
This is a bigeye thresher
A shark that's almost never been seen in the wild.
Shark finning is a wasteful and often cruel practice
And one that may ultimately disrupt the balance of life in the ocean
Proving catastrophic for other marine life too.
So how can sharks be saved?
In Beqa Lagoon, in Fiji, the local people are proving
that sharks can be more valuable alive than dead.
Tourists will pay good money for an encounter with real live sharks.
This is a community-owned reef
And some of the money goes to the local villagers -
a big incentive not to kill the main attraction.
Fijians have long had an affinity with sharks.
Their ancestors worshipped a shark god
Who they believed kept them safe from harm.
They would feed sharks, not hunt them
And these divers continue the tradition.
First to the feast are tawny nurse sharks.
But these sharks are scavengers.
It's the big predators the tourists want to see. - Bull sharks.