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00:03This is a film about bull sharks, and while we were making it, something terrible happened.
00:11I'd certainly be very nervous about doing this on my own, but I'm with shark behaviourist Eric Ritter.
00:18Hi, Eric.
00:18Hey, Nigel. How you doing?
00:19There are bull sharks all around us.
00:23Your studies are trying to get you into the mind of the shark, is that right?
00:26That's correct.
00:27And particularly how sharks interact with humans.
00:32Oh, the pectoral fin just touched my leg there, and she almost lifted it out of the way.
00:36She doesn't want to touch us, does she?
00:38I mean, there are a dozen big bull sharks, 450 pounds, 8 feet long.
00:43Look, look, look, look right here.
00:44Wow.
00:45These sharks could easily take you out.
00:48So as long as you don't move, you know, and I realise we're not a threat to them, I don't
00:52care less.
00:54And then...
01:01I can't believe that happened.
01:05I'll never forget how effective those teeth and those jaws...
01:12I mean, Eric's leg...
01:16The bite was in the calf.
01:18It was just like us biting into a watermelon.
01:21And this is a man who knows sharks, and works with them nearly every day.
01:27Later, I'll ask him what went wrong.
01:31I'll also meet the top three deadliest sharks, and find out why bulls are considered the deadliest of them all.
01:42I'll examine baby bull sharks.
01:46I'll get into the water with the biggest bull sharks, and, against all my instincts, feed one by hand.
02:03Sharks have an image problem.
02:06Some of us think of them as giant monsters looking for people to eat.
02:14And, in fact, most species of shark are just too small to do us any harm.
02:19This is a gorgeous banded bamboo shark.
02:22You can find it here in the rocky reefs around Australia.
02:26This is a juvenile, but even the adults don't get much longer than five feet.
02:30And 80% of all shark species are smaller than we are.
02:38But even the big ones can be just as harmless.
02:48This is a leopard shark.
02:51It grows up to 11 feet long, with these beautiful ridges on its flanks.
02:59It's usually found cruising over sandy seafloors near coasts and coral reefs.
03:04You may have heard that if sharks ever stop moving, they suffocate.
03:08Well, not this one.
03:10It can pump water over its gills.
03:13It eats shellfish and crustaceans, but never anything bigger than small fish or octopus.
03:20This is so unlike the popular image of sharks.
03:24If I'm gentle, I can even turn it over and tickle its tummy.
03:28You may have heard that if you can try it.
03:38You may have heard that known as a whale shark.
03:42You may have heard that if you can pull that down in your eyes.
03:46You may have heard that.
03:47You may hear that.
03:48You may have heard that we can get in your eyes.
03:56Of those killers, three stand head and shoulders above the rest.
04:10I'm off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa,
04:14one of the best places in the world to meet one of them.
04:19It's a shark that has a reputation that's as bad as the Great Whites,
04:22but it's only found in subtropical and tropical waters.
04:37A remora. There's eight species.
04:40All of them have their dorsal fin modified into a peculiar sucker.
04:45You often see them attached to sharks.
04:47If a remora knows anything, it's when there's a shark in the vicinity.
04:54And here comes a tiger shark, heading for our bait,
04:58a drum of fish oil and chunks of mackerel hanging from a float.
05:06Tigers have a reputation as man-eaters.
05:09But the truth is they'll eat just about anything.
05:12They're so unfussy their stomachs can be like junkyards.
05:16Sometimes humans get in the way and are eaten almost by accident.
05:24I'm six feet tall. She's twelve feet long.
05:27They can grow to eighteen feet.
05:32She's not really interested in me.
05:38She blinked. I think I frightened her.
05:45But it's easy to see that if a tiger shark was in a mood to eat,
05:49and was eating anything it came across,
05:51there could sometimes be a human in the mix.
05:56Seems like she's interested in swallowing my fin.
06:08Among the objects found inside tiger sharks,
06:11there's been a car licence plate, an aeroplane propeller,
06:15even a suit of armour.
06:19But there's another legendary monster in the sea,
06:22that's not so indiscriminate.
06:25That's the great white.
06:36This of course is Jaws itself, the great white.
06:41The largest of the flesh-eating sharks.
07:02Great whites are fussy eaters, but in murky water or in surf, these predators can take
07:08a bite out of us to see if we're edible. I'm safe now because in clear water, these intelligent
07:14fish can see I'm not worth attacking. I'm just too scrawny.
07:31Most scientists agree that bull sharks are more of a threat to us than either tigers
07:36or great whites. I'm going to find out why. And I'm going to start with the babies.
07:54I join another Eric, Eric Hoffmeyer, at the mouth of America's biggest river.
08:01We're in the Mississippi Sound here and this is a remarkable nursery for baby sharks.
08:05We put a 500-foot net. How many could you catch?
08:09In a six-hour period, we caught as many as 220 sharks.
08:12200. And many different species?
08:16Up to four, five, six different species at one site is normal.
08:20And of course, the one I want to see are my first bull sharks.
08:24Phil? There's a few fish in here. Presumably those struggling in the net, they would actually bring in the sharks.
08:30I would assume so, yeah. I've pulled many fish out of the net that have been cut in half.
08:35This is thrilling. We don't know what we're going to get here.
08:40A lot of these fish. What are these, Eric?
08:42They're what we call pogies.
08:44Yeah, this is the number one food source for most of these sharks in this area.
08:47They school up and these sharks just go crazy.
08:50We've got one here.
08:52We've got one up and in.
08:54First shot. Oh, look at that, Eric. What is this? This is a fine tooth, is it?
09:00Yes, it is.
09:01Beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful.
09:03And you're going to get to measure that and get it back in the water as quickly as possible.
09:08Eric, so why are these called fine tooth? They've got a beautiful blue sheen, but why do they get that
09:12name fine tooth?
09:13Fine tooth, they have the name fine tooth because their teeth on both the top and bottom jaw are the
09:17same.
09:18And most sharks, they're different?
09:20Yeah, they're usually pointed on the bottom jaw and it's...
09:22That's for grasping.
09:23And then some type of cut in for the top jaw.
09:25All right, and that's great, isn't it?
09:27Wow.
09:30And then you put a tag in, and this doesn't hurt them at all.
09:33This is important work because you want to learn about the baby sharks in this nursery area.
09:37Exactly. We'd like to know how far they're travelling around in this area.
09:41Yep, just watch yourself.
09:42Let him go.
09:43There we go, mate.
09:47Got another.
09:49There are so many of these.
09:52Eric, look.
09:54A sharp nose.
09:56Which is gorgeous, sharp.
09:58I mean, these white spots along the side.
10:02This is as big as they get?
10:04They'll get a little bit bigger, but yeah.
10:06About three feet long?
10:07Mm-hmm.
10:11Look at those eyes.
10:13Here you go.
10:15Whee!
10:15This is incredible, the number of sharks here.
10:18This is so exciting.
10:20We need a bull shark though, Bill.
10:21Try to bring one up.
10:22Come on.
10:24They're coming in thick and fast, aren't they?
10:26Yeah.
10:27Short after short.
10:29Got a different one here.
10:30Eric, quick.
10:31Can you give us that?
10:32Look, a scalloped hammerhead.
10:34Wow.
10:35Get in here.
10:38That's...
10:39Look at that.
10:40Sure is.
10:41That.
10:44Gorgeous.
10:45We've got a...
10:46How many of these do you get?
10:47This is a rare one, isn't it?
10:48Yeah, these aren't as common as some of the other species that we find, but they're always a treat to
10:53get.
10:53These are the weirdest sharks.
10:55Look at those.
10:56Look at those eyes.
10:58This is an amazing head.
10:59Get him back in.
11:00There you go.
11:02Daylight was running out.
11:04We moved closer to the shore in our attempts to catch a bull shark.
11:07Please.
11:08We need a bull shark.
11:12We got one.
11:14Bill.
11:14Bull shark.
11:21This is the first bull shark.
11:23What a magnificent.
11:25Got to get the top of the head there.
11:31Eric.
11:32Baby bull shark.
11:33This is cute.
11:34I mean, they're two and a half feet long when they're born.
11:37How long is this one?
11:38This guy's almost a meter.
11:40About three feet long.
11:41Three feet long.
11:41And the mothers have about 12 babies.
11:44Up to 12 babies in a litter.
11:44Up to a dozen in a litter, yes.
11:46Are you going to mark this one?
11:47Yeah, let me tag this guy in and you can have a look at it.
11:49Have a close look.
11:50Such a gorgeous shark.
11:53Great.
11:55My first meeting with a bull.
11:57And as you can see, it's a classic shark.
11:59The same family as the reef sharks, the oceanic white tips.
12:02Two dorsal fins like all of them.
12:04And imagine if you're bitten by a shark, you see it for just a split second.
12:08How can you identify which species has done the attack?
12:11The surefire way to tell is this head.
12:14Look at this.
12:15This amazing snub snout.
12:17It's got a shorter snout than any other species of shark.
12:20These tiny piggy little eyes, that's another feature of bull sharks.
12:25Also, when they're adult, they don't have black tips to the fins.
12:28They have this dark grey colour.
12:30This is a baby, probably only two or three months old.
12:32You can see the umbilical scar there.
12:34That's where it's attached to the placenta of the mother.
12:37Bull sharks, they give birth to a litter of live young.
12:39This is about three feet long.
12:41And it's extraordinary to think that in ten years or so time,
12:45when this is six feet, this can be a real problem to people.
12:49Back into the water.
12:51Off you go.
12:53Now, I'm going to try to follow a baby bull in the water.
12:57I can't wait.
13:04This baby is already a killer, but on a different scale.
13:14In the southern United States, bulls and other sharks use mangrove forests as nurseries,
13:20hiding amongst the roots and feeding on fish that come in and out with the tides.
13:25The baby is always on the lookout for fish,
13:29just as someday it will be on the lookout for bigger things as well.
13:36Right now though, big things don't register as food.
13:39It's not interested in me at all.
13:49But let it spot the silvery flash of a mullet,
13:52and it's just as deadly as it ever will be.
14:00Bulls are pretty feisty too, even the babies.
14:04The one we filmed attacked the camera.
14:06Watch this.
14:08Bull sharks have attitude.
14:21Just before the accident, Eric Ritter and I were talking about how temperamental bull sharks can be.
14:29Bull sharks have got a reputation for being very aggressive,
14:32and as sharks go, they're high in the hierarchy.
14:34They're very high in the hierarchy.
14:37And some studies have shown they've got really high levels of testosterone,
14:41and at a carcass they are so aggressive they push a lot of other sharks away.
14:45They sure do, yes. These are the big guys.
14:51One way of comparing the aggression of bull sharks and other sharks is to go hunting amongst them.
15:06If you want to risk a shark attack, spearfishing is one of the best ways of doing it.
15:13You're after fish, the sharks are after fish.
15:16You're no longer just a possible prey item, you're a competitor too.
15:24When a fish struggles on the end of a spear, it bleeds into the water,
15:28and its struggles send out pressure waves.
15:33All of this can draw in sharks.
15:37Most of them, such as this scalloped hammerhead, are frightened by a human in the water and turn away.
15:49But big bull sharks keep on coming.
15:54This spearfisherman is sensible.
15:57He's kept his catch on a long line, and if he doesn't care about losing it,
16:00doesn't try to jerk it away, he'll be alright.
16:05As he rises, he's careful to leave the fish dangling right in the same place.
16:12There, the bull shark is fearless.
16:15The fish is torn right off the hook.
16:20Back to the boat without a catch, but in one piece at least.
16:34With their awe-inspiring weaponry, bull sharks can afford to be fearless.
16:40What a fantastic collection. How long have you been collecting these?
16:44I've been collecting these for over 30 years now.
16:47Wow, and the jaws of a tiger shark.
16:53Yes, this is a jaw from a 15-foot tiger shark.
16:56I've read in books they've got teeth like the combs of a cockerel.
16:59Never understood why, but you can see this is a bizarre shape, isn't it?
17:04These teeth, you'll notice they're much thicker than the normal sharks.
17:08That allows them to bite through the shells of sea turtles without breaking their teeth off.
17:12Can I go and see the bull shark and Gregor?
17:14All right now, this is what I came here for, to compare the jaws of the great white shark
17:22with the jaws of a bull shark.
17:25And the teeth here, perfect triangles in a great white shark.
17:30These serrated edges make them ideal for slicing through mammalian flesh.
17:34And if you look at the bull shark, they're smaller teeth, but the structure is virtually identical.
17:41These are the jaws of an 11-foot bull shark.
17:45They don't get much bigger than this.
17:48And this creature would be a very dangerous animal indeed.
17:53Look at the back of the jaws there.
17:55You can see all sharks, they've got replacement teeth.
18:00The teeth don't grow in sockets in the jaws.
18:02They go directly from the gums, and the gums are always moving them forward.
18:07So if these front teeth are blunted or damaged, there's always an understudy ready to take their place.
18:13But these flashing teeth are backed up by really powerful jaws.
18:19Sharks don't have bones, of course.
18:21This is cartilage, or gristle.
18:24It's just like the stuff in our noses, in our ears.
18:27That's what gives them their shape.
18:28But in the shark, what gives the jaws the toughness is their big deposits of calcium phosphate.
18:34In life, these jaws would be loosely attached to the skull by powerful muscles and ligaments.
18:40And that means the shark can flash the jaws forward, just like outstretching an arm.
18:47But why do so many people come into close contact with the jaws of bull sharks?
19:08Where they hunt is one reason why people can come into contact with bull shark jaws.
19:13So they've got a reputation for ferocity, but that's quite often because they're in shallow water and they can't escape.
19:19Exactly. And you see that now from the rocks, from the bottom, a lot of the noise is bouncing back.
19:23So I don't want to say they're confused, but you know, a lot of stuff is going on, so they're
19:28very, very alert.
19:29So close to shore, bull sharks can feel hemmed in.
19:37Us humans are most likely to swim and play in the world's warm, shallow waters, where bull sharks like to
19:44cruise and hunt.
19:50The shark comes into the shallows, not expecting a forest of human legs.
19:58The predator is here for rays, a favourite food.
20:09The shark can feel it's been cornered maybe, and that the swimmers are somehow competing for its prey.
20:20This time it's a ray, but in these circumstances, people can get attacked.
20:31This is Durban Harbour, the busiest port in South Africa, and for young fisherman Imran Shaikh, the scene of a
20:39nightmare attack.
20:43He managed to get in the way of a feeding bull shark.
20:48Hello Imran.
20:50No fish yet?
20:51No.
20:52Imran, it was a night that changed your life. I mean, where did the attack happen?
20:57Right there at the Green Boy, just before the channel.
21:03And you had a real epic battle with the shark.
21:06Yeah, true.
21:08And what happened?
21:09As I was walking to cast my bait, I heard a splash behind me.
21:20It was really murky water, the shark was going for fish, and it collided with you.
21:30It was a real fight, I mean, you were hitting it with the rod.
21:36It took you three times, didn't it?
21:38Yeah.
21:39I had to kick myself out of it.
21:51The shark nearly severed your foot at the ankle.
21:55It was a quarter of a mile back to shore.
21:59You had the best surgery and they couldn't save your leg.
22:03Yeah.
22:06These are Imran's x-rays.
22:08The shark didn't bite through the bone, as we can see that the bone is intact.
22:12He had tendon injuries, his blood vessels were torn and he had soft tissue defects as well.
22:21We discovered that his foot was not viable and we had to amputate.
22:27We found these tooth fragments within the wound.
22:33They were later taken for analysis.
22:38The pieces of broken teeth proved that a bull shark was the culprit.
22:47And how are you coping with that now?
22:51It took me quite some time to get over it.
22:53I'm still immobilising, I'm still fishing.
22:55And still fishing in the same spot where the attack happened?
22:58Yeah.
22:58And do you blame the shark?
23:00No, I don't blame the shark at all.
23:02In fact, I still like sharks.
23:05Yeah, good. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
23:08There's fish jumping all over the place, so you should catch something this morning.
23:12Good luck.
23:13Bye.
23:13Thanks, Imran.
23:19A final solution to such incidents has been a local ambition in Durban since 1952,
23:25when half a mile of netting was installed offshore.
23:33The idea was simple, to catch sharks before they could reach the beaches.
23:40And the nets do catch plenty of sharks, but the barrier isn't continuous,
23:45and a third of the sharks are caught in the side of the net facing the shore.
23:50That's after they've been to the beaches.
23:53Live sharks are tagged and released.
23:55Dead ones, including this bull shark, which in South Africa they call a Zambezi,
24:00have become the basis of a long-running scientific study.
24:04Yeah, it's pretty smelly, but this is a tiger shark, of course,
24:08but any shark that's caught in the shark net should investigate the stomach contents.
24:12The idea being to get an understanding of the role that they play in the marine ecosystem as a predator.
24:18I mean, this is the stomach of a Zambezi here.
24:20Oh, that's delightful, isn't it?
24:23What's in here?
24:25Well, it looks like some vertebrae, possibly from a marine mammal.
24:31I suspect it could be a dolphin.
24:33You find a lot of fish inside the stomachs of Zambezi, and smaller sharks as well.
24:37Yes, it's mainly fish, and the lasmobranks being sharks, particularly small sharks, and then rays.
24:45What's in this bottle here?
24:47Well, this certainly is one of the more unusual ones.
24:51This appears to be a domestic cat.
24:54You can see the paw there.
24:56Yes.
24:59And this was found in the stomach of a Zambezi as well?
25:02Yes, a small little antelope.
25:04Again, probably drowned, swept into the river.
25:07Have you found human remains in a Zambezi stomach?
25:11Yes, unfortunately we have on the odd occasion.
25:14The most memorable incident was the discovery of two human feet that had been bitten off very neatly at the
25:20ankle.
25:21We suspect from the nature of the bite that the shark had probably come across a victim of drowning,
25:29and it literally neatly removed the two feet from the ankle.
25:35So the shark was just scavenging on the course?
25:37Yes. I think that's one of the reasons why they're attracted inshore,
25:40particularly when rivers come down and flood, because they never quite know what they're going to encounter.
25:45And they can be a danger to us because they actually go in murky water, they go up river.
25:50Yes, but the Zambezi is the only large, potentially dangerous shark that one would come across in rivers.
25:59That's right, sharks in rivers.
26:02Bull sharks.
26:10Here in Brisbane, Australia's third largest city, they've always seen big sharks in the river.
26:17They've been seen from the bridges.
26:20And people think it's an ocean-going shark that's taken the wrong turn,
26:24or maybe a shark that's covered in parasites that's come into fresh water to kill them.
26:32But the true story about the bull sharks of Brisbane River is being studied for the first time by Richard
26:39Pillans from the University of Queensland.
26:46It's only a light line we're using, so it's pretty gentle with it.
26:50We've got a bull shark on the line, and there's a swatter skier just gone over, I don't know, just
26:5750 feet away.
27:01How far are we from the sea?
27:03That's beautiful, isn't it?
27:11Shall I put the bed down for him?
27:15Well done, Rach.
27:16Gosh.
27:18The life rafts as a bed so he doesn't get injured.
27:22Look at those teeth in there as well.
27:25And that could do you a lot of damage of course.
27:27Certainly would.
27:30If you include the ones in reserve, a bull shark can have a mouthful of over a hundred teeth.
27:37This one would be between probably four and six months old.
27:40So they're born at a fairly large size.
27:42This one here's a little male.
27:44See why the claspers over there?
27:45Oh, I see.
27:47And they use those for mating?
27:49And they get bigger with age.
27:51So these claspers will protrude way past here once he's a mature male.
27:56One of those.
27:58Right, while it's at liberty we're able to work out how fast it's growing.
28:03Okay, let me write down that number for you.
28:0652028.
28:07Yep.
28:07And 52069.
28:12110 centimetres.
28:13So that's about four feet or so.
28:15And they can get double that size.
28:17So in this river they can get to be eight feet long.
28:21And there's only been one attack in the Brisbane River.
28:23One fatal attack which was 80 years ago.
28:27I bet those little children don't know there's eight foot bull sharks swimming beneath them.
28:32Oh yeah.
28:34Look at that.
28:35I can't believe this.
28:37A completely fresh water river.
28:39And big sharks like this so near to Brisbane.
28:43Go on then.
28:44Boy!
28:45That mouth.
28:50There we go.
28:52Off he goes.
28:54Thanks Rich.
28:56That was great to see that.
29:00This has to be one of the reasons why the bull shark is the world's deadliest.
29:05It goes where no other large sharks can, into fresh water.
29:10And not just in Australia.
29:12Bull sharks are readily found way up rivers from South East Asia to Africa to the Americas.
29:30So here in Australia the deadliest shark is called the bull shark.
29:35But as we found out earlier, here in South Africa the bull shark...
29:39Carcharinus lucas is known as the Zambezi shark after the African river of the same name.
29:46Anglers and fishermen here fear the Zambezi more than the great whites.
29:53The main reason bulls are the deadliest sharks is that they're found in warm waters everywhere.
29:59Even far up the Amazon.
30:02Exactly the same kind of shark can attack people along North American beaches too.
30:23But in fresh water or the sea, what stimulates a bull shark?
30:27What actually brings it to the brink of an attack?
30:32Look, we've got these black gloves on.
30:34White hands can actually initiate a bite.
30:38Because if they see white, that's like a fish wound, is that right?
30:41Exactly.
30:42Very often you see fishes with wounds or just, you know, they have some fungus on them, whatever.
30:47Like something white, it moves around and this is where the sharks go after.
30:51So waving white hands in the water you can get a bite.
30:55Exactly, it's not a good thing to do.
30:57So what are good things to do?
31:02Could attacks be avoided if we understood better about a shark's view of the world?
31:08About a shark's senses?
31:11To find out more about what a bull shark reacts to,
31:14I've come to a place where the sharks already live in what could be called laboratory conditions.
31:18The Oklahoma Aquarium.
31:21Home, incidentally, to the world's biggest captive bull shark.
31:25She's over eight feet long and weighs 350 pounds.
31:29And I've been given permission to do experiments with her and the other sharks here.
31:46Sharks are untameable.
31:49As soon as they sense food, their predatory instincts kick in and when they find it, they bite hard.
31:59I hope the tests I'm going to do here will give some insight into how to avoid being on the
32:05receiving end of a bull shark bite.
32:16To get some ideas of why sometimes shark senses lead them to attack us, I'm going to do a few
32:22tests with these bull sharks.
32:23I've got all this gubbins here. There's a machine that produces electricity under the water.
32:29I've got a syringe full of a delightful odour.
32:32And I've even got shark sign boards.
32:35When we get in there, the sharks are going to get very excited.
32:40Nothing should go wrong, but in case it does, I've got a bodyguard with a pistol.
32:45And if a shark attacks, that will fire a high-pressure jet into the face of the attacking sharks.
32:51Are you ready, Kenny? Sure.
32:58So here I am, with all my scientific paraphernalia, in the aquarium.
33:04And so far the sharks are ignoring us.
33:07They must be used to seeing people underneath them.
33:25They know we're in the water though. Their sensors are too good to miss that.
33:30The question is, how can we confuse those sensors?
33:34Enough to make them bite a person.
33:38The light's just too good to baffle them with visual cues.
33:42Sharks have pretty good eyesight. Scientists have demonstrated that.
33:47In fact, in some aquariums, shapes and colours have been used to train sharks to come to food.
33:55No, there's nothing wrong with these sharks' eyes.
33:59When they're dangerous, is when they can't see so well.
34:07There's nothing like a swim in the surf at dusk or dawn, but this is precisely when sharks are most
34:13likely to be hunting.
34:14In low light, sharks can't rely on their eyes to identify prey, which means they could end up confusing humans
34:20for something they want to eat.
34:22Even when the light's okay, it's not a good idea to confuse sharks by wearing jewellery or shiny watches.
34:29To them, the glint is just like the shimmer of a fish.
34:38Now to test the aquarium shark's hearing or sense of vibration.
35:02Another caution. Don't go swimming with your dog. Its erratic movements have about the same effect as the coconut rattle.
35:12Sharks have one scent that we don't have, and it's a very strong one.
35:19They can detect electricity, something all creatures produce just by being alive.
35:25I'm hooking up this board so that we can run a charge through it.
35:30Now I'm backing off because I don't want to be near it when it's switched on.
35:35Not because of electricity, because of the sharks.
35:39The current's on.
35:43The electroreceptors in the shark's snouts pick up the signals.
35:47And they swarm down to see what kind of animal is broadcasting.
35:54We turn it up and they get more and more excited.
36:07So let's try to make this feeding situation even more realistic.
36:12A soup of fish blood and oil.
36:16They're going ballistic.
36:25I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that gadget now.
36:34Another lesson.
36:36Feeding sharks can buy anything that comes near them.
36:39Shoals of fish can be a sign that it's hunting sharks nearby.
36:43Stay clear.
36:45If I was still near that apparatus, those sharks could chop me to pieces.
36:53But again, it's because they're confused.
36:55They're getting blasts of signals of potential food.
36:58If a person went among them now, even though people aren't their usual prey,
37:03they get savaged.
37:29I think I've learnt enough about bull sharks to encounter them in the open ocean.
37:34I think I've learnt enough about bull sharks to encounter them in the open ocean.
37:34The best place in the world to do that is Cuba.
37:50Off the coast here, there's a huge gathering of breeding bull sharks.
37:55And that's where I'm headed.
38:02But first, I can never resist a reptile.
38:05Cuban rock iguana.
38:07Look.
38:13This is the largest lizard on the island of Cuba.
38:17Can grow to be about five feet long with the tail.
38:21Getting rarer now as the keys are being developed.
38:23But there's a big population on the US naval base on Guantanamo Bay.
38:27There's two to three thousand of these spectacular lizards there.
38:31Believe it or not, these can be at risk from attack by bull sharks.
38:35They sometimes swim between islands, swim between keys.
38:38And when that happens, they can be attacked from beneath.
38:42These things, they only feed on fruit, leaves and flowers.
38:47Gorgeous animal.
38:48These, I love those bloodshot eyes.
38:53Lovely crest on the top of its head.
38:57Let's let you go now.
38:59Go on then.
39:05Why does nearly every expert on bull sharks seem to be called Eric?
39:10Now I'm meeting Eric Fernandez Misa.
39:15Hello.
39:16Must be Eric.
39:17Nice to see you.
39:19And these are the sharks we're going to be meeting.
39:27So Eric, we're going to be feeding adult bull sharks by hand.
39:32I mean, no chainmail gloves?
39:34No, they are big bull sharks and they are powerful.
39:38And they can't take all the arm.
39:41So they take the whole arm off?
39:42Yeah, sure.
39:43OK, well let's go.
39:57The sharks are over 80 feet down.
40:01And the deeper we go, the more vividly I remember how big bull sharks are.
40:08And what one nip did to Eric Ritter's leg.
40:20Here's a friendly face.
40:23A green moray eel.
40:25These have a bite, but like sharks, they only tend to use it on people if they're confused or startled.
40:32This one just wants a piece of fish.
40:46Some how that's made me feel a little better.
40:49I fed something and my hand's still here.
40:54The bull sharks are assembling for dinner.
40:58They're huge.
41:24She's the size of the one in the Oklahoma Aquarium.
41:27But this is the open ocean and she's under nobody's control but her own.
41:33The truth is, they could attack us at any time if they wanted to.
41:37But we just have to trust them not to.
41:46Remember what Cuban Eric said about the chainmail gloves that people use when feeding other kinds of sharks?
41:53With a bull shark, there's no point in them.
41:56If it wanted to, it could just rip your arm off.
42:11But these are being surprisingly gentle when they take the food.
42:22Please sharks, when it's my turn, be gentle with me too.
42:35They're trusted implicitly by Cuban Eric.
42:39He barely flinches, however close they get.
42:47Which is fine, but it's my turn to feed them now and I have to summon up the same kind
42:53of trust.
42:54That's kind of hard with my heart beating like this.
43:11This is nerve wracking.
43:13I'm just about to stick a fish in a bull shark's mouth.
43:16But they seem a little nervous of a strange Englishman in a pink mask.
43:27There.
43:30Eric Ritter would be proud of me.
43:33I did it.
43:41Look, I'll do it again.
43:46This confirms what I've learned about bull sharks.
43:50They may be the biggest killers and maimers in sharkdom, but that's because they can get confused.
43:55Anyway, saying they're the biggest killers isn't saying a lot.
43:59In 2003, sharks of all species killed only four people.
44:04Although bulls probably caused several deaths in remote parts of the world that went unreported.
44:10That's why most scientists are confident they're the world's deadliest shark.
44:15But it's clear that even an attack from a bull is unbelievably rare.
44:20So why was Eric bitten?
44:28Eric, I mean, 18 months ago, it happened over there in the Bahamas.
44:32I mean, it's so heartwarming to see.
44:35Leg looks pretty good now.
44:36You're even running on it.
44:38Yeah, I started running again, and I'm up to about an hour.
44:40Slow, I have to say.
44:42It's a funny way of running, but yeah, I run again.
44:45I mean, I'm never going to forget the blood.
44:50We'll talk about that in a minute, but what I'll remember is your bravery.
44:54I mean, you were going in and out of consciousness, but as soon as you were out of the water,
44:57you said, by the time the year's out, I'm going to be back in the water with those bull shots.
45:02And even after months in hospital, you did it.
45:04I don't remember that anymore, but yeah, it's true.
45:07About five months later, I jumped in my first time, actually the very same spot where I got bitten to
45:12find closure.
45:13And I was an incredible feeling.
45:15And since then, I even feel much closer to these animals than I ever did before.
45:19What did go wrong? You've done that hundreds of times before.
45:22There was clear water. I wasn't moving around. There was no sediment.
45:26The shark wasn't trapped between the cameraman and you. What went wrong?
45:30Well, actually two things went wrong.
45:32One problem was that we allowed the shark to come in that close.
45:37Once a shark is aware or realizes that the thing in front of him is aware of its presence, the
45:43shark would have reacted.
45:44So a slight turn from my side would have made all the difference in the world.
45:48The second thing was we were in the water for a long time.
45:50The sharks were comfortable with us and there were these little food particles that came down with the current,
45:54so that attached these food particles were on our legs.
45:57So the shark was comfortable, they still smelled it, so yeah, sooner or later these sharks wanted to know what
46:03the heck are these people?
46:04What is this?
46:05We were filming in slow motion, the bite was slowed down three times.
46:11They looked very gentle.
46:12Yeah, what we did was called an exploratory bite.
46:15She wanted to get an idea because we smelled like something, maybe we are palatable, maybe not.
46:21And it was painful, but not to the point that it was excruciating.
46:25The second bite was when she really tried to carry me into deeper water or bite through my leg.
46:32You were suddenly talking to me, you let out a cry, and you're lifted out of the water.
46:35I mean, this was an eight-foot, 350-pound shark lifting a 200-pound man out of the water.
46:41You were dragged away, you were in the air. What was happening?
46:44Her teeth were stuck in my shinbone, so she had the whole leg in her mouth.
46:48Then I realized I had to react, and I knew that something was going to give, and yeah, it was
46:53my calf.
46:57This big puppy, and she really got a good chunk out of me.
47:02There was 100 square yards of blood in the water. You lost 50% of your blood.
47:10Yeah, 50% was gone, so normally that's fatal, and for whatever reason, it was not my time.
47:15Yeah, I was a lucky camper.
47:17You know, why didn't those sharks frenzy?
47:20I mean, there was all your blood in the water, the assistant cameraman, James York, jumped in to help you
47:25out.
47:25I was there, could have attacked both of us, could have gone in to attack you again.
47:29This is one of these old myths, you know, sharks do this, sharks do that.
47:32But we humans are not part of their food system, so they don't know what human blood is.
47:37Their evolution did not focus on human blood, so accident showed us quite a few things,
47:43or proved that what we're saying all these years is sharks don't go for human blood.
47:47They're not vicious animals, they don't attack for the sake of attacking.
47:51We all saw that in this accident.
47:53It's so great to see you, and one day we'll go for a jog.
47:56Yeah, we could.
47:58Bull sharks, I followed them from the nursery,
48:04to adulthood.
48:08They're not ferocious, just a little temperamental.
48:12They don't like confusion or surprises, and what they can't see well, they assume to be alright to eat.
48:20If they're the worst of sharks, then the only reason to worry about sharks at all,
48:25is to worry about their welfare.
48:27The sea would be a poorer place without them.
48:35I'm so healed it.
48:36.
48:39.
49:07Transcription by CastingWords
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