Expedition Great White: Natl Geo Goes "Shark Week"

[drbill]

I have always held National Geographic in pretty high regard, and was looking forward to watching "Expedition Great White" last night. This show features marine biologist Dr. Michael Domeier and Chris Fischer's expedition to Guadalupe Island to capture and attach satellite tracking tags to great white sharks. I was privileged to go on an expedition to Guadalupe with Domeier, Dr. Guy Harvey and others in 2005 to film and satellite tag GWS.

The show began and followed the capture and tagging of one GWS, then proceeded to film the procedure over and over again. I heard little "new" information on the GWS (at least not new to me) and therefore found the show to be interesting but of relatively little educational value. There were a few results shown mapping the route of two of the tagged sharks.

To me N.G. focused on making "good TV" (semi-sensationalism instead of giving the audience good educational information.). Seemed too close to the Discovery Channel Shark Week format to me. As a scientist, this was like reading the Methods section of a scientific paper with only a sentence or two in the Results and Discussion Sections.

As one who has been told his cable TV episodes are "too educational," I was saddened to see this level of presentation on a network I hold in fairly high esteem.

Wonder how other viewers felt?

[fisheater]

Agreed. I'd read the news accounts ofthe recent study and downloaded and read the formal scientific study from the British journal.

I, too, was looking for some explanation, or least an expression of wonder, of what was really going on with the gathering of GWSs in the mid-Pacific.

That said, the video was nice and compelling and there wasn't too much "killer fish" talk.

[drbill]

No question there was some interesting footage and the comments were mostly not too sensationalist, but throughout the special I had the sense it was being played for the camera. Glad the only real film crews with us when I was at Guadalupe with Michael Domeier, et al., were operated by Dr. Guy Harvey's team and myself.

[lemondiver]

The shark that was bolt tagged in Guadelupe almost died. The show was a sensationalized sport fishing show. Taking an animal that large out of the water can cause internal organ failure, the weight pressing on them alone is tremendous. If they had pups they can be forced out and die. The video was brutal and unnecessary. After hooking the shark and fighting for an hour or more they bring it on the boat, shove a water tube down it's throat and drill holes in it's dorsal fin. Yeah, that's all in the name of research. By the way he was in front of a committee in order to question his methods. Some of the sharks dorals have already turned black from the bolt tagging. Most comments to the nat geo program were very negative. He should have never had that permit to begin with. The farllons are protected and should continue to be along with mexican waters. There are much less stressful ways of tagging that give us just as good info. Here's an idea-if we practice conservation to begin with we wouldn't have to tag them all to figure out where they go and what places to protect-protect the whole damn ocean!