00:00All right, Cristina. Thanks.
00:15For me, the Aesos is really one of those few remaining special places on our planet.
00:21We're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and suddenly the ocean floor rises from thousands of meters
00:27to create a marine sanctuary in the middle of the Atlantic.
00:38This is a place where great ocean wanderers merged to on their migrations across the Atlantic.
00:50You never know what you're going to find in these waters.
00:53It's just such a wild and unpredictable place.
01:02This is one of the most amazing marine life stories in the Atlantic Ocean.
01:06And it was completely unknown to everyone, even to science.
01:12Everyone except fishermen. They all knew about them.
01:15They just didn't know what they were.
01:22Pintado means spotted.
01:25They couldn't really explain to me what they were, but they said that each time they would see this massive
01:31animal,
01:31may be more than 10 meters long, they would be able to fish an abundance of tuna.
02:04These whale sharks are also massive.
02:06It's sometimes 10, 12 meters long.
02:19This is one spectacular event that happens about once every 10 years.
02:27It's still a mystery for us, why they come this far north.
02:30We're talking about the biggest fish in the world.
02:34It was like that in 2008.
02:36It apparently is the same now in 2019.
02:40This year we were better prepared.
02:42We came with an arsenal of scientific tools.
02:45These cameras were developed to investigate the mysteries of the animals of the open ocean.
02:52Where are these massive whale sharks coming from?
02:55Where are they going when they leave?
02:57Why are they traveling with this enormous amount of tuna?
03:02Why are they traveling with this whale sharks?
03:04That way.
03:05Okay, pass.
03:06Canal off.
03:07Canal off.
03:08Oh, the way of the crè.
03:10The way of the crè.
03:10The way of the crè.
03:12Look at the cat.
03:14Look at the cat.
03:15Look at the cat.
03:16Okay, okay.
03:17Silvino.
03:18Okay.
03:19Santa Maria became known as the only place in Europe where we have whale sharks.
03:23I don't know of any other place in the world where we find these aggregations of large whale sharks,
03:29these massive schools of tuna, and there is no plankton for them to feed.
03:33So we believe that they might be feeding on the bait fish that the tunas trade.
03:41The south shore of Santa Maria really seems to be prime whale shark habitat.
03:47We hope to learn more about the reasons why the whale sharks associate with tuna
03:52and why is this connection so important to them.
04:03So now, Joaquin Oldeburg.
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