Basking Sharks - Gentle Giants (22/34)

Basking Sharks - Gentle Giants (22/34)

Their looks are so frightening that even just one hundred years ago they were taken for sea monsters. Actually, however, the basking sharks which can be more than twelve meters long are harmless plankton-eaters and threatened with extinction. Only an estimated 8,000 animals are still roaming the oceans.

This film accompanies the marine biologists Jackie and Graham Hall to the last places where the giants are still to be found - a journey from the oceans' surface down to the deep sea. The scientists want to figure out when and where the restless giants go on their search for food and where they mate as this is the only way to protect them. The giants with a weight of up to eight tons shall therefore be equipped with a satellite-based transmitter - a plan which globally succeeded only a few times up to now.