‘It felt like something came out of Jaws’: Sir David Attenborough’s film crew are attacked by tiger sharks in a terrifying ordeal while filming Our Planet II, director reveals
- Sharks attack crew in the seas around Laysan in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
- The crew was in dinghies and had to make an emergency landing on the sand
Sir David Attenborough’s film crew were attacked by 15ft tiger sharks twice in one day while filming Our Planet II, the director of the new Netflix series has revealed.
The team’s ordeal occurred in the seas around Laysan, a very remote location in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, nearly 1,000 miles from Honolulu.
The crew was attacked by the sharks while in inflatable boats and had to make an emergency landing on the sand, describing it as “like something out of Jaws”.
Series producer Huw Cordey said The sun: ‘The initial idea was to do an underwater shoot with the tiger sharks waiting in the shallows of Laysan.
“But the first day the tiger sharks were there, the crew got into these inflatable boats – and two sharks attacked them. It was like something from Jaws.
Tiger Sharks Feature in New Netflix Series Our Planet II Just Released
A 15ft tiger shark that was filmed for the new wildlife documentary series Our Planet II
The documentary team also filmed albatross birds during their visit to the seas around Laysan
“The crew panicked and made an emergency landing on the sand. Suffice to say they didn’t get any underwater photos.
Show director Toby Nowlan also spoke out this week about the incident, revealing that the crew spent five days sailing to reach the area and then embarked on inflatable boats to find the sharks.
He said Radio schedules: ‘This ‘v’ of water came towards us and this tiger shark jumped on the boat and made huge holes in it. The whole boat exploded.
“We were trying to push him away and he had none. It was horrible. It was the second shark that day to attack us.
The crew was only about 300 feet (100 m) from land at the time, so they managed to get the boat back to the beach with what little inflation it had left.
Mr Nowlan revealed that they then repaired the craft and sent out a small dinghy, which was attacked by a giant trevally which knocked out its engine.
He described the sharks’ behavior as ‘extremely unusual’, adding: ‘They were incredibly hungry so maybe there wasn’t enough natural food and they were just trying whatever they came across in the water. “
The sharks had traveled up to 2,000 miles into the area, where they often prey on albatross chicks which can be relatively easy prey when first flying.
Our Planet II is a four-part wildlife documentary series narrated by Sir David which was released yesterday on Netflix. Other notable segments include lions stalking a Cape buffalo in the Kalahari and 200 billion locusts swarming towards the Red Sea.
Our Planet II is a new wildlife documentary series from Netflix narrated by Sir David Attenborough
Albatross birds are in the Our Planet II episode filmed in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
An article about the series in Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine by television critic Christopher Stevens said it contained “four episodes of the most lavish wildlife photography ever seen, and all filled with tense moments between life and death” .
The article includes an interview with Mr. Cordey, who explained how the show uses cliffhanger techniques, adding, “No one has done this before in natural history.”
He said: “The first series of Our Planet in 2019 was incredibly popular. But we realized, when analyzing the data, that people weren’t looking at it in any particular order.
“They were jumping around – if they liked penguins, for example, they might start with the polar episode. This time, we want viewers to follow one story, one part at a time, like you do with great drama. We planned this from the start.
Our Planet II is available to stream on Netflix now
