A Specialized Human-Shaped Shark Cage: A Journey to The Bahamas

This is a specialized human-shaped shark cage that I designed. And this is me in the middle of a shark feeding frenzy in that cage, which as it happens, doesn't actually keep the sharks out. They're in the freaking cage. But to understand how I ended up in the middle of The Bahamas with buckets of blood, surrounded by a ton of sharks, we've gotta go back exactly one year.

Because that's when I ran a test to see what really happens if sharks smell a drop of human blood in the water. For that experiment, I pumped out 15 drops of human blood per minute for an hour, pretty close to a bunch of sharks that in the end just weren't really that interested. So this busted the myth from the movies that sharks are these ruthless killers that just go crazy if they smell a drop of your blood from a mile away.

But those results made me really curious if the sharks would react differently to fish blood versus human blood, and if they did go crazy for fish blood, could I use that to put myself right at the center of a shark feeding frenzy? And so to satiate my curiosity, my friends at Discovery helped me make my way back to The Bahamas as part of Shark Week this year. But this time, I wouldn't be alone.

"Hey up, Robes," said Mark, jumping in on this adventure. "Oh wow, Mark's jumping in on this!" What's up, y'all? Look, last Shark Week, shark tried to kill me. "Hmm?" I figure we'd have a little bit of science with Rober, a little bit of fun with Dude Perfect, and a little bit of me. All right, y'all ready to do this? "We were born ready, sir." Chop chop, let's get to it, fellas.

"Let's do this," said the team from Dude Perfect, looking forward to the adventure ahead. We will not let you down. Looking forward to it. See ya later. See ya. Yeah, I've got this idea for a build to just really get me in close with the sharks. Last year, I was in the water, and Rober...Rober. "Rober." Hmm? That was me saying I'm finished with the call, bro.

"No, of course," replied Mark, chuckling. All right, see you guys later. Let's get to it. Let's do this. Looking forward to it. See ya. And so in the direction of Shaq Diesel, it was time to head to The Bahamas. All that was left was to swab my nose to prove to the Bahamian government that I didn't have coronavirus.

The only problem was my test came back positive. And this just made me really sad because not only was I going to miss out on this epic adventure, but as far as I was concerned, I was basically just waiting to die. I had to interact with my family through the glass door of the backyard using a laser pointer and not even Fat Gus would get within six feet of me.

"I'm happy to say I eventually beat the RONA," I continued, "and tested negative." But the only problem now is that I missed my chance because they were no longer accepting any commercial flights from America. We're number one baby. So I was once again incredibly sad until I found a loophole.

Because while you couldn't go to The Bahamas on a public commercial flight, there were no rules against going to The Bahamas on a private jet. Since this was the first and last time I would ever have my own personal G6, I acted like I'd been here before, like the true professional I am. I mean, mostly.

Put Elon on hold and transfer to Oprah. I should mention, flying across country on your own plane isn't the most ecologically responsible choice. So while I was in the air, I utilized this website called TeamTrees.org. You might have heard of it. To plant enough trees to suck up the carbon not only for my flight but the next 100 flights that this plane would take.

In the end, it's important you guys know I'm still super grounded and didn't let the experience change me one bit. And so now that I was in The Bahamas, the first thing I did was check in with my marine biologist, shark diving expert buddy Luke Tipple, because we need to figure out how to somehow get blood out of a fish.

"Oh, just like that," said Luke, giggling. "Can you just freaking blend a fish?" Give it a shot. I'll be over here. Dude, you've clearly never seen what you're doing.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- This is a specializedhuman-shaped shark cage I designed.And this is me in the middleof a shark feeding frenzyin that cage, which as it happens,doesn't actually keep the sharks out.They're in the freaking cage.But to understand how I ended upin the middle of The Bahamaswith buckets of blood,surrounded by a butt ton of sharks,we've gotta go back exactly one year.Because that's when I ran atest to see what really happensif sharks smell a drop ofhuman blood in the water.For that experiment,I pumped out 15 drops of humanblood per minute for an hour,pretty close to a bunchof sharks that in the endjust weren't really that interested.So this busted the myth from the moviesthat sharks are these ruthlesskillers that just go crazyif they smell a drop ofyour blood from a mile away.But those results made mereally curious if the sharkswould react differently tofish blood versus human blood.And if they did go crazy for fish blood,could I use that to putmyself right at the centerof a shark feeding frenzy?And so to satiate my curiosity,my friends at Discoveryhelped me make my wayback to The Bahamas as partof Shark Week this year.But this time, I wouldn't be alone.- What up, Robes?- Oh wow.Mark's jumping in on this?- What's up, y'all?- Look, last Shark Week,shark tried to kill me.- Hmm?- I figure we'd have a littlebit of science with Rober,a little bit of fun with Dude Perfect,and a little bit of me.All right, y'all ready to do this?- We were born ready, sir.- All right. (palms smacking) Chop chop.Let's get to it, fellas.- We will not let you down.Looking forward to it.See ya later.- See ya.- Yeah, I've got this idea for a buildto just really get me inclose with the sharks.Last year-- Hey, Rober.- I was in the water.- Rober. Rober.- Hmm?- That was me saying I'mfinished with the call, bro.- No, of course.- All right, see you guys later.Let's get to it.- Let's do this.- Looking forward to it.See ya.- And so in the direction of Shaq Diesel,it was time to head to The Bahamas.All that was left was to swab my noseto prove to the Bahamian governmentthat I didn't have coronavirus.The only problem was mytest came back positive.And this just made me really sadbecause not only was I gonna miss outon this epic adventure,but as far as I was concerned,I was basically just waiting to die.And I had to interact with myfamily through the glass doorto the backyard using alaser pointer and not evenFat Gus would get within six feet of me.Now, I'm happy to say Ieventually beat the RONAand tested negative,but the only problem nowis I missed my chancebecause they were no longeraccepting any commercialflights from America'cause we're number one baby.So I was once again incrediblysad until I found a loophole.Because while youcouldn't go to The Bahamason a public commercial flight,there were no rules againstgoing to The Bahamason a private jet.And since this was the first and last timeI would ever have my own personal G6,I acted like I'd been here before,like the true professional I am.I mean, mostly.(bright upbeat music)Put Elon on hold and transfer to Oprah.(bright upbeat music)I should mention, flying acrosscountry on your own planeisn't the most ecologicallyresponsible choice.So while I was in the air,I utilized this websitecalled teamtrees.org.You might have heard of it.To plant enough treesto suck up the carbonnot only for my flight,but the next 100 flightsthis plane would take.(bright upbeat music)In the end, it's important you guys knowI'm still super groundedand I didn't let theexperience change me one bit.And so now that I was in The Bahamas,the first thing I did was checkin with my marine biologist,shark diving expert buddy Luke Tipple,because we need to figure outhow to somehow get blood out of a fish.Oh. (giggles)- Just like that.- This is how we do it?The first thought is like, (fish thuds)can you just freaking blend a fish?- Give it a shot. I'll be over here.- Dude, you've clearlynever seen \"Will It Blend?\".There's a whole YouTubechannel dedicated to this.Ready?(blender whirs)Oh!(both laughing)(blender whirring)Okay.I think if we add a little bit of water.Yeah.Oh yeah.Oh yeah.(both groans)This looks like the number32 from Jamba Juice.We tried a variety of other techniquesand eventually started hitting our strideand the bucket started filling up.(bright upbeat music)If I couldn't smell this,that looks pretty delicious.(bright upbeat music)- The good thing about Markis it's his stupid idea,but he is not making other people do it.- I respect that about me too.- Yeah.(bright upbeat music)I also learned this is what fish gillslook like on the inside.They're like pages in a bookto increase the surface areawhich maximizes the oxygenthey can pull outta the water.So we've taken about 20 fishwith a little bit ofhelp from the blender,turned them into this.If I'm a shark, I'm like,that's freaking delicious.Now that we had five gallonsof mouthwatering fish blood smoothie,it was time to get some answers.We already know that sharksdon't necessarily go nutsin the presence of alittle bit of human blood,but would they go nuts in the presenceof a little bit of fish blood?And as a firm believerin the scientific method,it was time to test ourhypothesis by heading out to sea.Once we were far enough from land,Luke and I came up with agame plan for the experiment.Basically we would have twosurfboards in the water.One would have a five gallon bucketof our fish blood smoothie,and then another would havefive gallons of human blood.We would also have a thirdboard that just had seawateras a control to make sure the sharksweren't just interested in the surfboards.Then we would pump out the contentsof each of the bucketsover the course of an hourand observe how many sharksapproached each board.Then, once we know whichone they prefer after this,we'll use that tomorrow in the cage,just to create the mostwild feeding frenzy, right?- Which sounds super fun to me.- 'Cause you're not in the cage.(both laughs)And so with the plan in place,all that was left to do wasput the boards together,and get them out with the sharks.(bright upbeat music)One of the limitations to last year's testwas that the boards might havebeen too close to the boat.So it's possible some of the sharksactually smelled the bloodbut didn't investigate itbecause they were just waitingfor a handout from the boat.So this time we basicallyplaced the boardsin the middle of the fricking oceansuper far away from the boat,so it wouldn't be a confounding variable.Oh, and I should also mention we ended upusing cow's blood because it's really hardto legally find fivegallons of human blood.And after talking with acouple shark scientiststhey've shown experimentallythat all mammal bloodessentially smells the same to sharks.So, it wouldn't affect theresults to use cow bloodin place of human blood.So, now that all threeboards were in place,we double checked to ensureeach was anchored downto the ocean floor.Then I just had to startall three custom-built pumpsusing our custom-built remote trigger,which is the exact moment I realizedit must have got bustedwhile being shipped out herebecause it wasn't sending a signal.Which sucks becausethere's absolutely no wayto run the pumps manually.Luckily, a trick I learnedwhile working at NASAis you always buildredundancy into your systemsjust in case.So we have it in the codethat if no remote start signalis received after anhour, each of the pumpswill just automaticallystart up on their own.It's just a feature wenever had time to test,so we just had to firmly cross our fingersand hope for the best.I'm hopeful.We've had to overcome a lotto get here for this video.What's one more little challenge.And at exactly one hour,right on cue, the backup code kicked inand saved our whole experiment.With blood now officially in the water,we put the drone into the airand started our observations.(bright upbeat music)And things were pretty quietfor about the first 20 minutes,but then we had our first hiton the mammal blood board.Shark?- Yeah.- Shark, baby!We got a shark!- It's a shark?Oh yeah, yeah.- But pretty soon thereafter,things started heating upfor the fish blood smoothie board.Oh my gosh.There's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 sharksaround the fish smoothie board.And then 10 minutes later,things were only more intense.Here you can see thedifference in activitybetween the three boards.And while you're running an experimentand still collecting data,you really need to keep an open mind.But given what we were seeing,it was getting prettydifficult to remain objective.And so after an hour,we called the experimentand went inside to officiallytally up the resultsusing the drone footage.And it turns out the mammal blood boardwas approached eight times.The seawater control board was at zero.And the fish blood boardhad a whopping 134approaches from a shark.Definitely seems like the fish smoothieis where it's at, right?- It was pretty obvious.- Massive blob of sharks. No sharks.- I think that's the go for tomorrowfor maximum feeding frenzy.Now that we had a game planfor my feeding frenzy cage the next day,we headed back to shore and to our hotelto get some rest for what was to come.Oh and fun side note, if the only wayto get to a vacationdestination is by private jet,it really cuts down on the crowds.(bright upbeat music)We literally had thiswhole resort to ourselves.Well, almost to ourselves.There were like 40 catswho apparently must also fly private.We woke up bright andearly the next morning,feeling refreshed andheaded right back out to seawhere Luke and I preparedsome massive bagsof fish blood smoothiefor me to burst open once I went down.It just seemed like acool idea to make a cageto get in the middle of a feeding frenzy,until this moment. (laughs dryly)Now that they're making meput on freaking chainmail,makes me reconsider my life choices.If something terrible happens,Shaq you gotta take care of my familybecause this is all your fault.- Yeah. Let's go.- And after several months of prep,unfortunately, it wastime for me to get in.It also just so happens,I might have forgot tomention this part to my wife.I'm not looking underthe water yet on purpose.She might have been under the impressionI was just doing another experimentwith surfboards and pumps.Sorry, sweetie.Not only was I wearing 10 poundsof steel chainmail for protection,but my vest is also filledwith 20 pounds of lead weights.That means I sank pretty fast.But also that the buoyancyto weight ratios were perfectfor giving me practicefor walking on the moon.That's one small step for man.Because like many of you,I will definitely go tospace in my lifetime.Again, just haven't mentionedthat to the wife yet.Super Mario jump, here we go.(water sloshing)Let's do this baby!- All right, you ready for the top?(gentle upbeat music)Okay Mark, the bait iscoming behind you right now.(gentle upbeat music)(water sloshing)- Now that I have the fish smoothie bagsand everyone was back at a safe distance,I decide to pop these stupid things.Okay.Here I go.Oh, this is crazy. What am I doing?(suspenseful music)Okay, the bait is deployed.Ah!I got to get this stuff outta here.Here they come.(Mark screams)Oh.Oh my God.Oh God, they're bumping the cage.(suspenseful music intensifies)Look at those teeth!That could have been my handif I wasn't doing the T-Rex maneuver.They want to eat me real bad.Oh, now they're literallylike moving circles around me.Oh gosh.Oh! His head's in the cage!What the crap!This is certifiably insane!Oh!The sharks were literally trying to eat methrough the bottom of the cage.So, they left me no choicebut to defend my honor.Yeah, get outta my cage!Get outta my cage!I'm gonna kill you Shaq!Get the heck out!Ayyyy.Awwww.Yo bro, get outta my cage, all right?They loved our blended concoction.We knew all along thatthe most dangerous partwould be when I exited the cagebecause they'd still be agitatedand they'd be stokedto finally have accessto the soft chewy center.Okay, the blood kinda dissipated.The sharks have gone a little bit.- Okay, we'repulling the bait away, mate.- So the plan wasfor one of the other diversto distract them way off tothe side with a bait box,and then I would get outas silently as possibleso they wouldn't notice me.Dude, that was insane.Yeah, you're not so toughnow, are you sharks?- Okay Mark, goahead, open the door.- Okay.(breathing noises)Oh crap.(contraption thuds loudly)That was loud.(water sloshing)Dude. Luke!Holy crap.I've gotta close this back up.(suspenseful music)Oh geez.Luke, I need help, man.Holy crap.Geez.- Keep your arms in mate.These sharks aren't going away.I'm going to get you back to the surface.- Okay.(screams)Oh my gosh.(water sloshing)- Top side, top side.We're on our way out.- I think somewhere to tell Shaqhe can do his own stunts from now on.Hey! I'm alive!The main takeaway forme for this experienceis that sharks have been on this planetlonger than the dinosaursor even trees have.So, they've had 400million years of evolutionto develop these instinctsthat are rewardedfor smelling fish blood.Humans and cows will be anextremely rare delicacy.So it makes sense thatit's not just hardwiredinto their brains.And so with all my limbs intactand with my curiosity fully satiated,I will leave you with these profound wordsthat in my defense might havebeen the drama in me speaking.As humans we're always the predatorand not really ever the prey.But this gave me a senseof what it's like to be a tuna fish.(heavy drum beat)(playful upbeat music)\n"