All language subtitles for Rogue.Shark.

BEN (off-screen): It was
like a scene out of Jaws.

There was blood
coming down the stairs
trickling back into the water.

NARRATOR: When a vacation
hot spot is rocked by

a series of shark attacks,

chaos reigns.

JUSTINE (off-screen): When I
looked down at the injury,

half of my leg was missing.

NARRATOR: All the
victims are attacked in

the same small patch of ocean,

no larger than
four football fields.

ADAM (off-screen):
We really need to get
to the bottom of it and

we need to get to
the bottom of it fast.

NARRATOR: Is a rogue
serial killer on the loose?

Or is something new
drawing sharks and

humans into conflict?

NARRATOR: September 19th 2018.

Justine Barwick is on
a yachting vacation with

her husband and friends in

Australia's remote
Whitsunday Islands.

JUSTINE (off-screen):
It was the sixth year
running that we had been.

The water's beautiful,
the beaches are lovely,

the hikes are great.

We just love it there.

NARRATOR: The Whitsundays
lie at the heart of

the world-famous
Great Barrier Reef.

One of Australia's most
popular vacation destinations.

Over half a million tourists
flock here every year

chartering yachts for
the trip of a life time.

(laughter)

But beneath the
waves something is about

to shatter the peace.

JUSTINE (off-screen):
The conditions on that
day had been really good.

But the weather was
meant to be rough for

the following
two or three days.

So, we made the decision that
we would wait that weather out

at Cid Harbour, which is
such a good place to do it.

It's so sheltered.

NARRATOR: Justine
swam in Cid Harbour
on countless occasions.

JUSTINE: Before I dive into
the water I do sometimes think

of the sea being home to,
you know, creatures that,

that might sting or bite.

But I didn't have
those thoughts that day.

NARRATOR: There's good
reason to feel safe.

While the Great Barrier Reef
is home to bulls,

tigers and hammerhead sharks,
the sheltered waters of

the Whitsundays
are considered some of
the safest in Australia.

ADAM (off-screen): In
the last 20 years there's
been like one shark bite

at Whitsundays and the
Whitsundays is one of the most

visited areas in the whole
of the Great Barrier Reef.

So, you, you can imagine per
year there's like thousands

upon thousands of people
in the water down there.

NARRATOR: At 5:00 pm,

Justine's world
is about to change.

JUSTINE: I dived into the
water and then as I came back

up that's the moment
that the shark bit my leg.

Years later I still struggle
to describe the force with

which the shark
made impact with me.

I turned and attempted to push
the shark away from me and

then I knew I had to
get out of the water.

NARRATOR: Justine has a
life-threatening bite to

her upper thigh, the
size of a dinner plate.

Her femoral artery is severed,
she's bleeding out.

JUSTINE (off-screen):
Swimming back to the boat,

my right leg wasn't working
as I would expect it to.

But it wasn't until I tried to
get up the swing ladder that

I, I became really
confused as to why

my right leg wouldn't work.

NARRATOR: In shock, Justine is
dragged aboard by her husband.

(whimpering)

JUSTINE (off-screen): When I
looked down at the injury,

half of my leg was missing.

(whimpering)

And I, I knew I was in really
big trouble at that point.

(whimpering)

I, I said those words,
"I think I might die."

I thought my kids
would be sad but they're,

they're grown and they would
be okay and that my husband,

he could go on and,
and still be happy, maybe.

NARRATOR: Justine's friends
desperately try to stem

the bleeding using towels
to compress the wound.

Their quick-thinking
help save her life.

MAN: Any vessels
in the vicinity or able
to get to Cid Harbour?

Patient has a
shark attack bite

NARRATOR: Within minutes
a doctor vacationing on a

nearby yacht responds.

JOHN: And I thought,
well if anybody could help

I probably could help.

Uh, I'm an emergency doctor.

The cockpit floor was slick
with blood and Justine was so

unwell but she unbelievably
was surviving, um,

really because of
the, uh, the first aid.

NARRATOR: On the mainland,
medics mobilize.

BEN (off-screen): This
is a first shark attack
for the entire crew.

Adrenalin's running,
tensions are high.

There's a lot of discussion
and planning about what are

we going to do
when we get there?

What are we going
to be faced with?

PILOT: This is
rescue 412 helicopter

Do yo have a visual
on the helicopter?

And do you have any audio?

Can you hear the
helicopter approach?

NARRATOR: Help arrives at
Cid Harbour in ten minutes.

But with no easy
way to reach Justine,

and her
condition deteriorating,

Ben makes the
decision to swim for it.

JUSTINE: I think Ben's
decision to jump into

the water where I'd just
been bitten by a shark very,

very, um, recently, it's,
it's nothing short of amazing.

BEN: I get asked a lot like,

"Oh, were you thinking
about the sharks?

Worried about the sharks?"

And then not really, because
I'm too busy thinking about

all the stuff I've got to do.

NARRATOR: Two hours
after the bite,

Justine is finally
winched into the helicopter.

JOHN: I felt a
great sense of, uh,
despondency because I thought

Justine wouldn't be alive
at the top of the wire.

NARRATOR: On the
rescue helicopter,

the medical team
realizes just how serious

Justine's wound is.

BEN: There's an
arterial bleed, um,

quite significant,
a lot of blood loss.

NARRATOR: By the time
they reach the mainland,

Justine is unconscious
and close to death.

BEN: The thought did
run through our minds where

we're like
there's every chance that
she won't come out of this.

NARRATOR: But after a long
night of intensive surgery,

her severed artery
is repaired and

surgeons work to save her leg.

But what had
actually attacked Justine?

JUSTINE: I didn't see
it before the incident or

after the incident.

I've got a memory of
my hands on the shark.

I can remember
what it felt like,

the force back
through my arms.

Um, it was incredibly solid.

NARRATOR: The Cid Harbour
mystery begins.

Australian shark expert,
Richard Fitzpatrick hears

the news within
hours of the attack.

RICHARD: I was
very curious, you know,

shark attacks on the
Great Barrier Reef are

extremely rare events.

And we were starting to
get phone calls in from

concerned tourism
operators and

everyone just wanted
to know what was it?

Will it happen again?

NARRATOR: Little does he know,
these questions would dominate

the next two
years of his life.

At Florida's
world-famous international
shark attack file,

Dr. Gavin Naylor keeps
a meticulous record of

every single shark attack
recorded around the world.

GAVIN: This is an x-ray image
of Justine Barwick's injury.

And you can see it's
a fairly clean bite and

a semi-circular bite.

There's no doubt
in my mind that, uh,
this is from a shark.

This is a very, very
explosively powerful bite.

White sharks are always
the thing that we jump to

when there's been a
shark attack in Australia.

Over the past 20 years,

there have been 91 bites
attributed to white sharks.

But in this instance,

we don't think there's
white shark involvement.

White sharks in general prefer
cooler waters and the bites in

the Whitsundays are
outside of this range.

So, it's more likely
to be a tropical shark.

NARRATOR: But before anyone
can investigate further,

just hours later,
news of a second attack

rocks the Whitsundays.

NARRATOR: 2018 and a
shark attack victim,

Justine Barwick, lies
unconscious in the hospital.

Australia is
rocked by more bad news.

REPORTER (over TV):
There's been another
savage shark attack

in the Whitsundays.

The two maulings,
less than 24 hours apart,

at the same beach.

TIM (over TV): This is now
a fight for life for the

12-year-old girl who remains
in a critical condition

inside Mackay Hospital where

she's currently
undergoing emergency surgery.

BEN (off-screen):
When the second call
came in I was actually just

leaving work to
head home for the night.

And I got to the end of the
runway and my phone rung again

and it was the
helicopter phone saying,

"Oh, you need to
get back there's been

another shark attack
at Cid Harbour."

It's, it's a bit
unbelievable at first and,

you, you kind
of think it was like,

"Oh, has someone made a
mistake because it's, uh,
it's exactly the same thing."

NARRATOR: Racing to the scene,

the paramedic team
arrives within

40 minutes of the attack.

BEN: So, we met
the patient on shore.

We were worried about it
because she is a young girl.

Just a lot of blood missing, a
major impact wound to the leg.

NARRATOR: Hannah Papps is
struck just before 2:00 pm.

Just like the first victim,

she jumps into the
water for a swim.

And just like Justine,
within seconds she's attacked.

(screaming)

BEN: We could tell
that it was definitely

a smaller bite
wound than Justine.

But being such a young girl
with such a major bite there

was every chance that she
was not going to make it.

NARRATOR: Just two hours
after the alarm was raised,

Hannah arrives at
Mackay Hospital where

surgeons battle
to save her life.

They stop the blood loss,

but sadly Hannah's left leg
has to be amputated.

BEN: It's always hard to hear
that a child has lost a limb.

It's a lot sadder to hear when
your patient doesn't make it.

So we were still,
still pretty stoked that
she, um, got out of there.

NARRATOR: What had attacked
the two Cid Harbour swimmers?

Like Justine, Hannah is
bitten in the afternoon on

the inside of her leg,

shortly after
entering the water.

And most worrying of all,
it happens within yards

of the first attack site.

Coincide?

Or is a serial
attacker on the loose?

The scientific
community is baffled.

RICHARD: To have
lightning strike twice in
one spot within 24 hours,

it's the first time
it's happened on

the Great Barrier Reef.

ADAM: These people are
just hitting the water and

getting bitten, you know,
something odd is going on.

GAVIN: Individual
shark attacks are
incredibly rare events.

Clusters of shark attacks
are even rarer.

They're like hen's teeth.

In the 6,000 plus records of
shark bite incidents we have

in the shark attack files,
there's no more than a handful

of them that are associated
with these cluster attacks.

NARRATOR: The most famous
cluster incident was the

New Jersey attacks
of 1916 that likely

inspired the movie Jaws.

Over 12 days,
four people were
killed and one injured.

As shark struck swimmers
at seaside resorts along

the Jersey shore.

More recently, in 2010,
oceanic white tipped sharks

were blamed for a similar
spate of attacks on tourists

in Egypt's famous
Sharm el-Sheik resort.

GAVIN: We don't
know what triggers
cluster attacks at all.

And it's very likely that the
triggers for one species in

one part of the world
are quite different than

the triggers in
another part of the world.

NARRATOR: Back in Australia,
with lives on the line and a

multibillion tourism
industry under threat,

the state government
takes swift action.

REPORTER (over TV): The
tropical holiday coast has

been rocked by the attacks.

Baited drum lines sit today
in a bid to catch the shark.

NARRATOR: Police
patrols are initiated,

warning signs erected
and baited hooks set
to cross Cid Harbour.

Within 48 hours, four sharks
are caught and shot.

All tigers.

The largest over
three meters in size.

Has the suspect or
suspects been caught?

Shark experts
have their doubts.

GAVIN (off-screen): There's
only been six confirmed,

unprovoked bites
by tiger sharks in
Australian waters in

the past 20 years and only
two of those have been fatal.

So, in a country where
there are so many bites,

the fraction that are
due to tiger sharks is

actually quite small.

They'll feed on birds,
they feed on turtles,

they feed on marine mammals.

So, they're not
really specialist feeders.

And so, this plays into the
idea that tiger sharks could

be opportunistically
biting people.

Certainly, the first bite
was of a large animal.

But the intent and the
severity of the bite and

the speed that it must have
occurred is not typically

characteristic
of a tiger shark.

NARRATOR: One week later,
with no further attacks and

the busy holiday season
coming to an end,

state officials decide to
remove the drum lines and

curtail the police
patrols at Cid Harbour.

Just a month later medical
researcher Daniel Christidis

anchors his rental
yacht in Cid Harbour.

On a five-day vacation with
a group of fellow medics,

they choose Cid Harbour as
their first night's anchorage.

At 5:30 pm, Daniel and a
colleague decide to take

the paddle board out.

Taking turns to swim and
paddle across the bay.

Minutes later,
Daniel jumps in.

Within seconds Cid Harbour
has another victim.

(splashing)

♪ ♪

BEN: When the third
shark attack came in,

once again it was sort
of coming on dusk and

then the phone rings, the
siren goes through the hanger,

it's another shark attack.

Cid Harbour all over again,
the same thing.

We were just sitting there
going this is unbelievable.

We received another phone call
on the way out saying that

the CPR was in progress.

Obviously the
patient's quite unwell.

It's quite a confronting
scene to rock up to.

There's a lot going on.

It's dark.

There was blood
coming down the stairs,

trickling back into the water.

There was more than
one major bite wound.

So, the body's
going into shock,

it's starting to shut down.

The heart's not
beating properly,

there's not enough
blood going around.

So there's a, there's a lot
needed to be done to stabilize

the patient before we
could actually move him.

NARRATOR: Shortly after
arriving at the hospital,

Daniel is pronounced dead.

BEN: I mean it's probably
right up there as probably

one of the
worst days I've had.

I don't know, you know that
the work that you did do is

all that you can really do
and you provide them with

the best that you can do, um.

Sometimes it's not enough.

Sometimes it is.

GAVIN (off-screen): The third
victim had extensive wounds on

his legs and
also on his wrists.

And it's clear from the
pattern of bite marks that

this third victim was
attacked by a large shark.

NARRATOR: Has a lone
rogue shark struck again?

With lives on the line,
the government calls in

the help of shark experts.

RICHARD: So
that's the channel.

NARRATOR: Richard Fitzpatrick
and Adam Barnett have been

studying Australia's
sharks for over 20 years.

ADAM: So, that's the
area across there were the,

the shark bites occurred.

NARRATOR: If anyone can
discover what's attacking

people in Cid Harbour
and why, it's them.

ADAM: Something strange is
going on here in this bay.

I mean it's unusual
to get three bites
in such a short time,

but also in
such a small area.

We really need to get
to the bottom of it and

we need to get to
the bottom of it fast.

RICHARD: This area is
essentially a black hole of

information for us
on, on shark biology.

A lot of work's been done
to the north and south.

But here we know very little.

NARRATOR: They need to find
out what sharks live here and

why these previously safe
waters have transformed

into a killing zone.

ADAM: We're throwing
everything we can,

every bit of
technology available to us.

We're going to
throw it at this and

see what we can find out.

RICHARD: We know
nothing at the moment.

RICHARD (over radio):
Adam, Adam do you copy?

ADAM: Go ahead skipper.

NARRATOR: Adam and
Richard review the
details of each attack.

RICHARD: So, there are some
distinct patterns that have

happened with the
bites in Cid Harbour.

First is the time of day.

They were all
in the afternoon.

The other really interesting
one is that they've all

occurred in an area about
the size of a football field.

That is really unusual.

The other thing is that the
bites have happened almost

instantaneously after
the victims have jumped in

the water and splashed.

NARRATOR: Like Gavin, Richard
thinks the evidence points

away from tiger sharks.

RICHARD (off-screen):
Whatever has done it
has reacted straight away.

That's not tiger behavior.

They're a bit cautious in
how they approach things.

They tend to be a
bit slower in how they
react to baits and pray.

So, this leads us to think
it's possibly something else.

NARRATOR: But if a
tiger isn't responsible,

what did attack the
Cid Harbour swimmers?

To find out the team set a
series of baited lines and

within hours they
hook their first shark.

MAN: Uh, looks like
we've got a bit of
action on the, uh, set lines.

ADAM: Okay mate, uh,

yeah, we'll just pop
over and have a look at it.

MAN (over radio):
Yeah, copy that.

NARRATOR: With its
distinctive striped back

it can only be one shark.

RICHARD: I can
see the white snout.

ADAM: Sort of just hanging,

oh we've got our
first tiger of the trip.

RICHARD: Whoa.
ADAM: Hello.

RICHARD: Hello.
Hello big boy.

ADAM: Whoa, okay.

That's Let it, let it go,
let it go, let it go.

NARRATOR: Over
three meters long,

she's a mature female.

ADAM: Whoa! Okay, let it go.

Tiger sharks is a species
which is copping some of

the blame for the bites.

So, it's going to be really
interesting to get some tags

on these guys and
see what their behavior
is in this general area.

NARRATOR: The team works
fast to attach a tail rope and

bring her under control.

Next, they prep a
state-of-the-art acoustic tag.

Flipped on her back, the
shark enters a calm trance

like state known
as tonic inability.

Adam then inserts
the tiny tag in

the body cavity
under her skin.

Within minutes,
the Whitsundays

first tagged
shark is released.

RICHARD: Woo.

(beeping)

NARRATOR: The
team name her Alara.

She gives off a
steady acoustic signal

as she swims away.

The signal will be
picked up by a network
of listening stations

the team plans to deploy
around the Whitsundays.

But first, someone
needs to set them up.

(splashing)

Richard draws the short straw.

RICHARD (off-screen): I
don't like going in water
that I can't see through.

And the things that struck
me first when I came here

was just the lack of
visibility in the water.

NARRATOR: With a
safety diver watching on,

he works fast to
set up the first
acoustic listening station

outside the northern
entrance to Cid Harbour.

(beeping)

The listening stations will
eavesdrop on the islands 24-7.

If tiger Alara or any
tag shark comes within

30 meters of a
station it's date,

time and position
will be logged.

It should give the team
the first detailed picture of

whether any
sharks are hanging
around the attack site.

It could lead them
straight to the prime suspect.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Across the
Whitsundays hundreds of baited

cameras are deployed and
listening stations fixed as

scientists race to
understand why these

previously safe waters
have turned deadly.

And as the footage comes
in one big clue emerges.

The poor visibility.

ADAM: What we have here
is a satellite image of

the actual water clarity
of the Whitsundays area.

It's showing the turbid waters
versus the clearer waters.

And as you can see, most
of the Whitsundays region

itself is quite turbid.

Including Cid Harbour in here.

You don't get the bluer waters
until you move off shore.

These turbid waters are
probably driven by the

actual sediments
coming off the land and

out of these river systems.

Now the interesting thing
about these river systems is

that these are pretty key
habitats for bull sharks.

NARRATOR: In the last
20 years bull sharks
have been responsible

for five attacks
in Australian waters.

Armed with an incredible sense
of smell and a sixth sense

that allows them to detect
vibrations in the water,

they're perfectly adapted for
hunting in murky conditions.

But without vision,
they can make mistakes.

GAVIN (off-screen):
Most shark bites are
cases of mistaken identity.

If you live in an environment
where you can't see very well

you have to be very, very
quick and very decisive.

So, they'll bite quickly and
sort of ask questions later.

So, this is
consistent with at least

the first bite in Cid Harbour.

This is one bite that's
removed a chunk of flesh

in, in one fowl swoop.

If I was a betting person I
would lean towards this being

inflicted by a bull shark.

NARRATOR: On the
Australian mainland,

Richard and Adam's colleague,

Andrew Chin is following a
different line of enquiry.

He's trying to discover why
these previously safe waters

might have turned so deadly.

ANDREW: And what we were
looking for is the perceptions

of people who had been to
the Whitsundays over the years

understand what sort
of things had they seen?

What did they think
was happening in some of

these different
anchorages like Cid Harbour?

Was there anything that people
were doing that could explain

what might have just happened.

When we have
a look at the data,

it's obvious that Cid Harbour
is a very busy place.

There's a lot of
people anchoring in there,

there's a lot of
activities going in there,

people are paddle boarding,
people are swimming.

So you've got a lot
of water board activity.

You also have people
discarding rubbish,

throwing food
scraps over the side,

some people are
even fishing or

baiting in these anchorages.

Those two activities
don't go hand in hand.

Sharks are smart,
they will learn.

They're not going to waste
energy swimming around the

whole ocean looking for food
when you can get it delivered

to you off the side of a boat.

NARRATOR: Throwing food
waste overboard is illegal in

Whitsunday waters, but the
team unearths evidence that

the practice continues.

Could this be
triggering the attacks?

ADAM (off-screen):
It definitely was
a turning point.

You start putting two
and two together of like,

okay these people
are jumping off a boat

or falling off
a paddleboard and

getting bit straight away
and there's reports of lots of

food going in the water.

Lots of boats.

RICHARD: If you imagine being
a shark in that situation,

you're cruising around,

there's food scraps
thrown in the water.

Smell can drift for long,
long distances as well.

So, they could be following
that up current to its source

thinking what's
happening here.

As more scraps go in the
water then they can feel the

commotion of little
bait fish zipping around and

going for a feed and
all that kind of stuff.

So, there's a lot of
stimulus in the water.

When they switch into feeding
mode they're like a bit more

on edge and they're, you know,

"Oh, okay where is this,

where is this, where is this?

I'm trying to find the source,
trying to find the source."

The visibility is bad.

You can't really see around.

There's a huge shadow above me
but something's under it and

then splash boom, oh cool.

I'm going to go for it.

And unfortunately if
it's a person that's
jumped in at that stage,

they will come through
at high speed and bite.

NARRATOR: The possibility that
human activity could trigger

the attacks is
new and alarming.

And has implications for
every bay around the world

where boats gather
in large numbers.

Particularly locations
in Southern Florida.

ANDREW: The other thing that a
boat does is it provides you

with a hiding spot, right?

So you have this
big thing of shade that

hangs over you with structure.

It's kind of like a movable
ambush point for a shark.

And it's
interesting that many of
the shark bite accounts

that we have, not,
not just in Cid Harbour,

but everywhere, people have
been bitten when they have

jumped into the
water with a splash and

then they've been struck.

NARRATOR: The likely
cause of the cluster
attacks now uncovered,

the team races to identify
the potential culprit.

RICHARD: What
have we got here?

Whoa!

NARRATOR: Over the
course of 12 months,

the team make five trips
to the Whitsundays as

they attempt to discover
what sharks might have been

responsible for the
Cid Harbour attacks.

They only catch
and tag 43 sharks,
including 18 tigers,

three hammerheads
and seven bulls.

A low number by Great
Barrier Reef standards.

RICHARD: Oh yeah,
that's a decent size.

Hello.

One of the
biggest surprises were
we weren't catching a lot.

We were putting
in a lot of fishing effort.

So, it's what we weren't
getting that was probably

the biggest surprise to us.

NARRATOR: Over 500 hours
of baited camera footage

is also reviewed.

ADAM: Oh! Hello.
RICHARD: Oh hello.

Nice little
female tiger shark.

NARRATOR: And once again,
shark numbers are low.

RICHARD: But she's only about,

I don't know,
1.8, two meters max.

NARRATOR: But by far the most
common sharks are spot tails

and black tips
belonging to a group known

as the small whalers.

RICHARD: It's a very large
group of, um, sharks that have

been implicated in
bites around the world.

Mostly in association with
spear fishing and fishing.

Sometimes they can
come up to boats and

particularly fishing boats and

things like that where
there's scent coming off them.

NARRATOR: With
their reputation for
hanging around boats,

could these smaller
sharks be responsible for

any of the attacks?

GAVIN (off-screen): Given
the size of Justine's wounds,

I think that we can
discount a lot of the
smaller whaler sharks like

black tip sharks because the
diameter of the bite marks

on the first victim
were just simply too large.

That said, the much smaller
bite on the second victim

could indeed have been,
uh, a bite from one of

these smaller whalers.

Especially given that they're
so abundant in Cid Harbour.

NARRATOR: Rather
than one rogue shark,

could the attacks have
been by a variety of

different shark species.

Before they could find out,

news of yet another
attack comes in.

REPORTER (over TV):
A tragic end to an

idyllic morning of snorkeling.

28-year-old Alistair Radan
had his right foot severed.

His 22-year-old friend
Danny Maggs suffered

deep cuts to his leg.

RICHARD (off-screen):
I was driving to a
meeting in town when,

you know, I got a text
through that there had

been another incident.

We heard of where
the location was and

it was just around the
corner from Cid Harbour.

And so instantly going
through our mind was like,

was it one of our animals?

NARRATOR: The two victims
are snorkeling when

they are attacked.

(muffled yelling)

Play fighting in the water,

the noise draws in the
attention of a shark.

(muffled yelling)

(splashing)

(yelling)

WOMAN (over TV): One
of the male patients
was attacked first, um,

and the shark is believed to
have returned and come back

and attack the second patient.

RICHARD (off-screen):
A friend of ours was
working down there,

in the Whitsundays, had
been through the channel

that morning and had
commented that there was a lot

of bait fish in the water.

Sea birds were hitting.

So we knew it was
biologically very active.

(splashing)

(laughing)

The two guys, they were
skylarking in the water,

pushing each other down and
making a lot of commotion.

A lot of splashing
right next to where there's

a big bait fish aggregations.

We also got reports that
there was another boat

recreationally fishing
right next to the boat

when it was snorkeling.

Layered on top of that low
visibility and it's like,

you know, a bit of a
recipe for disaster.

GAVIN: Eye witness accounts of
the injuries sustained by the

two snorkelers
suggests that the species
involved was much smaller

than the individual that was
involved in the first bite.

Probably more consistent
with a whaler shark.

NARRATOR: Incredibly, the
latest attack takes place

just yards from one of
the listening stations.

If one or more of the
tagged sharks is responsible,

there ID, time and location
will have been logged on

the underwater recorder.

The team could
finally have proof of
the attackers identities.

NARRATOR: 18 months after a
series of shark bites shakes

the remote islands
of the Whitsundays,

the acoustic
listening stations are
pulled from the water.

And the team
paw over the data.

RICHARD: Comes in
from the outside.

So, here's the initial
cluster in Cid Harbour.

And then 13 months later
we've had this incident up

here in, uh, Hook Passage.

We actually have a receiver
just around the corner.

So, we've retrieved that
to see what was around in

the area at the
time of the incident.

ADAM: There was two detections
from the same animal, uh.

12:30 at night and
1:43 in the morning.

So, way after the incident.

Shark number 12808,
which is a bull shark.

Prior to the bite there
was a, a different animal,

about 11:00 in the morning.

So, it's shark number 128,

uh, pretty sure that's
a bull shark as well.

Yeah, look, it's pretty
clear from this data that our,

one of our tagged
sharks was not there
at the time of the bite.

(screaming)

NARRATOR: The
identity of the most recent
attacker remains unknown.

But as 18 months’
worth of data is analyzed,

some surprising
patterns emerge,

shedding new light on this
tragic cluster of incidents.

By far the most common
large shark showing up

in Cid Harbour is the tiger.

ADAM: It's
recorded 18 individuals.

NARRATOR: And their
movement patterns make them

a prime suspect once again.

ADAM: This is, um, a
shark we called Ingo.

It's a juvenile male, one
of the first ones we tagged.

Um, you can see it
starts of in Cid Harbour,

moves widely over
the Whitsundays,

but you see it keeps
on looping back through

Cid Harbour
out again, back again,

coming back, coming back.

RICHARD: So what we see of
Ingo is actually not unusual.

When you zoom out
wider and look at, uh, a
few of the other tigers,

we're seeing that
they're doing the same thing

of going out on these
big swims out to these

other potential feeding areas.

But you see them always
looping back through

the Cid Harbour area.

So the question is,
why are these tiger sharks

focused on the
Cid Harbour area?

ADAM: We've seen a lot
of shark prey in the bay,

you know, there's stingrays,
there's turtles,

there's lots of other fish
that smaller sharks that

the bigger sharks eat.

So, there's
definitely food in the bay.

But we're not seeing
anything that you might think,

"Oh, that's going
to attract a lot of
sharks in, you know."

That's the thing, there's
nothing unusual about the bay.

The most unusual thing
about the bay probably is that

there's 100 boats in the
peak season mooring there and

throwing stuff in the water.

NARRATOR: Next,
the team analyzes the
data on bull sharks.

With just seven caught,
they're not as common

in Cid Harbour as expected.

RICHARD (off-screen):
One of the first
bull sharks we tagged was

as big 3.2 meter male,
that we called Bevin.

So, he was tagged in July and
he has swum over 1,500 miles

to the very tip
of Queensland and

back in a three-month period.

I mean that's a
substantial swim.

ADAM (off-screen): We tagged
seven, seven bull sharks and

most of them showed
really large-scale movements

up and down the coast.

They returned
to Cid Harbour but

for very short periods,
passing through.

You probably sort of want to
dismiss them based on that.

But we had one shark, it
was the last shark we tagged.

Uh, that animal
actually didn't make any
large-scale movements.

It hung around the
Whitsundays area in general.

It spent about 50% of
its time moving through or

staying in Cid Harbour.

Out of the biggest
sharks we've tagged,

this is the only
one that's really shown

some sort of
short-term residency.

So, we'd be silly to
actually rule him out as

possibly being responsible
for at least one of the bites.

NARRATOR: Along
with tigers and bulls,

only one other
group of sharks could be
involved in the attacks.

ADAM: The only other shark
that actually spent quite a

bit of time in Cid Harbour
itself was a, was a...

one of the
spot-tails we tagged.

And they spend about 50%
of its time in Cid Harbour,

but it's not getting
picked up on any of
these other locations

we had receivers
around the Whitsundays.

So, it looks like it spent
a lot of time in the bay.

NARRATOR: With such a small
number of sharks in the study,

exactly who was
responsible for the
attacks may never be known.

But with tigers, bulls and
small whalers all spending

time at the attack site,
none can be ruled out.

GAVIN (off-screen): Every time
we see a cluster of bites,

in the same area of the world
over a short period of time,

everybody jumps
to conclusions and

it's one individual
that's responsible.

Every time we drill
down and looked into it,

we can't find any scientific
evidence to support that.

Instead, we find increasing
evidence that it's likely to

be different individuals,

sometimes even
different species.

I think something similar
is going on in Cid Harbour.

The medical examination
suggested that the first bite

was by a very
large animal and

the second bite was
much, much smaller.

So, clearly we're not
looking at one rogue shark.

Something in Cid Harbour is
causing different sharks to

act in this peculiar way.

ADAM (off-screen): You
know it's not the be all
and end all what did it.

It's like well, why?

So, I think that's the
more interesting question.

Is it the perfect storm?

Because Cid Harbour's
got a lot of natural pray,

so it makes sense that sharks
are moved through there.

It's got very bad visibility.

There's people in
there like dumping scraps,

attracting sharks for fun,
you know, there's fishing, uh,

cleaning their catch
so they can eat it.

Then you've got other people
that are swimming, snorkeling,

paddle boarding, jumping
off boats and splashing.

ANDREW (off-screen):
Sharks are smart.

They will learn.

So, when something falls,
splash into the water,

they're going to strike at it.

ADAM: I think the
interesting thing is that
it's not just Cid Harbour,

this is happening
in other places.

There's other bays up and
down the Great Barrier Reef,

and probably around the world,

that humans are doing
very similar behavior and

some of these places
are probably just

next in line to have some
sort of shark incident if

they keep on going
the way they're going.

RICHARD: It's important that
we learn from this experience,

and we are.

You know, there's a
lot of changes happening.

ANDREW: If you're on a boat,

don't throw your
stuff overboard,

don't throw
your waste overboard,

don't fish where
people are swimming.

They're just not
compatible activities.

It's not worth the risk.

RICHARD: You know, what we're
talking about is common sense.

So it's just having people
think and become shark smart.

NARRATOR: Scientific
research into Cid Harbour's

shark population is
ongoing and the survivors
continue their recovery.

Justine Barwick still needs
regular physiotherapy and

walks with a cane.

JUSTINE: My leg has been
reconstructed by using a

muscle from my
tummy and also, um,
skin from my tummy as well.

Rehabilitation has been
extensive and, and it even

two years down the
track it continues to

be a, a really
big commitment.

I can't feel my leg but
the physio's taught me to,

to walk on this leg
that I can't feel.

I just feel incredibly
lucky to be back at work,

to be back with my family
and really enjoying life.

Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.