For as long as I can remember...
...I've been drawn to sharks.
They're the most amazing
and mysterious animal on Earth.
I thought if I studied them,
I could learn about life.
About balance in the ocean
and how to survive on Earth.
That the one animal
that we fear the most...
...is the one we can't live without.
Predator of the sea...
...terror of all men
who enter the ocean...
...the very symbol
of lurking danger:
That is the shark.
What is he really?
We know little,
except the shark was here...
...before the continents
took their present form...
...before the dinosaur lived,
and he is still here...
...essentially unchanged.
One of the oldest living things
on Earth.
How has the shark survived...
...when almost all that lived
in the beginnings...
...has either perished or changed?
Man must know all there is to know
about this enemy.
Whether the shark
is really an enemy.
If he is...
...how to protect against him.
If he isn't...
...how to live with him.
You're told your whole life,
since you're a kid...
...sharks are dangerous.
You're warned about venturing
too far into the ocean...
...but then finally
you're underwater...
...and you see the thing
you were taught...
...your whole life to fear,
and it's perfect...
...and it doesn't want to hurt you...
...and it's the most beautiful thing
you've ever seen...
...and your whole world changes.
Ever since I was little,
I've loved the ocean.
Like many kids,
I tried fishing...
...but realized I was much happier
swimming with fish than catching them.
Sharks were my favourite animals
on Earth...
...but all I'd heard about...
...was how dangerous they were.
I hated being afraid
and realized the only way...
...to find out the truth about sharks
was to meet one for myself.
I became
an underwater photographer...
...and a biologist...
...and from that point on,
I followed sharks.
So little is known
about what they really are...
...and how important they are
to life on Earth.
Two-thirds of the world's surface
is water...
...and over 80/ of life on Earth...
...lives in the ocean.
I learned to dive
so I could get close to sharks...
...but photographing sharks
was harder than I thought.
They're so afraid of us.
Sharks can see us
with more than their eyes.
They can sense our energy...
...and they viewed me as a threat.
Sharks have been here
for more than 400 million years...
before the dinosaurs...
...when life had just begun on land.
There was little oxygen
in the atmosphere...
...and only two continents.
Sharks were shaping this world.
Life on Earth
evolved from the sea.
The first animals were tiny,
single-celled organisms...
...that gave rise to algae, coral...
...and tiny planktonic animals.
More invertebrates followed,
including squids and mollusks.
One of the first vertebrates
with jaws...
...and the only large animal
that's remained unchanged...
...for 400 million years...
...is the shark.
New animals to evolve in the ocean
have been shaped by their predators...
...the sharks...
...giving rise to schooling behaviour...
...camouflage, speed,
size and communication.
Sharks control
the populations below them...
...eliminating species
that were easy prey...
...and creating new ones.
Even though sharks
have very few young...
...and take up to 25 years
to reach sexual maturity...
...they've managed to survive
through five major extinctions...
...that wiped most life
from the planet.
They're architects of our world.
Most of what people
know about sharks...
...they've heard from the media.
The more time I spent with sharks...
...the more I realized that they're
nothing like what we're told.
They are perfect predators...
...that hold the underwater world
in balance...
...the lions and tigers of the seas.
I spent so much time underwater...
...so I could gain their trust...
...and get close enough
to film them.
Everything moved together...
...lived together...
...and died with a purpose.
This shark and his relatives...
...are long-established
enemies of man.
He is a wicked,
unpredictable opponent.
If sharks are in the area...
...you can repel them with sounds...
...by striking the surface of the water...
...with your cupped hand.
Or you can shout underwater.
Among the visual methods
of preventing attacks...
...are directing a stream of bubbles...
...from your life preserver
in his direction.
Tearing up paper
into small pieces...
...and scattering them...
...all around the raft.
If a shark threatens to attack you
or damage the raft...
...do not try to shoot or knife him.
Chances are you would only
slightly injure and infuriate him.
Remember...
...his front end
is practically all mouth.
Once in your raft...
...stay there and remain quiet.
Remember that as a human being...
...you are smarter than a shark,
if you use your head.
Elephants kill more people
each year than sharks do...
...so there's some deep-seated
psychological revulsion...
...about a cold-eyed monster
coming out of the deep...
...and picking you to pieces,
but that is the myth, not the reality.
It's weird that white sharks
have such a bad reputation...
...because they really hardly bite.
If we go into the statistics,
they are not the ones...
...who bite the most.
Definitely not.
And it's very hard, actually,
to approach a white shark.
It's much easier to repel him
than to actually lure him in...
...bring him in,
and then trying to interact.
So I think the main reason
why people are still afraid...
...of a white shark
is based on the movie Jaws...
...and the misconception
is still floating around.
And I think a big part
of the media still tries...
...to present the white shark
as Jaws.
Three people were hurt Saturday
in another shark attack.
Time magazine is calling
it the "Summer of the Shark. "
And of course the question
being asked by some is:
When will it be safe
to return to the water?
We love to have a monster,
we love to hate. So...
And it's not good television...
...if, you know, this monster
that we presented all these years...
...actually is a very shy, hesitant animal...
...that has a hard time,
like any other animal as well.
So we like to have the monster...
...and that's why
it's still portrayed this way.
I was on an assignment...
...photographing
the Galapagos Islands...
...in the middle of the Pacific...
...in total isolation...
...from the rest of the world.
It's a world heritage site...
...full of species
found nowhere else on Earth.
This is where Charles Darwin...
...developed his theory of evolution.
What I believe
is the whole planet was like this.
I think animals
were amazingly abundant;
I think whales
were amazingly abundant...
...fish were amazingly abundant;
turtles, birds, everything...
...before man got in there...
...and really hacked
the whole thing to pieces.
I travelled 160 miles
from the centre of the Galapagos...
...to Darwin and Wolf...
...two remote undersea volcanoes...
...that barely broke the surface.
One of the few places on Earth...
...where hammerhead sharks
congregate in schools.
We're just getting ready
to go in for a dive...
...where there's supposed to be
congregating hammerhead sharks.
The undersea currents come up...
...bringing nutrient-rich water
to the surface...
...which causes a ton
of tiny plankton feeders to school here...
...and the hammerhead sharks
come up as well...
...and they circle in the current...
...and go back down at night
to feed on squid.
So we're gonna go down
to maybe 130 feet...
...and see if we can find
some schooling hammerhead sharks...
...possibly a silky shark or two.
The Galapagos hosts...
...one of the largest marine
reserves on Earth...
...where sharks
are cherished and protected.
Hammerheads are some
of the most misunderstood species.
They are incredibly shy animals.
Hammerheads, like all sharks...
...have two more senses than people.
They have lateral lines
running along the sides of their bodies...
...that can detect movement
in the water.
Their heads
are a giant sensory system...
...that detects electro-magnetic fields...
...enabling them to find food
that's hidden from view...
...and to feel my heartbeat.
They can feel me...
...and know if I'm excited or scared.
They're so afraid of us...
...that if I'm not calm...
...keeping my heart rate low...
...they won't come
anywhere near me.
Hammerheads use
the Earth's magnetic field...
...to follow undersea ridges
like road maps...
...navigating thousands of miles
through the oceans.
Sharks are normally solitary...
...but hammerheads come together...
...only at a few undersea pinnacles...
...to socialize and mate.
The schools are made up
of mostly females...
...with the largest vying
for position in the centre...
...where the males come
to look for mates.
Dominant females,
which can be 12 feet long...
...control their position in the school...
...using aggressive displays...
...pushing subordinate females
to the fringes.
The schools break up at night...
...when they descend
into deeper water to feed.
We know so little about sharks...
...that a new species of hammerhead...
...was just found
in the Atlantic Ocean in 2006.
The shape of their head...
...makes them one of the most
manoeuvrable and feared sharks.
But the truth is...
...there's no record
of a hammerhead shark...
...ever killing anyone.
When we surfaced from the dive...
...we found two fishing boats...
...trailing 60 miles of long lines.
A line with 16,000 baited hooks...
...that would stretch from Earth
to outer space.
The boats fled...
...because long-line fishing
is illegal in the Galapagos...
...and we were left with the lines.
I hopped in the water
as soon as I could...
...and brought my cameras in
and tried to film...
...whatever I could find
on the long lines...
...and we swam for probably
two or three kilometres...
...pulling ourselves along the lines...
...and unclipping
every baited hook we could find.
The first fish I found
was a seven-foot-long sailfish...
...and it was dead.
It suffocated because it wrapped itself
up in the long line.
So it couldn't keep swimming
to keep breathing.
Farther along the line,
I found a dorado.
It was still alive.
It was swimming in a circle...
...the largest it could...
...considering the long line
attached to it.
I slowly pulled myself close
so I wouldn't scare it...
...and I cut it loose.
Then I found the sharks.
For 60 miles...
...sharks were dying on those lines.
They struggle so much...
...that they entangle themselves
and suffocate.
There were only a few left alive...
...and I cut them loose.
In total...
...we found 160 sharks...
...five sailfish...
...four dorado and a tuna.
It felt like part of my family
was dying.
Something shifted that day...
...and I changed.
This is just a line...
...a long line with baited hooks on it...
...but many, many animals...
...most animals swimming around
in the surface waters...
...are interested
in those baited hooks...
...so take the hooks
and subsequently get caught.
And they may or may not be
what the fisherman are looking for...
...and things like leatherback turtles
or some marine mammals...
...can simply get entangled
in that line of gear.
There are more selective ways
of fishing...
...there's a lot of waste
that goes on out there.
And I think one of the big reasons...
...it continues to go on,
is because we don't see it.
We know that predators
are fundamental in controlling...
...the structure and the functioning
of the ecosystems.
So basically if you cut off
the head of the ecosystem...
...if you wish,
the top species...
...the top carnivores that control
a lot of the processes...
...lower down in the food web...
...you're removing a really important
controlling agent...
...and that could cause upheaval
in the lower tropic levels...
...like the plants...
...and the zooplankton.
The ocean is basically
the life-support system...
...of the planet.
To change
that life-support system...
...in any major way
is a risky thing.
We know from the past
that when oceans have changed...
...that life on Earth has changed.
I needed to know
why people were killing sharks...
...and what I could do to stop it.
So I left my job as a photographer...
...and set out
to make a film about them...
...but they were gone.
In places where I'd always
found hundreds of sharks...
I only found a few.
Shark populations have been decimated
all over the world...
...and the last sharks
were being hunted down...
...in the few remaining sanctuaries.
Nobody noticed.
Everyone wanted to save pandas,
elephants and bears...
...and the world
was afraid of sharks.
I read this story
about this boy who was 13, in Japan...
...and got swallowed whole.
It didn't even bite him...
...it just swallowed him.
Yeah?
And they cut out
and they found his body.
And it wasn't even bit,
and that's scary.
So if you're not seeing sharks here...
...why are you so afraid
of the water?
Because they'll still bite you...
...and I... I panic, I always panic.
I'm such a wimp.
Well, what are your chances
of being bitten by a shark?
They must be so small.
- No, not really.
No, it's small. I've never seen
a shark here in my life.
I've never heard
of anywhere else...
...getting bit by sharks
as much as here.
That's true.
- Not even in Daytona.
- Here is like the worst.
Sharks rarely bite human beings,
but never because they're hungry...
...and say, "Ah, look,
there's something juicy over there. "
They try to figure out what we are.
They don't know what we are,
so they explore us.
On the very rare occasions
they come that close...
...they actually can just do
an exploratory bite...
...and that's why the majority of all bites
are very, very superficial.
You hardly have
really serious bites.
So that tells us something,
...out of these millions and millions
of encounters...
...that we have with these animals.
So just based on that,
sharks cannot be dangerous.
People think: Well, they're dumb...
...they're stupid.
That's not true.
Their intelligence is quite amazing.
They have short-term memories,
long-term memories...
...they can learn by observation.
So nothing is stupid or primitive
in these animals.
So all the ideas,
well, they just follow a blood trail...
...they just bite everything that is shiny.
Well, pretty quick you realize,
hey, that is all wrong.
In just one year,
crocodiles around the world...
...wiped out as many people
as sharks have killed...
...over the past 100.
The crocodile is protected.
No?
The sharks not?
Yeah?
Yeah?
So I should not...
Like, it's not a good idea
to go swimming with sharks?
They're the scourge of the ocean
and everyone should go and catch one.
All the greens can come around
and say that these things...
"Let 'em live, let' em live. " Okay?
We can live on land too...
...but we don't go out there
and bite the bums off them, do we?
But they come in here and get us.
How bad
is the shark as a predator?
You make it sound
as though it really is a direct threat...
...to human beings
who dare swim in the water.
Well, you try swimming,
with a shark like that...
...in 8 feet of water
and you'll find out...
...because we got no hope,
if they decide to eat us.
But don't you think
that one effect of you going out...
...and capturing sharks
and talking this way...
...is that you bring about
an hysteria in people...
...they're going to panic?
No, I've saved a lot of lives.
If it wasn't for me
and what I've done in the last 25 years...
...there'd be a lot more people killed.
The fact is,
sharks do not eat people.
If they did, I would've been eaten
a long time ago.
Most sharks have teeth
which are ineffective cutting tools...
...and can't effectively remove flesh...
...from something larger
than their mouths.
One hundred needles in your leg...
...would have a tough time
removing a chunk of flesh.
Most sharks lack
the equipment they'd need...
...to go after large animals like us,
and they know that.
They've evolved
to eat certain prey items...
...and most sharks are picky eaters.
They won't bother wasting energy...
...going after something
they know they can't eat efficiently.
When a shark mistake does happen...
...the person inevitably
ends up back on shore.
In most shark attacks...
...flesh is never removed.
Even in the odd case
where someone dies...
...it's usually because of blood loss...
...not because the shark
ate the person.
A twelve-foot
or even a six-foot fish...
...could do anything it wanted
to a human...
...and they don't.
It's a huge testament
to sharks' sensory systems...
...how few people
are attacked each year.
You wouldn't go for a run
next to a pride of lions...
...but we do this with sharks
all the time.
There are millions of people
entering the water every year...
...in areas where sharks hunt...
...and very few people are bitten.
If they wanted to eat us,
they would.
The mythology about sharks
has traditionally been...
...uh, they're kind of
the embodiment of evil...
...and they have sharp teeth
and they kill people.
But the fact is,
people used to think of whales that way...
...whales used to be
dangerous Leviathans.
I mean,
just read Moby Dick, you know.
Moby Dick was portrayed
by Captain Ahab...
...as being a monster of the deep.
You know, a man hunter.
But everything in the environment...
...everything that exists,
eats something else.
We tend to be afraid
of spiders and snakes...
...but, you know,
we love puppy dogs and seals.
Once people see whales or sharks
in a different light...
...they can change their mind.
These are beautiful creatures...
...absolutely beautiful creatures...
...that have every right in the world
to live on this planet.
I went to all the major
conservation organizations...
...and there was virtually no one
doing anything to save sharks.
Are you really concerned
or you just wanna call names?
Oh, / am very concerned,
extremely concerned.
Well, then, let's see some action
instead of all of this whining.
Then I met up with Paul Watson.
What is my type, sir?
The renegade
of the conservation movement.
He sunk a whole Norwegian
whaling fleet...
...and ended pirate whaling
in the North Atlantic...
...when no one else could.
Paul was one of the original
activists in Greenpeace...
...and he's been at war against poaching
for 30 years.
I set up the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society in 1977
...as an organization
to intervene directly...
...to uphold international conservation
laws, regulations and treaties...
...so it's not a protest organization...
...but an organization
to really fill a vacuum...
...because there really is no enforcement
agencies anywhere in the world...
...to uphold these international
laws and treaties.
They're trying to sink the ship;
...they are trying to sink the ship.
So part of the role of the activist,
like Paul Watson, is:
"Don't let them get away with it...
...or make 'em do it in the light of day. "
He's a hero...
...someone who just does...
...what the politicians
haven't got the guts to do.
Captain Paul Watson...
...leads possibly the most violent...
...and radical, green movement
in the world.
Well, if you kill anybody,
I'm holding you personally responsible.
You have no authority over us,
we're in international waters. Over.
Move aside, get 'em!
Launched from the gunboat,
police attack Sea Shepherd...
...with tear gas bullets
and tear gas canisters.
It's the first time in history
that an unarmed conservation vessel...
...has been fired at.
No, really what we're here to do
is to, you know...
...to rock the boat, to make noise;
to make people think.
That's really the main objective...
...of the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society.
Why aren't you people
doing anything?
The only violence
that's being committed...
...is the illegal slaughter of whales...
...and that is violent
and that is the crime. Over.
Paul and Sea Shepherd
were launching a campaign...
...against poaching in two of the world's
last sanctuaries for sharks:
The Galapagos, Ecuador...
...and in Cocos, Costa Rica.
Cocos is a tiny island
in the middle of the Pacific...
It's a national park
and a world heritage site...
...with the greatest concentration
of sharks in the world.
But Costa Rica has no money
to protect it...
...and poachers
raid the waters every day.
No, it's been cut in the head!
The sharks were being wiped out.
Well, Jesus Christ,
put it out of its misery.
So the President of Costa Rica
asked Sea Shepherd for help.
Why, it's illegal as well.
Paul was my kinda guy,
the only one I knew...
...who was doing anything
to save sharks.
He asked me to join the campaign
to stop the illegal fishing of sharks.
Okay.
I joined Paul in Los Angeles...
...aboard the Sea Shepherd ship,
the Ocean Warrior...
...and we started our journey south...
They repaint and rename the boat
on every new campaign...
...to avoid being recognized
by the poachers.
The Ocean Warrior has been
in battle against poachers...
...dozens of times
and proudly displays its kill flags...
...the flags of boats it has rammed
or sunk, on the side of the ship.
It's equipped with a can opener...
...a hydraulic steel blade...
...that extends from the side of the boat
in case of battle.
We traveled south on the open ocean
for 12 days straight.
and 50 miles inside Guatemalan waters...
...we found a pirate long-lining boat
illegally poaching sharks.
Doesn't take much
to catch illegal fishing around here...
I'll tell ya.
Jesus Christ...
...they're going slower.
The Varadero was from Costa Rica
and had no permit...
...to fish outside of Costa Rica
or inside Guatemala.
Which way?
We radioed Guatemala...
...who asked us to escort the boat
into port for arrest.
We asked that they bring in their lines
and release any sharks...
...that were caught...
...but they weren't releasing
the sharks.
They're not answering?
We were racing them to the lines;
...every time they got ahead of us,
they killed more sharks.
All these boats,
from many countries...
...when they go fishing...
...and that's actually
everywhere in the world...
...all they want is profit.
Once they've left port...
...it's like the ocean is a free place;
...you do what you want out there.
They got another shark!
Got a shark?
Tell that guy
to release that shark.
Tell him that if he doesn't release
those sharks...
...we're gonna sink his line.
Hey, Rob, did you get a picture
of that shark?
If he doesn't stop,
we'll run up ahead and grab the line.
Actually hold on,
I'm gonna stop right here.
Bring it up to the bow and see
if you can get it on the winch.
Got their line?
Grab the line.
If you can grab the line on...
Where's the next one?
Get it? Goddamn,
as fast as we get up to it...
...they're pulling it off.
They wouldn't stop
killing sharks.
The sharks were incredibly
important to them.
They were killing them
for their fins.
Shark-fin soup
is a symbol of wealth...
...and served as a sign of respect.
The soup has been around
for centuries...
...but only in the last two decades
has it boomed in popularity.
The fin is tasteless...
...adding only texture to a soup
flavoured with chicken or pork broth.
It became a status symbol...
...served at weddings, banquets...
...and expensive dinners.
A single pound of fin
is worth more than $200 US...
...and the shark-fin industry...
...is a billion-dollar juggernaut.
Every year,
an estimated 30 to 70 million sharks...
...are killed to support
a growing worldwide trade...
...in their fins and other products.
But the biggest prize is the shark fin.
Half a world away,
in Hong Kong and China...
...shark-fin soup is a delicacy.
It sells for up to $90 a bowl.
It's a royal food;
...it's the food of the emperors.
They make a soup out of the fins...
...and any Chinese chef
that's worth his weight...
...has to be able to make
great shark-fin soup...
...as strange as that may seem,
and this is causing the demise...
...of the populations of sharks
in the ocean.
The word was out...
...that fins meant money...
...and sharks were being killed
solely for their fins...
...in virtually every country
with a coastline.
There's so much money in fins...
...that only trafficking drugs
rivals fins for profit.
People thousands of years from now,
if we manage to survive...
...aren't gonna have much respect
for cultures...
...that deprived them of the things
that we now have...
...that diminish their world for them.
They're not gonna have any respect
for those cultures at all...
...just as we don't have any respect
for the culture of slavery.
For the first time
in over 400 million years...
...sharks were prey.
They were even killing whale sharks.
The largest fish on Earth...
...that eats only microscopic plankton
and has no teeth.
They are the gentle giants
that roam the warm waters of the world...
...following plankton blooms.
We know nothing
about their life cycles...
...where they mate...
...or how long they live...
...though they're thought
to live as long as us.
And now the whale shark,
along with their relatives...
...the great white shark
and the basking shark...
...are endangered.
A large fin like this...
...can now sell
for more than $10,000 in China...
...and conservationists say
the growing trade in shark fin...
...has become a serious threat
not only to whale sharks...
...but also to other shark species
almost everywhere.
By the time it gets to Asia...
...it's gonna be up to $200 US a pound
for the dry shark fin.
So it goes from 80 cents here
to a myriad of middlemen...
...ending up at $200 US
from 80 cents...
...so it's a magical little process...
...that we've gotta figure out
how it gets there.
Yeah, it's the fin, fish.
They make some kind of pills
of a shark fin.
In Asia, they think
because sharks don't get sick...
...as easily as other animals do...
...that sharks
have some magical power to heal...
...and it's all false information...
...because sharks get cancer,
sharks get problems.
- He doesn't want us to film.
- Not allowed to film?
He tells us to leave.
Uh, we just went in restaurant
Lun Fung and got kicked out.
They do serve shark fin,
you can get it in a takeout form.
You can even go to pharmacies
to buy shark fin in pill form...
...because of its powers
to make you strong.
That shows you the misconceptions
everyone has about sharks...
...that they think because sharks
are resilient to some parasites...
...and they don't get sick
as often as people do...
...that if you eat sharks
that power's gonna transfer to you.
Some companies have capitalized
on the sharks' resilience to disease...
...marketing shark cartilage
as a cancer or arthritis treatment.
But there's no scientific backing
to this at all.
It's actually been proven...
...to do nothing to cure disease...
...and now sharks are so contaminated
with mercury and other pollutants...
...we've put in the ocean...
...that eating shark products...
...is more likely
to cause disease than cure it.
The Varadero
continued finning sharks...
...and throwing the bodies overboard.
We tried to talk with them:
They are illegally fishing
and they have to come with us.
It was easy to see their motivation
money, big money...
...but they were poaching sharks
illegally.
On instructions
from the authorities in Guatemala...
...we ordered them
to stop killing sharks...
...and follow us into port.
Yeah, ask him.
He's got to make a decision...
...whether we're gonna tow him
or he's going in under his own power.
- They're dragging a shark!
- But they refused and took off.
Now they decided to run from us.
They know that if we take them there...
...they're gonna lose their boat there,
that's pretty sure.
So we're gonna have to go back
and force them back.
We chased them
with water cannons...
...in hopes of flooding
or stalling their engines.
So we can arrest them?
We gonna hit 'em?
Unless people are prepared...
...to devote their lives
to solving these problems...
...nothing's really going to change.
But you don't need everybody.
You just simply need
a small percentage.
Five, seven percent
is starting to make a big impact.
Okay, let's get ready.
This is gonna be close.
The Varadero finally agreed
to follow us into port...
...where we could deliver them
to the authorities.
About three hours from port,
we got word...
...that Guatemala had sent a gunboat out
to come and arrest us.
The Varadero
had pulled some strings.
With so much money
in the fin industry...
...and much of it
on the black market...
...we knew something
had gone terribly wrong.
Lives have been lost
over shark fins...
...and we had no interest
in battling a Guatemalan gunboat.
So we ditched the Varadero...
...and continued south
to Costa Rica.
The United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization...
...based in Rome,
is really the top UN body...
...the top international body
that deals with fisheries;
...they don't have
any rule-making authority...
...over the international waters.
Guess what? No one does.
So until the countries of the world
come together...
...to create some kind of body
that can actually make rules...
...over the catch limits...
...and conservation
for the deep seas...
...they're not going to be regulated
in any effective way.
It's just basically
a hunting-and-gathering operation...
...and, in fact,
a pure exploitive operation...
...with people just taking
and not giving anything back.
Imagine if you went into the forest
and laid down some kind of trap line...
...that caught, you know,
moose, deer, skunks, porcupines...
...squirrels, dogs...
...you know,
caught all these species...
...when really what you were only after
was one or two...
...or perhaps three or four,
but you had all these other species...
...that were caught,
or dying or dead.
I mean,
clearly it wouldn't last a day.
I mean, you know...
...nobody could put a trap line down
for 30 miles...
...and throw away half the animals
he or she killed or caught.
Nobody would tolerate it
for a minute...
...but it's going on out there
on a massive scale every day.
Oh
Can't anybody see
we've got a war to fight
Never found our way
Regardless of what they say
How can it feel this wrong
From this moment
How can it feel this wrong
How can it feel
This wrong
From this moment
How can it feel
This wrong
When we got to Costa Rica,
we were all over the news.
The crew of the Varadero,
the illegal shark-fishing boat...
...claimed that we tried to kill them.
Okay.
I don't know what this is, either.
- You know... You know what this?
- I don't know what it is.
- Yeah, uh...
- It's the order.
It's the order of the judge...
...it's the official order
to come on board...
...and to make...
We were charged
with seven counts of attempted murder.
- Crowded in here.
- We do what we normally do...
...and the tapes went to Canada
for processing.
They were after Paul
because he's the captain of the boat...
...and me because I filmed it...
...and they wanted my footage.
Do you have any form
to get your original information...
...since the beginning
of this situation?
Do I have any way to get that?
- Yeah.
- No.
- Someone else got it?
- Someone else has it.
Okay...
Arrest?
Did you ask them?
Can I ask them? Yeah, probably.
What you have to do...
...you have to call them by phone
or what?
- Uh, yeah.
- Could you call them, right now?
- Right now?
- Yeah.
It's important
to get that information.
It's better...
They set the fishing boat free...
...and we were being arrested...
And, uh, we have all of the law,
in all of Costa Rica here...
...talking to us.
They want to see...
They're totally blank,
there's no pictures on them yet.
- You sure they're not in here?
- Yeah.
Not everyone's gonna fit;
...there's about this much room
in the whole room.
It didn't make any sense
why they were arresting us...
...and ignoring the fishing boat.
We were invited here
by the President of the country...
...to protect Cocos
from illegal fishing.
What do you think
they're gonna do?
I have no idea;
I don't think they know
what they're doing.
What kind of weapons
do you have on the boat?
A shotgun.
Can we see them?
Oh, yeah, sure.
There's just one.
Yeah,
but there's one that's...
It wasn't an issue
between two boats anymore.
They were going to stop us
from protecting sharks.
The authorities left us
under house arrest...
...but we had to fight the charges
in court.
Questions
I need to know is, one:
What are the chances
of them seizing the ship...
...and what are the chances
of them arresting me, today?
We were summoned
to the courthouse...
...where we met with Milton,
our lawyer...
...to figure out our options
and try and find a way out of this.
How come everybody's ignoring
that the Varadero...
...one: Violated Guatemalan law,
Costa Rican law...
...and international law,
and we have the evidence on that.
They cannot take sharks
for fins alone...
...they cannot fish
in Guatemalan waters...
...they cannot fish
outside of Costa Rica...
...without a permit.
That's illegal!
Everybody's ignoring that.
Paul's been in this situation before...
...and he knows we're in big trouble
if we don't fight back.
Well, the fact is, if we were
in any Central American country...
...other than Costa Rica,
we wouldn't even try this.
One other thing: If they have a trial,
is it in Puntarenas;
...and if they have a trial,
is it a jury or a judge?
- Three judges.
- Three judges?
- Yes
- Is it in Puntarenas?
Oh, geez,
you don't have a chance there.
But I find it amazing
that the Costa Rican judicial system...
...is coming at us so viciously...
...when what they're defending
is an illegal fishing operation.
And, of course, when you see...
...the number of long-liners
that are operating...
...including Taiwanese long-liners
operating in Costa Rica;
...and the judicial system
in Puntarenas...
...they are certainly not interested
in anything to do with illegal fishing...
...but they seem to be very determined
to stop anybody...
...who's going to interfere
with illegal fishing.
Then I met William...
...a conservationist who believed
that the authorities...
...were being paid out
by the Taiwanese Mafia...
...who ran the shark-fishing business
in Costa Rica.
Finning sharks is illegal
in Costa Rica...
...but huge shipments
of Costa Rican fins...
...were turning up all over Asia...
...and no one knew how.
William believed
that the Taiwanese...
...had private docks...
...where no one would know
if they were finning sharks.
I needed to know
if William was right...
...if they were really finning sharks.
So we broke house arrest
and went undercover into town.
In all our time filming sharks,
we've never been so scared.
There was a whole street
of shark-fishing operations...
...along a secluded bay...
...all with private docks.
These plants process,
pack and distribute shark fins...
...coming mostly
from Costa Rica and Ecuador.
They dry the fins on the roof...
...behind huge cement walls,
so no one can see them.
Virtually all of the fins
are shipped to Asia...
...making it out of Costa Rica...
...without being noticed.
This operation had fins from nearly
a dozen different species of sharks.
There were millions of dollars in fins
and dozens of illegal operations...
...that the authorities
must have known about...
...all controlled
by big business in Asia.
The fins were bringing Costa Rica
millions of dollars...
...and we were trying to stop it.
Now I knew
why we were being arrested...
...and I knew
we were in serious trouble.
I couldn't believe
how big the shark-fin trade was...
...especially in a country
that depends on ecotourism.
At another fin operation,
I found a trailer...
...sitting next to the building
and climbed on top...
...to film the fins in broad daylight.
There were at least 10,000 fins...
...drying on the roof,
and the employees ran out...
...trying to push the fins
out of sight of my camera.
Then they stormed out of the building
and headed straight for us...
...so we jumped into William's car
and took off.
The corruption was real;
...we'd uncovered a huge
illegal-fin industry in Costa Rica...
...that the authorities ignored.
Taiwan donated
millions of dollars...
...to Puntarenas...
building major highways...
...bridges and buildings
and they didn't want any interference.
One hundred million sharks
are killed each year...
...to support a billion-dollar
shark-fin industry...
...that Costa Rica was profiting from.
I knew we were in serious trouble.
We'd be lucky
to get out of Costa Rica.
William told me
not to go back into town;
...the shark-fin Mafia
would be looking for me.
Oh Sinnerman
where you gonna run to
Sinnerman
where you gonna run to
where you gonna run to
All along dem day
well / run to the rock
Please hide me
/ run to the rock...
When we got back on the boat...
...we heard from our lawyer
that the Coast Guard...
...was on their way to arrest us
and we would be detained indefinitely.
We had to get out of there,
so we pulled anchor...
...and made a break
for international waters.
/ said rock
what's a matter with you rock
- I think it's heading this way.
- How fast? 10?
Within minutes...
...the Coast Guard was chasing us
with machine guns...
...telling us that they will shoot
if we don't stop.
/t was bleedin'
/ run to the sea
/t was bleedin' / run to the sea
/t was bleedin'
I don't like guys waving machine guns,
demanding to come on board.
No, just the barbed wire right now.
It'll make it difficult for them...
But we knew we couldn't stop.
So we strung barbed wire
around the sides of the ship...
...so the Coast Guard couldn't
jump on board, and kept running.
We're not stopping.
Please hide me Lord
Don't you see me prayin'
Don't you see me
down here prayin'
Tell everybody to be very careful
if those guys got guns.
If they shoot,
they're gonna be really stupid.
Well, tell 'em to shoot.
We're not stopping.
He said go to the devil
All along dem day
So / ran to the devil
He was waitin'
/ ran to the devil
He was waitin'
Ran to the devil
He was waitin'
We did everything right,
...we did everything
we were told to do.
Uh, what do they want to do?
Start another international incident
over this?
Tell 'em we have to call our lawyer.
See if we can call Milton on the radio
and tell him they're chasing us.
Sinnerman you oughta be prayin'
Oughta be prayin' Sinnerman
Oughta be prayin'
All on that day
/ cried power
Power
Power
Power
Finally, we made it out
of Costa Rican waters...
...and the Coast Guard stopped.
We continued southwest...
...to the Galapagos...
...leaving Cocos to the poachers.
The fins were worth
too much money...
...and there was a whole industry
behind it.
We knew we could never go back
to Costa Rica.
Four days from Costa Rica...
...and 800 miles later...
...we arrived
in the Galapagos Islands.
Sea Shepherd was invited
by the national park...
...to protect the marine reserve
from illegal fishing...
...and we were making our way
through the archipelago...
...to the main town of Santa Cruz...
...where we would meet with the navy...
...who control the park.
Although the Galapagos
is a marine reserve...
...some fishing has always
been allowed...
...to provide the island residents
with food.
The fishermen soon realized...
...that their underwater treasure
was worth a fortune...
...and started
shipping their catch overseas.
The government noticed
and started imposing quotas...
...to protect the resource...
...but the fishermen rioted...
...destroying national-park offices...
...holding national-park officials
hostage...
...and threatening to kill
the last giant tortoises.
The government gave in...
...and raised the quotas.
Ecuador is on the side
of conserving the Galapagos...
...but laws written down
and laws applied...
...are something very different.
And one of the problems
with the extraction of resources...
...is that we really often don't understand
how ecosystems work.
At this present moment...
...sharks are protected
within the marine reserve.
It is not legal to take sharks.
One of the very strong pressures
at this time in Galapagos...
...is to open long-lining.
Then you're really talking
about a shark fishery.
We know relatively little...
...about the general ecology
of the ocean...
...and to risk removing...
...a large number of predators
from the area...
...may have consequences...
...which we have
absolutely no concept of.
Shark finning is a very profitable
and cheap way...
...to make a lot of money...
...and it has the similar sort of ring,
financially...
...to sea cucumbers.
And even
with the humble sea cucumber...
...we're already changing situations.
I doubt very much
there'll be a sea-cucumber industry...
...simply because
the resource is gone.
A few men from some
of the cucumber fishing boats...
...they're actually
fishing here illegally...
...just came up to our boat
to ask if we had any advice...
...because they had two of their fishermen
that were bent.
One man had been bent
for four days...
...he'd had severe pain
in his shoulders...
...and it hasn't gone away;
another guy got bent today.
He went back down,
did some in-water recompression...
...came back up and feels fine.
If he's been bent four days
and has severe problems...
...in his shoulder,
he needs to get into a chamber.
The bends is a disease
caused by diving too deep...
...and surfacing quickly.
It's incredibly painful
and you can die...
...if you don't get
to a recompression chamber.
If someone's paying them
to go diving for cucumbers...
...someone should be able
to pay to take them back...
...to Santa Cruz
to get to a chamber.
Because he's really sick.
He could die
if he doesn't get to a chamber.
But the problem is,
they have 12 days left of fishing...
...so they don't want to go back
to Santa Cruz to go to the chamber.
Lose four days of fishing...
...or lose your man?
The cucumbers were worth more
than the lives of the fisherman.
With the cucumbers nearly gone...
...the fishermen are pushing
to legalize long-lining...
...which catches mostly sharks.
Sharks have always been protected
in the Galapagos.
Now that Costa Rica
was finning sharks...
...the Galapagos is one
of the last strongholds for sharks.
Legalizing long-lining here...
...would wipe out
more than just sharks.
Every animal and ecosystem
in the Galapagos...
...depends on the ocean
for survival.
Sharks have a really tough time...
...catching seals and sea lions.
They shaped these animals,
putting pressure on them...
...so they evolved ways
of avoiding sharks.
The seal evolved
hyper-mobile backbones...
...making them extremely agile
in the water...
...and a difficult target for sharks.
The sharks have to ambush the seals
or find an injured one.
To ambush a seal,
they swim below...
...out of visible range...
...looking for the silhouette
of a seal...
...a very similar silhouette
to a human on the surface.
A healthy seal
moves through the water...
...without any noise or bubbles.
But an injured one
will flail about...
...creating a disturbance
in the water...
...just like humans when we swim.
It's amazing how few people
are attacked each year...
...considering how much
we look like shark food.
We treat animals differently,
but they're all doing the same thing.
So the cute little baby harp seal
grows up and goes out and eats fish...
...just as viciously as a shark.
But we think of the seal
as sort of cute and cuddly...
...and we think of the shark
as something vicious...
...but that's just human mythology.
Then my mission stopped cold...
I had a pain in my leg
and was taken to the hospital.
It was diagnosed
as flesh-eating disease.
Doctors said
I was lucky to be alive...
...that I would only lose my leg.
I had a pain in my lymph gland
to the right of...
...to the left of my groin...
...and I came to the hospital,
asked them what's wrong;
...they said I got Staphylococcal
bacteria in my leg.
Staphylococcus,
or flesh-eating disease...
...infects the body through any wound...
...even a tiny cut,
like the ones I had on my feet.
It destroys tissue,
consuming the body...
...and if untreated, can kill you.
I was hospitalized,
fighting to save my leg.
Watching the IV
of antibiotics and saline solution...
...drip into my arm.
Now that I couldn't be
in the ocean...
...they were dripping the ocean
into me.
I'll be fine, okay?
I promise.
I lay there, watching the red line
creep up my leg.
It was halfway through my thigh
and if it made it to my hip...
I would lose more than my leg.
I'm probably way more likely
to die working in Toronto than here.
Dude... Brian, don't get stressed
and don't get upset, okay?
It's fine, it's just...
it's just another bump, alright?
Then I heard from Paul.
He said there was nothing
they could do...
Sea Shepherd was being
kicked out of the Galapagos...
...because the Galapagos
had legalized long-lining.
The fishermen wanted more money
and had turned to shark fins.
The government gave in...
...and long-lining was legalized.
Now we've lost Cocos
and the Galapagos...
...to the fin industry.
I think the world needs to know...
...that sharks are probably...
...the most threatened
group of species...
...that we have
in the ocean right now.
And that a lot of shark species
are declining very rapidly;
...that this is not
a natural phenomenon.
It's because of fishing
and other human impacts...
...and that there's a lot we can do
about this to change it.
Sharks are going to be difficult
to conserve...
...because on one hand,
you have people afraid of them...
...and not really wanting
to go anywhere near them.
People can sort of fish them
with impunity.
There's nobody
looking after the sharks.
There's no campaign...
...like a Greenpeace campaign...
...to save the sharks.
Paul left to start a campaign...
...against illegal whaling
in Antarctica.
And I was alone.
Two of the world's
last sanctuaries for sharks...
...were going to be wiped out.
During my last six days
in the hospital...
...more than 1.5 million sharks
had been killed.
Everyone told me to go home...
...forget about sharks...
...and try and save my leg.
I didn't know if what I was doing
made sense anymore...
...but all I could think about...
...was getting back underwater
with sharks.
Sharks' presence in the ocean
has provided a framework...
...for the populations below them...
...including phytoplankton...
...tiny aquatic plants
that consume more carbon dioxide...
...than anything else on Earth.
Carbon dioxide
is the global-warming gas...
...and plankton converts it to oxygen...
...providing 70/ of the oxygen
we breathe on land.
Without sharks to prey on them...
...plankton feeders below sharks
could grow out of control...
...consuming the plankton
that we depend on for survival.
The ocean
is the most important ecosystem...
...regulating climate
and feeding much of the planet.
Life on land
depends on life in the ocean.
I finally realized
that it's not just about saving sharks...
...it's about saving ourselves.
There was nothing I could do
to save sharks in the Galapagos...
...but shark finning
was still illegal in Costa Rica.
If I could get back
into Costa Rica...
...maybe I could finally
get to Cocos...
...and do something
to stop the finning.
I lay there,
hoping the red line would stop...
...and after a week it did.
The infection subsided
and I was finally free.
I think the problem is...
...that we don't really understand
what we are.
In essence,
we're, uh, you know...
...just a conceited naked ape...
...but in our minds
we're some sort of divine legend...
...and we see ourselves
as some sort of god...
...that we can walk around the Earth
deciding who will live and who will die...
...and what will be destroyed
and what will be saved.
But the fact is, we're just a bunch
of primates out of control.
We're now in the midst
of a Third World War...
...but this time
the enemy is ourselves...
...and the objective is to save
the planet from ourselves.
There is no hope
for the masses of humanity...
...to do anything.
They never have, they never will.
All social change comes
from the passionate intervention...
...of individuals
or small groups of individuals.
Slavery wasn't ended
by any government or any institution.
Women got the right to vote...
...not because of any government.
The civil-rights movement,
the same thing...
India with Mahatma Gandhi,
South Africa with Nelson Mandela.
Again, it's always individuals.
You need those individuals...
...with the passion and the energy
to get involved.
In fact, I don't know...
...of any governments or institutions...
...that are doing anything
to solve any of these problems.
All over the world, though,
I am seeing individuals...
...and non-government organizations
that are passionately involved...
...in protecting ecosystems
and species...
...and that's where I see
some optimism...
...that's where results
are happening.
Okay...
...here we go.
As soon as I was let out
of the hospital...
I started making my way
back to Costa Rica.
Costa Rica was the last place
on Earth I should go.
I would be arrested immediately...
...if they found out I was there.
So I had to sneak in.
I took a boat
from the Galapagos Islands...
...to mainland Ecuador.
My friends in Costa Rica...
...told me not to fly back
into the country...
...that I'd be caught if I did.
I had to avoid any major ports...
...the police and the Coast Guard.
Even if I made it to the coast...
I'd also have to avoid
the shark-fin Mafia.
To avoid capture...
I travelled overland for days...
...using public transportation
and tour buses...
...to get back into the country.
Still going, this bus?
I only narrowly escaped arrest
a few weeks earlier...
...but I had to find a way in...
...and find a way
to help the sharks.
Avoiding arrest and staying
on public buses...
I made it to the coast...
...and entered Puntarenas.
Instead of the shark-fin Mafia
I was expecting to greet me...
...there were protests
in the streets.
Costa Ricans were rallying
against shark finning.
The publicity surrounding our case
brought the shark-finning industry...
...into the spotlight.
We hadn't totally failed
in saving sharks.
We helped awaken a country
and the people.
Costa Ricans were outraged;
...they held protests
against the private docks...
...and spoke out
against the corruption.
The world had started
rallying for sharks.
The police were busy
with the protest...
...and the Mafia was in hiding.
Now I knew I could make it to Cocos
without getting caught.
I found my friends
and we headed back out to sea.
Returning underwater...
...finally I could swim
with sharks again...
...in one of the last places on Earth
where sharks thrive.
Free diving...
I hold my breath and stay calm...
...so they're not afraid of me.
Ever since I was a kid...
I've loved sharks.
They taught me about life...
...and that fear
was something I made up...
...and it wasn't real.
Sharks have been here
since the beginning...
...when there was only primitive life
in the oceans...
...and the land was mostly desert.
They were the top predator...
...influencing any animal to evolve
since their inception.
Sharks have been gods...
...for 400 million years...
...shaping this world...
...for the entire history
of life on land.
Seeing them again...
I knew that they're almost gone.
The killing of sharks...
...is the biggest ecological time bomb
we're going to face pretty soon.
We have to understand
that sharks are the most abundant...
...top predator on this planet,
at over 100 pounds...
...so that tells you something.
Nature created them for a reason.
Now human beings just...
they don't care...
...they kill 100 million, 200 million.
"So what?" You know?
"Sharks are a nuisance,
a dead shark is a good shark...
...let's kill 'em all. "
But if we kill 'em all...
...we destroy all food chains
of an entire marine ecosystem...
...and, well, the majority of our oxygen
comes from the ocean...
...so we should be more careful.
There is no species on this planet
that has ever survived...
...by ignoring
the basic laws of ecology...
...and we're now breaking those basic laws
every day in every way...
...and that's going to mean our own demise
in a very short period of time...
...unless we learn to live harmoniously
with the natural world.
Future generations
are gonna look back on us...
...and they're gonna think of us
as barbarians...
...the same way
we think of slave traders.
That they're gonna look at us
as barbarians for what we're doing...
...the fact that we're burning
all the fossil fuels...
...in a few generations,
that we've wiped out the oceans...
...that we've driven species
to extinction.
And worse - This is the worst part -
we know what we're doing.
The scientists know,
the environmentalists know...
...the companies know
and the general public knows...
...and yet we're allowing ourselves
to do it.
Sharks have lived
in balance with the oceans...
...as the top predator.
Now we are the top predator...
...deciding which species we'll use...
...and which we'll destroy.
I wonder if we've evolved enough...
...to survive as they have.
We depend on the oceans
for oxygen;
...the oceans that sharks control.
If we lose sharks...
...we'll disrupt the oxygen
we need to breathe.
We've only been here
for a few million years...
...and in the last 100 years...
...we've greatly impacted
life in the ocean.
But we also have the power
to change it for the better.
People in Costa Rica
weren't just rallying for sharks.
They were rallying for life...
...and for us.