National Geographic: The Fox and the Shark Page #4

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Then they tested it

in shark infested waters.

Watch out for that... Hurry up!

Break a leg!

It really proves that the cage is safe

to abalone divers

because you've been involved

with five sharks down

here swimming around, attacking it,

and they've only taken the hose.

And if you've got

enough air to survive

and you can get up to the surface,

you'll be safe.

Makes the adrenaline pump, doesn't it?

The adrenalin really started

to pump in 1974

when Rodney was contracted to coordinate

the filming of live sequences

for the greatest shark film

of all time.

He had had experience with filming

great whites in the wild,

but "Jaws" was a

different kind of project.

They had sent over a small stuntman,

a midget diver and a small cage

so that the sharks would

look bigger because Jaws,

of course, Bruce was a 25 footer

and our sharks were only 14 foot.

And as we were dressing the little guy

one of the sharks came in and grabbed

hold of the propeller on my boat

and actually shook the boat physically

and it was well over 14 feet long,

and a very strong shark,

and as it swam along the side,

I'm saying to Carl, Quick,

get in the water, get in the water!

The cameraman's ready,

here's the shark,

and he kept saying, No, no, no!

The stunt diver wasn't the only one

who didn't want to go in the water.

"Jaws" was great entertainment,

but the public was terrorized,

and the perception of sharks

went from bad to worse.

Nobody realized at that time that it was

going to be a horror film

that was going

to frighten so many people,

including a lot of my friends,

out of the water.

I had people say to me,

I wouldn't even go in the bath now

after seeing the film Jaws!

For Rodney,

"Jaws" was the turning point

the moment he finally realized

that the sharks needed a champion.

And so he set out

to debunk the old myths.

He started a business an expedition

business taking filmmakers, scientists

even tourists out into

the South Australian seas

for face to face encounters with

the real great white sharks.

These days,

his business serves two ends

it contributes to marine science

and it satisfies Rodney's rather

large appetite for adventure.

Some experience, I'll tell you!

This scientific expedition will drop

anchor in the Neptune Islands

off the rugged coast of

South Australia to find, film,

and study great white sharks.

Rodney's son Andrew

has taken over the necessary,

if noxious, chore of mixing the key

ingredients of burley

a kind of foul stew that sharks seem

to find irresistible.

Blood, ground tuna, and a little

sea water that's the recipe.

Andrew will create

a smelly slick stretching several miles

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