This is Doctor Neil Burnie.
He lives in Bermuda, a stunning Atlantic Island
six hundred and forty miles east of North
Carolina, USA.He’s spent the last thirty
years practicing veterinary medicine, but
now he's transferring his veterinary skills
to help save, protect, and learn more about
the incredible marine life of Bermuda’s
Ocean.
This is a completely wild shark.
Alongside his dedicated Ocean Vet team, are
a number of scientists,
Yeah, this and probably.
marine biologists,
Just cut a little nick off the back fin.
and specialist master divers, helping to perform
a number of unique and dangerous procedures,
in a bid to safeguard critically important
marine species.Together, the team will be
fitting satellite tags to huge tiger sharks,
saving precious green turtles, dissecting
giant blue marlin, and obtaining unique toxin
samples from forty five tonne, migrating,
humpback whales.
Yay!
Woo hoo!My knees are like jell-o.
Yes, man!
This is Bermuda!
Home to Doctor Neil Burnie, the Ocean Vet.
The tiger shark is one of the the world’s
most powerful predators.
Millions of years of evolution have seen this
beautiful animal rise close to the top of
the oceanic food chain, but this stature has
come at a price!
Local and international fishermen target this
species, among others, for their fins and
liver oil.
Consequently, the tiger shark is now classified
as near threatened.
Just, just, your’ll just support if I start
to go.
Sure, sure.
The Ocean Vet team are coming to the end of
an eight year tiger shark research project.
Little was known about this impressive predator.
The project was established to tag and collect
critical migratory data while learning more
about this animal’s behaviour.
These animals 
are absolutely spectacular!
They’re a hydrodynamic marvel and beautiful
to watch.
Neil and his team’s research is helping
local and international authorities establish
shark protection policies.
I gotta be honest with you, i’m calling
this possibly the biggest shark we’ve ever
had.
This thing is monstrous!
In this episode Neil and the crew struggle
with an eight hundred pound tiger shark while
attempting to fit it’s satellite tracking
computer.
Neil’s unique set of veterinary skills are
tested, and the team’s experience pushed
to the limit.
Starboard engine!
Trim up, please!
Starboard engine up!
Starboard engine!
Trim it right up!
Quick as we can!
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!
Under the water the team risk their lives
to learn more about tiger shark behaviour,
while attempting to dispel the notion that
these animals are mindless man-eaters.
Ok, i’ll pull it out from under.
The final six thousand dollar satellite tag
will provide the data needed for the government
of Bermuda to establish a comprehensive shark
conservation policy.
The first of it’s kind in Bermuda’s long
history.
As Neil and the team prepares to embark on
this epic adventure, Neil carefully checks
the equipment needed to secure a huge tiger
shark to the side of the boat.
This is a sling in which we suspend our large
tiger shark when we get it to the side of
the boat.
It has to be adjustable both ways so that
we can roll him rotationally to position his
dorsal fin for drilling.
We’re gonna take a measurement on the animal
now, and that will give me.
Series marine biologist, Choy Aming, has been
studying these sharks with Neil for over the
last eight years and has made some interesting
observations on their behaviour in the wild.
Now obviously we were cautious when we first
jumped in, Just, er, didn’t, didn’t have
any idea what to expect.
But over time we’ve definitely seen that
they’re not the mindless eating machines
that you think they are.
In fact, when we’re in the water, if you
hold your ground and assert some dominance
in the water column, not aggressively towards
the animal, but you just hold your ground
like you’re a large predator, they’ll
keep their ground.
And we’ve stayed in the water well over
an hour on a couple occasions with multiple
tiger sharks.
So it just goes to show that once you understand
the psychology of the animal, you can do a
lot more than you think.
Swimming with tiger sharks is dangerous.
The team have had years of experience developing
a unique understudying of shark behaviour.
Neil and Choy believe that by sharing their
incredible interactions they can change people’s
perception of tiger sharks and sharks in general.
As always, Neil and Choy are supported by
the rest of the Ocean Vet crew.
Andrew Kirkpatrick, is the underwater cameraman
and doubles as underwater support during veterinary
procedures; Dylan Ward, and, Neil’s son,
Oscar Deuss, are the shark safety divers,
together they ensure the safety of the team.
The tiger shark tagging location is a twelve
mile burn southwest of Bermuda to Challenger
Bank.
This seamount is one of two underwater volcanos.
It rises up from well over two thousand feet
and comes close to the surface at just under
one hundred and eighty feet.
Before the team reach Challenger Bank, their
journey is interrupted by something rather
special.
So as we’re travelling through the deep
oceans we’ve come across a pod of bottlenose
dolphin, and they’re actually riding the
bow with us, there’s about thirty of them.
We’re gonna try and see if we can get in
the water and swim with them.
These bottlenose dolphin are actually a specialised
subspecies of deep diving dolphin.
The dive patterns of these mammals correlate
with vertical nightly migrations to over sixty
five hundred feet.
They hunt for prey on the steep-sided Bermuda
Pedestal.
The opportunity to interact with such a subspecies
is extremely rare.
As always, Neil, manages to do so with his
own unique style!
Alright.
So, it’s the first time i’ve used this
fin.
This is, er, Lunocet pro by Ted Ciamillo.
This thing makes you swim like a dolphin.
And I swear that dolphin, we think he was
a big male, came in as if to say, ‘what
in heaven is that thing, let me take a closer
look!’
And he came right up.
And then we swam across each other.
And then we swam together.
It was.
Incredible, man!
Just.
So good!
Wicked!
It was exactly what I wanted to do with this
fin.
Humpbacks next year!
This is gonna be the deal![laughter]
With spirits high, the team switch gear back
to tiger sharks.
Choy, is preparing the chum.
So you can see Dylan and I here at the chum
table, and basically we’re making chum for
the sharks.
So, what we have down here is, er, soup of,
er, blood, guts, fish, just general nastiness.
Now, the way we get a shark coming up is to
actually attract them by sense of smell.
Sharks have a fantastic sense of smell overall.
Most sharks can detect about one drop of blood
in a million drops of seawater.
These animals track scent lines for hundreds
of miles.
In the wild, these lines usually direct the
sharks to a feeding opportunity, more often
than not a bait ball.
Neil, uses a slightly different payoff for
when the sharks arrive.
So this is a large blue marlin head.
We get these from the sport fishing fleet,
and the body of the fish, hopefully, gets
used for some research, but the head becomes
the centre piece of our chum line.
This is what the tiger sharks love to chew
on.
And when they’re playing with this, they’re
less focused on us while we’re swimming
with them.
So, Choy, let’s get this in the water!
Yeah!
Three, two, one, go!
Once the head is in position, Neil jumps in
and heads out to the marlin head.
Tiger sharks are already in the area, attracted
to the chum, but they’re keeping their distance.
To bring the sharks closer, Neil, starts to
scrape the marlin head with a knife.
The sound travels through the water column
and is picked up by the shark’s lateral
lines, a sensory system located along the
side of the shark that converts movement and
vibration into electrical impulse signals.
Moments later Neil spots a large tiger shark
rising up from the deep.
So while I was scraping the head one of the
sharks did come up and say hello, but he headed
back down to the deep.
So now i’m gonna send this little chew toy
down for him to play with, and then hopefully
bring him up to the surface where we can get
in the water, swim, and observe the behaviour
of these animals up close.
Neil’s tried and tested methods have now
brought multiple sharks right up to the marlin
head.
Their interest in the bait is now at the critical
level.
It’s only once the sharks are engaged with
the bait like this that Neil and Choy feel
happy to enter the water.
Ok.
So in the last few moments we’ve had three
tiger sharks turn up in our chum lines, so
we’re getting ready to get in the water
and swim with them.
Why would we wanna get in the water and swim
with three large tiger sharks?
We wanna observe their behaviour, how they
interact with one another.
Very little research has been done on this
and we aim to increase that amount of knowledge.
People think, ‘is it dangerous?’
Well if you appear to be dead, dying, or dumb
then you deserve to be on the tiger shark’s
menu.
But we’re gonna act like other sharks.
We’re gonna swim at them, if they swim at
us.
We’re gonna show you that they’re not
to be feared, that they’re to be respected.
We want you to like these fish, so you don’t
kill these fish.
It’s clear from the outset why Neil and
Choy enter the water during this period of
high activity.
Over the years they have learnt that the bait
draws the attention of the sharks away from
themselves.
Where most people would consider this to be
the worst time to jump in, it is, in fact,
by far the best.The animal’s inquisitive
nature allows Choy the opportunity to take
some photographs.
These will be cross referenced against Neil
and Choy’s database of shark photos, and
enable the team to see which individuals are
back in Bermuda from their oceanic migrations.
Well.
That was amazing!
Er, four large tiger sharks, one of them’s
obviously been hooked by somebody else, had
a long leader and some spectral line coming
off him.
But what an amazing experience to see these
sharks swimming close to us and to interact
with not only with us, but with each other.
Just, amazing!
Woo!
Over years of observation the Ocean Vet team
have been able to unwrap some of the secrets
of tiger sharks.
These animals do show interest in Neil and
Choy, but they also carefully watch one another.
The animals make behavioural decisions based
on the size and actions of other sharks in
the area.
As one feeds, others patiently wait their
turn.
By understanding this social order, the sharks
accept Neil and Choy as other predators, enabling
them to swim with the tigers in relative safety.
The other one’s got the other bit of it.
Watch out, Neil.
Be careful.
Back on board, the team are reminded of how
quickly things can go seriously wrong!
Just about to break the lower unit off!Starboard
engine!
Trim up, please!
Starboard engine up!
Starboard engine!
Trim it right up!
Quick as we can!
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!
Yeah, alright!
The, er, shark just took the, the, the buoy
right under our starboard engine, and he’s
in danger of breaking the lower unit off!
The shark swims around and heads straight
back towards Choy.
Unbelievably, he jumps in!
In this slow motion replay you can just make
out Choy’s foot pushing the shark free of
the engine!
Choy, is now some distance from the back of
the boat.
Disorientated and with no safety team, he’s
in danger!
Sensing an opportunity, other sharks start
to move towards Choy, following him right
back to the boat where he eventually manages
to climb to safety!
That was a big nine or ten foot shark just
dominating the scene, with three others following
in suit, almost bumping off each other.
That was a fantastic encounter!
So after a couple of hours of multiple tigers
chewing on it, that one hundred pound marlin
head has been reduced to this.
Probably about eight pounds in weight.
They’ve almost torn the chain right the
way through the skull, and they also chewed
through our rope, and have nearly chewed through
our two thousand pound stainless steel cable.
With so much shark activity the team decide
to push forward.
Next they’ll attempt to catch one of these
huge sharks to fit the final six thousand
dollar satellite tracking computer.
Neil lowers a single steel fishing line with
a baited circle hook.
It’s not long before a tiger shark takes
the bait!
I think somebody’s playing with this one.
Oh yeah, here we go!
Tiger shark!
Argh!
Excellent!
There is a serious risk of being pulled over
board when fighting such a huge fish!
Neil uses a body harness to support his back,
and Choy stands by to assist with additional
weight.
Er, basically i’m just bracing Neil.
What happens is, he’s actually come from
the back of the boat, so he’s higher up
on the step here, and obviously the, er, so
his centre of gravity is a little bit higher,
and also the shark’s getting close to the
boat, so he’s getting a little more, er,
a little more squirly.
Under the water, Kirkpatrick is watching the
shark as it gets closer to the boat.
The line has caught the shark on it’s tail
and rolled him onto his back.
The shark is now in tonic immobility, a trance
like state that sharks experience when upside-down.
Er, we believe this fish may be tail wrapped.
As he was running straight away from the boat
the leader has caught around his tail, so
we’re bringing him in backwards.
Yeah.
Choy spots the shark break the surface, as
it does it triggers the sharks senses and
suddenly rolls over and powers towards Dylan.
Ok.
So this fish is taking a powerful runoff into
the distance, right now.
That’s a serious run, man.
Yeah, you know what?
Probably got a big guy on there.
I didn’t check this either, this is the
rod that I lent to somebody else.
I don’t think it’s running in that direction
right now, man.
I'm coming forward, Andy.
With the added concern that the equipment
isn't in the best condition, Neil starts to
regain some ground on the tiger shark.
Unbeknown to the team, this tiger shark is
the biggest shark they have ever encountered
in Bermuda waters.
You’re gonna have to loosen the anchor briefly,
and let it go over my head.
Is he?
Good.
This is a big tiger shark!
You can see what we mean with the tail wrap,
it gets it on his tail and then it comes in
in this position.
And you can see the huge claspers, it’s
a big boy!
The first, and most important task is to immobilise
the shark’s power using a strong, but, soft
tail rope.
Boom!
One time!
Good job, buddy!
Neil and his team work quickly to rotate the
shark so they can slide the harness around
the animal and secure it to the side of the
boat.
But with a shark of this size, that’s easier
said than done!
I gotta be honest with you, i’m calling
this possibly the biggest shark we’ve ever
had!
This thing is monstrous!
I can tell you the weight when we measure
it, but this is huge!
With the shark now safe and secure, Neil and
Choy can begin the tagging procedure.
So we’ve assessed our shark.
We think he’s about nine hundred pounds,
one of our larger tiger sharks that we have
here in Bermuda.
So we’re gonna fit him with our three battery
extended life spot five tag, It’s quite
a big tag, it’s often used on the great
whites, but it’s not too big for this fish!
He’s a monster!
These tags collect migratory data.
Over the last eight years a number of tiger
sharks have been tracked all over the Atlantic
Ocean.
These tracks have revealed Bermuda to be a
key habitat, showing individuals returning
year on year.
This is the crucial information the team need
to help protect this species in Bermuda.
Back on the boat, Neil and Choy have the last
sat tag in place.
Um, well basically, we’re putting the satellite
tag as high on the fin as possible so that
the antenna reaches up.
We’re bolting through.
The tag’s on one side.
We have a washer and a lock nut, and we have
plastic bolts so that it doesn’t rust in
the animal, just whole thinking about animal
safety.
And we’ll snip them off and make it as streamline
as possible so it affects his swimming at
a minimum.
This is a huge fish!
Yeah, I think so.
To secure these tags Neil has drilled small
holes through the animal’s dorsal fin.
This looks distressing, but sharks have very
few nerve endings in this part of their body.
It is a relatively painless procedure and
a very small price for this one shark to pay
for the benefit of it’s entire species.
I just think it’s tragic how many sharks
are being killed needlessly for their fins,
for game fish, for sport, just for putting
their teeth on a wall.
And we don’t understand enough about the
migratory patterns of these fish.
And this study is gonna allow us to learn
so much more about how far these fish travel,
and the fact that they are truly international
migrants.
So you can see the tag nicely, right at the
dorsal fin, right at the top.
So when he comes to the surface that antenna
is gonna come out, this point of the shark’s
tag will dry and that will tell it to transmit.
I’m gonna trim away the surplus plastic,
being careful not to throw it in the ocean
where it would add to the plastic pollution
that we’re already dealing with.
The shark has been in Neil and Choy’s care
for just over ten minutes, well under the
twenty minute release target.
Now the tag is in place, Choy is able to move
in and collect the information required to
complete the data package.
Excellent.
Cool.
Ten foot one!
Alright.
So it was ten foot one overall, which puts
it in about the seven hundred and fifty pound
range in terms of sharks.
And to the end of the tail, it was about twelve
foot four.
Ten foot sharks are usually in the area of
about fifteen years old, so this guy’s been
around for a while.
Judging by the size of his claspers, i’m
sure he’s reproducing.
The team are now preparing for the shark’s
release.
Neil’s veterinary skills are key to this
final step.
The shark is tired, and will need Neil's assistance
to swim free.
Over the course of this project Neil and the
team have successfully released all their
sharks.
But as this is the last one, the pressure
is on to get it right!
So i’m just gonna check his nictitating
membrane to make sure he’s vigorous, and
i’m gonna look at how he’s breathing.
The nictitating membrane test is a simple
reflex examination.
The shark’s protective eye cover closes
upon Neil's gentle touch.
This is a good indication of how alert the
shark is, and enables Neil to predict how
the shark will behave once the straps are
released.
The nictitating membrane is good, came straight
over his eye!
Neil, then checks to see if the shark has
flow over it’s gills.
Again, this indicates how alert the shark
will be when it’s set free.
And he’s gulping water, so he looks good!
I’m happy!
These fish are so vital to the marine ecosystem.
I’m delighted that we’ve been able to
capture this guy, have him in good shape,
and we’re gonna let him go.
I’m gonna wish him well on his journey,
and hopefully we’re gonna change the impression
that the only good shark is a dead shark.
Neil carefully uses large bolt cutters to
remove the hook.
There is inevitably a small amount of blood,
but nothing that won’t heal quickly.
Hook, is clear.
Alright!
Finally, they release the sling.
Neil takes hold of the shark and begins to
swim this massive predator away from the boat
and back down into the ocean.
Since the filming of this project the Bermuda
Department of Fisheries has received a comprehensive
map of over one hundred tiger shark migrations.
As a result, the Department of Fisheries is
developing it’s first comprehensive tiger
shark conservation strategy, a policy that
will hopefully protect all of Bermuda’s
sharks throughout the Island’s two hundred
mile exclusive economic zone.
This shark, named, Andy, is again free to
roam the open ocean.
Er, that fish was a bit slow to start.
I gave him a push for about twenty metres.
And then I could feel him start to kick.
And then he started to kick away.
And I actually went down with him.
And he decided, no!
He wanted to come back up.
He came back up, and swam away just at the
surface.
Some tiger sharks like to cruise the surface,
this one did!
Woo!
Next time on Ocean Vet, Neil, and the team
delve deep into the world of the mighty blue
marlin!
Choy’s gonna hold him up!
I’m gonna plant the tag!
After hours at sea, on a mission to protect
this species, they successfully place the
first of many satellite tags.
That’s it!
The tag is in.
PSAT tag is deployed in this fish!
Back on land, they receive a massive blue
marlin from the marlin world cup.
And prepare to perform the first ever televised
dissection of an Atlantic blue marlin!
So here’s the swim bladder, we can actually
remove it from the fish.
The team’s goal is to reveal the anatomical
secrets of this remarkable ocean giant!
