The Beauty and the Shark (2/3)

The Beauty and the Shark (2/3)

From the first time she saw a shark, German comedy star Wolke Hegenbarth was fascinated by their beauty, grace and amazing abilities. Since she moved to her new home in Cape Town, South Africa, she has been confronted with the threats facing sharks, and resolved to fight for their survival. For the "terrors of the seas" are themselves among the most endangered ocean species. Over 100 million sharks have been fished to make shark fin soup. The worldwide stock has shrunk by up to 95% - a fate worse that any whale. Wolke even learned to scuba dive to make this doc with prize-winning director Florian Guthknecht. We accompany her as she dives into the world of sharks, step by step. From little cat sharks she catches with her hands to study them, all the way to the hunt for the Big One, the legendary Great White Shark. Traveling a thousand miles along the eastern coast of South Africa, she finally runs into the largest predatory shark, the tiger shark - diving without a cage with one, to rig it with a tracking device. Their final stop is the world's southernmost coral reef, on the border to Mozambique, where Wolke goes for a swim with the gentle whale sharks, the world's largest fish. She meets a number of researchers intensely committed to securing the sharks' survival. Wolke's experiences, her curiosity and her care, open up a whole new view of the purported man-eating monsters, a poetic encounter of two extremes: Beauty and the Shark.

German star actress takes us along as she learns to dive off South Africa, and learns all about the most fabled and fearsome aquatic animal: the shark. Today, however, sharks are themselves endangered, even more than whales.

Please consider as well the episodes "Jellyfish: Terrible Beauties" and "Catfish - Monsters in the Lake"