Original subtitles

♪♪

Narrator: Oban, new zealand.

A sleepy fishing town in the south pacific.

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

But, below its surface

Lives the last great legend of the sea.

An apparition beneath the waves.

A ferocious beast

With teeth the size of daggers

And eyes that will pierce your very soul.

This great white shark of biblical proportion

Clocks in at over 18 feet

And is two tons of raw power

That goes by the name...

-Phred. -"phred"?

-Phred. -Phreddie. -Phred.

[ suspenseful chord strikes ]

Seriously, phred.

♪♪

The largest male great white shark in the world,

With the most unfortunate of names.

Rumor has it he's named after the first guy

That discovered him --

George.

No.

Narrator: Actually, he's named after the acclaimed scientist

Who first identified him in 2009,

[ camera shutter clicking ] phred dobbins.

Nope! That's prince harry.

[ camera shutter clicking ] that's phred.

And get this --

Phred is spelled with a p-h.

Phred, with a p-h, that's just not --

That's just nonsense.

♪♪

Phred is a celebrity in these parts

And has frequented the waters off oban

Every spring between 2009 and 2015.

Oh, yeah, everyone's seen phred.

And, if they haven't, they know someone who has.

♪♪

Narrator: And the locals can't help but marvel at his prowess.

He's probably the biggest male I've seen yet here.

One day, I was out paddling on my surfboard

And he knocked me clean off the board.

♪♪

I thought that was it, but he just cruised on past.

I heard he had two penises.

Narrator: Well, all male sharks have two penises.

They're reproductive organs called claspers.

Still, pretty cool.

♪♪

But it's been five long years

Since he was last sighted along these shores.

Recently, the coast guard spotted

A massive shark, estimated at nearly 20 feet,

Migrating toward the shores of oban.

Could this be phred?

Could he have gotten even bigger?

♪♪

While female white sharks are known to reach larger sizes,

Male white sharks average only 13 feet in length.

Phred last clocked in at 18 feet,

But new estimates could make him

Potentially the largest male great white shark ever recorded.

♪♪

Now, two brave shark week all-stars are

About to risk their lives

To find him and record his prestigious size.

Leading the search is shark expert chris fallows,

Who had his own run-in with phred in 2014.

Chris: Suddenly, this huge shadow came in overhead.

He came barreling in.

Knocked me over, time and time again.

It was an incredible encounter that I'll never forget.

In 30 years of making shark week documentaries,

Phred has to be the biggest male shark I've ever seen, bar none.

Narrator: Chris will be joined by jeff kurr,

Natural history filmmaker

And 30-year shark week veteran.

♪♪

Jeff: Back in 2013,

I got to witness the power of phred firsthand.

He bit into one of the floats that was holding the cage up.

Almost sunk the cage.

It was an unbelievable scene,

With a massive shark.

Narrator: To round out their crew,

Jeff and chris will need one more pair of hands...

[ knocking ]

Hello!

♪♪

Hello. [ knocks ]

...A true shark expert,

With a very particular skill set.

[ creaking ]

Chris: We haven't seen him in over five years.

He's braved some of the biggest battles in shark week history

And we're gonna need some of his...

What's up, guys?!

What took you so long?

...Um...

Energy?

[ heavy metal plays ]

♪♪

Dickie chivell, commercial diver,

Shark fanatic,

And professional crazy person.

That was nuts, man!

The guys' cage is pretty sharp.

Cut them up a little.

Try to keep it closed.

♪♪

♪ look at us now ♪

Dude, that is really the biggest shark

I've ever seen in my entire life.

It is gi-gantuan.

I'm just so stoked to be back!

If that's even a word.

Phred is like the white whale of shark week.

Well, white shark?

Either way, man, I'm just so stoked

And I can't wait to find him!

[ suspenseful music plays ]

Narrator: The team will need a way to get close enough to phred

To identify him and document his substantial size.

And what would a shark week expedition be

Without something expensive for a shark to destroy?

♪♪

Chris: What is that thing?

The black widow.

That's crazy.

♪♪

What's up, guys?!

Just testing out the black widow, man.

♪♪

Narrator: The black widow

Is a lightweight bell-shaped cage

With an open bottom,

Giving the diver the enhanced mobility needed

To track and photograph sharks along the ocean floor.

The hollow steel bars are strong enough

To withstand 4,000 pounds per square inch of force,

Which they hope will be enough.

Why'd you call it black widow?

'cause I can move around the bottom very easily,

Like I had eight legs.

[ laughing ]

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: At dawn, the team heads

To the location they last saw a phred --

A feeding ground off of oban

Known as the foveaux strait.

♪♪

Dickie: White sharks always return to the same spot.

You can actually estimate the time of year

Where certain sharks will be coming back to a certain area.

Narrator: White sharks are migratory animals

Who often follow the same pattern.

Chris' harrowing encounter with phred was in April of 2014,

Almost six years to the day,

So, if phred is heading back to the oban coastline,

He could be coming here to feed.

That's why we chose this time, cause it's our best chances

To find the legendary phred.

♪♪

Anything you need, chris?

All good. Thank you.

Back in twenty 2014, I took a series of images of phred.

My aim today is to take some more images

And compare them side-by-side

And see just how much phred has grown

And, potentially, how big he could become.

Narrator: Chris and his veteran underwater cameraman, dave abbott,

Will be diving down 50 feet to the seafloor.

Over the years, I've certainly been the guinea pig

For many of jeff's creations.

[ muffled speech ]

And today's my first day in the black widow.

Okay, guys, we're good.

♪♪

This is obviously a very strong cage,

But phred is an extremely large shark.

I hope I'm not like a sardine in a can,

But, I have faith in the black widow.

Right.

Well, kind of.

-Coming in. -Whoa-oa!

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Okay, chrissy, are you ready to go down? Okay?

Shark right there.

♪♪

Narrator: The first shark appears...

♪♪

...A 15-foot male inspecting chris as he descends,

With two more sharks waiting at the bottom.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: The 48° water is home

To a forest of thriving vegetation,

Allowing the sharks to hide amongst the dense kelp

And ambush their prey along the seafloor.

♪♪

♪♪

Whoa!

♪♪

Narrator: Dickie continues to chum the water

To draw in more sharks.

♪♪

Suddenly, two more sharks appear out of nowhere.

At roughly 16 feet,

They're no phred, but extremely aggressive.

♪♪

As dave leans out of the cage to document them,

A 14-foot shark comes right for him.

♪♪

♪♪

[ clang ]

Whoa, man!

[bleep]

Check the comms for dave, please!

What's happening to dave?

He's free-flowing hectically.

Bring him up, bring him up.

Guys, please bring him up!

[ shouting ]

♪♪

Jeff: This part of new zealand has some

Of the biggest male white sharks in the world.

♪♪

Chris: It's coming straight at you.

-Oh! -Whoa!

[ laughs ]

Oh, man! Look at that!

Not too many times in your life where you can say

The shark is bigger than the boat.

[ laughs ] -whoa!

Dickie: We've got some chum going, just a bit of incentive.

♪♪

Hopefully, we're gonna run into the legendary phred.

Or he's gonna run into us.

Whoa-oa-oa!

♪♪

I live for this.

This is like my favorite thing to do.

♪♪

Narrator: In southern new zealand,

A shark week team is on the hunt

For a legendary white shark named...

♪♪

Phred.

You mean phred with a p-h?

Yep, phred with a p-h.

Phred is big.

Imagine something really big

And then have that

And then double it.

They're currently staked out

At the bottom of the foveaux strait,

Directly in the path of phred's last known migratory route.

♪♪

[ water lapping ]

♪♪

But a group of aggressive great whites...

Whoa!

...Are wreaking havoc on their plans.

♪♪

Whoa, man!

[bleep]

Check the comms for dave, please!

[ shouting ]

What's happening to dave?

He's free-flowing hectically.

Bring him up, bring him up.

Guys, please bring him up!

♪♪

Dickie: Dave, what's up?

But you're okay?

Is chris okay?

Are you okay?

♪♪

Narrator: A pack of sharks swarmed dave's cage,

Knocking him into the bars and rupturing his mask.

This could've been fatal,

Had the team not been able to pull him up.

♪♪

White sharks were once thought to be solitary predators,

But new research suggests a more complex social structure,

Often dominated by an alpha shark.

If a giant shark were in the area,

These smaller sharks would have scattered

And let a larger shark

Attack the prey.

Chris: We only encountered five sharks down there,

But they were really bold and clearly hunting for food.

And, honestly, it felt like us dealing with a dozen

And, unfortunately, still no phred.

♪♪

Narrator: As the team travels back to shore,

A report radios in that a massive great white

Was just spotted near an island seven miles north of oban.

Dickie heads over to meet the man

Who came face-to-face with the beast,

A crusty old sea captain named...

Fluff.

♪♪

So, fluff, you've been fishing here

For almost 50 years

And you've encountered a lot of big sharks.

Can you tell me about that?

Oh...

Narrator: If bad shark flashbacks are a thing,

Then they definitely happen to fluff.

So you actually saw

A 20-foot great white shark yesterday

In these waters, off your boat?

Yeah, yeah.

-20-foot?! -Yeah.

♪♪

Narrator: If fluff is talking about phred,

It's possible he's grown at least two feet.

♪♪

In the early 20th century,

Accounts of male white sharks reaching 20 feet were common.

But in the 1970s and '80s,

They were hunted to the brink of extinction

And the behemoths of the past became increasingly rare.

♪♪

Since then, conservation efforts were enacted

To save these sharks.

Phred could be proof that those efforts are working.

♪♪

Where, more or less, was this?

♪♪

Narrator: Edwards island is a small patch of land

In the south pacific,

Just seven miles from their last dove.

That's definitely where we're gonna search.

♪♪

The next morning, they chart a course for edwards island...

♪♪

Home to just 380 people,

But surrounded by lots and lots of big sharks.

We know that this part of new zealand has some

Of the biggest male white sharks in the world.

With so many sharks to sort through

And a large search area,

They need round-the-clock surveillance

Of the shark population,

So the team is deploying their favorite piece of equipment --

Sharks by.

The shark spy is a 24-hour, around-the-clock,

7-day-a-week surveillance camera

That allows us to have eyes on the bottom

And see what's happening with the sharks down there.

♪♪

Chris: When we're down there, we've got a lot of bubbles,

A lot of noise,

And the sharks are paying more attention to us.

Shark spy really enables us

To be an underwater voyeur, if you like,

Watching these animals go about their daily routines,

Completely untroubled from us.

♪♪

Narrator: To document the true size

Of the white sharks at the bottom,

The team will also deploy a shark ruler they call

Chewy.

Chewy is 10 feet long,

So, if we can get a shark swimming right next to chewy

And we can get that picture,

We can try and accurately measure that shark.

The biggest white sharks

Don't spend too much time at the surface,

So we're gonna take chewy down to the bottom.

On the bottom is where we think sharks like phred,

Really massive sharks, spend most of their time.

♪♪

[ laughing ]

I just saw quite a few sharks circling the boat,

So I'm gonna have such a kick[bleep] day.

♪♪

Narrator: Dickie will head down in a one-man submersible cage,

Securing shark spy to the ocean floor

And positioning the measuring device.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Alright, so, dickie's on the bottom right now

And we know that there are some sharks circling,

So he has a brief window of time before the sharks come in.

♪♪

What does the bottom look like?

♪♪

♪♪

That there are no sharks around you when you're doing it.

We need to be as safe as possible. Over.

♪♪

♪♪

Whoa!

Chris: Just keep the chum going, guys.

There's a really big shark here.

Narrator: The black widow is put to the test.

And later...

Beautiful animal!

Whoa-oa!

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Off the coast of new zealand,

Shark week experts jeff kurr,

Chris fallows,

And dickie chivell are on the trail

Of a legendary shark named phred.

Let's do it. Let's go.

A local who has recently encountered the beast...

...Has given them extremely accurate directions.

Sure! They're installing

An underwater surveillance network

To monitor the great white shark congregation...

...And deploying a shark measuring device named chewy

To help them document the size of these massive white sharks.

But the shark spy has already captured its first specimen.

♪♪

Whoa!

♪♪

Dickie, get back in the cage.

What?! Get in the cage, dickie!

♪♪

I'm pretty happy with how chewy's sitting

Down there at the bottom.

I have this eerie feeling that you get

When you think something's watching

And I looked up and there was...

Whoa!

...A big shark swimming right over the top of me, man.

Chris and jeff are probably a bit pissed at me

'cause I went -- oh, I shouldn't say pissed, right? Okay.

[ beep ] but angry at me 'cause I went further out the cage

Than I was supposed to.

Get back in the cage!

But you need to do what you need to do.

[ laughing ]

♪♪

Narrator: With the sharks being monitored on the ocean floor,

Jeff and chris decide to try and identify

The white sharks at the surface.

[ motor starts ]

So they're going fishing.

They ditch the big boat

For a smaller, more agile, dinghy.

My advice would be

You'll need a bigger boat.

I don't know where I got that from.

I think I heard that from somewhere.

♪♪

Chris: Getting in the small boat allows us to get nice,

Close-up photos of the dorsal fin,

Which is a great way to identify phred.

Narrator: The dorsal fin's main purpose is

To stabilize the animal against rolling

And to assist in sudden turns.

But, it can also play a major role in identification.

Just like a human fingerprint,

No two dorsal fins are the same.

If we compare any photos that we take today

To those images I shot in 2014

Of phred's fin, which is near perfectly straight,

We should be able to get a positive I.D.

[ tapping ]

Narrator: Tapping on the boat sends vibrations through the water

That are received by the sharks' lateral system,

A network of fluid-filled vessels

That run along the shark's body,

Designed to detect the movement of struggling prey.

♪♪

♪♪

You want it to come closer,

But there's a part of you that doesn't.

♪♪

Oh! Whoa!

[ laughs ] oh, man! Look at that!

Jeff: That's a nice dorsal right there.

It's amazing. With a small boat,

They obviously feel so much less threatened, you know?

It's coming back.

It's coming straight at you.

Turn. Pan left.

♪♪

Hoh! He wants that camera.

Whoa! That is incredible.

He wanted that camera.

He's gonna come back again.

Coming right under the boat.

Whoa! [ laughs ]

That is amazing.

That shark is bigger than the boat.

Not too many times in your life where you can say

The shark is bigger than the boat.

Oh, man!

Narrator: One after another,

These curious beasts come up from the depths

To say hello to chris and jeff.

Oh, wow! Look at that! Oh!

[ laughs ]

The size and aggressive nature of these sharks is remarkable.

But, one by one, the team can verify

That none of them are, in fact, phred.

♪♪

The great white shark is the drug of the ocean.

Once you've had one,

You can never get enough.

Oh! [ laughs ]

With no sign of phred near the surface,

There's only one thing left to do --

Get back in the water and see if phred is feeding below.

♪♪

♪♪

We've got some chum going, just a bit of incentive,

And, hopefully, we're gonna run

Into the legendary phred.

Or he's gonna run into us.

[ chuckle ]

The cage descends 40 feet to the ocean's floor.

♪♪

It settles upon a rocky shelf, but the black widow's design

Allows chris to untether from the boat

And reposition, to gain a better vantage point for the camera.

♪♪

A few smaller sharks begin to circle overhead.

Coming in! Coming in!

♪♪

Even though the black widow is light, for a shark cage,

It's still 50 pounds,

Which is difficult to maneuver in today's swift current.

♪♪

Suddenly, a 15-foot great white buzzes the black widow

And, before chris can take a single photo,

The sea becomes even rougher.

♪♪

With sharks still swarming the landscape,

Chris must trudge an extra 30 feet back to the boat.

♪♪

But three frenzied sharks stand in his way.

♪♪

♪♪

[ clang ]

♪♪

Narrator: In the shallow waters

Off of edwards island,

The team is searching for what could be

The largest male white shark in the world,

The lovable

And terrifying phred.

Personally, I thought I saw him once,

But, as I got closer, I realized

It was actually a nuclear submarine.

♪♪

While the shark spy and chewy

Will be recording the sharks' size.

Chris fallows is trudging along the seafloor,

Looking for a clearing

To photograph the sharks' dorsal fins,

Hoping to get a positive I.D. That phred is here.

But what he has found are dangerous water conditions...

...And a group of hungry great whites.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Dickie: Now, there's at least five sharks around.

Stand by to bring him up.

♪♪

If chris can't make it back to the boat's tether,

He'll have to leave the cage behind

And swim back in a sea of sharks.

♪♪

♪♪

Let's go, guys. Let's go.

Let's get him up. Let's get him up!

♪♪

♪♪

The dive ends with no sighting of phred.

♪♪

I felt like fred flintstone

Walking along the seafloor,

Charging... [ laughs ]

...Across the ocean, trying to keep up

With the boat.

Massive swells and competing currents

Going in different direction.

It's a very inhospitable environment.

We had a wind shift and, as the wind shifted,

The boat moved.

Big boulders, a lotta current.

And some very big fish watching me, as spectators.

So, replan and see if we can find phred.

♪♪

Narrator: The team scrambles to modify

The black widow with additional weight

To withstand the treacherous current.

They keep their eyes on shark spy,

Waiting for the big whites to arrive.

♪♪

♪♪

This is going to take some time.

♪♪

♪♪

[ whirring ]

♪♪

[ squawking ]

And then, they get a glimpse of a monster.

Yo, guys!

There's a huge shark!

♪♪

Jeff: Wow. He's going right over chewy.

Chris: Look at the size of that shark!

That must be 15, 16.

Maybe even bigger than that, man.

Definitely a male.

It's coming up to the bait!

Just keep the chum going, guys!

There's a really big shark here!

♪♪

♪♪

Wow, guys! That is a huge shark!

♪♪

There's another one coming at the back here.

Wow. Sweet!

Keep that bait on the surface!

It could be phred!

♪♪

Narrator: Two massive beasts have made their presence felt,

But since the current drifted them away from chewy,

It's hard to tell their exact size.

So chris suits up to get photos of their dorsal fins,

In hopes of identifying the giants.

♪♪

♪♪

Dickie continues to bait the sharks,

To keep them near the boat.

I live for this.

I live for working with the sharks, man.

This is like my favorite thing to do

And this, bait lining,

Is my favorite game in the world.

Since the boat has drifted over 50 yards from shark spy

And their measuring device, chewy,

The team has concocted a new, two-pronged approach

To identify the sharks.

Dickie will photograph their dorsal fins at the surface,

Utilizing the phantom camera,

While chris will use the black widow

To photograph the sharks from below.

If phred arrives, they will use the boat as a size reference.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Shark coming in. Shark coming in!

Whoo!

Okay. Probably gonna turn!

Beautiful animal!

Whoa-oa-oa!

♪♪

Just keep the chum going, guys.

There's a really big shark here!

It could be phred.

Narrator: After a massive white shark heads

To the surface to take the bait,

Chris fallows dives down, convinced phred is in the area.

Shark coming in. Shark coming in!

Whoo!

Beautiful animal!

Whoa-oa-oa!

That's a big shark.

♪♪

♪♪

[ camera shutter clicks, whines ]

♪♪

♪♪

Okay. Coming in on the bait.

That's just awesome.

It might turn. It might turn.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh!

Snap! Hello!

♪♪

Very distinct dorsal fin.

We're looking at different things.

Firstly, the dorsal fin.

Each great white shark's dorsal fin

Is like our fingerprint --

It's unique to that shark.

We're looking at estimates of size

And whether it's a male or a female

And then, just smaller things,

Like any specific markings, injuries.

Okay. Coming in.

Coming in. Coming in.

Beautiful shark!

Did you get that, eric?

Great stuff.

♪♪

This behemoth must be around 19 feet long.

And, has a straight dorsal fin,

Another telltale characteristic of phred.

Whoa!

Oh! Hoo-hoo!

That was full-on.

And keeps coming back...

Whoa-oa! Good morning!

...Each time, more aggressive than the last.

Whoa! Big shark! Big shark!

Bait, bait, bait, bait, bait!

Oh! On fire!

♪♪

♪♪

The team heads back to examine the footage

And, hopefully, positively identify phred.

♪♪

So, this was the last known shot of phred,

Taken in 2014.

He's got an amazingly clear dorsal fin.

If you have a look at the trailing edge,

It's almost perfect. Yeah.

And then, obviously, his ginormous size.

Alright, cool. Let's take a look

At the footage that we shot on the phantom

And see if we get a match for phred here.

So take a look.

It's a really good-size shark.

Seeing them in the slow motion is so much different.

Thinking about how fast they were yesterday,

Compared to seeing them like this,

It's a completely different universe.

Technology, man.

But, unfortunately, it's a female.

Oh.

Okay. Let's go to this one.

This one here.

He is a male.

We estimated at 16 feet long.

Okay, well, look at that.

I mean, that dorsal fin there

Has a tiny little notch.

That's not phred.

How do they get notches like that?

Propeller strikes. That can have it

From other sharks biting them.

Occasionally, the leading edge is really affected

By what are known as copepods,

Parasites that actually eat into that trailing edge

And then give it a noticeable jagged edge.

But if a big shark like that's around,

I'm sure phred'll come knocking.

This one, I thought, was pretty interesting.

Take a look at this animal.

♪♪

Whoa!

That is a huge animal.

It's a big, big shark.

There are not too many great whites

Of this size around, especially males.

Yep, and that's the one that rammed the boat.

Could be phred?

Especially his behavior.

Uh-oh, here we go.

It's unbelievable.

That personality and dominance is definitely coming through.

Narrator: This shark has undeniably large jaws

And, by using the boat as a measuring device,

He's determined to be 19.5 feet long,

A full foot and a half longer

Than the last time phred was seen.

And he's got an amazingly clean dorsal fin.

Looking at the photos from 2014 and now,

The fins are shown to be identical.

This

Is phred.

♪♪

This is definitely phred, to me.

♪♪

Such a perfectly hydrodynamic shape.

This is the ocean's

Most perfectly designed predator.

♪♪

Phred was on fire!

Whoa-oa! Good morning!

Hoo!

All that energy.

Whoa-oa-oa!

Definitely gave me a run for my money on the bait line.

Phred certainly let you know who's boss.

He could be the missing link

To better understand

These truly huge great white sharks.

Narrator: Phred could be living proof that white sharks are returning

To their previously enormous sizes,

Suggesting that the conservation efforts

For these mighty giants are working

And, hopefully, in time, amazing sharks like phred

Will get the full protection they deserve.

♪♪

So, now, phred will return to the depths of the sea,

Where no one can bother him.

Except for chewy.

Which dickie forgot to take with him.

[ laughing ]

This is funny.

Chris and jeff will slow-motion walk to the end of the dock,

Where they will patiently wait

For their next shark week episode to begin.

♪♪

Dickie will continue doing what he normally does.

[ heavy metal plays ] and, frankly,

I have no idea what the heck that is.

♪♪

Cue the sunset shot.

[ suspenseful chorale plays ]

Whoa! I mean, shark shot.

[ chuckle ]

You kinda have to end on a shark shot.