Deep Sea Shark Stakeout | National Geographic
- Can I get a clap from Buck?
Excellent, Buck.
And we go live in three, two.
- My name is Annie Roth, and I am a journalist
on assignment with National Geographic.
- My name is Melissa Márquez.
I'm a shark scientist aboard the "Ocean Explorer."
- And like Melissa said, we are aboard the "Ocean Explorer,"
which is a huge vessel dedicated to science and media production.
Right now, we're in mission control,
watching a remotely operated vehicle
sending down to-- what have we got?
[speaking indistinctly]
- To 231 meters.
- 231 meters, and we're watching two submersibles
that are already down on the bottom that are there to study six-gilled sharks,
the biggest deep-sea shark out there.
And they already have some fish down there and a tube filled with chum.
And we're just playing the waiting game, hoping for these sharks to show up.
We've already seen two of them.
And we're hoping that another one shows up.
And yeah, are you excited?
- Yeah. Very excited.
- We've been up for a couple hours, so bear with us.
And meet our awesome ROV pilots.
- I am Olaf.
- And I'm Euan Bason.
- We've also got one of our sub pilots over here.
- I am, uh, Buck Taylor.
- Did you forget your name?
[laughter]
- It's been a long night. - I know.
- So sharks are nocturnal, and so is the crew of the "Ocean Explorer"
for the next couple days.
And yeah, it's taken a toll, to be honest with you.
[laughter]
But right now, there are two subs down,
and there are three people in each of them.
And they are hoping to see the six-gills because they are conducting
not only a ambitious filmmaking project to film
these sharks in their natural habitat; they're also trying to tag them.
So their goal is to attach two different kinds of tags
to the six-gill sharks here to learn about their vertical migration
or distribution, how they spend their time.
They want to know what they're up to.
They want to know how climate change is impacting them.
They want to know what they're eating
and just, like, what they're doing with their time.
Who doesn't want to know? These sharks are awesome.
Of course we want to know what they're doing.
Yeah.
Anything else you want to say about sharks?
- No, you've taken everything out of my mouth.
[laughter]
- These sharks are super cool. They can grow up to 20 feet long.
They can get as big as great white sharks.
They haven't changed much since they shared the planet with dinosaurs.
They have, like, really cool eyes.
They have, like, really small dorsal fins,
like, way in the back of their body.
They're not like your typical shark.
And they're kind of the kings down here.
Their only predators are each other and queens, hey.
- We're seeing females. They're the queens.
- And yeah, the subs have had a lot of luck seeing these sharks
over the past couple days.
And they've even, like, bumped into the sub.
So yeah, there's been some fun shark activity.
And we're hoping to see some more here.
Right now, we're just looking at, like, a bunch of horse mackerel.
And we saw an eel earlier.
So just keep your eyes stuck to the feed, and you might see something neat.
You know, if you like fish, then you came to the right place.
We are on the Condor seamount,
which is a protected seamount here in the Azores,
which is 800 miles off the coast of Portugal.
It's an island archipelago.
And the reason we've come here is, there are a ton of these sharks.
Fishing for these sharks here was banned several years ago.
And this particular seamount is protected,
so the population here is just thriving.
And it's no coincidence
that every night these subs have been down, they've seen one.
And it's a sign of a really healthy ecosystem overall here.
When there's a bunch of top predators,
it just speaks volumes about the health of the entire ecosystem.
Yeah, it's fun to see. I'm having a great time.
Definitely not tired at all.
[laughter]
- Guys down there are playing the waiting game, that's for sure.
- Mm.
- Yeah, the people in sub have been down there for quite some time.
But they brought some snacks, keep them entertained and fed, so that's good.
- There's card games.
- Yeah. We've got the two subs, "Nadir" and "Neptune."
"Neptune's" a science sub.
So we have two scientists on board or on pilot.
And then "Nadir" is our filming sub.
We have a director, cameraman, and a pilot.
And so you can't see "Nadir" at the moment.
She's in the dark, hiding out of the way.
And I've been piloting the last few nights.
I'm out tonight.
But just to see those sharks-- we've spent a lot of time last few days
just to see those sharks cruise by,
and cruising is--it's impressive, isn't it?
- It's amazing.
I mean, it really is like looking at a dinosaur, essentially,
just a dinosaur of the deep.
They're absolutely-- - Shark.
- Oh! - Yeah, here he comes.
- Coming in bottom left, bottom left.
- There she goes.
- Look at you. - Wow.
- Slow moving but so powerful.
- Wow.
- They get their nose under the sub. - Oh, oh, oh.
- So this is a 12-meter-wide sub. - Come on, come on, come on.
Come on. Come on.
- Oh, boy. - Go! Come on, baby. Come on.
- So the sub that the shark is in front of is a science sub.
So there is two spears--spearguns mounted on the top
that are armed with tags, which is how they're trying tag these sharks.
This shark didn't get quite in range, but look how huge it is.
The sub is, like, 12 feet across.
And so you can kind of see by perspective how big this shark is.
- Well, that tube on the seafloor is 1.8 meters long.
- Yeah.
So what the scientists are waiting for--
we have two green lasers that shine out from the sub,
and they're in line with the two spearguns.
And they're waiting for that to go just below the dorsal--
or just below the sort of lateral line
or above the lateral line into the sort of muscle there.
So this is tough for the guys, you know, moving the sub around quickly.
And so they have to sit and wait for that shark--
- Come back around. - Come on, baby.
Come on. - Wow.
- And so they're very patient, these guys.
They'll just sit and wait and get the perfect shot.
- For hours and hours. - Hours and hours.
- We run out of snacks. We cry a little.
- And you've been in that sub. It weighs a ton.
But when they want to move the sub,
they'll move the sub, won't they, the sharks?
- Yeah, yeah, oh, 100%.
- They'll put their nose underneath and just push you around.
- It's a bit funny how easy these sharks move.
- Hold on. Come back around.
What's--from the bottom--
No, wait. Where is it?
- It's just underneath us. - Oh, it's underneath us.
- The sharks have been doing this every night.
They'll pick up the scent and start circling round
and gradually hone in and work out where the bait is.
So-- - It disappeared.
- It's underneath us.
- It's just underneath us.
- No, it's disappeared, you guys. It sucked it up.
Do you remember how I said that you were gonna do, like, alien abduction stuff?
You've alien abducted the shark.
So if you're just tuning in, we just saw a--
[laughter]
We just saw a six-gill shark, and we are watching--
- Wait, hold on a second.
- Oh, come on, baby. - Incoming.
- Here we go. - No, get closer.
- He's picking up that scent.
- Get closer.
- So they can't just tag the shark anywhere.
It has to be in the perfect, like, spot on its back.
- Oh, come on. - Here--oh, oh.
- No, no.
Come on. - Wow.
- If he turns to the left now-- - Turn, turn, turn.
- Turn, turn.
- She's gonna go to the vapor. There's fish on the vapor.
Up her nose. - Of course she is.
- Wow, the sub's getting a real show right now.
- So the three guys in the sub, they'll have a front view.
- He just booped the sub. - Yeah.
- Oh, my God. Oh!
- Wow. - That's a big shark.
- Look at that! - Okay. Just go off, I guess.
- To give you an idea of size, that's four meters.
- Wow. Four meters. - Yeah.
Wow, that was such a dramatic shot just now.
- That's about max size for them, isn't it, Buck?
- Sorry? - 20 feet is about max size for them.
- Wow.
- That we know of, yeah. So on average, they're 14, 18.
- Yeah, they get a little bit bigger than that, but yeah.
- Yeah. - Wow. Oh, turn around.
- Here she comes again. - Coming back.
- There she goes. - Come on.
- It's all about that scent.
And you can see her eyeball. - Oh, you can see her eye.
- Yeah. - Wow.
- Those eyes are amazing.
They just roll around in their head.
- Oh, my goodness.
- Beautiful shark. - They are.
- The tags they're trying to attach to the shark will allow scientists to--
- There she goes. - Oh!
- Come on, baby girl.
Come on. Yes, come on.
- If she turns... - Turn, turn, turn.
- Oh, boy!
both: Turn, turn, turn.
- Now, so the problem is, we have to…
- She's just teasing the sub.
- Place that bait, but I think there's a bag of fish blood in that corner.
- Yes.
- And so she's-- - Oh, yeah, that's true.
- Her nose is very, very, good. She knows exactly where that is.
- Well, imagine being in the sub right now.
They're really getting the full experience.
- We've had that.
It's pretty amazing, them getting that close and--
- Oh, she got it. Got the bag.
[laughter]
- That's it. We're never seeing that bag again.
[laughter]
- We'll pick it up before we go, though, won't we, Buck?
- It's well protected. She can't get hold of it.
- There she goes.
I don't think she's done with us yet.
- A little bit of a tease, but we do leave some behind.
Well, they normally will pick bits off the bar.
- There she goes.
- What a beautiful fish. - Wow.
- Great shot, Jeremy. - Yeah.
- Wow. - That is stunning.
- Oh, little bit of a turn. - Oh, she's turning.
- Oh! - Come on.
- She can't get enough. - Yeah.
And they've been doing this every night. They come in.
They have a sniff, a nibble, and then they'll pull away again
and might get spooked with all the lights and they'll just cruise back in again.
Great work with the ROV, guys.
- We're getting so lucky with this renowned huge shark.
Really just, you know, so interested in the bait.
You must have really stabbed it up good.
- Yes. - [laughs]
- She's just cruising on the edge of the lights.
- But yeah, scientists want to-- oh, what's going on?
- Just on the starboard side. Here she comes.
She's gonna come in from the-- - Another shark?
- No, it's the same one. - Same one. She's just turning.
- Yeah.
- So yeah, scientists want to attach a tag to this shark that will--
- She's coming in high.
- Coming behind the sub, yeah. - Okay, coming left.
- Scientists want to put a camera tag and a satellite tag on these sharks.
Allow them to see what they're doing,
where they're spending their time, what they're eating.
All kinds of things that we have not really been able to study
because of how inaccessible these sharks are.
- How important are they to the ecosystem?
- Take it away, shark expert.
- No, you've been doing a great job.
- Well, they're the apex predator down here.
So having them in such healthy numbers really just speaks volumes
about how healthy the ecosystem is.
- Oh, yes. - Here she comes. Nosy.
- It's another one. There's another one. - There's two?
- Oh, that's smaller.
- Yeah, there is. - There's another one.
- Yeah. - We got double shark time.
Wow. - Wow.
- It's really shark o'clock over here.
