Jefferies: I'm on a shark research boat
off the coast of South Africa.
But the actual story begins over 7,000 miles away
on the other side of the Earth.
Jefferies: And it started as a ridiculous story.
I was in Asia, and I heard about a dish
called shark-fin soup.
One bowl could cost $200.
The shark fin has no flavor,
but eating it proves you're rich,
and that proves you're crazy.
Basically it proves you're a crazy rich Asian,
the least diverse movie I've ever seen.
Plus, there was a rumor that the soup has
a very special magic power.
Is it good for sex? Does it help with [bleep]?
Uh, no.
All right. Can't hurt to ask.
Hmm...
When the soup is made, do they use the whole shark?
Hmm. Just the fin?
Something about this soup seemed...fishy.
And Hong Kong imports an insane
5,700 tons of shark fins a year.
Where do you even find that many?
Where do you get your actual shark fins from?
Interpreter: If they're from overseas,
they come from Indonesia or Africa.
Well, I do love burning through
Comedy Central's money, so to find out more,
I bought a first-class ticket to South Africa.
I found two shark researchers
and climbed aboard their vessel.
I think we're gonna need a bigger boat.
"Jaws."
And we headed out
onto the gentle South African waters.
Ohh!
And that brings us to now.
So once I clean this seagull shit off meself,
I've got a test for these so-called marine biologists
to see if I can truly trust them.
Okay. I'm gonna see if you're shark experts.
Which shark is this?
Let's go with, like, a fetal tiger shark.
What -- What shark's that?
Is it supposed to be a white shark?
It might be easier to recognize it's a white shark
if it was wearing a MAGA hat.
Which shark is this?
-[ Laughs ] -No idea.
-You don't know who this is? -I don't have a television.
I bet you have a laptop and you watch Netflix nonstop,
and then you brag about not having a TV.
I know your kind.
All right. Their lack of TV knowledge
means that these are, in fact, real scientists.
Let's get down to business.
How many sharks are killed in the world each year?
70 to 100 million.
Holy hell.
I thought you were gonna go, "One million, two million."
100 million? How many do you reckon we've got left?
I mean, we can't even begin to answer that.
We know more about the surface of the moon
than we do our own ocean floor.
So you think we really went to the moon?
[ Laughter ]
And obviously with sharks,
they're incredibly crucial to an ecosystem.
Most of them are top predators in this area.
So what you're saying is we need them to eat shit
to keep everything good.
We need to keep a balance, and the problem is,
as humans, we've tipped that balance beyond recovery.
It's not just fishing. Fishing's a huge part of it.
Or finning, which is a part of overfishing.
Have you ever heard of shark finning before?
It's an incredibly brutal practice.
Whole sharks are brought on board,
and their fins are physically cut off,
and the rest of the animal's body
is then chucked back overboard.
And what happens to the animal when it's chucked overboard?
It's like cutting your arms and legs off and chucking you in.
You've not really got much of a chance of survival.
It just sinks or...?
Die a very painful, yeah, slow death.
Jesus.
And it's all being done for some shit bowl of soup.
The fin is the valuable bit,
so poachers just toss the rest of the shark away.
Is it happening here in South Africa, the shark finning?
It's happening all over the world.
It's a global crisis.
Would you like to see, like, like, a shark poacher
just every now and again, one of them get eaten?
It just happened now in South Africa,
that poachers were killed by lions.
Yeah. That gives me an erection. I love that.
I love the idea of, like, someone's hunting,
and then the lion eats them.
I have -- I feel no pity for the hunter at all
when that happens.
I'm like, "[Bleep]. Suck a dick, man.
You got [bleep] eaten by a lion."
Now that I know about shark finning,
it's back to Hong Kong.
[Bleep]. I could have just recorded it while I was there.
I want to see the neighborhood where shark fins are sold.
Unsurprisingly, it's super creepy,
and some of them even come gift-wrapped.
In recent years, environmental activists
have targeted these markets, which might explain
all these "no filming" signs
that I don't give a [bleep] about.
Where are we right now?
So, we are in the major
shark-fin trade hub in the world.
Diego Cardenosa is an expert on the shark-fin trade.
Who was the first guy to [bleep] cut one off
and go, "This would taste good"?
Seems like a big leap to me.
Yeah, but it was, like,
many, many centuries ago that that happened.
They're obviously not hiding it.
This is very clearly out in the open.
So this isn't a thing that are done
in back alleys or behind closed doors.
Yeah. There's nothing illegal in Hong Kong.
Or there's not any law
that prohibit you to have fins like this.
See, buying a shark fin is legal
in much of the world, including a lot of the U.S.
as long as the entire shark
is brought back to the shore and used.
But when you just see a fin in the shop window...
That fin, if it's from
a hammerhead that came illegally...
Mm-hmm? ...once it's in the shops,
there's no way if it came legally or illegally.
So it's, like, laundered almost.
Right. Are these sharks endangered?
Some species are. Um...
How many animals did she kill to get that?
I'm telling ya. Zero [bleep] given.
Yes, these days, people who give zero [bleep]
are everywhere.
So, selfishly, I want to see some sharks up close
before it's too late.
And I've always wanted to do a shark dive.
Those are safe, right?
[ Indistinct shouting ]
See? Why not?
So it's time to add a name
to history's greatest sea explorers.
Cousteau, Cameron, and now Jefferies.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Aw. Jesus Christ, that's cold.
Holy balls, that's cold.
All right.
Just...don't...
shit yourself.
Don't shit yourself. Don't shit yourself.
Don't shit your-- [ Screams ]
♪♪
[ Laughter ]
♪♪
I wish I could say this really happened,
but we had to fake it for TV.
Because, actually, we didn't see one shark.
Just a bloody seal.
This happens on a lot of shark dives,
but we're dangerously close
to making this a permanent reality.
Jefferies: How do we solve this problem?
Towner: Well, it's a really complex situation.
Because obviously the demand is constantly there.
Research is key, and certainly support
for marine science is crucial.
It's crucial to the health of our planet.
So, news flash -- buying a shark fin
will not help you [bleep] better.
But if you still believe otherwise after watching this,
then I can guarantee...
no one wants to [bleep] you.
So let's all open our wallets to support research
before it's too late.