Air Jaws: Red, White and Breach

You ready?

25 years ago...

Shark Week cameras documented the first flying great white.

Oh, man!

God!

-Get that? -Yeah.

Air Jaws was born.

As years passed...

Camera in?

...cameras and decoys improved...

Yeah!

...capturing every detail

of these acrobatic apex predators.

Whoa!

-However... -Whoa-hoo-hoo!

...experts believe sharks only took flight

in South Africa and New Zealand

until now.

And finally, the photograph of a lifetime.

In a photobomb no one would believe if they didn't have

the picture to prove it.

A great white caught breaching

near the Los Angeles coastline.

These reports from Southern California actually bring into

question everything we thought we knew about Air Jaws.

All right, here we go.

It's quite likely a global phenomenon,

but what's happening here and why is it happening here?

Could Air Jaws have a new home...

-Breach! -...here in America?

-Whoa! -

Whoo! Can you believe it?

Air Jaws America!

Welcome to Southern California,

home to millions of beachgoers...

...the land of iconic surf,

and a growing population

of great white sharks.

Look down right now, right under the drone.

Coming right at you!

While attacks are rare, close encounters like this

happen regularly.

Ooh, that's close!

There he is!

But it's not just the increase in numbers getting attention.

Stay right where you are. Do not move.

There is a signature great white behavior

that has never been documented here

until now.

For the first time,

flying great whites have been observed

off Southern California.

Filmmaker Jeff Kurr was

the first to capture Air Jaws.

The seals are safe there,

and in a lot of danger right there.

I've been filming flying sharks for a quarter century

in South Africa, mainly, and also New Zealand.

The thought that they're actually breaching right off

this coast, right here in Southern California,

for reasons unknown to us, and we want to know why.

I had to call Andy to get here.

Jeff is joined by Shark Week veteran Andy Casagrande.

Great white sharks are exploding along the California coast,

and the fact that we might

actually be able to capture Air Jaws in California, USA,

is phenomenal to me.

Joining them is resident Air Jaws scientist

Dr. Alison Towner.

Alison has traveled more than 10,000 miles to witness

this phenomenon in person.

I'm blown away.

These reports that we're getting from Southern California

are unbelievable.

I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

It could make us question everything that we knew about Air Jaws.

Look!

Oh, ho!

So iconic.

-So cool. -That gives me goosebumps.

This is right off a very popular beach, right off

the PCH Pacific Coast Highway. -Fully out of the water.

Definitely a white shark.

White sharks classically use very deep water

to breach in South Africa.

And that's clearly not the case here, because in the US,

we're seeing it in really shallow water.

In fact, right next to these beaches.

I didn't see it jumping on anything.

It just looks like a spontaneous breach.

Yeah, interesting -- no boats around,

just launched right into the air.

What struck me is that

there's no immediately obvious prey in its mouth.

White sharks, they know what to waste energy on

and what not to.

This could be an opportunity to better understand what are

the driving mechanisms.

What is behind this breaching behavior here off California?

I think it's time we get out there now,

see it with our own eyes,

and meet the man who captured this footage.

Although great white sharks patrol all of California's shoreline,

the reported breaches are

concentrated on this part of the coast.

The team links up with the drone operator who has been

capturing this behavior, Carlos Gauna.

He's been filming these waters for the last five years.

He was the first to document

Southern California's flying great whites.

Carlos, what's up, man?

What's the action like right now?

Got a lot of action.

I got a 14-foot white shark about 150 yards away.

- Wow. - It is a big one.

Look at this.

The visibility looks insane.

Look at the scars on that thing.

The sharks have been breaching, and they breach so

consistently that you can almost predict

when they're going to do it.

The sharks are often in close contact with humans too.

Oh, yeah.

It's coming straight to you, dude.

A big one's right behind you.

Closer.

To your right, to your right, to your right.

And yet attacks in Southern California

are extremely rare.

I think the sharks here are accustomed to humans.

Very unique, because a lot of the activity that I document

happens right next to swimmers.

Let's see what the shark does.

There's so many people in the water

next to sharks who are doing their everyday things

right next to people here.

They might be sleeping.

Those sharks might be predating.

It doesn't necessarily mean they're here to feed,

but they are here to take advantage of any situation

that gives them an opportunity to eat.

So we don't really know why they're so close to shore,

especially some of the big ones that I film.

I've recorded a lot of crazy shark actions,

including the breaching.

The Holy Grail shot would solve the mystery of why they're doing it.

Carlos has observed this

dozens of times.

I've noticed that there's been at least one or two breaches

that I've seen with my own eyes every day.

But seeing a shark fly is easy.

Getting one on camera is much more difficult.

This small stretch of beachfront is where he's had

the most luck.

You've probably captured more breaches than anyone on

the coast of California. - I've filmed 18 breaches here.

-Wow. -And out of those 18,

14 of them occurred between this rock and that bluff.

-Oh, wow. - So this is the breach zone.

The breach zone's about 50 to 150 yards offshore.

And these areas are usually

where there's a drop

in the depth of the water.

So it could go from 10 feet

to 30 feet really fast.

These breaches, typically they occur between

10 and 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

And it's a completely natural occurrence.

So the biggest challenge is capturing it within the frame.

And that's a lot of persistence.

And when it happens, it just blows your mind.

This is a hot spot.

But why exactly are they doing that?

What's making them breach?

I think the only way to really dig deeper

is that we gotta get close.

So I brought a kayak, but I'm going to need your help

to get as close as possible and direct me to the sharks.

I can get you close to the sharks.

That I can guarantee.

We should let these guys continue to observe the animals

offshore while we go rig the kayak up and get you out

in the water. - Let's do it.

- Good luck. -Got that.

The breach zone that Carlos has identified is huge.

In South Africa, we capture breaches

around big seal colonies.

Capturing breaches with a decoy is tough enough,

but when you have no idea when the shark's gonna come

flying out of the water, that makes it even tougher.

Here we are, Shark Central USA.

We've got this amazing kayak command center.

It's rigged with cameras front, right, left, and center,

360 rigs and underwater.

Keep going, keep pushing.

My idea is to paddle out into the breach zone

and hopefully present myself as potentially a target.

Whoo-hoo-hoo!

With this many cameras, if the breach happens,

I'm bound to capture it.