I Tracked Down Big Sharks In UK Waters — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:002025 is the year where I saw my first
2. 0:02ever wild shark and it was right here in
3. 0:04the UK. I went snorkeling with my friend
4. 0:06Geo and found cat sharks and nurse
5. 0:08hounds and with that I was absolutely
6. 0:10buzzing. But the internet laughed at me
7. 0:12and tried to tell me that these aren't
8. 0:14real sharks, which they definitely are,
9. 0:16but whatever. Now, the UK has over 40
10. 0:18different species of shark ranging from
11. 0:20the ones I saw to the biggest shark
12. 0:21there is, the basking shark. Sharks have
13. 0:24all shapes and sizes, teeth or no teeth,
14. 0:26fear factor or no fear factor. But
15. 0:28today, in this video, I'm attempting to
16. 0:30give the internet what they want, an
17. 0:32actual real big shark that can be found
18. 0:34right here in the UK. A shark that when
19. 0:37you say the word shark, they instantly
20. 0:39know what you mean. So, you join me on
21. 0:40the Welsh coast on a beautiful sunny day
22. 0:42where I'm heading out to the Celtic deep
23. 0:44with hugely experienced shark experts
24. 0:46all to track down real big sharks in UK
25. 0:49waters.
26. 0:53[Music]
27. 1:07All right, then.
28. 1:09We're out on the water. We've got like
29. 1:1130 mi or so to go until we get to our
30. 1:15peak point of the Celtic deep, which is
31. 1:17where all the sharks, the whales, the
32. 1:18dolphins, all of that sort of stuff
33. 1:21could be.
34. 1:23The boys have been telling me about it
35. 1:25and I'm getting quite excited, maybe a
36. 1:27little bit nervous.
37. 1:29The Celtic deep is this corridor of
38. 1:30water between Ireland and Wales and
39. 1:32hosts a whole bunch of awesome marine
40. 1:34life. The area in which we're going to
41. 1:36is around 30 to 40 mi off the Welsh
42. 1:38coast and drops through around 100 m or
43. 1:40so in depth. Here, we may have the
44. 1:42opportunity to see dolphins like the
45. 1:44common and the bottlenose, bluefin tuna,
46. 1:46whales like the minke and even the
47. 1:48colossal fin whale and of course big
48. 1:50sharks like blue, mako and basking and
49. 1:53they've even had orca and loggerhead
50. 1:55turtles in these parts as well. So,
51. 1:57basically, we could see absolutely
52. 1:59anything. But the reason for why I was
53. 2:01starting to get a bit nervous is for a
54. 2:03bit later on in this video. Right now
55. 2:05though, as we leave the land behind and
56. 2:06zoom on out to the vast nothingness, it
57. 2:08turns out we've got some company.
58. 2:10>> Look at this straight out there.
59. 2:12We've got some dolphins. Yeah. Wow, look
60. 2:15at him.
61. 2:19No way.
62. 2:22Oh, you can hear that. Oh my god.
63. 2:26Wow, what?
64. 2:29Oh.
65. 2:30Look at him go.
66. 2:32Well, if that doesn't warm the heart, I
67. 2:34don't know what does. No, that's
68. 2:35amazing. The dolphins we've just had
69. 2:37around the boat are common dolphins.
70. 2:39Measuring up to 2.5 m and weighing
71. 2:41around 150 kg, you can see these around
72. 2:44the entirety of the UK coastline and
73. 2:46sometimes in crazy big numbers. They can
74. 2:48be really speedy in the water, too,
75. 2:50reaching speeds of up to 30 mph.
76. 2:52>> Wait, what have you just seen?
77. 2:53Tuna on the bow there. Tuna? Yeah, and
78. 2:56dolphin.
79. 2:59It's too started. Okay, so we've just
80. 3:01had the dolphins in front of the bow.
81. 3:03And then just off this way, George has
82. 3:05spotted tuna and dolphins.
83. 3:08Oh my word. We're racing over that way
84. 3:10now. Wow, look at it. Look at it.
85. 3:13Hello.
86. 3:15All right, George, tell me what's going
87. 3:16on. All right, we've just come to the
88. 3:18end of the bait ball. Yeah, so we just
89. 3:20missed it, but we've got the dolphins
90. 3:21everywhere.
91. 3:22Um they're slowly slowing down and
92. 3:24you've got a couple of gannets still
93. 3:26sticking around. The gannets will
94. 3:28The gannets are looking for the next
95. 3:29bait ball. That's what we're going to
96. 3:30do, too. If you have a look at 12:00,
97. 3:33there's more splashing about another 3/4
98. 3:36of a mile on the horizon. What's that?
99. 3:38>> And that's a new bait ball might be
100. 3:39forming. The term bait ball is used to
101. 3:41describe schooling fish bunching up
102. 3:43together in a ball shape as a sort of
103. 3:45defensive posture against predators,
104. 3:47predators of which I'm basically hanging
105. 3:49out with at the minute.
106. 3:55Oh, hey, look at this guy go.
107. 3:59More coming in there.
108. 4:01Wow.
109. 4:02There's a big group of gannets like on
110. 4:03our 12:00. Yeah. All these dolphins
111. 4:06around us here are kind of genuinely
112. 4:07going in that direction.
113. 4:09The The The lull is normally where
114. 4:11dolphins are then pushing all the fish
115. 4:12up towards the surface. All right, okay.
116. 4:15And then that's where bait balls start
117. 4:17happening and that's where things out
118. 4:19here get really really cool.
119. 4:21Sick, okay. So, we head in the direction
120. 4:23of the bait ball to hopefully get eyes
121. 4:25on the tuna, but unfortunately, it
122. 4:27dispersed again as we got close. The
123. 4:29dolphins however, they didn't. Wow, look
124. 4:31at all of this.
125. 4:33And dolphin. Oh my word.
126. 4:40Yo.
127. 4:43Oh man, look at this.
128. 4:45Man, I'm not going to get tired of this.
129. 4:47Look at these guys.
130. 4:50Got to just bear you in mind, this is
131. 4:52just off the Welsh coast here in the UK.
132. 4:54It's not Australia or the Bahamas, this
133. 4:56is the United Kingdom with dolphins
134. 4:58around the boat like that. It's crazy.
135. 5:00And I was absolutely loving every single
136. 5:02minute of it, but once the dolphins
137. 5:04decided they'd had enough of us, I
138. 5:05noticed the boys getting their gear
139. 5:07ready and well, it put mine to shame.
140. 5:09Some gear in it.
141. 5:11Flipping heck.
142. 5:15Jesus. Yeah, that's a deposit on a
143. 5:17house. Yeah, that's better than my gear.
144. 5:19Cameras aside though, it's now time to
145. 5:20try and lure some marine life in and a
146. 5:22bucket is about to go overboard. So Dan,
147. 5:24what was in that?
148. 5:26It's a special mixture which we can't
149. 5:28reveal.
150. 5:29It's a top secret.
151. 5:30>> Top secret secret recipe for the shark.
152. 5:32It's mostly uh things like oily fish,
153. 5:35things like mackerel. Yeah. Uh
154. 5:38and then a few other elements in there
155. 5:39that smells really disgusting to us, but
156. 5:41amazing to sharks. So, literally we just
157. 5:43chuck it off the back here. It's going
158. 5:44to sit on the side of the boat. Yeah.
159. 5:46And slowly as it defrosts, it will leak
160. 5:49out all these holes,
161. 5:50which will create a chum slick that will
162. 5:52start drifting off and drifting down
163. 5:54critically, which is where the sharks
164. 5:56are going to be.
165. 5:57And then over time, they'll start
166. 5:58picking up the trail, start swimming
167. 6:00through the chum slick and making their
168. 6:02way to the boat.
169. 6:04Okay.
170. 6:11No way.
171. 6:15Oh, look, they're like investigating it.
172. 6:19Yeah, with that much wind, Oh, look at
173. 6:20that.
174. 6:25The dolphins investigated this smelly
175. 6:26barrel for a few moments before
176. 6:28disappearing once again. But now we have
177. 6:29our fingers crossed that sharks do
178. 6:31appear. With things like mako and
179. 6:33porbeagle being a possibility of showing
180. 6:35up, there is actually one shark species
181. 6:37in particular that is most likely and
182. 6:38that's the blue shark. Measuring up to
183. 6:40an average of nearly 3 m in length and
184. 6:42weighing over 100 kg, this is a shark
185. 6:44that you think of when someone says
186. 6:46shark. They have this blue tints to
187. 6:47their backs, which is where they get
188. 6:49their name from and they can be seen
189. 6:50pretty much all over the world barring
190. 6:52the polar extremes. In the UK, summer is
191. 6:54when they appear and they'll come here
192. 6:56to feed on squid and small fish. So,
193. 6:58hopefully our chum slick brings some in.
194. 7:00My balance just took a whack up here.
195. 7:02Flipping heck. I'm on top of the boat.
196. 7:06And uh I feel quite wobbly.
197. 7:08But we're here
198. 7:09waiting for the sharks to appear
199. 7:11with our chum slick, which for a while I
200. 7:14couldn't actually see, but it's this bit
201. 7:16right here.
202. 7:17It goes off there.
203. 7:19Basically, the smoother looking water.
204. 7:21So, that right there
205. 7:22is basically so the sharks can smell it
206. 7:25and they can come in
207. 7:27and try and find the source of that
208. 7:28smell, which is
209. 7:30right down there.
210. 7:32And then that's when
211. 7:34we're going to appear.
212. 7:38Oh my god, I'm so I'm so unstable.
213. 7:40[Laughter]
214. 7:42So, here we are then, bobbing around in
215. 7:43the vast nothingness. We had a few birds
216. 7:45come to join us and one of those was the
217. 7:47great skua, a red-listed bird here in
218. 7:49the UK that's mostly seen in the summer
219. 7:50months. They're predatory and usually
220. 7:52chase around other birds to try and get
221. 7:54them to drop their food. However, there
222. 7:55were no signs of sharks and the sun is
223. 7:57starting to go down. Now, before you
224. 7:59think that means we failed for the day,
225. 8:01I've got some news for you. Spending all
226. 8:02night out here.
227. 8:04That's right.
228. 8:05We're hoping
229. 8:06fingers crossed anyway, we're hoping
230. 8:09that the sharks appear
231. 8:10and they appear into the night so we can
232. 8:13film them in the darkness. So, we've got
233. 8:16big torches that we're just going to
234. 8:17hang off the boat
235. 8:19and
236. 8:20we'll see what we can see. Sharks at
237. 8:22nighttime.
238. 8:23We'll see if we can get it. It'll be
239. 8:25really cool. Like these guys are super
240. 8:26excited for it and some of the gear
241. 8:28they've got is mad.
242. 8:30Uh not like what I'm rocking.
243. 8:33But still, should be pretty cool.
244. 8:36But right now, I still want to see my
245. 8:37first shark.
246. 8:39First big shark, you know. I've never
247. 8:41seen a big shark. Seen the cat sharks,
248. 8:43I've seen the nurse hounds. I've never
249. 8:45seen a big proper shark. So, I'm feeling
250. 8:49hopeful.
251. 8:50These boys, they're excited. I'm feeding
252. 8:53off of that excitement.
253. 8:55And I just can't wait now. I want a
254. 8:56shark. What are you uh
255. 8:58What are you doing here, lad?
256. 8:59What we're doing here is just having
257. 9:01like an indicator bait. So, we're just
258. 9:02going to tie a fish on
259. 9:04really loosely,
260. 9:06drop it in the water
261. 9:08and it will just let us know when the
262. 9:09sharks are around without hooks. No
263. 9:11hooks. No hooks? Just no no hooks, just
264. 9:14indicator. So, this is a like a free
265. 9:16dinner for a shark. This is a free
266. 9:18dinner for the sharks, absolutely. Yeah,
267. 9:20it was me trying to be nice.
268. 9:22So, with two indicator bait rods in the
269. 9:24water waiting for a shark to snatch
270. 9:25them, the sun quickly set on us and it
271. 9:27was into the nighttime. From here, we
272. 9:29rigged the side of the boat with beams
273. 9:30of light so we could see the action and
274. 9:32then it was just a waiting game.
275. 9:40What is it?
276. 9:41Shark. Right, well, apparently we've
277. 9:43just seen a blue shark. I didn't
278. 9:45get it with my own eyes, but um the guys
279. 9:48at the top there
280. 9:50managed to see it and I think I was
281. 9:52filming at the time, so like I must have
282. 9:54filmed it, but um I'll have to watch
283. 9:56that back and see, but I didn't see it
284. 9:58with my naked eye, so Yeah.
285. 10:00I'm hoping that
286. 10:02in here
287. 10:04it pops up again. That'll be lovely.
288. 10:07There there there there there look.
289. 10:09Oh, there's two of them then cuz there's
290. 10:11there's that one down there.
291. 10:16Here we go.
292. 10:17>> There's definitely two of them.
293. 10:19We've got two sharks. I can't properly
294. 10:21see them, but they're just off the side
295. 10:23of the boat.
296. 10:24This is uh
297. 10:25it's quite a bit exciting. So, they hit
298. 10:28the uh
299. 10:29bait rod.
300. 10:34Yeah. See the eye glowing. Oh, you're a
301. 10:36tough ass. Oh, you're a tough ass.
302. 10:37Here we go. Yeah, boy.
303. 10:39Good boy.
304. 10:41Good boy.
305. 10:42Come on, there's a shark.
306. 10:44Good boy, he's looking at us.
307. 10:48There we go. Yeah.
308. 10:54Oh.
309. 10:54That's so sick.
310. 10:57See?
311. 10:58That's so bad. And here is what I was
312. 11:00nervous for. I'm going in.
313. 11:03[Music]
314. 11:15[Music]
315. 11:27[Music]
316. 11:38[Music]
317. 11:51[Music]
318. 12:01[Music]
319. 12:14[Music]
320. 12:25[Music]
321. 12:40[Music]
322. 12:50Oh, man.
323. 12:53That was so sick.
324. 12:54Oh.
325. 12:55I was so happy with that.
326. 12:57It's my first big shark in the UK.
327. 13:02That was so cool.
328. 13:08Honestly, I was a bit blown away by this
329. 13:10experience. Swimming with blue sharks at
330. 13:12night time for sure got the blood
331. 13:13pumping. And I've got to say a massive
332. 13:15thank you to Pembrokeshire Boat Charters
333. 13:17for making this happen. They made this
334. 13:19whole experience what it is. And if you
335. 13:20want to experience what you've just
336. 13:21seen, but in the daylight, these are who
337. 13:23you need to go with. Their links are in
338. 13:25the description. Reach out and get your
339. 13:27own big shark adventure. Also, a big
340. 13:29thank you to Aquanauts for providing me
341. 13:31with a prescription face mask. Being
342. 13:32able to see is mad underrated, so check
343. 13:34them out as well. Now then, guys, I just
344. 13:36want to say thank you for watching. If
345. 13:38you want to support me further, you can
346. 13:39do so by joining the Patreon, buying a
347. 13:41calendar, or coming on a workshop or
348. 13:43group trip with me. Or simply just press
349. 13:45the like and leave a comment. For now
350. 13:46though, I've been Cookie. I'll see you
351. 13:48in the next one. Take care.
352. 13:51Mate.
353. 13:52Look at the state of that.