Shark vs. Whale (2020) Movie Script

NARRATOR:
The great white shark!
Focus.
Power.
Purpose.
Seals are their usual
prey of choice.
But what about
something bigger?
Much bigger.

(whale blows)

South Africa's coast
is shark infested.

Massive tigers.

Marauding bulls.
And gangs of blacktips.
They're all here.
It's a predator's playground.
Roughly two million seals live
at the southern tip of Africa,
which is why one of the highest
concentrations of great whites
on the planet
hunt these waters.
Other giants are here, too.
It's the beginning of winter
in the Southern Hemisphere.
Great pods of humpback whales
like this are heading north.
For four months,
they fed on nutritious krill
off Antarctica,
building up blubber reserves
for this journey.
Over 30,000 humpbacks
make this annual migration.
Their destination, Mozambique,
to give birth to their calves
in warm tropical waters.
The ocean off southern Africa
is too cold for baby whales.
It's dangerous, too.

Great white sharks dominate
these southern waters.
The humpback migration routes
take them right through
white shark territory.

So what happens when humpback
whales and white sharks
run into each other?
RYAN JOHNSON: Wow.
Away from the boat, away from
the boat, away from the boat.
There we go.
NARRATOR: Ryan Johnson
is a shark scientist
based in Mossel Bay,
South Africa.
He's been studying
the white shark population here
for over 20 years.
RYAN: Whoa, there we go!
Oh, she went for it!
NARRATOR: In February 2017
he was flying his drone
during a shark survey
when the phone rang.
RYAN: The phone call came in
from the National
Sea Rescue Institute
that they had been alerted that
there was a whale out at sea.

It looked like it had been
wrapped up in longline.
NARRATOR: The whale
wasn't moving.
Was it dead?

RYAN: And then the whale
breathed and it blew,
and I realized that
this whale was still alive.
(whale blows)
NARRATOR: Then, Ryan saw
something else.

A 14-foot great white shark
headed straight
for the young whale.

And it did the unexpected.

It attacked.
RYAN: I know the science
and I know the literature,
and I know this has
never been seen before.
NARRATOR: It bit the tail,
then it rolled
the weakened whale
as if trying to drown it.
This was not some
random meeting.
It was a methodical attack on
a whale by a great white shark.
A shark that seemed to know
just what to do.
Ryan is the first person ever
to witness this shark behavior.
He played the drone footage
over and over
and suddenly
recognized the shark.
He tagged her for research
back in 2012.
Her name is Helen.
RYAN: Dorsal fin came up
out of the water,
and you could clearly see the
satellite tag remnants on her,
plus that distinctive
dorsal fin.
Now that she is that shark
that hunted a humpback whale,
a living humpback whale,
she has sort of marked her place
in the sharks'
hall of fame forever,
and she's always gonna be
remembered for that.
NARRATOR: Ryan had
serious questions.
Is this shark attack
a one-time-only event,
or do white sharks
really hunt living whales
and we just never see it?
To get some answers,
Ryan decides to dig deeper.
He sets off to follow
the 4,000-mile migration route
of the humpbacks.
Are there specific places where
white sharks ambush the whales?
Do attacks follow a pattern?
And why hunt whales at all
when there are plenty
of seals available?
Ryan goes back to
what he already knows
about the great white.
11 million years of evolution
has made them fast...
agile...
...and calculating.
Most shark species
are cold-blooded
and have to stay
in warmer waters.

Great whites are one
of only seven species
that can raise their
internal body temperature.
Being warm-blooded, they keep
their edge in cold water,
which is why no seal is safe
off the coast
of southern Africa.
For them, white sharks are
an almost unbeatable foe.

So, why would white sharks
turn to whales?
Off the coast of South Africa,
the sharks have plenty
of seals to eat.
Resident colonies of Cape fur
seals dot the coastline.
(seals warbling)
Half of a seal
is blubber or fat.
That's what white sharks
are after.
A white shark's liver is
like a giant fuel tank
where it stores
the calories from fat.
Combine enormous energy
reserves with warm blood,
big teeth, hydrodynamic shape,
and sharks' super senses,
and you've got
a feeding machine.

Spectacular breaches
on seal decoys
show just how these sharks
have been hunting
for millions of years.
They know how to hunt seals.
So, the question Ryan
really wants to answer is,
why would they hunt
something much bigger
and much more dangerous?
NARRATOR: Ryan begins
his research at Seal Island
just off Mossel Bay,
South Africa.
It's a well-known hot spot
where great whites hunt seals,
and it's just
three and a half miles
from the site of
the humpback whale attack.
Seals and humpback whales
are as different
as they can possibly be.
What connects them
in a shark's brain?
It's well-known that their diet
is mostly marine mammals.
But just how selective
is the great white?
Ryan runs an experiment
with two different sized
seal decoys.
Which one will
the sharks attack?
RYAN: For me, this experiment
is all about
that cognition of a shark,
that decision-making process,
when it weighs up the pros
and cons of attacking a prey.
Does it go from that
extreme level of success,
that big reward but high risk,
or is it going to be
more conservative?
Because this feeds right
into the decision-making
Helen had to go through
when she was faced with a whale
nine, ten times her size.
She had to be
assessing the risk;
the chance of her
getting injured;
the chance that she
would be unsuccessful;
the chance that her life
as a predator could end.
NARRATOR:
Do the sharks display
a simple species preference,
or is there something more
to their selection?
RYAN: Make this turn
as tight as you can,
because there's no swell,
and we just head right up
the edge of that island.
Nice one.
A little shark,
but hit the little decoy,
hit the little juvenile pup.
Nice, that's what
we're looking for.
First breach, number one.
Baby seal.
Okay, decoy back in.

Wow!
Big shark, big breach!
That was massive!
Can you believe it?
And on a juvenile seal.

There we go, we thought so!
Again, small decoy.
Look, we swapped the small seal
over to this side,
got the hit on it.
This is getting conclusive now.
NARRATOR: Every breach is
on the smaller decoy.
The small seals are low risk
and an almost
guaranteed reward.
The sharks make a clear choice.
They're very discerning, which
suggests that Helen's attack
on the humpback whale
was discerning, too.

At Seal Island,
the pickings are easy,
but not all hunting grounds
are the same.
Just how adaptable
are great white sharks
when conditions are
not in their favor?
To find out, Ryan moves
from Mossel Bay
to Robberg Nature Reserve
80 miles east along the coast.
Just offshore,
the humpbacks are migrating.
The sharks pay no attention.
Like at Seal Island,
they're after the pups.
(pup crying)

But the sharks can't ambush
from the deep here;
the water's too shallow
and clear.

Then how do they
get the job done?

They're incredibly adaptable.

Hiding behind the adults,
pups flounder in the surf.

Ryan has never before
had the opportunity
to watch white sharks
tested like this.

There's no chance of
surprising a seal here.

A shark patrols the cliff face
engaging the prey
in plain sight.
It's looking for
a single small seal.

But the sharks aren't the only
adaptable species here.

The larger seals gang up.

Attack is the best
form of defense.
But only to a point.
And the cat-and-mouse game
begins.
NARRATOR: Ryan Johnson is
at Robberg Nature Reserve
off the coast of South Africa.
A hunt is underway.
Here, conditions
favor the prey.

So far, it's seals, one;
white shark, zero.
But great whites
don't give up easily,
and they're patient.
Then, a small seal
separates from the rest.
It's go time.

(squeal)
The shark strike is so quick
the seal is mortally wounded.

Ryan is right beside the shark.

This seal was dozing,
vulnerable.
It paid with its life.
(heartbeat)
RYAN: I cannot believe
what I just saw!
Holy moly!
Somebody help us up,
it's not good water
to be in at the moment.
Bloomin' heck!
What we just went through.
(laughing)
Damn, Barry.
(laughing)
BARRY SKINSTAD:
It's good to be alive.
RYAN: Wow.
That is something else.
I tell you,
that's something else.
NARRATOR: It's a clear message.
Against the odds,
white sharks are able to pick
the perfect moment and execute.
It's the same ability
Helen used
when she attacked
the humpback whale.
Nothing random about it.
RYAN: How that shark snuck up
and was successful,
one second it was there,
and the next second it was
feeding and thrashing.
Yoh.
You think you've
witnessed it all,
you think you've seen it all,
but you ain't seen nothing
until you've been in the water
with a hunting great white.
NARRATOR: Hunting great whites
have one very subtle ability
over all the others.
They can detect the moment
of maximum vulnerability
and exploit it.
Helen used her intuition when
she went after the big whale,
and she had extra
motivation to do that.
In winter, small seals are
plentiful and easy prey,
but in the spring when
the seals have grown up,
they're more difficult
to catch.
So, the sharks must
adapt their diet.

What would a big great white
risk then
for a bellyful of blubber?
(whale sings)
An attack on a whale?
Perhaps.
Over 30,000 humpback whales
migrate through sharky waters
off the coast of South Africa.
They're headed to Mozambique.
Humpbacks are the fifth
largest whale species.
They can reach up to 60 feet
and weigh a staggering 40 tons.
That's three times longer
than the world's largest
great white shark
and 30 times heavier.
The whales are big
and strong enough
to injure or kill
a healthy white shark.
But that blubber jackpot might
be too tempting to pass up.
(whale sings)
(whale blows)
Now it's midwinter
in the Southern Hemisphere.
This blue wilderness
has many players,
and they're all on the move.
Ryan must keep track of it all.
He's watching the movements
of great whites.
Do they follow the whales
as they move north?
Helen has made
this journey before.
In the winter of 2016,
she was tracked all the way
to Mozambique.
That's where the whales
go every year
to breed the next
generation of humpbacks.
Was Helen waiting for them?
Ryan's searching hard
for evidence
of white shark and
humpback interaction,
and that Helen's attack
on the humpback whale
was anything but random.

During this time of year,
there's a great gathering
of marine species.
A vast run of sardines
headed in the same direction.

It's one of the ocean's
greatest feeding events
and lures predators
of all kinds.
Dolphins, gannets, seals,
thousands of sharks
and hundreds of whales.
Ryan looks for whales
with bite marks or wounds;
hard evidence of shark attacks.
These are Bryde's whales.
They're here to feed.

(clicking)
But the humpbacks
don't join in.
They simply keep going.
Do they get ambushed
as they go by?
Finding scars or wounds
might mean yes.
RYAN: So, we've just come across
our first resting humpback.
This is a good chance to
get in and start looking
for shark bites and shark wounds
on these humpbacks.
Oh, there's,
a shark just jumped.
See that?
A shark just jumped. Nice!
And what I'm hoping to get
is to look for some scars,
some evidence of shark bites,
and then we know that it's
possibly a more common behavior
than we first expected.
Wow, look at that, okay.

NARRATOR: The whale
is pec-slapping,
slapping its pectoral fin
on the surface
signaling to other
whales nearby.
Ryan must be careful.

He didn't see any bite marks,
but he has seen
footage of a subadult
badly bitten...
and badly bitten
by a mob of sharks.
NARRATOR: This young humpback
is the victim
of a shark attack.
The rare footage shows
open wounds made by sharks
trying to get at the blubber
beneath the skin.
But the bites are too small
for a great white.
And with so many bites, it must
have been a shiver of sharks.
Likely duskies chasing
the sardine run.
Dusky sharks don't work alone.
Could a school of them
take down a whale?

This evidence suggests
that they tried.
Yet somehow this young whale
escaped with its life
and kept going.

The migrating humpbacks have
only one objective now:
the safehouse of Mozambique.
It's a whale birthing paradise
far from the usual hunting
grounds of great white sharks.
Vulnerable baby whales can
nurse, grow and gain strength.
The adults have traveled
4,000 miles to safety.
The warm water
and lack of predators
give their species
the best chance of survival.
(whales singing)
It's a magical time.
The whales spend up to
four months mating, birthing,
and nursing their young.
(whale sings)

(whale sings)
This is their time
to bond and interact.
(whales sing)
But these adult whales
have not eaten
since they left Antarctica
months ago.
Their strength
diminishes each day,
and the time is coming when
all of them, adults and calves,
will have to swim
the 4,000 miles
back to Antarctica to feed.
RYAN: After four months
up at Mozambique,
they start this
return migration down,
and that's when it's going
to get really interesting,
'cause at that stage you're
going to have these weak whales,
these whales that haven't fed up
enough that have been starved
for the last
four or five months.
And as they go down,
they're gonna be the ones
that I think are really
vulnerable to attack by sharks.

NARRATOR: Now it's springtime,
and the humpback whales
begin the journey south,
back to Antarctica.
(whale sings)
Everything works against them.

New mothers dig into
precious energy reserves
to produce 100 pounds
of milk a day.
RYAN: So, look at this.
You can see that utter, utter
commitment of these whales
to get back to Antarctica.
She's been up at Mozambique
for the last three, four months
feeding that baby,
getting its blubber layer up,
getting it ready for those
cold waters of Antarctica.
And now she's got one mission,
and that's to get down
past South Africa,
across to Antarctica
and get back to the food.
You know, you look at
this coastline,
and it looks pristine,
it looks beautiful,
but what is hidden is
the amount of perils
that these whales face.
There's shipping lanes here,
there's nets,
there's longliners, there's
shark bather protection nets.
And it's when
they get entangled,
it's when they get weakened,
it's when they get isolated
from each other that they become
vulnerable to shark attacks.
NARRATOR: Helen's attack
on a humpback happened
at the end of summer during
this return trip to Antarctica.
The whale she attacked
was tangled up
in heavy fishing line
and all alone.
Humpback whales have
close family bonds,
but the safety of the pod
comes first.
(whale blows)
Stragglers are left behind.
This humpback was still
2,000 miles from Antarctica.
It was weak and vulnerable;
everything a white shark
looks for in a victim.
Worst of all, it was alone
in white shark territory.
NARRATOR: The grueling
migration back to Antarctica
can be fatal to whales.
Some are too old,
too weak or just unlucky.
When a whale dies, it's like
a dinner bell for sharks.

They didn't kill it,
but that doesn't matter.

Whale blubber is pure fat.
Sharks convert
the fat to energy,
which they store in
their massive livers.
They'd have to kill 200 seals
to get the same energy boost.

Of course, sharks
scavenging dead whales
is not new to science.
But a great white attacking
a living whale is new.

Just what would a shark do
for a mouthful of whale?
If the right opportunity
came along,
would they go in for the kill?
Killing a live whale
is vastly different
to scavenging a carcass.
RYAN: And what struck me
was just how patient,
just how strategic Helen was
when she was going
about this attack.
She wasn't trying to eat,
she was trying to weaken,
she was trying to slow down.
She was trying to slowly
overcome this whale
before even considering
feeding on it.
NARRATOR: To do that,
Helen attacked
the whale's tail first.

(whale blows)

A washed-up carcass reveals
just how difficult it is
for a shark to get
the better of a whale.
RYAN: This tail is one
of the main power forces
for any humpback whale.
It can literally propel one
of the whales, a 40-ton whale,
18 meters out of the water.
So, even for the biggest,
strongest great white shark,
if it took a knock
by one of these,
it's tickets for the shark.
What was clear was
on that weak whale,
the first place
the great white targeted
was right here on the tail,
on the keel.
And the idea is, and I reckon
if I cut in here, we'll see it,
is that these big veins
that go here,
supplying energy to this muscle.
With the white shark targeting
this area here,
essentially what it could do
was open up a vein,
let the whale bleed out and then
when it was very, very weak,
almost dead, target it and
actually try to go and kill it.
NARRATOR: This is exactly
what Helen does.

She bites the whale's tail
again and again.
(whale squeals)

Eventually blood
begins to pour out.

(whale moans)
Then, as the whale
grows weaker,
Helen does something no one has
ever seen a shark do before.
NARRATOR: For the first time
in shark science,
Ryan witnesses a single white
shark killing a humpback whale.

The whale is tangled up in
fishing line, weak and alone.
White sharks are experts
at assessing vulnerability.
The young humpback has been
left behind by the pod.

There's no escape.
RYAN: Was Helen cognizant
of this? Most likely.
And it begs the question,
would this attack even
have been contemplated
if this whale was
at full strength?
And I think probably not.
NARRATOR: Helen uses
the same strategy
white sharks use
when hunting seals.
She's watchful and patient,
assessing the whale's strength
and ability to resist.

The whale's life
slowly bleeds away.

Helen patiently waits.
It's typical great white
hunting behavior,
but adapted for a whale.
Helen waits until the whale
is most vulnerable.
Her shark sense tells her
when that moment has come.
RYAN: So then she changed
her entire strategy
and started focusing
on the head.
Basically, like
this shark had done,
she grips onto this and she
essentially puts all her weight,
taking the head
of the whale down.
(whale groans)
NARRATOR: She uses
the weight of her body
to shove the whale's head
underwater.
(whale bellows)
Her goal is to drown it.
(whale moaning)

The great white is methodical.
She knows just what to do.

RYAN: And there is
a chance that Helen,
the shark that
attacked this whale,
has in fact learned
this behavior,
and it is unique to her.
But on the other hand,
it could have been
that it's just
a very common behavior,
that for some reason
scientists around the world
have not been able
to observe before.
NARRATOR: When Ryan compiles
this video evidence together
with the footage of Helen's
methodical expert attack,
he arrives at just
one conclusion.
White sharks are
going after whales
more often than we think.
(whale blows)
After 50 minutes of patient,
persistent effort,
the whale draws its last breath
and Helen succeeds
in drowning it.

RYAN: Filming it and
actually documenting,
you get conclusive evidence
that great white sharks
can in fact predate
and hunt on whales,
and that's brand new to science.
It's never been seen before,
never been documented before,
and it opens up an entirely
new avenue of research.
NARRATOR:
Helen, the white shark,
found vulnerability
and opportunity.
She calculated the risks,
successfully took down
not a seal, but a whale,
and ate her reward.
Great white sharks are among
the most lethal and effective
apex predators on the planet,
and Helen is likely not
the only whale hunter
on this coast.
Captioned by
Side Door Media Services