Blacktip Shark Shark Bites

My name's Steve Backshall.

Self-confessed shark-obsessed.

This is Shark Bites.

This time, we meet a master of teamwork.

The blacktip shark.

Easily identified by the black tips of their fins, these sleek sharks

stalk the seas, sniffing out their supper before these toothy

torpedoes launch their attack.

Reaching lengths of up to 1.8 metres,

they're not the biggest shark in their tropical territories.

So, in order to survive,

these clever creatures have a sensible solution...

..power in numbers.

But how does a shiver of sharks find and catch enough food?

South Africa's Indian Ocean coast is a hot spot to find them.

One thing that we always have on our side

when we're trying to film sharks is their incredible sense of smell,

particularly when they're sensing blood.

So, we're dropping a drum full of fish guts into the sea

and hoping that some sharks will sniff if out.

And, just minutes later, we're in luck.

Shark!

One...two...

Five, six!

We are absolutely surrounded with sharks!

Go!

Oh-ho-ho!

Amazing!

Sharks can smell one drop of blood in a billion drops of water.

And they've certainly homed in on our bait.

Unlike us, sharks breathe and smell from different parts of their body.

They breathe from their gills, which are here,

and smell through their nares, or nostrils, which are here.

Water's drawn in to the nasal chambers

and over complex folds of skin which are covered in tiny sensory

cells, which are very sensitive to smell.

This helps the shark to detect where a smell's coming from.

If a smell's coming from the left,

it will hit the left nostril milliseconds before the right,

and the shark will know to swim in that direction.

And once they've sniffed out the source,

blacktip sharks can be seen working like a team in intimidating groups.

They corral their prey into a tight ball...

..and, when the time is right, they strike...

..from all angles, annihilating entire shoals.

The blacktip sharks.

Toothy torpedoes with

a scintillating sense of smell,

and perfect pack precision, make them the masters of teamwork.