Jean Michel Cousteau shark special..anyone watch?

[BurBunny]

This show is on "do not delete" on my TiVo. I have a feeling I'll be watching it again and again. Videography and music were captivating!

Very cool. How did you get there? How many planes/boats and is there a website where you stayed? Thanks, Scott.

Scott, Rangiroa isn't too hard to get to. The easiest way is LA-Papeete (capital of French Polynesia) then an Air Tahiti flight to Rangiroa. Air Tahiti Nui and Air NZ both operate non-stops from LA (about 8 hours) then I believe it's about a 2 hour flight to Rangiroa.

Kia Ora runs a resort there, very nice. TopDive is also an operator I highly recommend. No experience with the Novotel, but have heard good things.

 

[Texasdiver2]

What kind of tanks were being used when the Cousteau crew was in Fr. Polynesia? At first glance, I thought they were rebreathers but then I saw all the bubbles. Thanks for any info.

TD2

 

[cowjazz]

The Cousteau show was great. As previous stated, a keeper on the DVR.

Sadly, in the DFW area it was followed by When Sharks Attack, starring the jackhole "shark biologist" Mark Marks. He is the same "biologist" who was on Fabien Cousteau's ship of fools special. I was really impressed with his use of rubber, toy sharks and dolls to recreate great white attacks. I think he watched one too many CSI episodes.

Even more impressive was his method to establish his territority when swimming with great white sharks. He bares and gnashes his teeth at great whites that enter "his" territory. He stated he was showing the sharks "his weapons". Nice, real nice. I wish I could read the minds of the sharks while he is doing this.

The icing on the cake was his Quint/Hooper impersonation when he descibed all of the injuries he has received while diving with sharks.

Oh, I almost forgot. When a victim of a great white attack showed him his wounds, our biologist greated the victim with "Oooo, right on!"

It would have been an average show if they left Mr. Marks on the cutting room floor.

Just my $.02.

 

[Hoyden]

What kind of tanks were being used when the Cousteau crew was in Fr. Polynesia? At first glance, I thought they were rebreathers but then I saw all the bubbles. Thanks for any info.

TD2

They use closed circuit rebreathers, semi-closed circuit rebreathers and open circuit. If you saw someone diving what looked like an inspiration with a blue cover, that is a closed circuit rebreather and you should only see bubbles if they were purging the loop or ascending.

They have info on this on their website - http://www.pbs.org/kqed/oceanadventures/xteam/dive-tech.html

 

[RMichaelson86]

I saw this show last night on a local station... fascinating.

There was another program that was VERY similar to this on Discovery HD, has anyone seen it? It also involved getting in the water with GW's and grabbing on to the dorsal. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

 

[cowjazz]

I saw this show last night on a local station... fascinating.

There was another program that was VERY similar to this on Discovery HD, has anyone seen it? It also involved getting in the water with GW's and grabbing on to the dorsal. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

I think that one was called The Business of Sharks.

 

[CBulla]

Was on PBS tonight, Thought it was well done and was very good.

Way better than that Great White Robot show last week......

My wife and I watched it while eating chocolate items last night (monthly appeasement to the fem-gods ya know) and I pointed out that they were free diving with the Great Whites... she wants to cave dive with them so very much and I have been saying the real experience is free dive.. well, now she saw it happen and the people walked away from it...er, got back in the boat anyway. So guess what she's talking about now!

I found the show very informative overall with an excellent overview of the status of things. I loved seeing the interaction with the animals. There was interaction but it was minimal and fairly uninvasive.

 

[drbill]

The Cousteau show was great. As previous stated, a keeper on the DVR.

Sadly, in the DFW area it was followed by When Sharks Attack, starring the jackhole "shark biologist" Mark Marks. He is the same "biologist" who was on Phillipe Cousteau's ship of fools special. I was really impressed with his use of rubber, toy sharks and dolls to recreate great white attacks. I think he watched one too many CSI episodes.

Correction, Fabien Cousteau's special, not Philippe Cousteau's. Got the wrong grandson!

 

[slingshot]

Not all the blue shells covered rebreathers. In the first dive sequence (all that I've watched so far on my DVR), the divers are clearly on open circuit, with single hose regs, albeit some with face pieces. Their tanks were still covered by the blue casings. Very Team Zissou, which is by no means a criticism

 

[K9trnr]

Very good special. Balanced shark observation and conservationism in one smooth package.

The GW footage was awesome (I didn't breath) but I loved the footage of the 4 knot drift dive back to the lagoon. WOW!

Agreed. I wish they'd done this footage for IMAX instead of the footage they used for Sharks 3D.