Shark Island Deadly Pole to Pole

My name's Steve Backshall.

And this is Deadly Pole To Pole.

Oh!

From the top of the world to the bottom.

Whoa!

Deadly places, deadly adventures

and deadly animals.

And you're coming with me, every step of the way!

Argh!

I've developed a fascination bordering on obsession

with the true icon of Deadly - the great white shark.

So what better than to dedicate a whole episode

of our Pole To Pole adventure to this perfect predator?

We've come to the ultimate shark-watching location -

Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Mexico.

Over 4,000 miles from the North Pole, this is great white central.

Heading out into the middle of the ocean,

I will have an encounter with this lord of the sea like never before.

I've been lucky enough

to bounce up against one in a tiny inflatable boat.

Wow! Next to me! Look at this!

To see one from the safety of a shark diving cage.

Agh!

Even to see them leaping -

breaching out of the water in one of the world's most impressive attacks.

No way!

Just one big smack!

But this time, we're going one better,

we're going to dive with a shark

out in the big blue, outside of the cage.

This is quite simply the greatest shark encounter on the planet.

That is no exaggeration.

Great whites are the largest predatory shark on Earth.

With over 300 serrated, sharp teeth,

they can snag and slice through prey.

Their exceptional sense of smell

means they can detect blood from miles away.

And when they focus in, their streamlined,

torpedo-shaped bodies and crescent-shaped tail

propel them through the water at terrific speed.

This mission is certainly not for the faint-hearted.

It's coming back towards us.

So, with no time to lose we get loaded up,

as this boat will be our home for the next five days.

We've cast off from the Mexican mainland

and we're now heading straight out to sea, around about 240 miles,

and the weather forecast is for high winds and high seas.

We're going to be bouncing around all over the place.

Our destination is Guadalupe Island, better known as Shark Island.

An isolated, extinct volcano,

it's one of the best places in the world to see the great white shark.

It'll be a 24-hour journey through some very rough seas,

but it will all be worth it.

It was a rough night. I think we're all a little bit green now,

but we've woken up to an absolute vision.

This is Guadalupe Island.

It's uninhabited, unimaginably wild

and surrounded by an infinite expanse of big blue Pacific Ocean.

And, down there, are dozens of the most-feared predator on Earth.

It's a very, very special place indeed.

Unfortunately, there's no time to enjoy the view.

With just two days to complete our mission,

we need to start drawing the sharks in,

as stage one of this challenge

will be to get a sense of the sharks from the safety of a cage.

We're going to use the great white sharks' supersenses as a tool

to attract them to come in close to us.

They have an exquisite sense of smell

and they'll be attracted from miles away

by the scent of blood in the water.

As soon as we see a shark in close,

we're going to get down into the shark-diving cage

and try and get a sense with the particular animals.

Every shark has a different personality,

so it will take time and patience to get to know the sharks

and find the perfect candidate for me to swim out of the cage with.

After a few hours, our first shark appears,

tempted in by the bait.

Shark coming round. Shark coming up.

And it's hungry.

Whoa! It's completely taken the bait all in one go.

That whole, huge tuna, which was the length of my leg,

gone in a mouthful.

Wow, things happen really quick round here.

So with no time to lose, we get kitted up.

Hopefully, this shark is going to stick around.

I head down, with Johnny the cameraman, into the cage.

Even though this is just stage one, my heart is already racing.

Sitting, waiting - for perhaps the greatest predator on the planet

to appear from the deep - is a daunting experience.

I'm starting to imagine things.

I just keep thinking that I've seen something.

But it's always just a shadow.

Then, out of nowhere, one appears.

Oh, shark, shark, shark!

We have a shark!

Boy, do we have a shark! It's a monster!

-Where did he come from?!

-I know!

It's just incredible that in water this clear,

where you can see for what seems like an infinity,

a shark can just appear out of nowhere.

And this animal must weigh over a tonne,

probably four metres in length. It's huge.

But, somehow, they still manage to surprise you.

The reason for that is its camouflage.

It's what's called "countershading".

The shark is white below and greyish-blue above.

So whatever angle you look at it from,

it blends perfectly into its background.

You don't see this stealth attacker approaching

until it's too late.

Ooh!

He put on a burst of speed there.

I'm just trying to suss out what this animal's all about.

I think he might be a little bit feisty to get out of the cage with.

But I do have another plan for this animal.

I'm going to see if we can measure its bite

using the Deadly bite-meter.

I've never tried a bite test gauge with a great white before,

but I have done it with a lemon shark

and it swam away with my gauge.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no! He's got my pole!

So I've learned my lesson.

This time, I'm tying it on with some rope.

Oh, and he's coming straight in for it! He's coming in for it already!

Got very, very close on his first pass.

Unfortunately, the bait seems to be more to the shark's taste

than our gauge.

Pretty close, pretty close!

And so much explosive power,

coming out for a few tries with that tail.

I tell you what, with this shark, I am very, very glad

that I've got the safety of these bars between me and him.

But, again, the shark is only interested in the bait and the cage.

Good grief!

I guess it just looks a bit weird. It doesn't look like food.

I think we'll call the bite-test gauge a noble failure.

Well, that was a great start,

but the main one that's hanging around right now,

I think, is perhaps a bit too aggressive.

I wouldn't feel comfortable swimming out into the water with him,

so I think we are just going to need a little patience

and, while we're waiting, the perfect way to spend our time

will be to go and see what brings great whites to Guadalupe.

I want to go and see their prey.

So the crew and I head right up to the cliff edge

as, when you're the prey of a big apex predator,

you never want to be far from safety.

There's an animal that occurs here

that lives in the world of the great white

every single day of its life.

It's a true survivor - the Guadalupe fur seal.

This is a really dangerous place for fur seals to make a living.

I mean these incredible volcanic cliffs

just drop straight down into the sea

and then go down to real depths very, very quickly.

It means that the only place they can truly be safe

is right up close to the shore.

I've dived in dozens of seal colonies around the world

and, usually, sitting this close to the shore,

you'd be surrounded by seals.

They'd be dancing around in the water around you.

But not here. The animals keep very, very close to the edge

and that is for a very good reason.

One, two, three, go!

I'll need to get to the bottom quickly,

so I'm safe from becoming prey myself

and can enjoy this magical environment.

Wow! What an extraordinary place!

This is right at the edge of the world

of the Guadalupe fur seal and the world of the great white.

There is so much life here.

It's like being in the world's greatest-ever aquarium.

Oh, look at this!

In no time at all, I'm surrounded by fur seals.

There are two very distinct groups of seals.

There are the true seals

and the fur seals and sea lions, the eared seals.

You can see these have external ear openings

and long, broad flippers at the front of the body

that they use for propulsion.

Very inquisitive, this one.

Look at her, what a beauty!

Hello.

I think she could see her reflection in my mask.

How good is this?! Absolutely amazing!

They make everything underwater seem so effortless, don't they?

I would give anything to be able to swim like that underwater.

But no matter how hard I try, I just don't seem to have the same grace.

These fur seals might just look like they're having fun,

but, for them, life is all about one thing -

surviving great whites.

I mean, once you're in the water, they hang at the surface

with their heads and those big eyes looking down,

always on the lookout for a shark.

They're incredibly fast,

agile, manoeuvrable creatures. But they have to be.

As to escape a great white, you need to be quick.

But fur seals are predators in their own right.

All over the world, they use these same skills to hunt prey.

With their speed, agility and lion-like teeth,

they can catch food in all kinds of shapes and sizes with ease.

And in Guadalupe, they have an added challenge for when they're hunting.

Unlike many seals or sea lions, they hunt at night,

because the great whites are much less active then,

for things like squid and lantern fish.

They're quite sneaky.

This one keeps trying to creep up behind me and bite my fins!

This animal has had to face so many challenges

in its life here in Guadalupe -

from the great white sharks it shares the seas with,

to having to hunt in waters

where everything can see them coming, they're so clear.

But they are such sublime predators,

they still manage to succeed.

Oh, they are stunning!

They're beautiful, they're playful,

they're balletic,

but they're also deadly.

With strong jaws to catch fish food,

agile, fast and furious.

Sneaking up on their prey unnoticed.

They might be cute,

but they are also deadly.

'(Deadly.)'

Well, I would say there are few more beautiful dives

in the whole world than that.

But I reckon we've had our fair share of beauty now.

Now it's time for the beast.

But the sharks had disappeared for the day.

So we'll have to wait until tomorrow

to leave the cage behind and attempt the ultimate Deadly challenge -

to free dive with a great white.

Before I head to bed, though,

I get the team together for a final briefing

as, tomorrow, safety will be paramount.

If I go to swim out the cage,

then the first thing I do is get the OK from you,

because you're much more experienced with this than I am.

So you look at the shark, you suss it out,

you figure out it's OK and then

-you're going to be watching my back...

-Yes.

..and then I look down for that splash.

And your last look should be looking down.

Always look down first and then swim out.

And, I guess, try and come alongside the shark

-as it comes up to the bait?

-Yes.

But not in front of it. You don't want to be in front of the shark

-and getting in-between it and the food.

-Yes.

Once the shark locks up on the bait, they don't change their minds.

They'll go for the bait. Even if we are close by,

they never change their minds, they just lock on the bait.

Um, and, you know, obviously,

we don't want to even think about things going wrong,

but what is our kind of escape plan, if anything does happen?

Oh, bottom line is something bad happens,

we've got to get you out of the water.

Because we're so far out from any type of civilisation, trauma centre,

dive chamber. We've got to start evacuating you immediately.

Any bite from any of these sharks,

whether it be a juvenile or a large female or whatever,

is going to be a catastrophic event.

If someone gets bit, it's going to be catastrophic.

'This could be a sleepless night for all of us.'

So, today's the day.

A lot of people might ask why I would even consider

going outside of the cage with a great white shark

and, for me, it's very simple.

I've spent a lot of my life trying to convince people

that sharks are not the misunderstood,

man-eating monsters that a lot of people think they are,

and this is kind of the best way of proving that.

These animals have so much to fear from us

and we have next to nothing to fear from them.

Across the world, sharks are being destroyed at an alarming rate.

For every person killed by a shark,

around 10 million sharks are killed by man.

From habitat loss to overfishing,

to the demand for shark-fin soup,

sharks are being decimated.

By swimming with the greatest shark of them all, the great white,

hopefully people can see

that sharks are not the monsters they seem to be.

But at the moment, we're playing a waiting game.

So much of wildlife-watching is just about patience

and waiting and this is no different, really.

We are just staring off into the inky blue,

hoping to see that distinctive silhouette of a shark

popping up to the surface.

But at the moment, it's just not happening

and we're running out of time.

So that we're ready when they do appear,

we start kitting up.

The important thing is that diving with whites,

your heart always skips a beat.

It doesn't matter how many times you do it.

The enormity of what I'm about to do is starting to become very real.

Shark, shark!

This shark is definitely a player, this is perfect,

this is one who will hang around if we play it right.

It's really tricky, you've got to force yourself to go through

all of your checks, your air,

with the microphone, with the mask, with your fins -

with all of the things that you have to have working

just to do a normal scuba dive.

But all the time in the back of your mind,

is the fact that you're about to swim out in the open ocean

with one of the most epic predators on the planet.

Somehow, you have to put that to the back of your mind

and focus on the important jobs.

And I can't let nerves get the better of me,

as animals can sense fear.

I can't wait any longer. The shark is there.

Are we ready?

It's time to swim out into his world.

This shark is known to the team,

so we're confident we can open the cage door.

But before I head out into the deep blue,

we need to be absolutely sure this shark is on its best behaviour.

It's an eerie sight, seeing a great white swim past you like this.

with the door of the cage open.

It's a male shark, but it's a mature male and of a good size.

This is an animal that isn't going to have anything to prove.

And the conditions are perfect.

So I think it's time to head out through the open cage door.

My heart is racing.

Leaving the cage, I suddenly feel very small.

They are so completely transfixing,

almost hypnotising.

But once you see one shark, you can't take your eyes off it.

But the fact is, it's not the shark you can see

that you have to be worried about,

it's the shark that you don't see.

So I'm very glad I have lots of eyes in the water.

But even then, they can appear out of nowhere.

One's behind you, Jose! One's behind you!

Sharks aren't the mindless killers people believe them to be,

but they're still predators.

Even an exploratory bite from a great white,

where they mean no harm, could be fatal.

Coming back towards us, Johnny, straight at us.

It's incredible -

the power they can create with a couple of whips of that tail.

So dramatic. And he's coming back round for the bait again.

This is very similar to the way that white sharks here in Guadalupe

have to go for fur seals.

There's too much visibility here.

They have to rely on sneak attacks,

bumping into their prey,

taking a bite then releasing, swimming away

and letting it bleed to death.

And their camouflage is so impressive

that sharks simply appear.

Look! Look at that coming straight towards us.

Different shark, completely different shark.

It's obviously been in battles with other males -

it's lost an enormous chunk of flesh from its back.

It's a newcomer. We haven't seen this one before,

so I'm going to watch it very carefully

before I think about swimming alongside it.

In fact, I'm going to go back in the cage.

But the new shark doesn't stay long before our other male is back.

I have enough air left for one last swim with this incredible predator.

This is quite simply wonderful.

This shark is so at ease, gliding alongside me through the water.

Beautiful, just beautiful.

I'm not suggesting it's deadly

because of its danger to people - far from it.

But in terms of its mastery of the ocean,

this creature is unparalleled.

That is one of the great wildlife encounters.

Unbelievable!

To share the open water with a great white shark -

probably the most feared creature on the planet.

Extraordinary.

I will never, ever forget this moment.

What an experience.

The great white is one of those animals

that just seems to be perfect.

Everything about it - its streamlining,

its simple camouflage, its teeth,

all of those supersenses.

It's perfection. It just cannot be improved upon.

And if you were a tuna or a seal,

it would probably be the very last thing you'd ever see.

To human beings, it does have the power

to make us feel incredibly fragile and small.

To everything else in the sea, it is deadly.

Perfectly camouflaged,

with one of the most feared mouths on the planet...

..and with a streamlined, torpedo body...

..it's perfection

and definitely...

'(Deadly.)'

Join me next time for more Deadly Pole To Pole.

It's coming back towards us, Johnny.

'(Deadly.)'