Original subtitles

The coastline of Australia

varies greatly from region to region,

and along the Sunshine Coast, you

will find a plethora of rich mangrove lined

inlets known as estuaries.

An estuary is a partially enclosed body

of brackish water, which means that it is comprised from both

a fresh and saltwater source.

These ecosystems are influenced by the rising and falling

of the tide and are considered to be

one of the most biodiverse natural habitats in the world.

Today we are exploring near the town of Melany.

This beautiful stretch of rolling hills and coastal land

is the perfect backdrop for an episode of Beyond the Tide.

All right, guys, well, this is going to be our first Beyond

the Tide episode here in Australia,

and our target species is the stingray.

As you can see right here I have a big, sturdy net.

I'm going to need this if I want to catch one of these creatures

and get it up close for the cameras.

We're at low tide right now, so there's a good chance

we're going to come across one.

Now I'll be looking for shadows in the water,

and I want you guys to do the exact same thing.

If you see something moving, let me

know and we're going to hopefully be able to catch it.

Quick question. - Yeah.

I've heard that walking in water like this

is kind of dangerous when they're stingrays around.

How do you do that?

Ah, yes, the key movement today is

going to be shuffling our feet.

So watch this.

You want to kind of be moving like this.

And the reason for that is that the rays will oftentimes bury

themselves down in the sandy silt.

You don't want to step straight down

on top of one of those barbs.

It will go right through your foot.

So by shuffling your feet, if you kick a ray,

you'll scare it, and it will take off

and you'll avoid getting stung.

All right, guys, so everybody just drag your feet

today when we're walking.

Sound good? Sounds good to me.

All right, let's head this direction.

Going with the wind.

Brackish water tends to be incredibly cloudy

as tidal movement causes sediment on the estuary basin

to be in constant turmoil.

This environmental challenge made spotting

animals incredibly difficult.

The water is actually a little clearer in this area.

You could see the wind is actually kind of died down.

We've got a little bit more plant

cover that's blocking the wind.

Let's slowly venture out into this direction.

Let me lead, I'll let you know if I see anything.

Remember, continue to drag your feet

because if I walk past something and don't disturb it,

there's a chance that you could step right

on top of one of those barbs.

So drag those feet, guys.

As we continued inward toward an exposed sandbar,

the tides of luck began to turn, and there before us,

the shadow of a stingray began to materialize

beneath the surface.

Got it?

I do not.

Oh.

Oh, shoot.

That was close.

That was close though.

I think I got just on top of it.

I could feel it pulling.

Actually, it was so big it might not fit in the net.

But that was our good first shot at it.

We're definitely are seeing rays now.

It's just a matter of actually being

able to scoop it up in the net.

And I think that's the play.

Once I get close to it, and it starts to move,

I need to sort of explode into action and try to scoop it.

And what I'm trying to do is get the net in front of its nose

and then pull backwards.

OK.

Well, we're getting close.

All right, good first shot.

Keep looking.

Right here. Right here.

I see it. I see it.

Get him.

Oh, there he goes.

Oh, he's right here.

He's right here in front of me.

He's right here.

Dude, he's right here.

Look at him.

Look at him.

There you go. See his weight.

See his weight.

Yeah.

Put these sunglasses on.

Put these sunglasses on.

You need to see him.

Put that on. He's right here.

Right there. Right there.

Right there in front of him. In front of him.

You got it.

You got it.

Turning back.

Get ready.

Don't let it get out into the open.

You get him?

I got it. I got it.

I got it. - All right.

Yes. Yes.

Whoa, whoa. Hold on.

It's trying to get out of the net.

Whoa.

All right.

Good spot, you guys.

When Mario handed off his polarizing sunglasses to me

right in the middle of that changed the game immediately

and I was able to see it so much better.

Look at the spots.

That's awesome.

All right, guys, we have to be really careful here.

I'm trying to determine where it's barb is.

I see it right on the back of the tail there.

OK.

It appears that this is a maskray.

Let me do this.

You see those eyes up front there?

Wow.

So bizarre looking.

All right, guys, so that we can get this ray up close

for the cameras, it's going to be very hard

for me to handle this, also dangerous because

of the venomous barb.

But there's a little pocket of water up here.

Let's place it in that pocket, and we'll

be able to observe it in the water and in a situation

that we can keep control. Are you ready?

Yep.

OK, we'll quickly move it up here.

All right.

Let's get it into this pocket of water here.

Let me check the temperature first.

Yeah, this is plenty cool.

This is perfect.

OK, I'm going to let it gently sort of swim out here.

OK. That's a great ray, man.

It really is.

Look at the eyeballs.

Look just like the eyes of a crocodile positioned

on top of its head there.

Now some species of rays have very wide set eyes,

and they don't have the best eyesight.

And similar to sharks, they have sensory organs

on the front of their noses that allow

them to sense for their prey.

Now this species, I can tell you this much,

I actually have my finger in its mouth right now.

It doesn't have teeth.

It just has these flat plates that it uses to grab

onto its food and grind it up.

Now some species of rays do, in fact, have teeth.

You can see him constantly trying to move here because it

is capable of spinning its tail around,

and what I don't want to take is a sting from that barbed tail.

Let me turn it like this, and while I'm

talking about what it eats, it eats small crustaceans,

little fish, mollusks.

They're pretty opportunistic, and a ray of this size

would even take something like a small octopus.

But I know you guys are really interested in is that tail,

and look at that.

This one has two venomous spines.

Those are modified dermal dendrites,

basically like scales growing out of this creature's body.

And it does have a very narrow row of them

down the middle of the spine, and there

at the tail double stinger.

Now that stinger is laced with venom,

and similar to a lionfish, they actually

have a membrane like sheath over the stinger,

and when it inserts into something that's

trying to attack it, that sheath sort of peels away

and the venom is then leaked into whatever

it is that's being stung.

Now they do not use their stingers

at all for catching their food.

They're strictly used as a defense mechanism.

And as you can see, it's kind of flicking its tail around there.

Just trying to keep my fingers away from that tail.

Now some ray species have two stingers like this one.

Many only have a single stinger and some species stingers can

grow up to a foot in length.

Tell you what you don't want to happen,

a foot long stinger going through your arm.

Let me see if I can just slowly lift you up there a little bit,

buddy.

Now the gills of this creature are actually on the underside

of its body, and what I'm going to do now

is try to lift it up by just holding

on to the base of the tail.

No, I don't think I'm going to be

able to do that because the tail of this species is short.

Let me give that one more try though.

I can hold on to these air holes and the back of its tail

like this.

Trying not to get a sting.

This doesn't hurt it in any way whatsoever.

Look at the underside there and see if you can see those gills.

Can you see the gills under there?

Hold it there.

You can see the mouth working too.

There you go, buddy, and that's

about as much as I want to try to actually handle this animal.

As you can see, it's breathing by passing

water over its gills, and you see

these two air vents right here.

The water comes in through the mouth, past the gills,

and then out through these little orifices right there.

Similar to an octopus.

The way that an octopus can shoot water out

of those little valves on the side of its body,

this guy is also capable of shooting

water off to the sides.

So he's breathing just fine right now.

Oh, yeah, he's completely fine.

And like I said, I want to try to handle

it as little as possible.

Now because we know that rays are related to sharks,

you may be asking yourself, well, Coyote,

does its skin feel just like a shark?

Is it scratchy like sandpaper?

I honestly thought that this ray would be scratchy,

but it's not.

It's incredibly smooth and it has a gelatinous

membrane covering its skin, feels just

like a frog or a salamander.

Yeah, go ahead.

Touch it real gently there.

Let me just kind of keep it positioned down.

Oh, wow. How about that, right?

It does feel like an amphibian.

And look at the coloration,

almost looks like the coloration of the smoky jungle frog.

Actually, you know what it reminds me of?

What's that? Green sea turtle.

A little bit.

Well, and again, that camouflage is so incredibly crucial

for this animal's survival.

Look at this substrate, right?

All these little snails in this sand.

So this creature laying on the basin of the river

stays perfectly hidden.

Now the way that they hunt is using something

called defensive mimicry.

That works in two ways, partially to hide them

from predators but also to keep them hidden for anything that

wanders into their territory.

So something wanders close, it can lunge forward

and grab onto it and eat it.

Now that's obviously also considered ambush predatory,

where it stays in one spot and waits

for its food to come to it.

OK.

Lift it just a little bit.

Look at the unique design of this animal's body.

You see that?

Look at that.

You don't realize that rays have fins on the back.

No.

They do and that helps to control the direction

in which they move.

Now there are over 200 species of rays worldwide,

and they come in so many different unique shapes

and sizes, and for a maskray, this is about average size,

maybe even considered large for this species.

But some species, like the manta ray,

can grow to be massive in length from the tip of one wing

to the tip of the other close to 15 feet in length.

Wow.

All right, he's getting close to wanting to head back

off into the river, but let's talk

about that barb one more time.

Now, if you are stung by a stingray, fear not,

it is not going to kill you.

The venom is just extremely painful.

And the way to actually stop that venom from hurting

is to submerge the stung appendage of your body

in pretty hot water, pretty much as hot as you can stand.

Very similar to the sting of a lionfish.

And one thing that you do need to be

wary of though is that that barb has the potential of breaking

off in the wound, so you want to make

sure you seek medical attention and get that looked at.

All right, guys, I think at this point,

this ray is ready to head back off into the river,

but how cool was this?

Coming out here into the Australian estuaries

and finally catching and getting up close for the cameras

a stingray.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

All right, let's get this guy back into the river.

Stingrays are naturally docile and non-threatening

towards humans.

However, they have the potential to be dangerous if provoked.

When walking in an area where these marine creatures may be

present, it's advised to cautiously drag your feet

through the sand and sediment.

This tactic decreases the chances of accidentally

stepping on a resting stingray, and in turn,

lessens your odds of ever feeling the wrath

from that venomous stinger.

All right, and there he goes.

Man, that was awesome.

Man, you caught one.

That took some effort though, didn't it?

Yeah, man, that was a perfect size ray though.

Yeah, anything bigger than that,

it wasn't going to fit in the net so.

All right, guys, our first official stingray episode

is in the box.

Mario, I'm usually really confident about everything

we do, but today, man, I hope we didn't bite off more they

we can chew.

Oh, boy.

The ocean, a vast wilderness

where life began millions upon millions of years ago.

And to this day, remains one of the most unexplored

environments on our planet.

Within its depths live an abundance

of mysterious creatures, many that often surpass

even our wildest imaginations.

And some of them have even emerged as the monstrous icons

of our greatest fears.

My name is Mark Vins.

I am a filmmaker, adventurer, and director of the Brave

Wilderness channel.

Together, through the lens of our cameras,

you've joined me and the crew on countless journeys

through the most extreme habitats on Earth.

You have followed along as we've taken you closer to the world's

most bizarre and misunderstood creatures

than any film crew in history.

And today, I am proud to say that it is those adventures

that have led me to this moment, to an opportunity I have

dreamed about since childhood.

The moment I begin my exploration

of the great blue wilderness.

But this is no solo mission.

I will be surrounded by familiar faces and some new ones

as well.

With Mario taking over as director,

I will proudly step in front of the camera

to lead a band of aquatic explorers

on one of the most ambitious marine projects ever embarked

upon.

Because, you see, you've been along since the very beginning.

Yeah.

There are no rehearsals on this stage.

You've seen us become dive certified,

and even witnessed our very first dives in the open ocean.

And the adventures to follow will not only test our bravery,

but our commitment to the word adventure itself.

And these expeditions start now because today you

will witness our very first shark encounter

and there will be no cages.

Welcome to Tiger Beach.

Located off the coast of West End Grand Bahama,

this location is not a beach at all,

but rather a world famous destination for shark diving.

More specifically, Tiger shark diving.

What makes this dive site so special

are the powdery white sand bottoms.

The beaches, if you will, that reflect brilliant ambient light

through warm crystal clear tropical water,

creating a very special shark diving experience that is

world class and second to none.

And not only will you see Tiger sharks,

you can encounter up to five different species.

All formidable, all top marine predators,

all on the same dive.

To say we were starting out our shark

diving adventures in a big way might

be a bit of an understatement.

And with this being such a landmark moment for Mario

and I, we simply couldn't imagine

doing this adventure without inviting

along someone very special.

All right, guys, here we are.

Big day.

We're about to head offshore to swim with Tiger sharks.

This is going to be so crazy, and I think you guys know

we couldn't do this without our main man,

so we flew him in especially for today.

Coyote's here, guys.

What's up, buddy?

Hey, hey.

How was your flight?

Oh, it was excellent.

Only a few hours to get down here.

This is an epic looking boat.

Permission to come aboard?

Granted.

All right.

Are you excited to swim with these giant sharks?

A little nervous, but also extremely excited.

This is our first time getting to work with a predator

of this size, specifically an ocean predator,

so I'm ready to get in there with the Tiger sharks.

All right, well, we got your gear all set up out back.

Let's go check it out. - OK.

Off we go.

With the crew now complete and all aboard are home at sea,

we set off for Tiger Beach.

Some 20 miles offshore, our destiny

awaited and with it, the hungry teeth of Tiger sharks.

So how's it feel being the director?

It's different.

Definitely, I used to take kind of the secondary role

on the camera, but now I'm stepping up to direct.

And, yeah, it's a learning process,

and I'm excited to see what's to come.

Now I think it's fair to say

that this expedition was unlike anything

we've ever done before.

Not only was it a new challenge, it was a new danger as well.

And to be honest, it was the first time

I've ever experienced true fear prior to one of our trips.

Oh, boy.

Now I know that might seem odd since I've filmed everything

from grizzly bears and wolverines

to the world's deadliest spider, but I won't lie, I was nervous.

I know the majority of my fear stemmed from my inexperience

with sharks, but let's face it, these are sharks, big sharks

with razor sharp teeth.

So it goes without saying expert guidance would be essential.

And as luck would have it, Jonathon Bird

and his team of Blue World Divers

were available to join the trip.

Jonathon and his crew have over 20 years

of underwater filmmaking experience and his Emmy award

winning program "Jonathon Bird's Blue

World" is in its sixth season.

Let's just say these guys know what they're doing,

and they had some critical advice

for us shark diving rookies.

All right, guys, well, we have our gear on,

and the boat is completely surrounded by sharks right now.

We wouldn't be doing this if we weren't with an expert

and today we have Jonathon Bird from "Jonathon Bird's

Blue World" here to teach us what we're doing

and keep us safe.

Is this safe?

It's safe.

OK.

Yeah, they're not aggressive towards divers.

The only thing you want to do is just try to not be

prey by not acting like prey.

So the first thing you're going to do

is you're going to wear gloves and a hood,

so you don't have any skin showing.

They won't think that looks like fish.

And then when you hit the water, you want

to get straight to the bottom.

You don't want to flounder around

like you might be something flopping on the surface

that they might want to eat.

So you just want to get to the sand,

and then once you're down there, they're

going to treat you just like they treat

everything else in the ocean.

You're just another creature there.

OK, so don't flap and splash around on the surface?

No.

Grab my camera, just go down.

Just grab your camera, boom, right to the bottom.

OK. Did you hear that, guys?

We're going in. Coyote, are you ready?

About as ready as I'm going to be.

Let's get in there with those sharks.

In addition to Jonathan's mentorship on dive techniques

and camera operation, his keen sense of shark behavior

would be crucial in assuring our safety underwater.

After going through and prepping our dive gear,

we had a final safety briefing with the crew of the ship.

A serious shark bite this far at sea,

even with the fastest life flights,

would almost certainly be fatal.

This fact was not meant to scare us,

but was a stern reminder that strictly following shark

protocol was an absolute must.

The moments between the safety briefing and preparing to dive

are hazy in my mind even to this day

as the reality of getting in the water with sharks

became very real very quickly.

Well, we've done all the intro shots, we're suited up

and we're actually about ready to get

in there with the sharks.

I'm looking over the surface.

Check this out.

Guys, there's a lot of big sharks down there.

It's one thing to talk about getting into the water

with these top predators.

It's another thing to actually do it, so I'm a little on edge,

I'd say.

And I know it's going to be cool,

but there is that moment of actually jumping off the boat

that I've been kind of dreading.

And, yeah, I guess it's my time.

Let's go and get in the water with those giant sharks.

Here we go.

The water was now thick with chum,

and the stench of decaying fish filled the air.

My heart was pounding as countless sharks

circled our perimeter, and time seemed to slow down.

The sight below drove fear into even the bravest among us.

We all made our way to the platform hoping

to find a shred of comfort in our pre-dive routine,

but nothing could distract us from the obvious.

Getting in the water was inevitable,

and that moment was now.

One by one, Jonathon and his crew descended below.

Each plunge drawing us closer to the edge.

Then Coyote gave me one final glance, and off he went.

I stood motionless as I watched him

disappear beneath the surface.

Mario, I'm usually really confident about everything

we do, but today, man, I hope we didn't

bite off more than we can chew.

Regardless, I got your back.

I got your back too, man. Let's do it.

You ready? Ready.

Let's do it.

By this point, the chum had drawn in hordes of lemon sharks

and maybe it was just me, but they

seemed to be getting bigger and bigger

right before my very eyes.

Oh, with every shark dive comes the moment

where you actually have to dive in with the sharks.

That moment is right now.

Oh, boy.

Then just like that, my destiny with the sharks had arrived.