All language subtitles for OceanXplorers.S01E03.Jurassic.Shark.720p.DSNP.WEB-DL.DD5.1.H

The Ocean....

the last frontier on earth.

So much is unexplored
and unexplained.

To change that...

a kickass team of insanely
talented specialists is

setting out to push the
frontiers of what we know

about our oceans.

Oh my gosh.

Zoleka Filander,
deep sea scientist.

Being a
deep-sea researcher means

having front row tickets to
the best movie that everybody

wants to watch.

Melissa Márquez...

Straight ahead, 12:00.

Shark biologist.

We just saw
what no one has seen before.

Eric Stackpole...

Scan now!

Ocean
tech innovator.

I love
building tools that allow us

to see things in ways
we've never seen before.

And Aldo Kane...

This is insane.

Former
Royal Marine; special ops.

It doesn't get
any more cutting-edge

exploration than this.

Their secret weapon...

...the OceanXplorer.

The most technologically
advanced research vessel

ever built.

There's never been a more
urgent need to understand

our ocean and the animals
that call it home...

Because their lives
and ours depend on it.

This time the team
takes on a deep-sea shark.

She's huge.

And get closer
than they ever imagined.

Oh
she just hit the sub.

The OceanXplorer
is in the Azores.

A group of volcanic islands

in the middle of
the Atlantic Ocean,

1,000 miles
west of Portugal.

For this mission, the team
is heading into the deep.

To uncover the secrets
of one of the ocean's

most elusive creatures.

The sixgill shark.

These animals live at
depths of over 4,000 feet...

and are so perfectly adapted
to the abyss, it's believed

they've barely evolved
in 200 million years...

they're as old
as the dinosaurs.

Sixgill sharks are secretive,

I've spent hundreds
of hours in subs,

I've only ever caught glimpses.

They can live so deep they're
really difficult to study,

so the team is here to push
the scientific frontiers of

what we know about
these animals.

We will be rolling
the subs out in just a

couple of minutes.

To reveal the
shark's mysteries, the team

will make a series of dives
into the sixgill's world.

I've always
been fascinated by the deep

because it is so unusual,
it has this feeling of being

scary but your curiosity
makes you go anyway.

Move into
position for the sub launch.

Their ultimate
goal is to tag a shark

in an ambitious plan.

Nobody has
managed to tag a sixgill shark

from a sub at depth and get
the data back, so what we're

doing here is really
pushing the boundaries.

Ready
for passengers.

Melissa Márquez
studied sharks for her PhD,

but she's never come
face to face with a sixgill.

I'm gonna be
a little intimidated if I've got

a sixgill coming
straight at us in the sub.

I mean these big animals and
it definitely, if it wants to

clamp on to some part of the
sub and shake us around a bit.

Just through here?

Just this way, up the
steps, sit here hands either

side and lower yourself down.

So yeah
a little bit nervous of getting

up close and personal with them
but really, really excited.

The team is
joining forces with Jorge Fontes

and Pedro Afonso,

shark scientists from the
University of the Azores.

There's
amazingly little known about

these creatures, in spite
of the fact that they are

the top predator.

Right can I...

Yeah, just put your
feet there and then down

on to the seat.

It's good.

The first
mission is to observe these

well-adapted sixgills, which
survive in a cold, dark world

of intense pressure and to get
an idea of how many there are

in this area.

Clear!

Neptune hatch secure,
life support running,

safety brief complete,
ready for the water.

It's
really happening.

It is.

You ever
been in a sub before?

Nope, my first.

It's 10:30 pm.

Pedro knows where the sharks
hang out at night, but until

now he hasn't had a
chance to go there.

Ok bridge all ready.

All stations
SO, launching Neptune.

We know that
the sharks spend their days in

the depths of the ocean, and
that every sunset they start

an epic three hour journey

nearly 1,800 feet up
to this island ledge.

Melissa and Pedro are
hoping to meet them there.

Down here
light barely penetrates,

and temperatures are
just above freezing.

See the bottom?

- Yep, yep.
- Yeah, really close

Now we see it.

OK here we go.

Just so much
biomass here, there's got to

be some sort of
nutrient rich water here,

some sort of upwelling,

to explain just how much we've
got going on right now.

Melissa and
Pedro will stake out this

ledge for eight hours.

Just 20 minutes in, a shape
emerges out of the darkness.

Shark,
shark, shark,

OK, here we go...
Port side, port side.

A sixgill shark.

That's huge!

Adult, definitely an adult,
about 15 feet long.

Female, no yeah

Yeah female.

Males are
identified by their claspers,

their sexual organs
under the pelvic fin.

It's so
interesting,

that she's so sluggish.

Guess she is conserving her
energy, I mean it's cold out

there, it's only 39 degrees.

The sixgill
is different from almost

all modern sharks.

It has six pairs of gills,
instead of the more normal five.

A relic from the ancient
conditions they evolved in.

They really look
like a prehistoric creature.

Literally
unchanged since the Jurassic,

perfectly adapted.

Sixgill sharks are the
masters of the deep,

they've got specialized eyes
that actually allow them to see

in really low light
conditions down there

and that area is pretty hypoxic,

so there's
not that much oxygen.

So their blood is actually
adapted to being able to

extract more oxygen from its
surroundings, so these animals

can actually
thrive down there.

This close
encounter is a good start,

but we need to know more
about these Jurassic sharks.

No one knows
how many sixgills are living

here so Melissa and Pedro
are carrying out a population

survey throughout the night.

Think it
is, yes, it's coming.

Do you see it?

Oh yes, yes there it is.

Yep.
It's coming.

Ohhh shark.

Shark?

Yep.

A small one...

Ah... not so small.

No, not so small.

These sharks were showing

all different types
of personalities.

She's under.
She's under.

A hell of a big shark.

Some were
really interested in the sub.

That's a big tail.

Woohoo, it's really close.

You
can feel the power.

Some
wanted nothing to do with it.

As the hours
go by, they count 11 sixgills,

one juvenile male
and ten females.

It's
interesting that we haven't

really seen any males here,
just that one, it's mostly

just been females, no boys
allowed, females only hangout.

Shark mating
be violent and outside the

breeding season many species
of shark carry out segregation

of the sexes, it looks like
this could be happening here.

Our team has confirmed that
this is a sixgill hotspot.

Now the likely reason they
come here is to feed,

but how are they hunting?

To find that out the team is
attempting to tag a sixgill

from a sub.

The submersible team has
fitted the tag deployment rig.

Set of lasers here,
and that will give you an

approximate position
within a few centimeters.

The
whole team is feeling tons of

pressure, because there's
so many things that could

go wrong, when doing
this from a sub.

Everything's
got to line up perfectly to

make sure we get this
once in a lifetime shot.

There's only
been one previous attempt to

tag a sixgill from a sub, but
the data was never recovered.

For this mission,

Pedro and Jorge have developed
a hi-tech prototype.

These
electronic tags allow us to go

much further into a window
onto their behavior,

they combine very, very fine
scale sensors that tell you

the movements of the animals.

Succeeding
in this mission, will mean

getting even
closer to the sharks.

All the planning has come down
to this dive, the pressure is on

for Melissa and sixgill
researcher Jorge Fontes.

We just need to
find the right shark with the

right attitude.

That has to be confident and
get in the right place at the

right time, so the
tension builds up.

The tagging
system is carefully primed,

ready for firing.

I think we're good.

Ok
guys what do you think?

Yeah looks good.

This is
gonna be shark bait, this is

basically the way that we're
gonna get the sixgills to come

towards the sub...

Oh god that's gross...
I'm gonna smell for days.

All stations,
all stations SO.

Launching Neptune.

The sub is
diving in parallel with the ROV,

the Remotely Operated Vehicle,

which sends a live
feed back to the control room,

where the rest of the
team can watch and hope.

There it is, lower right.

Observing
animals in the deep is

one thing, but trying
to tag one at depth,

that's a different
ball game altogether.

As the sub
descends to the sharks' hangout,

they encounter a
shoal of boarfish.

Wow.

Woah, look at that.

It's a
really dense aggregation,

the lights of the sub could be
illuminating the plankton they

feed on and
they've come in to eat.

These guys
are bait fish, everybody

eats these guys.

Have you
ever seen so many fishies?

At very very few
places, this is pretty wild.

These
boarfish are everywhere.

Yeah.
Feeding frenzy.

Is it just cos
of the bait, it's got to be.

Could be the lights.

Control, Neptune I have
you loud and clear

on bottom 255 meters.

Copy Neptune.

OK I'm
gonna hand that to you.

It's midnight
and the sharks have completed

their journeys from the deep,

but will they come
towards the sub?

Come on big mamma.

Hey, you guys we got a shark,
yeah coming in coming in,

it's coming this way.

Wow.

OK
well here we are.

I love how
she's really just taking her

time just
assessing the situation.

It doesn't seem
super excited about the bait.

I
wonder what's distracting it.

Come this way.

Come on.

This adult
female has detected a morsel

of fallen bait, and avoids
going up to the sub to feed.

Oh
you're kidding me.

You cheeky girl.

The sub team
must be so frustrated right now.

I'm frustrated.

.

I have
lost sight of her.

Oh big shark!

There's two.

Oh
there's two of them now.

Oh my gosh.

Well that might
get them competing for the bait.

Sixgills will
congregate if there's food

around, and that can lead
to aggressive behavior.

OK we've got
that second one right there.

OK.

Woah,
she just hit the sub.

It just hit the sub.

He's under the sub.

Ohh it is mad.

.

With a shark
in direct competition, this

female has made it clear
she is large and in charge.

You're not armed.

When you want to be
armed you let me know.

This is a good time.

It would be a good time now.

Come on come on.

Ok lasers are on.

Number one right?

Alright, it's armed.

OK this
could be it.

Alright
it's heading this way.

Slow.

He's gonna
take it, he's gonna take it,

take the shot.

Ah damn it.

Oh!

Huh,
I can't believe it.

Jorge overshot
by a matter of inches.

We're not done!

We have one spare.

If they
can't get this tag on,

they will fail in their mission.

Oh there we go.

Another sixgill,

this one is alone and
she's focused on the bait.

Smell that nice blood.

- Yeah there you go.
- Yeah!

The shark
needs to follow the end of the

pole to the bait, and line up
precisely in the laser beam.

This is a big shark.

This is it, you got this.

Wait until
you see the lasers.

This is it.

Right here
come this way this way this way.

Nice one.

Camera tag away,
camera tag away.

You did it!

They got it.
It's tagged.

- Oh yeah.
- Hey, hey.

Wow.

The tag is suspended

six feet above the shark,

they can now,
for the first time,

follow its movements in
detail through the deep.

Here, here's
a shark coming right towards us

and I think that's the tag.

This is the one we were
holding just moments ago...

this was in our
lab up on the desk.

That's really cool.

I'm really
excited, we've successfully

tagged a shark,

and if all the electronics
are working properly,

and the software's working
properly, we're recording data

that basically no one
has ever had before.

But the
shark is in no rush to leave.

You're
back for more huh?

You can,
you can have some fish yes.

Look at
her eye, look at it roll back.

Sixgill sharks don't have that
nictitating membrane so they

need a way to somewhat protect
their eye, just in case the

prey fights back.

The tag
won't hurt the shark...

its sensors record speed,
depth and movement,

for the next 12 hours,

then it detaches and
floats to the surface.

But if the team
can't recover it,

they won't find out how
the sixgills are hunting.

The next day,
the tag has surfaced and

pinged a satellite
with its GPS coordinates.

So I'm going out
to collect the tag, if I can't

get the tag, then all that
data will be lost,

and that means all the hard
work of tagging the shark

will be in vain.

The precious
tag is being swept dangerously

close to the cliffs.

Guys.

Keep your eyes
on the water now.

Tag, tag.

OK Aldo I'll get on
the starboard side of it so

you grab it on portside.

Yeah.
Do you see it?

Yeah seen.

Oh man
this is close huh?

Aldo has one
chance to pluck the tag

from the swell.

Alright. Alright.

There we go.

Good job, man.

Good job.

The tag has
been successfully retrieved,

but what's it
going to show us?

The information from the
sixgill tag has been processed

and the results are
ready to be revealed.

What
have you got for us?

I have
got some of the best footage

captured from our many
hours of shark exploration.

Shall we hit it maestro,
ok here we go.

So this obviously is
the light from the sub

as seen from the shark.

That's the sea floor.

And I noticed
in some other parts of the

footage, you can actually see
the fish scattering...

Yeah.

As
the shark moved through.

This is kind of how the
shark sees it, you know so

you almost get, you get in
the mind of the shark.

There's Jorge.

.

I've taken
so many pictures of sharks in

my studies, now a
shark's taking my picture!

Now it's
chomping down on the bait.

The motion
sensors on the tag will detect

when the shark is eating,
even if you don't have video.

Oh right
because it's bobbing

up and down.

But can the
other sensors reveal how the

shark may be hunting here?

Here on the
top line, will be depth.

So we can see that from here

he was going away from
the sub for periods,

because he's going deeper and
then he's coming back up,

then he's going deeper,
he's coming back up.

So, he's roaming,
he's exploring.

Then you can see as we go over,
that this is a big climb.

Yep.

You know it's
climbed up to 200 meters, then

it goes back down again, and
then the nice thing is towards

the end of the deployment it
just starts going down and

this is when...
sun is about to rise.

Sunrises.

So as the
sun's coming up the last thing

we see this shark doing is going
down deeper into the abyss.

Straight down.

Here you have speed, so you
can see speed changed

you know, varied a little bit.

Do you see a
few places like here and here

where the speed increases
rapidly for a moment.

What do you think
happened there?

Could it be predation?

Could be.

And you know
it's interesting that it's

coming up because I know
a lot of these predators,

they look for silhouettes.

I mean I guess there's no
light at this point I thought

maybe it could...

Maybe enough for
them, you know, just moonlight

is enough for them to
see a silhouette...

Wow.

Because they
have very sensitive eyes.

So, so it
could have come from below,

seen its prey come up, eaten
it, that's what this spike is

then it's gone back
down or something.

It could be.

The shark's
upward movements are intriguing

and may be helped
by its huge oil filled liver,

that accounts for over
20% of its body mass

and makes it buoyant.

This buoyancy could be
behind its hunting strategy.

Some
scientists suggest that

sixgills are ambush predators
gliding up to capture their

prey, they just
hit 'em from below.

Yeah I mean
we know from their gut content

that they're mostly eating things

- that are way faster than they are.
- Yeah.

So stealth
gliding to sneak up on their

prey makes a lot of sense.

The tag
results suggest an interesting

hypothesis on how the
shark may be hunting,

but our guys
need more information.

Can they capture footage of a
sixgill actually predating?

To give themselves the best
chance, they have to time

their dive perfectly to
when there's maximum prey.

We know that at night many
creatures come up to feed.

A mass vertical migration occurs
in all the world's oceans,

triggered by the
rise of plankton,

fish, jellies and
squid travel through

the ocean's twilight zone,

and following them,
larger creatures.

If they can hit the peak
of this vertical migration,

Melissa and Pedro may have
a chance of recording

a sixgill on the hunt.

Keep that
biologist's sharp eye on

the camera, yeah?

No pressure.

Aldo's also
preparing a dive, but his will

be in the shallows, to
understand the scale of the

vertical migration in
the Azores.

As a former special ops
Royal Marine,

Aldo is the only
member of the team

with the experience to
lead this night dive.

When you have moving
boats and diving operations

and then you add into the
mix nighttime operations

you can quickly and
easily lose control of things.

It's 11:30pm,

only if they've timed
their dive perfectly,

will they fully experience
the vertical migration.

OK guys are
you ready, so 3, 2, 1 go.

Guided in the
darkness by his dive computer,

Aldo descends 60 feet.

Immediately he's engulfed by

the smallest creatures
in the ocean,

the plankton, that underlie
the entire food chain.

This is the
vertical migration that

we're talking about,

all of these fish coming in
to feed on the plankton

which has made its way
up to the surface.

It's amazing, look at all the
fish coming in below us now.

Tonight,
the rise of the plankton is

followed by something else...

purple stinger jellyfish.

It's amazing
seeing them all migrating

up to the surface.

What appears
to be a few at first,

grows into a mass bloom.

I've never
seen anything like this.

This is literally thousands
and thousands of jellies.

It's one of the strangest
things I've ever seen,

they're just stunningly
beautiful, ha-ha in its own way

The vertical
migration is at its peak.

The deeper waters are now
rich with shoals of fish,

and the ledge where the sharks
make their nightly visits,

is a hive of activity.

It's dinner time.

It's an Angler fish.

See that's the lure, look.

Oh yeah.

He's
lifting the lure right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

See
he's waving the lure.

Yeah.

That's what he
uses to attract the prey, then.

A bunch of rays around.

That's so cool.

We just saw a predation.

Conger eels
rely on the vertical migration

for food.

They're in
feeding mode, that's for sure.

Yeah.

Actually, being down in the
sub and putting faces to the

animals that make up this
migration, you've got fish

eating smaller fish, you've
got the skates and the rays

burying themselves and
eating their own fish.

This happens on a massive
scale, every single night in

our ocean and the fact that
I got to kind of sit in the

middle of it and observe
it all is mind-blowing.

These large
creatures are perfect prey for

sixgills, but can the team film
the sharks actually hunting?

This female has completed

her three hour journey
up from the depths.

There we go,

now it's coming a
little bit closer.

Yeah cos I got her on camera.

Yeah she is.

She's
staying close to the seafloor.

Something's
got her interest.

A conger eel.

The conger eel escapes,

but this sixgill is on the prowl

and she's not the only one
interested in the seabed.

Oop, there we go.

Yeah, yeah.

She's
really low to the ground.

Like all sharks,
sixgills have highly sensitive

electrical sensors
around the nose,

which can detect the smallest
muscle twitch of its prey.

She may be seeking rays
hiding out under the sand.

Suddenly she makes a move.

She thrusts with her tail,
to get on top of the prey.

Do you
see anything in its mouth?

Capturing
this behavior on camera

is incredibly special

and will help the
team understand how

this top predator hunts.

Oh man
that is quite something.

See why we want to
study these guys?

Yeah of course.

As a scientist you always hope
you get to experience the

rare and extraordinary,

it doesn't get much
rarer than this.

That footage is
incredible, has that been

filmed before?

No we don't
think so, which makes it even

more exciting, because it's
probably a first for science

and you know you don't
really get that that often.

You know the data from the tag
was telling us one thing,

but our own eyes are
telling us something

completely different.

Right on the
tag data I assumed it was like

an ambush predator where it
sees maybe like the silhouette

from below, it
snatches its prey.

But that's
not what we saw here,

it's using its positive buoyancy
to actually lift up its rear end

so its nose eventually
actually points down in to the

sand once it finds prey and
with that really powerful tail

grind down into the sand.

So it's using its
positive buoyancy to,

to glide up the gradient and
then pin whatever it is,

the ray, down in to the sea bed.

That's it
and that's not to negate the

theory that we got from the
tag it just means they might

be using different hunting
tactics for different prey.

It's mind blowing to see a
brand new to science data point

that we didn't have
for these animals before.

I'd call this
a pretty successful mission.

Oh 100%! 100%.

In their
time here, the team has gained

important new insights into the
lives of the sixgill sharks.

They've observed how they're
perfectly adapted to the abyss.

It's so
interesting seeing them be

so sluggish.

Discovered
their different personalities.

You cheeky girl.

And confirmed
that a large population of

females live here.

Only a
handful of people have been

able to see these sharks
from a sub, at depth,

with their own eyes, I feel
really lucky to be one of them.

There it is, lower right.

By
successfully tagging a sixgill

from a sub...

- You did it!
- Oh yeah.

They've
gained a whole new set

of scientific data.

This is awesome guys.

What we've done has paved the
way for sixgill research and

it has been awesome to be
a part of this mission.

They've
explored these rich waters of

the Azores at night.

It's one of the
strangest things I've ever seen.

Being in the middle of
that vertical migration

was just unbelievable.

The
greatest achievement,

has been capturing the
sixgill's predation behavior.

We know so
little about the residents of

the deep, but today we have
gained some valuable insights

on how these prehistoric
animals have survived.

Some of the
sixgill's secrets have been

uncovered, but there's still
so much more to learn

about these mysterious
sharks of the abyss.