Saving Jaws

Aloha, I'm Keoni Bowthorpe, and for the last several years,

I've had the honor of directing this film, Saving Jaws.

I met Juan and Ocean in the summer of 2014.

I was immediately impressed by their knowledge base about sharks, of course,

but even more by their passion for going out into the world to share their message.

It wasn't long before we began shooting and sketching out

a framework for what would becomeSaving Jaws.

But I couldn't have known how important their instruction would be,

until the morning of October 9th, not a year later.

Pretty much out of nowhere, you know, I felt like a truck ran into me

and took me a second to realize, you know, that a massive shark was on my leg,

and I saw Keoni, yelled at him. He's the... He's, he's really the hero.

He paddled over there with the shark on me, and...

You know, he was able to get me, you know to the beach, really to safety.

Seeing that the shark was headed toward them,

Keoni used his knowledge about sharks

to thrust one end of his paddle against its nose, to push it away.

It's my belief that what they taught me was instrumental in saving the life

of the fellow surfer that day, right here at Leftovers Beach Park.

Over the years, I've developed a deep respect

for Juan and Ocean, and an urgency for their cause.

And I think that you will, too. Thank you for watching Saving Jaws.

Sometimes people ask me if I'm afraid.

If I'm afraid of the way this might end.

I always tell them the same thing.

Yes, I am afraid.

Then I tell them exactly what I'm about to tell you.

The way this ends is up to you.

- -A young woman being called

The Shark Whisperer, a fearless daredevil

who swims with great whites.

We continue with the news today. Now the story of a woman

who loves close encounters with great white sharks.

She's a Hawaiian diver, a model, and a shark conservationist,

and now she is a YouTube sensation.

So who do I call if I go to Hawaii?

Her name's Ocean Ramsey.

-So shout out to her. -Ocean? Her name's Ocean?

-Her name is Ocean... -Alright, that sounds like...

-she's legit, she's legit. -Yeah, okay.

That's Ocean, swimming alongside a great white.

Recently, she's become known

as a Shark Whisperer.

Is Ocean Ramsey the Shark Whisperer?

-Welcome, Ocean Ramsey. -

I am not a Shark Whisperer.

There's a science to everything beautiful in nature,

and that's kind of that natural, perfect balance.

I'm Juan Oliphant. I've worked with Ocean for well over a decade.

Yes, she likes to say everything is science, but does science explain

everything I've seen her do over the years?

I mean, you tell me there isn't something special happening here.

I never really liked the term Shark Whisperer because they're wild animals,

I love them for that, we need them for that.

It's not the shark that you're whispering to, it's actually people.

Whispering to people about sharks.

I know that if people could see sharks the way that I do,

we wouldn't be talking about extinction right now.

It's a perception of sharks that we're fighting to change on a daily basis.

So we hit the streets to get some opinions.

Excuse me? Would it be all right if we asked you guys some questions?

-Yeah. -Yeah, sure.

So what's the first word

that comes to your mind when I say, "sharks"?

-Jaws. -Teeth. Jaws, yeah.

Your first reaction

when I say the word sharks.

I'm scared, I don't wanna swim.

I think of, like, some crazy teeth.

A big megalodon that's gonna eat someone.

Fear.

I have an extreme fear of sharks.

-Fear. -Fear.

And, um, that I don't like them.

-Anxiety. -Predator.

-Fear. -Danger.

They could just like come up on you and attack you.

Just being terrified of 'em.

About 100 million sharks

are taken out of the ocean every year.

Why do you think that

that's sort of allowed to happen?

That we take like 100 million--

Shark meat is good!

- -Shark meat?

It's a meat like a meat-meat.

Like uh... and it's good for you.

I wouldn't care if there were sharks in the ocean or not.

I mean, I don't think it would really change my lifestyle.

It wouldn't affect me.

Why you think people are afraid of sharks?

-Because of Jaws! -It's when the Jawsmovie came out.

-Certainly Jaws. -Of course, there's Jaws.

-Movies like Jaws. -'Cause of the media.

Well any sort of media surrounding sharks is just like,

-"They're monsters". They're terrible. -I don't know, the movies.

- - When the movie Jaws first opened,

it created a sensation.

And shark sightings increased by the thousands.

Now...

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water,

the legend continues.

"Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water."

That's the tagline for Jaws 2,

and that's the tagline because Jawshad such a huge impact

on the American public and, really, the whole world

that people were afraid to go in the water

after seeing that movie.

It's a scary film.

Jawswas really one of the first blockbusters we ever had.

It was seen all across the world.

And it scared people out of the water for a very long time.

That's a shark.

Out of the water! Out of the water, now!

From ridiculous big-budget actioners

like Deep Blue Sea and The Meg,

to little, indie, Sundance films

like Open Water,shark movies continue to be profitable.

Oh, crap.

Kind of against all odds, because they're out of good ideas.

They're out of original ideas. We're doing things now like

Avalanche Sharks, Sharknado.But just watch,

they'll keep making these Sharknadomovies

because they continue to make money.

People wanna see them. Most of these movies

-aren't actually scary anymore. -

And so I think we can really attribute the lasting interest,

the success of shark movies, and the fear of shark movies, to Jaws.

It's extremely effective in playing upon our most base,

human, primal fears.

The impact of Jaws is undeniable.

Whether you've seen the film or not, you know that poster.

Whether you've seen the film or not, you know that music.

Sh-shark!

And it's created generations

of people who are afraid of sharks.

And afraid to go in the water

because of sharks, because of Jaws.

Fear of sharks is nothing new, Drawings and even

ancient artifacts have proven this.

However, in the last 50 years,

fishing methods have become so efficient,

and with the rise of the middle class in China,

demand for shark fin soup has skyrocketed.

The fear of sharks is what has allowed

the finning industry to go unchecked.

Shark finning is the process in which the shark has its fins cut off.

It is then dumped back in the ocean

to suffocate or bleed to death.

An absolutely cruel and wasteful practice.

All this for shark fin soup,

an expensive and lucrative status symbol.

I have to believe if people knew what was happening,

they wouldn't allow it to exist.

So we just touched down in China.

We're here for a purpose, and that's to kinda look at

how prevalent shark fin soup really is, and shark products.

Uh, so we're gonna kinda immerse ourselves in the culture, and talk to the people,

and find out attitudes and, um, beliefs and customs.

And see how many shark products there really are,

and what is the trend with the demand here,

at kinda ground zero.

So we're in Hong Kong, it's someplace I've always wanted to go,

just to experience the culture, and to really kind of investigate

how bad the shark fin soup consumption is here.

I've heard mixed reviews, but apparently we can find it

everywhere on the street. It's what we're told from the locals.

And, uh, what I've read in the papers and the studies they've been doing.

They've been showing a huge decline in the demand for it here,

because of education that's come here.

So we're gonna dig in here in the next couple days

and really kinda find out what's goin' on

and, uh, hopefully it's as good as the papers say

and not as good as the locals, uh, say,

as far as the consumption, so, um, we'll find out.

So we're gonna explore this area, um,

what I'm packing is, uh, several copies of a letter.

It's written in Chinese and explains the importance of sharks,

and kind of their demise,

and why this restaurant, store, or whatever

shouldn't serve any kind of shark product, here.

So I'm packing a couple of these.

Uh, we've got a couple of leads on places

that we're gonna start to check out.

But again, the idea is to kinda see how prevalent

shark fin, um, soup and shark products are in the area.

Shark fin soup with mixed vegetables.

Shark fin soup with shredded chicken.

And supreme braised shark fin.

And then clay pot shark fin soup.

And double-boiled superior shark fins with chicken.

So we're on one of the, the many streets in Hong Kong.

Every single shop, pretty much, has shark fins.

Um, this one, right over here, is literally just bags of it.

And they've got the posters that show the different species of sharks.

I'm pretty sure I've seen white sharks,

whale sharks, tiger sharks, basking sharks.

It's um...

There's a lot. I've-- I was shocked.

So, Hong Kong was a little bit of...