All language subtitles for Saved.from.a.Shark.2023.WEB-DL.DSNP

[narrator] This program contains content
that may be disturbing to some viewers

viewer discretion is advised

[dramatic theme music]

That day 26 years ago, I remember crystal
clear, every single thing that happened.

It seems to be completely burned
into my memory, every detail of it.

I don't think that's something
that you ever really forget.

I realized he didn't have enough time
to come and get me.

There was absolutely no reason
for the shark to stop.

I had lost approximately
five pints of blood.

You only have eight to nine in your body.
I was waiting for the feeding frenzy.

[dramatic crescendo]

[gentle theme music]

I'm in the Red Sea,
visiting an old friend of mine,

so they asked me if I wanted
to do my open water diving.

[dramatic bellow]

The Red Sea off the coast of Egypt is
home to many different species of sharks.

We have oceanic whitetips, silky sharks,
scalloped hammerheads.

That's why so many people
go there for the diving.

As it's a tourist hot spot, these
interactions between sharks and humans

are increasing, and sometimes
with negative consequences.

[dramatic bellow]

The day that it happened,
Harry and I'd been out diving.

We had just started to complete
our open water diving exam.

It was actually my first open water course
I'd ever run as a brand new instructor.

We'd completed a couple of open water
dives. The day was going great.

We were just going back to port.

On the way back, we saw three
dolphins and a baby dolphin.

That was the initial
reason that we'd slowed down.

[Martin] I jumped in to swim with them.
Obviously as soon as I hit the water...

the dolphins disappeared.

[Harry]
It was a baking hot day...

and we put some ropes
out off the back of the boat.

We're going half a knot. It's not
something that we would normally do.

[dramatic music swells]

In hindsight, a human body
does behave like a lure

when it's behind a boat on a rope.

-It's probably not the wisest thing to do.
-[dramatic bellow]

[Harry]
Then I remember he let go of the rope.

I thought to myself,
he's burnt his hands probably,

because you can get a bit of rope burn
while it's going along.

Someone being towed behind a boat
would be a perfect lure for a shark.

With the silhouette that a human
can present is a bad idea.

The next thing I remember,
we were looking at Martin...

and that's when it happened really.

[music intensifies]

As soon as you get hit like that in the
water, you know exactly what it is.

[underwater screams]

I saw Martin lifted
out of the water, like this.

I was screaming out
"shark" at the top of my lungs.

Shark!

It's very likely that during the tow,

this is when the shark
first became interested,

and then the minute that
Martin stopped moving,

to a shark, that's just, go, go, go.
Now's the time to attack.

[underwater screams]
Shark!

There's panic and screaming.

I think there was possibly a delay in my
brain between I'm looking,

I was watching him and I thought there's
something very, very wrong.

Obviously, there was just a lot of blood
in front of me,

and my first reaction was
to get away from the blood,

and at this point I looked back,

I saw Harry,
he jumped straight in the Zodiac

and came as fast as he could
to come and get me.

-[music intensifies]
-[engine roars]

What's really fascinating
about shark behavior

is just how opportunistic they can be
and how adaptable they are.

Sharks can hit incredible speeds
right away,

they have this kind of
burst speed response.

They can get up to
20 kilometers an hour or more,

and just nail prey before they
even know the shark's coming.

And then all of a sudden,
the shark came up from underneath.

-[intense music]
-[water splashing]

As it hit me here, just about here,
just about that much of its head,

was just crowning out of the water.

So I punched it as hard as I could, one
of the most worst feelings that I've had,

of actually the shark's skin and flesh.

It took three bites out
of my back, then went away.

[dramatic bellow]

Martin's floating on
the surface of the water.

We would expect a shark to
attack from below and behind

because it gives them
the advantage of surprise,

and it also means that they're
going to attack an area

which is rich in blood vessels.

It's all taking place in
one 40-second event,

but I'm heading towards Martin
as fast as I can.

That's when it took a bite out of me here.

-He's continuing to be eaten.
-[dramatic bellow]

When you're an ambush predator,

you usually attack first
and then see what it is later,

because by the time you make
a calculation of what is that,

that fast-swimming prey may have
seen you and gotten away.

-[engine roars]
-[dramatic music]

I am 20 meters away from Martin
at this point, and I'm thinking to myself,

"God, that's, that's a lot of blood."

I knew it was circling me, and I realized,
he didn't have enough time,

you know, there was too much blood,

and basically, I was waiting
for the feeding frenzy.

So I turned away and
looked to the mountains.

-I gave up.
-[sentimental music]

What I felt was pure contentment.

It was...

just like when you let all the air out,

you breathe out completely,
it's just like...

-[engine roars]
-[music intensifies]

[Harry] I'm approaching the last few final
meters, and it went very, very quiet.

-Then...
-[music intensifies]

two fins shot behind
Martin's left-hand shoulder.

The attack had stopped,
I mean it had just stopped dead.

It just went very, very quiet,
and it wasn't normal.

There were two fins over
this shoulder of Martin,

and I think the dolphins
that we had stopped

to interact with on the ropes.
had intervened.

[dolphins squeaking]

This is a phenomenon which
divides marine scientists,

whether or not a shark could be
stopped from attacking a human

through the interaction of another animal,
such as a whale or a dolphin.

It's really hard to know
the motivation of these animals.

It may not be a fully altruistic
"We're trying to protect these people,"

it could be
"We just want this predator

that could be dangerous to us,
out of here."

Being saved by another animal
is certainly a very romantic notion,

and there are those people
that believe that it is true.

I'm positive there was a very pronounced
curve to the dorsal fins.

I'd stake my life on it
that they were dolphin fins.

It's hard to understand exactly why
dolphins would do this,

but if you have a big predator that
might attack you or your young,

you want to keep it in sight
and scare it away.

The dolphins see this
big cloud of blood,

they know the shark's in the
area and it's bitten someone.

It seems like this is a really dangerous
moment for the dolphins,

because you've
got a shark in feeding mode.

There was no reason for, um,
the shark to stop.

It had already taken five bites out
of my body, had a punctured lung.

Because the dolphins
have echolocation,

they've got the speed,
they've got the maneuverability,

if they know where that shark is,
the danger isn't actually any greater.

They're able to get in there, mob the
shark, annoy it, and drive it away.

[dramatic music bellows]

It'd been very, very
calm, extremely still,

and there was no more
frenzied attack going on,

so clearly they stopped an attack on him.

My whole state of my brain changed
and just turned into this,

just do what you have to do to get him
in the boat and keep him alive.

I remember uncontrollable blood just
pumping and pumping out of his chest,

and the site was losing a lot of blood.

[dramatic music continues]

And from that point,
I don't remember anything else.

Now, there are well-documented cases
where people believe they have been saved

from a potential shark attack,
but what we don't know in these scenarios

is what that particular animal,
or the shark, was thinking.

As scientists, we deal in proof,

so when it comes to looking
at the deliberate actions

of a whale or dolphin protecting
a human from a shark attack,

-we need to look at the evidence.
-[damatic musc]

It happened so quick. You don't feel
anything, there was no pain.

I knew there was no way I could survive.
I accepted it, I accepted dying.

It had already taken
five bites out of me.

There was absolutely no reason
for the shark to stop.

[music continues]

I firmly believe that
the dolphins did save my life;

there's no other explanation
as to why the shark would stop.

Here's one bite here, there's
another one all down there,

then you've got the
whole mouth, right here.

And this is where
he punctured my lung.

And he took this out here,

and then just scars all down
here and all up here as well.

[camera shutters]

With the teeth marks that I have,
they say it's a mako shark.

It took three surgeons
four hours to stitch me up.

I had over 100 stitches inside
and over 200 outside.

Unfortunately, I've learnt that
as soon as I take my t-shirt off,

everybody just keeps staring at me.

When I got out of the hospital,
I met up with Harry,

and the first question I asked him was,

was that true about the dolphins,
because I needed to know for myself.

Harry looked me in the eyes,
he said,

"I saw a dolphin a meter away from you
and another one in the vicinity."

-[water splashes]
-[hopeful music plays]

I believe the shark didn't finish the job
because it was stopped by the dolphins.

It's undeniable that the
dolphins were there beforehand,

they were there when I pulled him out,
and that they stopped something

that could have actually
finished him off completely.

They may not have been trying to save
Martin, but effectively they did.

[music intensifies]

It was my first proper trauma,
and I don't think that's something

that you ever really forget,

and I couldn't go back in the water
for a year. I'd just become an instructor,

and for some reason I couldn't
let go of the ladder,

which was really annoying,
I felt like I was being not very brave.

It's made me
a better person for sure.

You learn the greatest gift
you're given is life.

-[music continues]
-[water splashes]

Now people can believe
or disbelieve these accounts,

but when it's witnessed by a scientist,
then there's reason to listen.

[dramatic music]

The South Pacific Ocean is a fantastic
place to observe marine life.

You have incredible coral reefs, dolphins,
you've got things like the humpback whale,

and of course you've got some
fantastic predatory sharks.

One in particular that owns that whole
South Pacific area is the tiger shark.

[dramatic music bellows]

I've been a whale biologist for 30 years,
and every day when I wake up,

I know that there's a new
adventure that awaits me.

[serene music]

Because I'm underwater a lot, I've had
many, many interactions with sharks,

and most of the time they're
just beautiful, beautiful fish.

It's really only the oceanic
whitetip, the bulls, tigers,

and great whites that
I get out of the water for.

-[blow hole sounds]
-[music continues]

This is the strangest thing
I've ever seen.

If someone else hadn't slid
in the water and filmed it,

I would not really have believed
everything had happened.

Oh, my God.

I'm making a film
in Rarotonga about my research.

Two whales approached and we didn't have
enough footage of me underwater, so...

[Elissa]
Okay. It's recording.

They suggested that
I slide over the side of the boat.

[water splashing]

I'm in the water and a whale
starts swimming up to me,

and he's swimming up to me very fast.
So put my hand out and I touch his head,

because he's pushing me, and I know that
I can't push away a 50,000-pound whale.

But this whale keeps pushing.
I cannot figure out what's going on.

[intense music bellows]

I get away just briefly, and I look over,
there's another whale there,

and she's slapping her tail
a bit, swishing it in the water.

I'm thinking,
what is going on here?

Usually, you think about these whales,

maybe kind of keeping an eye on
the people swimming with them,

largely ignoring them, interacting,

but definitely keeping space
and not initiating contact.

-[music continues]
-[water sloshing]

[Nan] The next thing I know,
he's got me on his head.

-[man] Is she okay? She okay?
-[Elissa] Careful!

To see this whale lift her up onto its
snout, it's kind of mind-blowing.

[Nan] I'm sitting on his head
and freaking out a little bit.

His eye is wide open
and I'm right next to it,

and he slips me down his body and tries to
tuck me under his pectoral fin.

[dramatic sting]

Those are behaviors
that would be consistent with

trying to protect a young humpback whale.

[dramatic bellow]

This is really incredible. You can see the
whale swimming right at her,

and Nan's trying to not be in its way.

[dramatic bellow]

You can see this is not her swimming to
the whale and initiating the contact.

[Nan] He's looking at me,
and I know he has something to tell me.

I do not understand, and
he wants me to understand.

[music intensifies]

And I look down into the deep blue,
and then I see right below me

the tail going like this.

[music continues]

I'm starting to put together
a little bit more

about what that whale
was trying to tell me.

[man] Are you hurt?

[Nan] There's a great big tiger shark
over there!

Tiger sharks and humpback whales
are found in the same spot.

Tiger sharks are incredible predators,
they're one of the few species of sharks

that eats really big prey.
It wouldn't surprise me if tiger sharks

are going after injured whales
or very small ones.

It was huge, as long as my truck.

It is the hugest shark I have ever seen.

15 feet, 18 feet's possible,
and that is a monstrous top predator.

They've got that mouth
right at the end of their snout,

so it's easy to
reach out and grab on.

The teeth are curved and serrated
so they can even grab onto a sea turtle,

shake their head back and forth and
cut straight through that shell.

[suspenseful music]

[Nan] I'm looking at the shark,

and it's about 35 feet away from
me and it's approaching quickly.

[Mike] They'll spend time
swimming along the surface

then maybe drop down to the bottom,

and they appear to need
to sneak up on their prey

and get fairly close to make
that last little dash to get it.

If you run into a big tiger shark
with pectoral fins depressed,

starting to swim erratically or fast,
you have something to be worried about.

I see its pec fins down,
I see it arching its body,

and it's moving fast,
and it's coming towards me.

[dramatic music intensifies]

I know, and the whale knows,
that this is a serious situation,

and I wanted to get out of the water.

And then all of a sudden
I was swooped up

by the whale
that had been pushing me,

and now he's got me right
on the front of his face,

and I yell to the boat,
"Please help me!"

-Oh, my God!
-[blow hole sputters]

And then voom! I'm back
down in the water again.

-[man] Is she okay? Is she okay?
-[Elissa] Yeah, yeah!

Somehow I always sort of knew with my job

that I probably would be killed by a
whale, so I thought, is this the day?

-[dramatic music]
-[water sloshing]

[Mike] Those tails, or the pectoral fins
of humpback whales,

they can do tremendous damage
if they want to.

I can only imagine what Nan is
thinking at that point in time,

because, yeah, those
pectoral fins could kill her.

I don't want to get caught underneath,
because

I know that with a snorkel and mask on,
I won't be able to breathe.

The whale's so close to me that all I see
are these throat pleats.

And I suddenly realize
that the shark is coming up,

just at me like this,
right below me.

[dramatic music bellows]

The whale pushes me back to the boat,

and my research assistant
Elissa says, "Nan, the whale."

Nan, careful! [laughs]

[Nan] I look, and he's right
there next to me, protecting me.

-[music swells]
-I was so...

And I cried.
Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!
It is a very emotional moment.

[upbeat music]

For me, it matters that Nan
is the one telling this story.

She is a serious scientist, she has been
studying these animals for years.

[Nan] Holy moly!

I've been around whales for so long

that there's this whole compassionate
behavior that they have.

I believe with my whole heart

that that humpback actually
protected me from the shark.

You have a big tiger shark
in the area

and this very, very rare event
for a whale to initiate contact,

and in ways that are similar
to what it would do

if it was trying to protect
a young humpback whale.

So when she talks about
just how rare and unique

this occurrence is,
I put a lot of stock in that.

Realistically, any conflict between

two incredible oceanic predators
will come down to the scenario

that they find themselves in
at that time.

[eerie music]

The oceans around
the coasts of New Zealand

are absolutely packed with life.

You just need to go
a few meters off the shore

and you're in this incredible,
rich marine environment.

[music intensifies]

We have all sorts
of different species of whales.

We have different species of
sharks, bronze whaler sharks,

we've seen the odd mako, we've come across
some small hammerheads.

We get great whites.

When you swim in the
oceans off New Zealand,

you're most certainly
swimming with sharks.

[dramatic bellow]

-[waves crashing]
-[suspenseful music]

It started with us just going
for one of our regular training swims.

So, we went into the water,

around to the rocks where
we played for a wee while,

and then we decided to swim
to the other end of the beach.

I've been with Whangārei Heads
Surf Club for a number of years.

I'm a senior lifeguard.
I get a lot of pleasure

from training all the new,
fresh lifeguards.

The surf club is like a big family,
we all look after each other.

[dramatic bellow]

Every time I think back to that day,
I think how lucky we were.

We want to do a taster
for my friend Helen

to see if she wants to get
involved in surf lifesaving.

With me is my dad
and my friend Karina.

We want to get Helen hooked
on becoming a lifeguard.

We swim from one end to the
other, so from north to south,

but it does get us close to Shark Alley.

The area between
the mainland and the island,

we call it Shark Alley because
it's a transition point

for some sharks when they don't
want to go around the headland,

so they'll just cut through.

[Tom] If you're swimming
in an area of the ocean

which sharks are using as
a highway to move in and out,

they will be a little bit
more opportunistic,

they'll be looking for a snack
if there's one available

to keep them fueled up as
they're moving from A to B.

We have to be kind of realistic

that we are swimming
near sharks all the time.

It's just I'm very scared of them.
They're big and aggressive,

and I don't want to be mistaken
for anything in the water.

My primary responsibility for this swim

will be to make sure that we go
in with myself and three girls,

and come out with
myself and three girls.

Definitely feel safer
when I'm with Dad in the water.

I know that if anything happens
he's there to help.

[Rob] We'd been swimming maybe just
a little bit longer than five minutes.

We began seeing fins approaching us,

and obviously there's the initial panic
when you see a fin.

You then have to quickly process to see
what type of creature it is.

Sharks are always present. In most cases,
we're not aware of their presence.

[dramatic music]

Once we clearly identified that
the fins that we were seeing

were dolphins... any anxiety drops.

[Nicky] We are excited because
Helen's having her first day

and she gets to hang out
with dolphins.

They are so playful, they swim around,
they catch the waves,

and you get to see them
do flips and jump out.

And that was gonna be a sure way to get
her hooked into surf lifesaving.

-[music bellows]
-As time went on, more fins appeared,

and they got closer,
and they started circling.

I'm used to having dolphins
swimming alongside me,

but this was totally different.

They're starting to swim
tight circles around us,

which they don't normally
do that aggressively.

We were looking at each other
like this is not normal.

There was something happening
that we knew nothing about

that was creating this behavior pattern.

The behavior displayed by the dolphins
is very, very classic.

It's signs of fitness,
it's showing to a potential predator,

"Look how strong I am, look how fast I am.

Don't bother trying to catch me,
I will fight back."

I was a volunteer surf lifeguard.

It was just a normal day at the beach.
You're in the ocean every weekend.

If somebody gets in trouble,
you're there to help.

We were heading out
to join the swimmers,

what looked to be having
a lot of fun with the dolphins.

When I hear the boat, there's an element
of relief, but I'm focused on the girls.

We're looking at Dad for some,
like, guidance,

like, what is going on here,
what are we supposed to do?

The dolphins are going closer to us,

they literally are within
centimeters of our face,

and they're getting their tails right
next to us,

and they're slapping
their tails on the water.

The whole tone changed to aggression,

as if they were either warning
us or warning something else.

I'd never heard of dolphins attacking
humans before, but it just felt that way.

-[dramatic bellow]
-[scream]

[Rob] I then noticed that there was a
large dolphin heading straight for me.

I saw its back arch in the water,
it dived down just before it got to us.

It was a primal reflex,
my legs came up to my chest,

and that's when very briefly
I saw the shape.

Gray back, and I could see the defined
line with the white where it separates.

It's the definition between
the gray and the white

that told me that it was a great white.

A shark would be attracted towards the
noise of a group of swimmers,

because all that splashing and
kicking around in the water,

that mimics the sound
of a struggling fish,

so it's worth a shark
coming in to investigate.

[music continues]

When I saw the shark,

I could have quite easily
called out to them, "Shark."

I'm not telling the girls, because there
was always the risk

that they then broke out of
the defensive circle of dolphins

to try and make a break for the rocks.

A great white could just
chew you up and spit you out.

[Tom] Sharks will stalk their prey
by firstly following a scent trail.

They will then use their lateral line

and their ears to feel
vibrations in the water.

Then as they get a little bit closer,
they can start to use their eyesight,

and it's only at the very, very end
that their electric sensitivity

that they have around
their face comes into play.

If something lights up
all those different senses,

you're guaranteed
that the shark will bite.

So, saw the shark.

I'm trying to remain calm.
So you've got the duck principle--

calm on the top,
paddling like hell underneath.

I've been in the water with
these dolphins for 40 minutes.

There was a large dolphin
heading straight for me...

saw its back arch in the water,

and suddenly the solution to the
problem has presented itself.

The dolphin came at us,
it was actually targeting the shark

that was coming in from our left.

That is a big threat towards the shark.

The dolphin could attack the gills,
the eyes, and seriously damage

if not potentially
mortally wound the shark,

and a wounded shark is a dead shark.

-[dramatic bellow]
-[engine roars]

[Matt] From the boat I see a dolphin
swimming along underwater.

So I dive in.

I'm expecting to see a dolphin.
I open my eyes and I see...

a great white shark.

[dramatic music]

[Matt] The way the tail
of the shark was pointing,

and the way it swam
through the water,

told me instantly that
that was not a dolphin,

that was a great white shark,
and I'm in the water with it.

There's a moment of shock and panic.

I am scared,
not knowing what it's going to do.

I resurface and I look around,
and Nev has driven off in the rescue boat.

[suspenseful music]

Only myself and Matt
have got an understanding

of what's actually just happened.

I'm looking at the three girls
with all the dolphins,

and I'm trying to track
the direction of the shark.

I can see it angling over to its right.

This shark is over 10 feet long.

And it's arcing around me, heading
in the direction of Nicky and Karina

and the dolphins, that at this point now
were going absolutely ballistic.

Everything built to
a big crescendo, and then...

-[music crescendos]
-Everything just went calm.

[wind blowing softly]

The shark disappeared very,
very quickly. It was bizarre.

You're actually asking yourself
what's just happened?

[Nicky] It's crazy to think
what could have happened.

I believe that dolphins
came and saved us.

[uplifting music]

[Rob] After the event,
the feeling you get is one of awe,

in terms of what that dolphin
did when it broke away,

having clearly identified what was going
to occur if it didn't intervene.

[Nicky] There was
a potentially fatal situation.

They saved our lives
and they protected us.

[Rob] These dolphins saved
my life, my daughter's life,

and our friends' life from
a potential attack coming in...

from a great white shark.

Human interactions with big predatory
sharks are certainly rare.

Interactions with whales and dolphins
and sharks are rarer still.

But there are shark hot spots
around the world

where encounters are
more likely to happen.

Areas like the Bahamas, Mexico, Australia,
and certainly New Zealand.

[dramatic music]

[Tom continues] New Zealand's Cook Strait
is a small passage of water

that runs between
the North and South Islands

where you'll get blue sharks there,
you'll get your mako sharks...

but you will also get great whites.

I'm a long distance endurance swimmer.

I traveled to New Zealand
to swim the Cook Strait,

which is one of the toughest
ocean swims in the world.

What I'm doing is looking to swim across
from one end to another.

In the sport that I do,
physically, you're unassisted,

you're pushing your body for hours on end,
you're swimming all day long.

You can't wear a wetsuit, you
got to wear normal swim trunks,

you can't even wear three-quarter shorts,

because they really want you
to suffer in this sport.

It's you versus the ocean.

It's 18 miles... there's very strong
currents, tides, wind, massive swells.

But the reason it's so tough

is because of the physical and mental
challenges that it possesses.

Even now I get goose bumps thinking

what an emotional experience
it was in that moment.

It was a connection
that I'll never forget.

-[water splashing]
-[dramatic music hums]

This is where I started,
you have to go land to land.

So you never go in a straight
line when you do a channel swim,

because you're getting pushed.

I'm Gemma Clarke.
Adam Walker is my other half.

-[grunts] Eight! And nine!
-[baby squeals]

My life changed when I met him,
he turned my life upside down

and introduced me
to open water swimming.

I don't know if I want him
swimming channels.

Yeah. He's gonna swim
long distance, like your dad.

It was my dream to swim this ocean swim

as part of the toughest seven
ocean swims in the world,

and I thought this will be
the day that I have no issue,

it'll go absolutely fine,
there'll be no problem at all.

[man over radio] You've just
gone over the 10 kilometer mark...

About three hours into the swim,

I remember swallowing
a whole heap of water,

and I started to be sick in the water.

[aid] Focus on your stroke and
just get in that rhythm again...

-Yeah.
-Okay?

I'm trying to focus on the
goal, which is to get across.

You've got to keep the emotions at bay.

And then I'm vomiting,
and I remember thinking,

"What have I done to deserve this?"

[dramatic music continues]

I looked up at the sky and
I said, "Please, ocean Gods,

give me something positive, anything."

It's hard to watch him
swimming in ridiculous currents,

massive waves and everything
that's under the ocean

that, you know, that's all
that goes through my mind,

-you just don't know what's down there.
-[dramatic hiss]

All of a sudden out of
nowhere, a fin comes towards me,

and it's not like the Jaws movie,
it's a very, very fast, bang.

[dramatic bellow]

[dramatic music]

I'm swimming the Cook Strait

'cause it's one of the toughest
seven ocean swims in the world.

[aid] See how that goes.
Let me know in the next half hour

how you felt with that drink.

Round about three hours into the swim,

all of a sudden out of nowhere,
a fin comes towards me.

All of a sudden I've got these
fins flanking me side to side.

When I normally swim,
I wear a shark device unit

that's supposed to keep sharks
away, so it lets off a sonar.

I was gonna put it on for New Zealand,
because I heard that great whites

cross through the Cook Strait.

The guy who was organizing the swim says,

"There's no sharks in here,
just take it off,

it'll be no problem," so I took it off.

The shark that would be
the greatest concern

would probably be the great white.

A lot of sharks coming and going,
and when you have an area of high traffic,

it's more likely that someone's
gonna bump into you.

[dramatic sting]

You can't focus on the fact
that something's gonna happen to you,

you know, you've got to believe
that you're gonna be okay.

[aid] Just start focusing on
your stroke out in front.

There were points before
the swim, and I'd say to him,

"At what point do I get you out?"

And he would say, you know,
you don't get me out.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, fins.

[eerie music swells]

[Gemma continues] So I'm not just
talking one fin, just fins appear.

There's no warning,
all these fins surrounding him.

[aid]
They've just popped out from nowhere!

It was absolutely incredible.

[music intensifies]

They were flanking me on the side,
and one starts circling me.

[man over radio]
They normally come and

have a look and
then go off in the same way.

[Adam] For 30 minutes they stay with me,
and I think they're gonna disappear,

they're gonna get bored.

So at that point, I looked down,
I saw a much deeper dolphin.

It was moving differently,
it was moving from side to side,

the fin look different, everything just
looked different about it.

In previous swims I've seen fins,
but I passed it off as dolphins.

-I realized actually it wasn't a dolphin.
-[music intensifies]

I knew it was a big shark.

Sharks will stalk their prey by firstly
following a scent trail,

it's the scent that will get
them into the nearby area.

It really ran through me that actually
this is a potentially dangerous situation.

They will use their lateral line and their
ears to feel vibrations in the water,

which again gives them an idea
of what they're dealing with,

whether it's prey that's
swimming fast and well,

or whether they are the throes and
struggles of an injured fish.

They're sort of just staying and playing.

They don't know that
there's a shark underneath me.

They're shooting
around all over the place.

I knew with other swims
when people mention shark,

they get you out,
the swim's over, it's finished.

So I didn't want that dream to end.
I decided not to tell anybody,

because I knew if I mention it,
they'll get me out.

Adam sees this shark swimming below him,
and in the Cook Strait, great white sharks

are kind of the consummate top predator.
Their ambush speed is incredible,

so they like to ambush big prey like
seals, sea lions, or even dolphins,

by blasting up from below and delivering
that debilitating strike right away.

-[water splashing]
-[dolphins squeaking]

[Adam]
This particular shark was checking me out,

seeing, you know, what's this
slow mammal doing in the water?

The dolphins, they were
flanking me on the side,

one would circle me, one was in
front of me, close to my fingertips.

I've since found out
they're called dusky dolphins.

It continued for the next half an hour,

and then I really think, okay,
there's something in this.

Why are they staying engaged
with me all that time?

And at that point, I think
it must be the shark.

[Mike] It's really hard to say
what these dolphins were doing

when they came across Adam.

They're keeping him in the middle of them.
Could that be what they'd do

if they were trying to protect
something from a shark? Yes.

-[squeaking]
-[dramatic music]

Dolphins are curious animals, and just the
novelty of a swimmer in the water

might be enough for them
to just kind of hang out

for an extended period of time.

This particular shark
tracked me for a period of time.

In this sport, you cannot show fear...

You can't focus on the demons
that are in your head.

I remember looking back down after another
half an hour, and I couldn't see it.

And I thought,
"Thanks, dolphins, for your support."

And at that point...
they disappeared forever.

-[squeaking]
-[gentle music]

It took me 8 hours, 39 minutes,

and the most amazing journey
I've ever had in my life.

All I can tell you is how I felt.
I felt well protected,

and I don't think it was
luck or by chance,

maybe five minutes, maybe half an hour,
but not an hour and a half.

So can dolphins save
people from shark attacks?

I think the answer we've seen
is that they can.

What we don't know is, is their
motivation to save people,

or to get sharks
out of the area generally?

[Nicky]
We still talk about the day it happened.

[music continues]

It's crazy to think if those dolphins
weren't there what could have happened.

That shark was obviously stalking us.

100%, I believe we were saved by dolphins.

I'll always, always feel indebted to the
dolphins for giving me that moment

and allowing me to live
the life I want to live

-and be the Adam I want to be.
-[music intensifies]

There's no doubt about it, I've sent that
footage to all these different people

that know and understand
behavior of animals,

and not one single person has thought
that this whale was not protecting me.

I know the answer to life now,
and the answer to life is happiness.

It's brought back a lot of memories,
and it's brought back that day,

and it was extremely traumatic for me,
but far more traumatic for you.

[Martin] When I die, if I have
that feeling of contentment,

like I did back then,
I'd be more than happy.