Discovery Channel has landed the perfect host this calendar year for “Shark Week,” none other than a large lover of all ocean creatures — Aquaman.
Jason Momoa, who in authentic everyday living dreamed of a vocation as a maritime biologist just before Hollywood anointed him an ocean god, is likely again to his roots to celebrate all matters shark.
“My heart is in the ocean,” Momoa advised The Connected Press from Tahiti, times in advance of having a excursion to swim with some of the apex predators. “Doing ‘Shark Week’ is a no brainer.”
Momoa will be the week’s recurring learn of ceremonies, dipping in and out of the channel’s around 20 new several hours of applications that start off Sunday. Episode encores run most evenings, too.
Viewers will get to see scarce sharks off the coastline of South Africa, look at lethal shark attacks off the posh seashores of Egypt’s Pink Sea and examine whether sharks in Florida waters are getting superior on cocaine.
The week kicks off with a form of nautical nod to “Jackass.” Researchers in the demonstrate “Belly of the Beast: Feeding Frenzy” attempt to reproduce a fantastic white shark feeding frenzy by developing a lifetime-sized lifeless whale carcass decoy.
They set veteran “Shark Week” biologist Dr. Austin Gallagher and cameras inside of the cavity — together with 200 kilos of chum and 50 gallons of blood — and hope it can make dozens of sharks go mad. Then they consider it at night.
“There are a number of moments during the clearly show where by I was really freaked out,” Gallagher advised the AP. “There’s a healthier respect there and I don’t want that at any time to go absent since I know what these animals are capable of.”
“Cocaine Sharks,” which premieres Wednesday, examines no matter whether the occasional bricks of cocaine deserted by drug smugglers outcome shark behavior. ”I’m mainly hunting for some thing genuinely odd and out of the regular,” states the direct scientist, Tom Hird, in the method.
It exhibits a swarm of lemon sharks going a little bit insane above floating bales of faux cocaine and afterwards we see how fish powder mimics the dopamine response that cocaine could give to junkie sharks. “Hopefully persons love the show as much as they take pleasure in the title,” Hird stated.
Geeking out with viewers will be Momoa, who viewed “Shark Week” rising up and says he could not wait to fulfill the experts powering the applications. “I’m heading to be just about every other enthusiast,” he stated in an interview right before the Hollywood strike. “This is my life’s passion.”
As often, there is a deep respect for the creatures and robust science beneath the amusing titles, dramatic music and eye-popping titles like “Great White Struggle Club,” “Shark Vs. Snake” and “Serial Killer: Purple Sea Feeding Frenzy.”
“Alien Sharks” attempts to discover obscure species like the broadnose sevengill, which dates to the Jurassic Era, but is currently prized for their livers by orcas. There’s also the deliciously named puffadder shyshark, which glow less than UV light, and the white-noticed wedgefish, named appropriately for its shovel like physical appearance.
“For me, what’s so wonderful about alien sharks and this software is the option to showcase the small person,” stated biologist Forrest Galante, who can be noticed smooching a handful of of his sharks. “I get so enthusiastic and emotional when I’m operating with these distinctive creatures that I do impulsively stupid things like kiss a shark before I say goodbye to it.”
Many of the programs look into modifications in the beasts’ conduct that may possibly have to do with local climate modify or overfishing, such as sharks appearing in unfamiliar destinations. Conservation initiatives have also started off to strengthen their quantities, bringing them closer to people.
“Sharks are not switching their conduct to goal men and women or to be in near proximity to human beings. Human beings are shifting their conduct, expanding at an alarming amount, paying more and more time in the drinking water, having a hotter and hotter local weather,” stated Galante. “That prospects to far more interactions. And some of those people interactions could be detrimental, but of study course, the press blows that way out of proportion.”
Momoa, who researched marine and wildlife biology in university, taped his segments in New Zealand though in manufacturing on his future Apple Television set+ sequence “Chief of War.”
Discovery’s “Shark Week” has a rival — its programming coincides with Countrywide Geographic’s “SharkFest,” which also has has hours of sharky content about four weeks.
“Shark Week” was born as a counterpoint for all those who designed a panic of sharks and a motivation to eradicate them just after viewing “Jaws.” It has emerged as a place for researchers eager to guard an animal older than trees.
“’Jaws’ seriously messed up a good deal of persons. They really don’t get in the water for confident. But it’s just not the case,” mentioned Momoa, who urged men and women to view sharks like they do in Tahiti.
“We call them the guardians. They’re just not looked upon as these items that are mean and scary that occur to attack us. We dwell in harmony with them.”
