Original subtitles

the Mediterranean a mysterious ocean

between three continents life pulses

right beneath the surface day by day the

historic fight for food and habitat

ensues a clear hierarchy within a

community of hunters and hunted with the

exception of a few

[Music]

the great white shark we will follow

this predator into a foreign rarely

entered world with all kinds of

mysteries wondrous phenomena and dangers

we will encounter bizarre mystery

mongers and some very curious types

shoulder to shoulder with the oceans

creatures we are chasing a mystery the

mystery of the mating of the bluefin

tuna

[Music]

our search begins in the Strait of

Gibraltar the only connection between

Atlantic and Mediterranean ocean here we

cannot miss the tuna

[Music]

this maritime bottleneck between Africa

and Europe is only 14 kilometers wide at

the narrowest spot 1.5 million cubic

meters per second of Atlantic Ocean rush

into the Mediterranean and back out

again at great depth between April and

September bluefin Atlantic tuna swim

through the Strait to spawn in the

warmer Mediterranean waters

[Music]

a great white has killed a tuna he

followed the school's the ferocious

shark is never far from the tuna schools

orcas are the main predators of tuna

[Music]

the cool Atlantic water is nutrient-rich

ideal for the majestic marvel erase they

filter plankton

[Music]

Willie Jack's also profit from the

countless microbes lightning fast

Atlantic Marlin prey on sardines a

school of pilot whales has arrived

these five to six meter long mammals

give birth here and then also mate again

right beneath the surface a stool of

scans is trying to keep safe from

dolphins and share waters by forming a

rotating ball but the Predators know no

mercy right after the Dolphins are

satisfied pompe knows decide to feed on

their weaker cousins suddenly they

arrive bluefin tuna on the way to their

spawning grounds the harbor of tarifa

Doris France Albania arrived just in

time in the small spanish fishing

village here in the Strait of Gibraltar

the German marine biologist starts his

journey to follow the tuna on board of a

fishing boat

[Music]

the hunt of the highly valuable fish is

quite dangerous in a 60 kilometer long

narrow strait between Africa and Europe

the list of tragic accidents grows

longer each year about 250 ships move

past each other every day often fog and

tricky currents play their own games

here

orcas make fishing very difficult these

clever predators rub their own

two-legged competitors of about 80% of

the catch a whole army of snitches comes

together here sharks are there almost

immediately when the fishing boats

arrive but also yellowfin tuna find bits

and pieces once they're sold after

family members I hang on the hooks of

the fisherman mackerel are used as bait

to lure the tuna onto the fishing hooks

cinder blocks keep the bait floating in

the currents at depths

Oh

Boreas wants to know if it's true that

80% of the catch is eaten by orcas and

sharks he doesn't have to wait long for

proof this bait has just been thrown in

the water and is now being torn apart by

two blue sharks

mackerel are too small for the orcas

they wait until the tuna has bit into a

hook only in the last moment that they

take their bite very frustrating for the

fishermen

this Moroccan has more luck he can live

off the money he gets for this too now

for months

the fisherman that the biologist goes

along with are not concerned when a

small great white shark takes their bait

the fishing boats are not very popular

here some ocean dwellers work up quite a

rage a bottlenose dolphin shows his

anger

the orcas are the most dangerous he has

killed a young dolphin

[Music]

excitement among the fishermen

unfortunately only a shark again the

tuna fishermen are angry but this is

actually very dangerous for the shark

population

Boris takes a detour to Tangiers on the

Moroccan African side of the Strait of

Gibraltar typical oriental smells and

offerings lure a low biologist in the

jumble of small alleyways in the bazaar

but the biologist only has one goal to

find the fish market he wants to find

out the truth about reports which claim

that Moroccan tuna fishermen catch

100,000 blue and macro sharks every year

as so-called bycatch it seems these

reports could be true the supply seems

surprisingly high

in this market alone he counts 56 blue

sharks ready to be auctioned off the

bycatch market is booming

especially the shark fins will get the

fishermen high prices in Asia used as

potency and beauty enhancing products a

great business for these fishermen and

that's almost every day of the year a

three meter 50 long male macho shark the

shark expert has never seen a Marco this

large we leave Tangiers for a quick

visit to the Atlantic coast our

destination is the old harbor town north

of Agadir Essaouira

this place was also well known to the

Phoenicians in the seventh century BC

and also to the Romans later on for a

long time as so era was the hub for

caravans and is now one of the most

important harbors in Morocco here the

fisherman fish as much as the ocean will

let them take and that is still quite a

lot the reason for this richness of all

kinds of seafood cannot be found in the

colorful fishing boats that are waiting

for the next trip to go out the reason

lies way off coast out in the Atlantic

cool deep sea water rises up to the

surface and supplies large kelp fields

with nutrients a mystical seemingly

enchanted forest bluefin tuna and

countless other ocean dwellers use these

rich coastal areas to feed before they

start their long journey through the

Mediterranean

the same goes for the blue sharks and

even more dangerous moko sharks they

follow the tuna in order to catch one of

them every once in a while a longtime

predatory relationship that has never

caused any harm to the tuna population

the leftovers of the meal sink to the

ocean floor rare guitar fish will make a

meal of it

we travel into the country to find out

for how long sharks have been hunting

tuna here in the Atlas Mountains close

to Carib guy in the landscape of wild

and untouched beauty in the debris of

the river shore only a trained eye will

find these rare fossilized treasures

this piece let's assume as the

evolutionary history that has taken

place in these mountains the finds is a

shark tooth form and function offer a

lot of information about its original

owner 50 million years ago a shallow

shelf ocean covered most parts of North

Africa

today's mountains used to be giant coral

reefs here the ancestor of the great

white used to patrol these reefs it's

name is a todos Oobleck huis 10 metres

long he was able to swallow tuna whole

without tearing them apart a monster of

ancient times that we can only imagine

back to Gibraltar we follow the tuna on

their migrations to the spawning grounds

in the western and eastern Mediterranean

[Music]

borås decided to first take a scuba dive

in the Strait of Gibraltar and gets a

surprise large brown algae bends back

and forth in the current this kelp is

usually found in the Atlantic in this

zone where the Atlantic and the

Mediterranean mix we find the fauna and

flora of both oceans an eagle ray can

feel that the diver discovered him this

species can be found in both oceans

Marv's dick for something to eat the two

bandit dreams are intensively shadowing

the barbs in case a tasty morsel escapes

the barbs the Eagle ray is not the only

one of his species in the Straits of

Gibraltar cownose Ray's school and large

numbers above the soft sand ground not

the last surprise for Boris

an anglerfish has left its hideout

anglerfish this large have become rare

lien numbers have been reduced quite a

bit because anglerfish have become a

favorite fish to eat

Boris makes friends with a lesser

spotted duck fish this young shark has

probably never seen such a strange

creature

not a friendship for life but an

interesting encounter for both

nevertheless

in the waters around Gibraltar are

several wrecks quiet witnesses of

long-forgotten catastrophes but nature

has long taken over the numerous nooks

and crannies and has created an

underwater paradise

moray eels prefer this unusual habitat

with its many hideouts

sunfish show up also migrating from the

Atlantic to the Mediterranean here in

the bottleneck of the oceans their paths

cross with those of the tuna both are

here for spawning and for many of them

it's unfortunately only a one-way trip

off the Spanish coastal town barbata

many of the tuna gets stuck in a cunning

trap a labyrinth our killer made along

gill net system the Alma drama there is

no getting out once caught in these nets

the animals are killed or just knocked

out with clubs and then thrown into the

boats

the smaller yellowfin tuna often escaped

the giant trap barely freed and they're

already feeding on the bits and pieces

of the gruesomely killed tuna

[Music]

sharks such as mucosal that have I catch

themselves profit from the fishermen

throwing everything the tuna back into

the sea

[Music]

the victims of the Alma drama often

become the provisions for the journey of

the survivors

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the bloody business continues in the

harbour boris has driven to bar bouncer

where the catch arrives and is examined

before it's sold mostly to Japan

the bluefin tuna is one of the largest

fish in the oceans it can grow up to

four and a half meters long and can

weigh as much as 700 kilograms but

neither Boris nor the fisherman will

ever get to see such a large specimen

nowadays

what is caught today is far from any

previous record measurements most tuna

end up on a hook before they can ever

repre deuce for the first time at the

age of 8 years old the populations are

overfished and some even close to

extinction

[Music]

in Japan wholesalers will earn as much

as 70 thousand euros per tuna

although the Spanish fishermen only get

a very small portion of the money and

are still a great business for them

a dire future for the tuna

[Music]

we leave this straight and follow the

two now on their journey towards the

northern Mediterranean

our destination is a group of violence

between the Balearic Islands and the

Spanish coastline the Isla de Coulomb

brightest are protected national park

and also a spawning ground for the tuna

the small archipelago was created by a

sunken volcano and what we see is what's

left of the rim of the crater in order

to step on these islands the Spanish

regional government of Valencia has to

give permission the same goes for scuba

diving

Boris is greeted by a beautiful grouper

because of their flavorful meat these

fish have become rare in the

Mediterranean a triggerfish is curious

about the reflection in the camera lens

and decides to check it out with its

strong jaws

the waters around the column brightest

also offer these rests a safe haven

colorful and poisonous a scorpion fish

yes Boris and his colleague Antonia

Montiel put a toe cam in the water since

not a single tuna has shown up yet they

want to try to find them with the camera

offshore

this unique construction is made to be

towed behind the boat in order to

deliver shots of a wider area

first command dolphins are the stars

on-screen purists as they are these

intelligent toothed whales inspect the

camera as a result Boris gets wonderful

test shots Boris and Antonio are happy

with the camera it works well but they

still can't find tuna

calm seas the man hope that maybe during

the night they will discover the tuna

Boris checks another special camera a

pole camera with this camera he wants to

observe marine life while they are

drifting with the boat patience is most

important

after waiting almost all night finally

bluefin tuna appear in front of the

night-vision camera a highlight for the

team in the starkness unfortunately they

can't film any mating so far it's only

known that the eggs are fertilized in

the open water and that they float along

for about two days during this time

three millimetre long larvae develop in

each egg that then hatch and grow very

quickly boris has left the islas

collaborators and is flying towards

Majorca

between the collaborators at my Orca

lived the tuna larvae and their main

enemy the basking shark the tiny tuna

larvae and the 13 meter long shark both

live off the same food plankton

several weeks after the tuna larvae

hatch millions of them will end up as

food in the mouth of the giant shark

there is only one way to protect oneself

against a certain death in the jaws of a

basking shark and that is to grow

quickly these giants only feed on very

small plankton the - now that's hatched

in June will therefore be the size of a

grown mackerel by September that way by

July the basking sharks will have

already lost their appetite for tuna

larvae back on the east last column

brightest Boris now makes his way

towards Sicily the island of favignana

is located of the western coast of

Sicily and is part of the Acadian

islands

favignana has been the embodiment of

tuna fishing for a long time the old

tuna factory in the bay is a reminder of

the golden past of 1874 and is now a

museum boris looks for the harbor the

fishermen are preparing for the event of

the year the matanza the population on

favignana mostly lives off tourism and

tuna here off the coast of favignana the

tuna that spawn and the eastern

Mediterranean get caught in a giant eel

net system similar to that of the

Spanish alma drama there is no escape

from the chamber of death they camera

their Laura to the fishermen pull up the

net and the gruesome killing of the tuna

can begin

these are smaller specimens the pickings

get smaller and smaller with each year

the tuna population has been reduced by

92% Boris is allowed to dive inside the

net he wants to take some video footage

for his work this is a very risky

undertaking in the line of duty for

science

it all seems calm these doom tuna swim

along the net without any panic

suddenly the mortar is sieving a giant

white shark went for a tuna the hungry

predators often end up in these tuna

traps and then feed until they're

delirious this was close

our journey continues we follow the tuna

through the Strait of Sicily on their

way to the Adriatic and the eastern

Mediterranean the Seaway between Sicily

and Tunisia is also a highly frequented

shipping route great white and Marco

sharks are very common in this part of

the Mediterranean they follow the ships

and the tuna and make this Strait a very

dangerous place several mostly tragic

attacks have been recorded here the most

gruesome happened about 100 years ago at

the Cape of San Claudia

during a giant eruption of Etna the

volcano covered the entire area with

large amounts of hot ash and magma

the streaming lava and highly

destructive rain of hot hash cut off a

family's wave from the beach the parents

flee into the ocean with their child and

there are attacked by a great white

shark

later the shark is caught and the

fishermen find body parts of each family

member

Boris wants to search for great whites

with a colleague at this fateful place

during a clear night with a full moon

they install a low-light camera with a

motion sensor at the sea floor these

shots of jellies show how sensitive the

lengths of the cameras

after installing the camera the surface

quickly because these waters of choice

is dangerous in the dark and then

sometime during the night a shark

actually dust passed by the camera but

unfortunately not a great white

it is a sixgill shark these sharks come

up into shallow areas from great depth

only during the night at sunrise boris

is already out and about again on board

of a Spadaro boat a swordfish fishing

boat

each bait has a light on it which is

supposed to attract this vast predator

swordfish react to any kind of light

they are magically drawn to the lights

that are attached to the long lines

due to drastic overfishing the swordfish

population in the Mediterranean has been

reduced dramatically on board the

fishing boat together with Boris as the

renowned fisheries expert

Giambattista Bello he tells Boris that

the Seward fish fishermen have seen tuna

mate at night on the surface the first

swordfish is on the hook the longline

has brought in with a machine the line

is 30 kilometers long each time they go

out to fish swordfish are one of the

largest species among the bone fish

including their sword that can grow up

to four meters and weigh up to 500

kilograms the average weight and length

nowadays is much lower they continue on

straight through the night a blue shark

tries to get the swordfish caught on the

hook he would never try this with a free

swimming specimen

the fishermen pull up the swordfish just

in time

he has already perished on the hook

professor Baloo and Boris measure the

animal the smaller size as the norm now

the next fish is also small although

this one has a few more pounds on its

bones the scientific statistics clearly

show the size of all animals that were

caught during the last few years has

been getting smaller and smaller

full-grown swordfish are almost never

found anymore the results of this night

are very meager for the fishermen change

of location malta has located southeast

of the Strait of Sicily our next

destination here are also spawning

grounds of the tuna and in addition one

of the birthplaces of the great white

shark the rock of fitfully in southern

malta the borders around this maritime

monument are protected

great whites have been observed in the

depths around 50 lap

borås and the shark expert Alex booty

kick

Troy everything in their power to

observe mating tuna in the open ocean

the steep rock walls go straight down to

30 meters a grandiose underwater

landscape opens up before Boris

mobula race in the same family as the

plankton feeding manta rays crossed

through the rock gullies in a formation

suddenly tuner swim by but no sign of

mating yet

borås has a rendezvous but careful 230

volt electric current as an effect here

this electric ray is not always fun they

inspect each other with interest and

caution on both sides it's better to

keep a bit of distance

there is a false calm on the sand floor

beneath the predator is lurking

the trick of this rate oil up a cloud of

sand and then disappear

suddenly an attack from an angel shark

it appears out of nowhere the mackerel

has no chance

the angel shark is very well camouflaged

during its slumber but alex has seen it

for this predator it is of vital

importance to stay cool even if a

curious scientist just has to find out

if it's a female

[Music]

borås had better leave his hands off

this tiger Maury

Alex Buddha geek knows this area very

well at this spot he found a tooth of

the ultimate sea monster that lived here

5 million years ago

[Music]

kaká rootless Megalodon the shark with

giant teeth grew up to 13 meters long it

hunted for whales

the reason for its extinction is

completely unknown it's believed that

the evolution of its very specific food

source is the reason why it became more

and more difficult for the shark to hunt

descends into the underworld into the

realm of a cave shrimp bizarre-looking

light-sensitive creatures with a

tendency to show up in large groups

countless shrimp inhabit the many caves

around Malta

[Music]

the Moray Eel seems to like shrimp

one is fixed on the divers behind the

curtain of shrimp

sensitive to the light this stingray

leaves its hideout

the predatory conger eel is one of the

more curious ones

[Music]

for porous this is the icing on the cake

a black Mouth catshark it lifts in

greater depth and only rarely comes up

to the shallow areas the journey

continues from Malta to Italy the next

destination is Cape San Felicia

Scipio north of Naples the elongated Bay

of the small village of Sabathia is

another spawning ground for tuna and

great whites and was the stage for a

tragic dive in September 1962 in the

harbour of Somalia the recreational

diver Mauricio Sarah goes out with two

of his friends to Spearfish off Cape

Felicia the three of them are out at sea

every weekend they know these waters

like the back of their hand but on this

day everything will change

mauricio checks his harpoon he does not

know that he is being watched from the

deep

the trio is out to spear Gruber one of

the friends are stays with the boats the

other two go down

to be most efficient they split up

the ruber stays hidden

therefore Sarah Spears the next best

fish that he can find a tragic mistake

[Music]

the great white senses the blood of the

fish and for Mauricio saga there was no

escape 44 years later Boris is on board

the research vessel Minnie Beck's and on

his way to San Felicia with the help of

experts and highly developed technical

equipment he wants to search for sharks

and tuna in these waters

first of all they have to fill a

container with baits

the bait is Lana touched to the remote

operated underwater camera robot

then he'll so the name of the robot is

launched it is equipped with

high-resolution cameras and is supposed

to film pictures from life on the

seafloor anxious faces in the operation

control center a fill is operated from

up here will a shark be attracted by it

the lights pick up a large shark is not

a great white but a sixgill shark

[Music]

there are no known attacks on humans

from these five meter long sharks who

are mostly active at night but

nevertheless they are still a bit

dangerous a hole is parked on the sea

floor during the night a small redfish

is temporarily blinded by the light

he has his own lights with him a velvet

belly shark the light creates bacteria

that the shark carries with him in

special light organs

borås and the experts are excited the

use of a hill is already a success

but that's not all pictures that none of

the experts have seen before a kangaroo

catches an anglerfish with his mouth

wide open the anglerfish tries to

struggle but the strong jaws of the eel

will not let go

the next morning it has rained during

the night

but the conditions are great for diving

the technicians checked the sub Remora

they want to dive on a wreck that is

close by

the pilots even papa and the biologist

and cameraman Christian lot as sitting

in a cockpit

[Music]

the launch of Remora with the crane on

the back of the ship is always a

difficult maneuver despite years of

experience

safety diver Jerome Costa loosens the

strong hooks on which the five-ton sub

is attached highest concentration also

on the bridge Remora has to go down 150

meters even Popov maneuvers her directly

through a school of tuna to the wreck of

an Italian hospital ship from the Second

World War

during the last few decades countless

organisms have settled on the ships many

structures an artificial reef has

developed first careful approach towards

a biological metropolis all the

different looks that the wreck offers

give many diverse species the

opportunity to live together and very

close proximity

the current here is rich in plankton and

that supports the growth of this complex

community

a school of Mediterranean threat fish

lives here a more rare customer

after three hours the energy supply is

running low

Popov has to ascend the visits and this

underwater paradise was worthwhile

from Cape Felicia the journey continues

southwards into the open water

Minnie Beck's steaks course towards when

the most dangerous underwater volcanoes

in the world's oceans

mobile erase make an appearance with

giant leaps out of the ocean these

massive race tried to get rid of their

annoying fellow travelers

they're trying to rid themselves of

remoras but unfortunately only with

limited success

[Music]

many Becks arrives at the destination

here in the depth of the Tyrrhenian sea

is a ticking time bomb

the Mars silly cement a chain of several

massive underwater volcanoes and

meanwhile also part of extensive

research projects

ah who starts from mini backs to take a

first look

dive depth more than 500 meters a common

swimming crab gets the shock of a

lifetime when it sees the robot

Joystiq keys and instinct is all chief

engineer Fred Alcala needs to pilot a

fill skillfully he maneuvers the robot

through the jagged lava ravines in 540

meters at the peak of the volcano

[Music]

surprisingly there is life in this Mars

like underwater landscape a sea spider

says hello to the camera

and the school of large identic tries to

rush by a filigree tree coral has

settled on the rugged lava

the unique tubes come into sight at

closer look they are a colony of

tubeworms a sensation the fact that they

have settled here points toward high

volcanic activity

[Music]

pure excitement a small turf sand tiger

shark appears on the monitors never

before as such a shark been filmed at

the steps these predators can grow up to

four meters long and prefer to stay

around island shelves and continental

shelf breaks where they hunt

[Music]

after our little detour to the Marcy

Lisi mount we continue to follow the

tuna towards the Adriatic coast to a

strait between the Croatian islands

brush and schwa

the shark an L during the summer this

straight between the two islands as a

true plankton soup ocean currents and

sunlight led the microorganisms flourish

and attract plankton feeders

[Music]

on the islands brush and Schwar time

seems to move slower in this laid-back

environment things are done slower and

with care

no sign of stress here but during the

summer all that is over with basking

sharks and tourists arrive at the same

time

these giant animals mingle with the

bathing tourists and cross between

swimmers and boaters sharks and people

seem to have no fear of each other

[Music]

basking sharks and tuna seek out the

Schwar canal for the same reason

plankton

while the Sharks seemed everywhere and

feeding non-stop the tunas stay hidden

these big mouth sharks are closely

related to the great weight but a

completely harmless for humans they can

grow up to four tons and are the largest

fish of the oceans directly after the

whale shark saltwater lampreys of

parasites that like to attach to the

basking sharks and hook themselves into

the shark's skin but the jawless greater

like mouths a ten meter long basking

shark has to feed on 500 kilograms of

plankton each day per hour these gentle

giants filter about 2,000 liters of

water through their gills filtration

system we leave the basking sharks

behind and travel from the adriatic

coast to the turkish aegean the farthest

eastern point where tuna larvae have

been confirmed the mon show pain

in this idyllic Harbor with a

picturesque Bay the turkey shark

scientist Hakan Kappa Sokka from

Istanbul is already waiting for his

German colleague Boris Frenzel bimah

[Music]

the two biologists want to find a very

special inhabitant of the shallow

coastal waters that Hagen is working on

for a scientific project the boat drive

to a secluded sytem of the bunch of bait

where Hawkins subjects live takes about

one hour this area is strictly protected

because the bunch of Bay is a protected

area it is closed off to regular boat

traffic this coastal region is a true

biological jewel every summer sandbar

sharks come into the bay their pregnant

females pokken doesn't know why they are

here are they trying to get rid of skin

parasites in the less salty water or

will they give birth here open questions

Boris and haka are only allowed to

snorkel scuba diving is also strictly

forbidden in this protected area in

order to protect these rare sharks from

tourists the entire area is now closed

off to the general public

outside far offshore the bluefin tuna

gather for another long journey now it's

July and they're finished spawning and

we'll go back to the Atlantic following

the track of the tuna we're also going

back through the Strait of Gibraltar to

the northwestern end of the straight to

the sunny and very stormy Costa de la

luce

a constant stiff wind and wild waves

attract kite surfers from around the

world to this historic coast

on October 21st 1805 Admiral Nelson

destroyed the Spanish French fleet here

off cape trafalgar

the expedition following the Trek of the

tuna comes to an end here at Trafalgar

viboras France alignment past the Kate

Trafalgar the wide and seemingly endless

Atlantic Ocean awaits the fish that have

escaped the Alma drama the matanza and

the longline fishermen their journey

through the Mediterranean has finally

come to an end all the fish have to do

now is make it to a submarine rock

barrier the threshold of spar till the

actual border between the Mediterranean

and the Atlantic they're more than

enough food awaits the tuna

on the other side of the rocks cruel

nutrient-rich water comes up from the

deep bases for a strong plankton

development large schools of small crabs

a feast for fish and countless other

hungry sea dwellers which are then eaten

by larger predators

everyone here is hunter and hunted at

the same time a natural hierarchy of

species in which life and death balance

each other out the evolutionary engine

is running high an uncompromising

contest between abilities and attributes

the faster stronger more alert and

clever they are the higher other chances

to come out ahead

the Feast of the tuna after a long

journey to spawn the starving tuna now

find enough food at the entrance to the

Atlantic but how much longer for deep 3

fishing nations want to catch 32,000

tons of tuna in 2007 despite expert

suggestions that only 15,000 tonnes

would be justifiable nobody can say at

the current time what the consequences

of complete eradication of tuna would be

for cownose rays or house-door offense

sharks and pilot whales we know for sure

that the self-indulgent

over-exploitation will have consequences

and we will feel them not only at the

sushi bar

[Music]

[Music]

no matter what species once it's extinct

nothing will be the way it was before

many whale and shark species are equally

as endangered as the bluefin tuna the

fact that the tuna and shark populations

are collapsing worldwide and that some

are close to extinction is the fault of

mankind alone we should think about that

next time we order a tuna dish or the

increasingly popular shark steaks

[Music]

you