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.
Bermuda’s ocean is home to some of the world’s most impressive sharks!
For millions of years these animals have dominated the oceanic food chain.
Giants, like the tiger shark, rule the deeper Bermudian seas.
Whilst many other incredible species also call these waters home.
But one question remains.
Are sharks still found in any numbers at night in Bermuda’s shallow waters?
Yeah, keep it on, because that way you can drop it.
You never know what’s gonna roll up on you in the darkness.
For years, locals have spoken of inshore shark hotspots.In this episode, Neil, and the team
will survey these hotspots, catch any sharks, and implant tracking tags to reveal if these
so-called hotspots are true.
Er, to be honest, we were expecting some small galapagos sharks, we got more than we bargained
for!
Well, what a rush!
Over several gruelling nights, the team, will battle through sleep deprivation, and dangerous
working conditions to collect vital information on what’s left of Bermuda’s shallow water
sharks!
So, diving with sharks can be hazardous at any time, but the danger factor can increase
if you’re gonna go in at night.
So, we have this purpose built cage to protect us in the event that something shows up that
we’re not expecting, for example, a tiger shark, or a greater hammerhead.
The team are using the boat, Endurance.
Crewing a vessel of this size requires all the Ocean Vet team.
So, yeah, we’ll bring it forward, and I think, um.
Series marine biologist, Choy Aming, is captain, and overseeing all topside operations; Oscar
Deuss, is the team’s safety diver and shark spotter; while, Dylan Ward, is pilot of the
support RIB, Harry Lindo; on underwater camera, it’s Andrew Kirkpatrick.
I’ll tell you what.
The first time I went down with this guy, I was scared half bejesus.
Er, but the more you go down, just like he says, the more you get to familiarise yourself
with the animals.
And now i’m just like stupid excited, like, I just can’t wait to get back in.
So, should be good.
The word is exhilarating.
Exhilarating.
The first shark hotspot and the team’s main dive site is Castle Harbour.
This paradise location opens to the deep ocean through a deep water channel that passes in
the middle of two, old, rocky outposts.
In the past, this has been an area where multiple shallow water shark species have been spotted.
In order to study if this location holds a resident shark population, Neil, plans to
utilise an acoustic shark tracking system.
So, this is a Vemco VR2W acoustic receiver, and it will pick up the transmission from
any of the sharks that we tag with an acoustic pinger tag.
We’re gonna have two of these receivers situated about six hundred metres apart at
the entrance to, Castle Harbour.
And they’ll let us know if any of our tagged sharks are coming in and out of, Castle Harbour.
The acoustic tagging system consists of two parts.
The first is the tracking tag, this is the part Neil, and the team will have to surgically
implant into the abdomen of any sharks caught.
The second part is the receiver, this records the position of any passing tagged sharks.The
team are now over the drop-site and ready to deploy the receiver.
So, this is a perfect location.
We’ve got the security of these rocks and a natural reef.
We’re gonna place the receiver at the edge of the reef, and it’s gonna monitor this
deep water channel, where the sharks run in and out at night into, Castle Harbour.I’ve
anchored this acoustic receiver to the seafloor with heavy chains and marked it with GPS.
I don’t know what species of shark are in this area, if any, but it’s possible that
galapagos sharks feed around this site.
If the team manage to catch and tag any sharks, this receiver will record their regular passes
in and out of this so-called shark hotspot.
That was exciting.
Er, as the light’s falling it’s looking a little spooky, because that’s a deep-water
channel, which is just the kind of place that sharks will use as, er, as an advantage when
they’re trying to ambush their prey.
So, we know for a fact that tiger sharks run up and down this South Shore, and that’s
just the sort of place where a tiger shark might want to ambush an unsuspecting victim.
It’s well documented that sharks are more active at night, Neil, has therefore decided
to run this study from dusk until dawn.
But this represents it’s own challenges, and some new uncharted dangers for the team!
Yeah, risks at diving at night, biggest thing, it’s so easy to get disorientated because
you literally have tunnel vision.
Really, what ever light source you have, that’s all you can see, you can’t see anything
around.
So, it’s easy to get disorientated.
It’s easy to lose track of depth.
It’s easy to lose track of the surface, sometimes.
So, it can be a real challenge.
You got it?It can be a real challenge at night.
Um, just kind of doing anything, let alone chumming up the water, and putting some sharks
in the equation.
So, um, yeah, we’ll see how it goes, but definitely a challenge!We’ll try and go
at the same time.
The first job, is to lower a shark cage to the seabed.
This is to provide underwater protection, if needed, during the team’s survey dive.
Neil, and Oscar guide the cage down to the seafloor!
So, the cage is in position.
It’s here for our safety, incase any larger, aggressive sharks turn up.
Although the team’s ultimate goal is to assess this area for shark numbers, Neil,
also knows the project has the potential to reveal the health of the wider marine ecosystem.Where
there’s sharks, there has to be a healthy food web.
Overfishing, and the introduction of invasive species can destroy these food webs.
Where there’s no prey fish, there’s unlikely to be any sharks.
Well, after we set up earlier this afternoon with our monitoring system, we’ve seen some
stuff.
And now we’re gonna have a look and see what actual life there is around the area
where we have the cage, right in this channel, where the water funnels in from the South
Shore into Castle Harbour.
I’m expecting to see a variety of different fish, hopefully, and perhaps we’re gonna
see some sharks.
Yeah, diver’s going in the water!
Diver’s in!
The first survey dive is taking, Neil, on a systematic search of the surrounding area.
Historically, these inshore waters were heavily overfished.
Neil’s, hoping to find enough biodiversity to indicate that this site could support a
resident shark population.
This is a Bermuda spiny lobster.
As they grow they shed their exoskeleton.
And during this time, they’re highly vulnerable to predation.
And as a result, can be considered shark food.
Examples of this kind of shark prey, is a good start.
But, Neil, really needs to find a variety of fish to be confident of an ecosystem that
could support sharks.
Here, we have a couple of reef fish exhibiting the behaviour that’s developed over thousand
of years to protect them from night-time predation.
These two fish have found a safe little crack in which to hide.
Although Neil has found some interesting marine species, it’s certainly not the abundance
of life he was expecting.
So, just completed the first survey dive, and i’m a little disappointed.
We did see a Bermuda spiny lobster, a few reef fish, er, parrotfish hiding from, hopefully,
some predators.
But all in all, not quite as much as I wanted.
Speckled moray over the sand was very interesting.
Good, I checked you.
Air’s good, BC’s inflated.
Neil, and Kirkpatrick also surveyed a much deeper location, half a mile, out, past the
entrance to Castle Harbour.
Worryingly, this deep dive-site provided even less evidence of sharks, or any potential
shark prey.
Ugh!
There’s nothing down there, even less than the other spot.
Yeah.
No ‘lobbies,’ or whatever, and we’re out of air as well, too.
Damn.
The team’s disappointment is growing.
They’re all concerned about the general lack of marine life, let alone the lack of
any sharks!
Either we go to a different spot, or it’s just not tonight, you know.
Everything else ok?
Yep.
Good man.
Just hop back in.
Back on Endurance, Neil, is taking a chum box full of bait down to the shark cage where
it will remain for twenty four hours.
This is the last ditch attempt to bring in fish and sharks to the dwindling, Castle Harbour
hotspot.
There is a possibility we may not find anything at all, but we’re thinking positive.
And we’ve got enough gear and chum, that, you know, we’re definitely, er, hedging
our bets.
So, we’re back on our dive-site, it’s about nine o’ clock.
We’ve had the chum in the water now for over twenty four hours, and we’re really
hopeful that tonight’s survey dive will reveal rather more than we obtained yesterday.
We’re hoping there’s gonna be some shark species around.
And what we’re really hoping is that we can get a couple of galapagos sharks so that
we can get the tags implanted.
You have to think positive about this, and that’s what we’re doing.
Big step.Diver’s in!
All good, Neil?
Good man.
Ok, so the bait box is still intact.
It’s been down here for over twenty four hours and has no signs of any damage from
any large predators.
I think we’re going to have to make a move to a new location.
Around four hundred years ago, the numbers of shark and other fish in this area would
have been exponentially higher!
Sharks need healthy stocks of prey fish to survive.
Without prey fish, sharks inevitably disappear.
Years of exploiting Bermuda’s magical marine ecosystem has had a profound effect on prey
fish and shark numbers.
Sharks are vital to the health of our oceans, they’re the monitors, they make sure that
everything stays healthy.
Anything that’s genetically wrong.
Anything that’s diseased.
Anything that’s dying.
Anything that’s not up to par, the sharks are gonna take it out.
They keep everything else beneath them, healthy.
They keep the populations balanced.
You’ve gotta have your apex predators.
You’ve gotta have everything from the top-down in harmony.
And that’s why sharks are so important to us.
The team’s new study hotspot sits on the edge of Bermuda’s shipping channel.
Two miles north of the dive-site is Bermuda’s fringe reef, and two miles south is the shoreline.
Neil, has deployed acoustic receivers on several structures nearby to monitor any successfully
tagged sharks.
So, we’re here at our new location, just outside the channel, on the north shore of
Bermuda.
Andrew, and I are about to go and do a survey dive, see what kind of reef species we have.
And, Choy, is setting up the equipment we’re gonna use this evening.
Yeah, what we’ve got here is, er, a modified set line.
We’re gonna set this up a distance from the boat, and we’re gonna have to check
it, er, probably every fifteen minutes, just to ensure that the sharks are in as good a
shape as possible to come back here.
Great!
Oscar!
Has our chumming station at hand.
Plenty of fish going in the water, try and get some attraction going in this area.
And here is our medical centre.
We have everything we need here.
We’re gonna take DNA samples for analysis, and more importantly, we’ve got a surgical
kit so that we can implant one of these into the abdominal cavity of the shark.
This is an acoustic transmitter tag, and will enable us to monitor the movement of the shark
around the platform.
To ensure this shark comes in the best of health, Dylan, our boat captain, is here in
the, Harry Lindo, which we have equipped with a water hose at the front to keep the shark
in good shape.
Transport him back to the boat in as quick amount of possible, to ensure he stays in
great health.
The baited set-lines are the team’s shark capture method, they consist of several baited
hooks attached to a short line, that’s anchored to the seabed.
So, this is our first bait heading out.
This one’s gonna be the closest one to the reef end.
Once the fishing equipment is deployed, Kirkpatrick, and Neil dive the location.
On all accounts, Neil, is much happier with this site’s biodiversity!
So, that was really interesting!
More activity here.
We found quite a number of small fish swimming out over the sand, and a lot of slightly bigger
fish hiding underneath the reefs; soapfish, couple of grunts, and some parrotfish.
Definitely shark food.
So, we’re hopeful this might be the place.Wind’s made up a little.
We’ve got quite a lot of chop to deal with on the transfers, but, er, we’re hopeful,
always hopeful.
The stronger winds are causing waves to flood the RIB, but the set-lines must be checked
periodically.
Neil, and Choy are out taking a closer look.
Do you feel any tension, Neil?
Tension on the line could indicate that a large predator has taken the bait.
Oh.
Tension!
Oh.
Neil’s got some tension!
Tension!
Get somebody on!
Tension!
Yeah, and they’re down.
We had a feeling.I can see something!Ok, we’ve got a shark!
Finally, the team has found what they've been looking for, but the team still aren’t sure
what the species is!
That’s gotta be a juvenile tiger shark at that size!
That’s incredible!
Choy knows how significant this find could be.
A tiger shark of this size could be evidence of a pupping tiger shark population in Bermuda,
something the team have previously had no evidence of.
Well, I’m really excited!
This in five years of tagging tiger sharks, this is the smallest one i’ve ever come
across, It’s incredible!
So, hopefully we’ll get some fascinating information out of this guy.
This is the smallest by two feet, easily.
Juvenile tiger sharks don't have the capacity to migrate thousands of miles, consequently,
this shark is likely to have been born in Bermuda.
Studying it’s tag data and DNA will be a remarkable window into the adolescent stage
of tiger shark development.
Lift, and go!Go!
Don’t pull!
Keep lifting!Lift and go!
Lift and go!
Drop the towel on his head!
Towel on his head immediately!
Perfect.
Covering the shark’s eyes is one of Neil's techniques to calm the shark down.
The team now need to get the shark, up, onto the medical station to prepare the animal
for the tagging procedure.
Perfect.
Slide them a bit closer together.
Get his dorsal in there.
Lovely.
Excellent.We’ve got a male tiger shark, juvenile, male, tiger shark.
He’s comfortable.
He’s in tonic immobility.
We have water running over his gills.
He had a good bite reflex.
Because we actually pulled him back to the boat from the rib, we actually revived this
fish on the way back over here.
So the fact that he’s lying still, is not because he can’t move, it’s because he’s
in tonic immobility, when you turn the shark upside-down.
We’re now in an extremely good position to get the hook out of this fish, and then
place our transmitter into his abdominal cavity.Nice set of dental work, wouldn’t you say?First
thing to be done, we’re gonna remove the circle hook, it’s barbless.
We are gonna simply cut it in one place here, close to the fish, and wind it out.
Neil’s primary concern is always the welfare of the shark.
He’s using the same techniques applied during regular veterinary care, to ensure the shark
remains comfortable throughout the tag implant procedure.
Just gonna put a little local anaesthetic in, just to numb the senses that he has in
his body wall, right here.There we go.
So, we’re into his body cavity, just get him cleaned up, then we’re going to be able
to insert our tag, it looks pretty large, but this fish will be able to deal with this
fine.Acoustic transmitter is placed.
It's a brief procedure, and although it may appear uncomfortable for the shark Neil knows
first hand just how resilient these animals can be.
We’ve learned over the years that tiger sharks can suffer pretty profound injury and
recover well.
We’ve tracked one of our sharks for over two years after seeing him released with massive
fight injuries acquired during tagging.
If you lift the lid.
The lid is off, that’s the problem.
So.
There.
To confirm this shark is strong enough to be released, Neil, is making some last-minute
health checks.
You can see his nictitating membrane coming across to protect his eye, that’s a good
sign.
He’s got a bite reflex, just now he bit down hard on the tube.
And you can see this fish’s organs of lorenzini.
All these little ampullae around his mouth and head, those are his electrical sensors,
that’s what let him find this bait, together with his olfactory senses, his sense of smell,
through these nostrils right here.
Beautiful looking fish!
With the health indicators looking strong and the tag implanted, it’s time to release
this juvenile tiger shark.
Alright.
Slowly, slowly.
Yep.
He’s coming in.
This young shark has certainly been through quite an ordeal, but the information it will
provide could help protect other young tiger sharks born in Bermuda.
There certainly isn't the numbers of sharks there once was in these waters, but this young
shark is a glimmer of evidence that tiger sharks aren’t just still living in Bermuda’s
shallow waters, but potentially breeding, and certainly giving birth.
That alone, is cause for us to learn more and better protect these precious, young sharks.
Yeah.
Ha Ha!
So, we came out looking for night sharks in Bermuda.
Er, to be honest, we were expecting some small galapagos sharks, we got more than we bargained
for!
Well, what a rush!
We just, er, brought a six foot tiger shark on board, and, er, put an acoustic transmitting
tag in it.
We’ll be able to see if this fish stays around the Bermuda platform, in the shallows.
Just, wicked!
Drew!.
The team’s project to study Bermuda’s shallow water sharks, continues!
The mission is to continue the tagging study and roll-out receivers across the coral platform.The
goal is to make Bermuda’s coral platform one of the most monitored shallow water shark
habitats on the planet, providing refuge, and protection for multiple shark species.
Endurance, Endurance, Endurance.
Next time on Ocean Vet, Neil, and his crew are in search of humpback whales.
I don’t wanna spook it.
It’s right here.
Oh my gosh.
Utilising a modified compound bow, Neil’s, objective is to collect blubber samples, and
reveal the levels of dangerous man-made toxins inside these animals.
That, is whale blubber!
Choy, will also encounter a dead sperm whale being devoured by hungry sharks.
And, Neil, and the crew will dive with several curious humpbacks, documenting the behaviour,
and interactions from one of the oldest animals in the ocean.
