suddenly it can become dangerous.
31:43I just turned around and I was looking at the shark and I was going, he's a bit bigger than the other ones.
32:11And I point him out to Nunu and as I point him out, he turns side on and we just see these stripes down the side.
32:20And it's a tiger shark.
32:23Tiger sharks are really dangerous. I told everyone out of the water, everyone get out right now.
32:28And I hung back near the boat and he came right up to me a couple of times.
32:31I got some really good shots, but they're definitely a whole lot scarier.
32:36He's a good three or four times the size of all the other sharks.
32:38He's probably four metres long, three metres, four metres long.
32:42That shark could definitely kill you.
32:44No messing around.
32:45He could absolutely kill you.
32:47And then a tiger shark came through and also you can hear squealing through the snorkel.
33:00And Dean goes, get out of the water.
33:03Calmly, swim back to the boat as quickly as you can.
33:06That was awesome.
33:09So cool.
33:10That was the one thing I really wanted to see, a tiger shark.
33:13So that was really beautiful.
33:16That was awesome.
33:17That was really cool.
33:18Baby shark, doo, doo, doo, doo-doo.
33:19I think he was...
33:28That a little bit of a long?
33:29Baby shark, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do,
33:59So we just had a three and a half meter tiger shark come up to the back of the boat and just
34:08munch on the back of the boat and the dinghy outboard and the dinghy rope. Basically it was
34:13chewing everything that it could to see what was edible. Having a tiger shark bite the back of my
34:17boat is a big first for me. That was a really intense thing to happen and I've been trying to
34:22work out why. See back in my dad's day they were feeding the sharks all the time. We can't do that
34:28out here. So why did he come up and bite the back of the boat? Well all the excitement of us swimming
34:38around and splashing around with the whalers then getting up on deck and stomping around they can
34:43hear that underwater. We even saw him have a go at the propeller underneath the boat the big steel
34:47propeller thing. I don't know maybe they look like flippers or something like that. And as he came
34:52around the back of the boat one of the bilge pumps in the engine room started up and that was enough
34:57that he wanted to have a taste. He wanted to find out what this big thing was and he had a bite of
35:02the back of the boat. And that's the thing about tiger sharks. If you're in the water and he may
35:08not necessarily want to eat you but he wants to taste what you are he's inquisitive. And a tiger
35:14shark having a taste of you having one bite would be fatal out here. Everyone was a little bit excited
35:21at the first instance because it's always exciting to see a tiger shark but then we started realizing
35:26how dangerous it was because this meant we couldn't go in the water anymore in that spot because the
35:31tiger shark would be there waiting for us having a go at our flippers. I think tiger sharks are beautiful,
35:37gorgeous. I might not like them as much as I do right now if I was in the water with them. Well
35:44that's totally shut down diving for the rest of the day. He's way too dangerous but from the safety of
35:50on deck on barefoot it's amazing we can sit here and watch this beautiful creature circle the boat this
35:57amazing killing machine we get to experience so close. It really is awe-inspiring to see this amazing
36:05animal up this close. I still will be swimming but I will have a always subconscious thought that
36:13there are creatures they're a lot bigger than us and they're in these waters they're close by. There
36:19is so much more for us to explore here at Middleton so I really hope my crew can get up the courage to
36:26get back in the water tomorrow and yeah we have to share the ocean with a huge creature like that
36:33tiger shark every day but hey that's why I love this place.
36:56so
37:04beautiful
37:04it's not just me you know you don't know you're in it this way but I love it or you don't know you're in it
37:11it's just a little bit different. I feel it's a little bit different with a huge difference. It's so much more
37:18that I really can't see this. But it's a little bit different. I love it. I love it. It's a little bit different and
37:22While it was exhilarating to see a tiger shark yesterday,
37:51this place is actually famous for a different type of shark.
37:56They're called grey whalers or Galapagos whalers,
37:59and these guys are relatively harmless.
38:01And I really want the crew to have this experience
38:04of swimming with them.
38:06I just hope I can convince them to come in with me.
38:10So I'm excited, but a little scared as well.
38:14So we're in a spot where there's lots of sharks,
38:18little sharks, but still lots of them.
38:21Yeah, a little freaked out.
38:23Don't know what to expect, really.
38:25But I'm sure I'll be OK.
38:28The rest of the crew are pretty...
38:31They know what they're doing.
38:33But everyone else has a knife.
38:35So I'm a little bit worried.
38:38I don't have a knife.
38:39So I'm hoping I survive.
38:42Unscathed.
38:44What does that do?
38:49So according to Dean, when they are feeding,
38:57there's a similar sound.
39:00So they just get...
39:02They just go get around.
39:04My dad actually got famous because he was a shark hunter.
39:07He would come to places like this to kill the sharks.
39:10You know, back then, in the 50s, 60s, 70s,
39:13every shark was a man-eater.
39:15And...
39:17Camera, Tyler.
39:19And since then,
39:21we've learnt it's not like that at all.
39:24You know, a lot of these sharks are quite friendly
39:26and quite exciting to swim with.
39:28You know, these little grey whalers are pretty safe
39:32when there's three or four or five of them.
39:34They're really inquisitive.
39:36They're amazing creatures to watch and swim with.
39:39And my father was one of the first people to realise that.
39:42And he started changing people's minds
39:44that we should protect sharks, not kill them.
39:47And I feel the same way.
39:49They are not what most people do.
40:17They are not what most people think.
40:20I know most people, you know,
40:21think that they're the most scary predators out there.
40:24And if you really look at the statistics,
40:25more people die from cows than sharks.
40:28And if you stop and think that they're actually just fish
40:31and they're out looking for a meal that suits them.
40:34And when you see a little shark,
40:36they're usually looking for something smaller than them.
40:38When they see us, we're an apex predator to them,
40:41especially these ones that we're swimming with.
40:44They're much smaller than us.
40:45So they're looking up to us as predators.
40:47And sharks are actually pretty lazy hunters.
40:50They will much prefer to scavenge for their food
40:52rather than ambush.
40:54And so these little sharky friends that are following us around
40:57are actually looking to us for a feed.
40:59They're looking to us to hunt,
41:00and then they want to steal our food.
41:02So, yeah, it's quite different to what you would expect.
41:05And if you stay calm with them, they will stay calm with you too.
41:09And if they can smell fear, like, you know,
41:12everyone says they smell fear, animals really do.
41:16I think the coolest part about swimming with sharks
41:18is the fact that it's such a taboo topic.
41:22You know, the media plays them out to be these really vicious things
41:25that will attack anything and everything.
41:27But swimming with them,
41:28you realise that they're really just gentle creatures.
41:30They're curious, but they're not that aggressive, attack anything.
41:40I don't want to portray them as that scary, vicious animal.
41:44I want to portray them as little, beautiful sea puppies
41:47that we get to play with.
41:49And not cuddle, but swim around.
41:52This is the closest I've ever got to them before.
41:58They would even rub up against you a little bit.
42:00And I thought they were rough,
42:01but they're actually a little bit slimy and slippery.
42:03They weren't bothered that we were there at all.
42:06They were perfectly happy just to swim along next to us,
42:08and we could stare into their eyes,
42:10and they could stare into ours.
42:12And we just had, um,
42:14we both had curiosity in each other.
42:16And so swimming next to something that didn't know what you were,
42:19they're such sensitive creatures.
42:22They have all these, it feels like superpowers
42:24when you hear about the documentaries of sharks,
42:26the ways that they can sense blood
42:28and the electromagnetism of it all.
42:30And I could see it on top of their head
42:32as I swam above them
42:33because we were so close to these sharks.
42:38One of them came right up next to my arm right here,
42:40and it looked like he was going to be like,
42:42ah, oh.
42:44He's like, what do you taste like?
42:46You guys are weird.
42:47What do you taste like?
42:48Because they've got little bites all over them as well.
42:50And so they must have a little bit of pecking order play
42:53where they bite into each other
42:54and just teach each other who's boss.
42:56And so if they think we're one of them,
42:58then maybe they're going to try and have a little nip as well.
43:00And that's the biggest danger you've got,
43:02is a little nip, I think.
43:03I'm so glad I could convince everyone to get back in the water
43:16to swim with these amazing grey whalers.
43:19And without being harassed by our friendly neighbourhood tiger shark.
43:23Oh, wait. Hang on a minute.
43:29That's a tiger shark, not a whaler.
43:32Everyone out. Out, out, out.
43:41Next time on Blue Water Safari.
43:43I think I'm more nervous walking through here
43:47than I am swimming with sharks.
43:49More people have been shipwrecked on this reef
43:52than have come here on purpose.
43:55There's something special here.
43:57My dad called it tragedy reef.
43:59People died here.
44:02See all this beautiful sea life
44:05and this gorgeous blue water.
44:07And behind her it looked like there were more sharks than water.
44:15Little blue bowl of paradise.
44:37Little blue bowl of paradise.
44:38Or...
44:40...
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