LOS ANGELES (AP) – The coronavirus pandemic forced people to stay put, but it gave sharks a travel pass and scientists a rare opportunity.
Ocean spots removed from fishing boats and other intrusions by quarantines of COVID-19 saw increased and even unusual behavior of marine life – and Discovery Channel’s Shark Week jumped through hoops to capitalize on the short window.
The 32nd annual leash of all things shark, which airs eight days from Sunday with a record of two-dozen shows, includes a pair that were applied during the fun earlier this year.
“It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study these sharks without the effects of human activity,” said Howard Swartz, senior vice president of Discovery for production and development.
It’s not just all the teeth that are examined by the two programs, but the one with a Steven Spielberg summer blockbuster on her resume.
“Sharks are the stars of Shark Week. The big whites are the stars of the sharks, ‘Swartz said. “They are so captivating and they are so lovely and interesting and, I think, mysterious to viewers, rightly so.”
“Shark Lockdown” (10 pm EDT Sunday) is set in waters in New Zealand that are home to female large whites of such impressive length that they are called “the 747s”, after the famous long jetliner.
The program includes China Scollay, a founder of the New Zealand Great White Shark Research Project and a familiar face to Shark Week viewers, and Clarke Gayford, a broadcaster and fiancé of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Their exploration of Foveaux Strait, which separates the South and Stewart Islands from New Zealand, brought them up against what Swartz called one of the “Holy Grail” shark mysteries: why females leave the area if their size indicates that they have reached sexual maturity.
“They are disappearing and no one is really sure why they are there and where they are going,” said the award-winning production of TV Science Journalism (formerly with PBS ” Nova ‘).
What Scollay and the team discovered was an unusual mix of male and female sharks, wearing some of the latest fresh mating holes that are on painfully-displayed display in the documentary.
That suggested the area was a mixed ground absent human activity, a possibility that could lead to new protection measures for the large white population, Swartz said.
A similar revelation emerged in ‘Abandoned Waters’ (8 pm EDT Monday), in which researchers were able to observe large whites in the vicinity of the Neptune Islands in Australia minus the usual fishing and tourist traffic.
“Just the general level of decibels of the oceans is significantly quiet” for the noise and vibration sensitive sharks, Swartz said.
The team recorded the arrival of about three times the average number of female large whites mixed with males from the Neptune Islands, near the entrance to the Spencer Gulf of South Australia.
Although it is too early to draw conclusions, the information may be part of ongoing research and analysis that could protect the area from sharks, Swartz said.
Together with the scientists, local production personnel scrambled to take advantage of the loneliness of the ocean before these nations gained relative control of the virus and began lifting restrictions on internal travel and business activity.
Discovery said it was unaware of anyone involved in the productions testing positive for the coronavirus. Strict protocols were in place to protect against infections, Swartz said.
Then producers had to work together to meet the challenge of a quick turnaround in just a few months.
Although Shark Week programs are normally made for the following year and have eight to 12 months to complete, the research and production teams for the virus-related films had just three months.
A few other shows in this year’s lineup, each time Eastern:
– “Air Jaws: Ultimate Breach Off” (Sunday 8 p.m.). The show’s 20th anniversary using decoys and drones to capture amazing shots of large whites breaking and collecting data on hunting techniques.
– “Extinct as Living: Land of the Lost Sharks” (Tuesday 8 p.m.). Wild biologist and conservator Forrest Galante braved dangerous waters in the southern hemisphere in a search for three sharks not seen by 100 scientists.
– “Will Smith: Off the Deep End” (Tuesday 9 p.m.). The actor accepts his fear of open water and sharks.
– “Wicked Sharks” (15 pm August 15). Amid large white encounters on the Cape Cod of Massachusetts, shark expert Greg Skomal uses technology to help learn their hunting habits to better protect the public.
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Online:
https://www.discovery.com/shark-week
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Lynn Elber can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lynnelber.
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