All language subtitles for Great.White.Shark.2013.1080p.BluRay.x264.DTS-HD.MA.5.1-SWTYBLZ

On dry land,
we feel at home.

We feel safe.

Place us in the dark open sea,

we're not so confident.

For centuries,
we've imagined the ocean

to be filled with
nightmarish creatures.

Now, all our fears are
focused on one animal.

But is it the monster
we've imagined it to be?

Sleek, streamlined
and perfectly adapted,

sharks evolved long before
mammals, birds or even dinosaurs.

For almost half
a billion years,

they have played a crucial
role in the marine ecosystem.

And sharks have survived events
that wiped out the dinosaurs

and transformed life on earth.

The vast majority of fish in
the sea have bony skeletons.

But sharks don't have
a bone in their body.

Bony fish may have
evolved into the largest

and one of
the most varied groups

of vertebrate
species on the planet,

but sharks endured.

Partly because they made such
incredibly efficient hunters.

Sharks are one of evolution's
greatest success stories.

Until now.

With the rise in
demand for shark fin soup,

every year tens of
millions of sharks

are killed primarily
for their fins.

Some shark populations
have been reduced by 99%,

and many oceanic
sharks face extinction.

But the combined efforts of
people all over the world

are helping one
shark fight back.

Carcharodon carcharias,
the great white.

Up to 20 foot long,

weighing over two tons, it's the
largest of the carnivorous sharks.

It has excellent eyesight
and sense of smell,

but can also detect vibrations in
the water along its entire body.

It can even detect the electricity
generated by living things.

With the combination of a soft
skeleton and powerful tail muscles,

it is flexible and fast.

Its speed is helped
by its elastic skin,

covered in tiny teeth-like
scales called "denticles."

And much like mammals,
it gives birth to live pups.

It also has a method
of regulating its body heat,

so the great white
is not cold-blooded.

It's truly a global species.

Its range stretches
throughout the pacific,

across the Indian
and Atlantic oceans

and even into
the mediterranean.

From time to time
they do come close inshore,

with the possibility
of human interaction.

But you are more likely to be
killed by falling out of bed

than by any shark.

Our fear is out
of all proportion.

Especially when we discover
that some of us have been

living alongside white sharks our
whole lives without even realizing.

Here in Los Angeles,
there are great white sharks

just off the beach
almost every single day.

Ls our coastline
a hot spot for

the notorious great
white shark? Doug?

They're just
babies, Jackie.

These juvenile great white sharks
are showing up off our shores

in greater numbers
than ever before.

And new research from
Cal state university

has actually backed up increasing
shark numbers here in California.

Dr. Chris lowe of the Cal
state university in long beach

is one of many scientists
around the world

trying to fathom the mysteries
of the great white.

Southern California
is the nursery ground for

white sharks for
the eastern pacific.

You know, we heard about it
because we heard that

local commercial
fishermen were incidentally

catching them
occasionally in their nets.

Occasionally people will catch
them off the piers, fishing.

The sharks that we've tagged tend
to spend their whole summer here,

in the Santa Monica
bay area up into Malibu,

kind of moving
along the shoreline.

And then we found, based on
our satellite tagging data,

that these sharks
migrate down to Mexico.

What we don't know is
whether they come back.

Now that they're federally
protected, there are more sightings.

But Dr. lowe says
in south bay,

there has never
once been an attack.

I mean, what people
forget is you're far

more at risk
driving to the beach

than you would ever be
from encountering a shark.

Dr. lowe has been working
alongside monterey bay aquarium,

who have developed a technique for
capturing young white sharks.

With the help of local fishermen,
a net is drawn in a huge arc

around a single
juvenile great white.

One, two, three.

We put the shark
in a water bath.

And at that point,
we can assess the shark.

John, you clear?

So we'll take a look at it.
Look for scars and marks.

Any injuries that it may have.
We'll measure it.

Once we've done that,
we then roll the shark

over, and when
the shark's inverted,

it goes to sleep.

It's a thing we call
"tonic immobility,"

and at that point,
the shark just lays there.

Then what we'll do
is we'll surgically

implant
an acoustic transmitter.

Now the transmitters
that we put in these

sharks are designed
to last for 10 years.

Every shark gets a unique transmitter
that has its own special code.

So when that shark swims
by an acoustic receiver

out along the shoreline,

when it swims in
the detection range,

it'll tell us
the ID code, the date

and the time that
that shark swam by.

If the sharks
migrate down to Mexico,

hopefully we'll be able to
detect them when they come back

and we'll be able to
do that for a decade.

Okay. Ready?

Probably the most
amazing thing

is that most people
don't know that

right in our front
yard in Los Angeles

is the most important
nursery grounds

for white sharks in
the eastern pacific.

This is the second great white spotted
off venice beach in just two months.

But experts say not to worry, they're
baby great whites, Jackie.

They're not
interested in humans.

Oh,
i don't know, Doug.

I'm not going to
trust that, Doug.

I'm not swimming with...
I'll tell you what,

I'm not swimming with any
baby great whites...

- No, no, no, no.
- ...Anytime soon.

We have
a perfectly understandable

innate fear of
the great white's jaws.

It can have over 300 razor-sharp
teeth in multiple rows.

So when it loses a tooth, a backup
simply rolls forward to fill the gap.

And throughout their life, they
will produce thousands of teeth.

Unfortunately, their jaws
are highly prized

and can fetch as much as
$20,000 on the black market.

They also inspired a story that
introduced the great white

to millions of
people around the world

and helped
to replace the tentacled

sea monsters of
our imagination

with one very real creature.

What the success of
Peter benchley's book

and Steven Spielberg's
movie has proved

is that however much
people fear sharks,

they are equally
fascinated by them.

Entrepreneurs all over the world

have realized real sharks

might be just as big an
attraction as fake ones.

One place the white
shark can be worth

more alive than
dead is South Africa.

Gansbaai is the self-styled

great white shark cage-diving
capital of the world.

Cage diving is not
without controversy.

By baiting sharks
with blood and fish,

are they learning to associate
human activity with feeding?

But is this any different to the
hundreds of thousands of fishing boats

casting their bait or cleaning
their catch close to the shore?

Many would argue
that cage diving

is pivotal to
changing people's attitude,

and in 1991,
South Africa became

the first country to
protect the great white shark.

In other parts of the world,

visitors don't observe
sharks from the surface.

Instead, the cages are
suspended underwater.

Shark-proof cages were first
developed in Australia in the 1960s

as a way of observing
and filming sharks.

So it is something
of a conundrum

that whenever we observe great
whites, they are also observing us.

There's only so much you can learn
about great whites by watching them

from behind bars.

Their real life remains
something of a mystery.

It is my opinion that
great whites, for me, is the most

incredible, beautiful
animals on the planet.

Mike rutzen, one of south
Africa's leading cage dive operators,

is actively trying to change people's
attitude towards the great white.

He does this by getting
even closer to the sharks.

Outside the cage.

Most people fear them. Most
people think they're the devil.

And that is because
they do not know them.

They've never seen them and
people like to fear the unknown.

And just the way she approaches the boat.
What she does around the boat.

How curious she is. How she
investigates everything.

Is the animal going
to accept it or not?

They'll try to put you
in a less dominant position

every time they approach.

With predators
like the great white,

if you see him,
keep eye contact

with the animal as
much as possible.

They are looking for
an edge and as soon

as you can see
them and they know

you're seeing them, they do
not have the edge anymore.

Best animals for me to work
with is big female sharks.

They are very placid normally.
If you get a big male,

he tells you what to do.

And then you get the smaller ones,
they're like 17-year-old kids

and they try and
sneak in and just cause

havoc sometimes like
any teenager would.

I like to say
that great whites

are the best
ambassadors for themselves.

Through the documentaries and through
people actually coming out here

and seeing the animals, people
get a healthy respect for them

and not this mortal fear.

People fear what they do not
know, not what they do know.

So the more we can
get people to understand

how these animals are
just trying to be sharks

and not the devil,

the more, hopefully, people
will want them on the planet.

Young white sharks
hunt rays and fish,

but as they grow bigger,
faster and more powerful,

their diet changes and they
are drawn to larger prey.

As they mature,

great whites work their way
through the food chain,

finally assuming their
position as apex predators.

They need only fear
the occasional orca

and the species at the very
top of the food chain...

Mankind.

Marine mammals have a thick
layer of fat called blubber.

It can make up to 50%
of their bodyweight.

It stores energy,
aids their buoyancy,

and provides insulation
from the cold water.

Seals and sea lions can find
refuge out of the water

or in the depths
of the kelp forest.

But they need every ounce of
agility to evade predation.

Because their concentrated
store of energy

is exactly what
attracts the great white.

In the open sea,

a seal or sea lion
can still outmaneuver a shark.

They're even known to snap
at the tails of sharks

to send them on their way.

So the great whites learn to keep
a respectful distance and wait.

They know the only way to
prey upon a seal or sea lion

is to find a blind spot,

and in a display of astonishing
speed and pure force,

take them by ambush.

Using a wooden
decoy on a fishing line

when the sun is low and the
shadows long in the water,

we can demonstrate the true
power of the great white.

But there is something amiss
in the food chain.

The ocean has
become a dumping ground

for industrial
pollution, plastic,

and pesticides.

Poisonous chemicals and
heavy metals like Mercury

work their way through
the marine food chain,

accumulating in the blubber
of marine mammals.

And scientists are
beginning to see the

side effects,
sickness and sterility,

not just in the animals that
eat fish, but in people, too.

These chemicals pass from fish
to seal blubber, to adult shark

and onto their unborn pups.

But Dr. Chris lowe and his students
made an important observation

on the toxins he's finding in the
bodies of the baby white sharks.

The levels that we 're measuring
would be harmful to people.

But we're not seeing those
effects in these sharks,

so we don't know
what effect these

contaminants are
actually having on them.

Perhaps the immune
systems of the great whites

hold the cure for serious or
even life-threatening illnesses.

In the cold waters
surrounding Stewart island

are some of New Zealand's
great whites.

There are anywhere between
100 to 200 great white sharks

in these waters.

These sharks have had little
interaction with people.

They are the southernmost
known population in the world.

Little is known about the social
interaction between great whites,

but there does appear to be a
hierarchy based upon size.

And some interaction
involves biting.

But great whites have great powers
of recuperation from such wounds.

These sharks are being attracted to
the surface using bait and chum.

When the shark takes the bait,
researchers are able to attach a device

that can record how deep and how
far the sharks actually go.

The tags have revealed
that these sharks dive

down to over 4,000 feet,

depths previously unheard of.

Satellite tags are
beginning to reveal

some of the great
white's secrets.

The tags show us
that white sharks make

epic journeys
through unprotected waters.

New Zealand's sharks
venture as far north as

the tropical
waters of the coral sea.

South African sharks are capable of
crossing the Indian ocean to Australia

and back again.

Each year, Californian and Mexican
sharks travel towards Hawaii

and a region
dubbed "shark cafe'. "

Only now are scientists beginning
to interpret this data

and theorize as to where great whites
mate, gestate, and give birth.

Clearly, tagging is crucial to our
understanding of great whites.

Guadalupe is a volcanic
island in the pacific,

a lost world.

Mauricio hoyos has
been studying the great

whites of Guadalupe
for over 10 years.

I first
became interested in white sharks

when I was a little kid.

When I saw the movie
jaws I fell in love

with the perfection
of this animal.

Instead of being afraid,

I was amazed by
all the adaptations,

which make them the most perfect
predator in the oceans.

We have detected sharks that i
have tagged in Guadalupe island

in the west coast of the united
states, and also in Hawaii.

For years, he has
tagged sharks at the surface,

which can be literally
a hit and miss affair.

He has enlisted the help of
two world champion freedivers,

Fred buyle and William winram, to
try and increase his success rate.

We've been working
with Mauricio since 2009.

We helped him to tag shark underwater
because the way he tags sharks

is from the boat,
but sometimes some shark

don't want to come
close to the boat

so he cannot tag them.

During this expedition,
our entry and exit into the water

to dive with the great whites was
from a Mexican fishing boat,

which is known as a "panga."

Whenever the panga comes in
and cuts the motor,

immediately at least one shark
will come up to it.

So every time we were getting
in, it was kind of like,

"well, do we wait
for a shark to show up

"or do we take
the decision and jump in

"right away and then make
eye contact with it?"

So it was always
a little stressful

getting in and
out of the water.

The advantage of freedivers
is that we can choose the sharks.

If he asks us to
tag a big female,

we can choose
the animal and place the

transmitter exactly
where he wants

and on the animal he wants.

So that's the advantage
of having freedivers.

Freediving, for me,
is the best way to

explore the ocean and
the underwater world.

It's the most natural way
of going underwater.

Humans have been doing that
for 20,000 years.

On freediving, you just
go by your sensations.

You are able to enjoy more of the
surrounding and the animals.

And I think that's why,
as a freediver,

I have a better
contact with the animals.

And the best way to observe an animal
in the water is not to chase him,

but it's to have him coming at you.
That's the best way.

I'm excited about what's going
to happen. At the same time, we know,

always, if either one of us, Fred
or myself, starts to space out,

we start to lose our
ability to concentrate,

then, you know, we give a
signal and we get out.

Because you have to pay attention all
the time with a great white shark.

Every single time
i dive with them,

I'm learning more and more about
them and one of the things

that's become really
evident about these

animals is that they're
really, really smart.

Buyle". We always work
with three divers

in the water because
then we can have

like a triangle and everybody's
watching each other's back.

So we always know if there
is a shark behind us.

And that's the most
important because

the great white will
always come from behind

or where you don't look at.

They know exactly
where your field of vision is.

We never stay five seconds with
our head in the same position.

We need to show
them that we are

watching constantly.
They see that.

They analyze our bodies. They know
where our eyes are. They test us.

They know our field of vision.
They know that.

So we have always to show them
that we are aware. They know.

It's a kind of a game.

Well, when you're in the
water with the great whites

you have to
make eye contact.

You make eye contact, you're giving
them notice that you're not prey.

You're not reacting like prey.
You're standing your ground.

It's really about
managing them and

keeping them in a place
where they're not

certain what you are.

They haven't gone
into an instinctual mode.

And the biggest thing to do
that is to maintain your cool.

The tagging itself, the
process when you dive on a shark,

it's a very mental process.

In fact, you have to
be in a space

where you don't think
about anything else.

But it's a zone
where you should be

very calm,
peaceful, not moving.

Not even thinking. You don't
have to think because

they can pick up thought and little
differences in your body language.

I take a last breath
and of course, then,

I stop thinking
about not breathing.

It's just... freediving
is then just a tool.

Go as slowly as i
can towards the shark

and then pull the trigger
and place the transmitter.

And then usually the sharkjust
shake a bit and swim straight.

The good thing with great white,
because they are really big,

they get a bit annoyed, leave,

but usually in the next two or
three minutes, they are back.

When you reach the moment where you
are able to swim with the shark

and you are at
the same speed

and in the same kind of
state of mind, I think,

because, at that point,
the shark is peaceful.

Of course,
he's careful like we are.

But we are
peaceful and we think

that we can swim
for a while with them.

We just observe each other,

and I think we just try to understand
what is the other creature.

It's a zone where
nobody is aggressing the other

and we just try to
understand each other.

I feel good if I see people going
and enjoying themselves with animals.

Especially with their
kids because

they are the conservationists
for the future.

So I've talked with
colleagues in Australia

and South Africa
and they think

they're seeing some of the same
trends that we're seeing here.

So they've been protected in
those countries for 15 years,

and the generation
time of a white shark

takes 15 years
for them to reach

sexual maturity.

So it kind of makes sense that we
should start to see more individuals

if all this conservation
is actually working.

I am concerned for the
future of the white shark.

Internationally, they are
protected in a few

countries but they
are highly migratory.

And they do not
respect human boundaries.

I think that we are still on
time to avoid their extinction,

but we must get as
much information as

possible to give
the governments the tools

to protect them.

We don't know much
about them because

most of the observation
so far has been

made from cages with bait.

Just by going freediving with them,
you see their true behavior.

If great white sharks
were mindless killing machines,

we would not be able to do what
we do in the water with them.

Despite being protected in key
territories for the last 15 years,

great white sharks are still
considered vulnerable to extinction.

They are slow growing, late to mature,
and don't produce many young.

Key to their survival
is a change in our attitude.

Nothing will change our innate
fear of this king of the sea,

but perhaps we can come to
substitute fear with respect.

By helping
the great white survive,

we'll have a chance
to unlock its mysteries

and perhaps learn something
for our own survival.

The interesting thing
that people don't think about

in looking at an animal
of the size and power

of a great white shark is that we
are far more dangerous to them

than they've ever been to us.