Back in the Water

Steven Spielberg’s classic 1975 shark-on-a-feeding-rampage thriller, “Jaws,” will probably never pop up on the Discovery Channel’s popular “Shark Week.”

Marking its 10th year on the cable network, “Shark Week” continues its aim of educating viewers and dispelling myths that sharks are just feeding machines cruising the oceans on a mission to devour every human in sight.

The fact of the matter is, more people die from bee stings each year than shark attacks. But it is our fear of these mysterious creatures of the deep that has lured audiences to “Shark Week” for the past decade. Last year alone, 15 million people tuned into “Shark Week” programming.

“I think it’s a real primal fascination,” says Mike Quattrone, general manager and senior vice president of the Discovery Channel.

“Most people are so uncomfortable in the ocean, and it’s the shark’s environment,” adds shark documentary filmmaker Jeff Kurr. “They dominate the environment. I know so many people since ‘Jaws’ who won’t even go in the water. I think that probably watching ‘Shark Week’ is like watching monster movies. People are fascinated by things that potentially harm them. Sharks are real. Sharks can eat you. People somehow get a strange thrill from confronting their fears and watching people going face to face with sharks.”

The Discovery Channel began “Shark Week” in 1988 as a way of calling attention to the fledgling cable channel. “The manager of programming at the time,” Quattrone says, “knew that shark films were of interest to a lot of folks, and it turned out they had in our inventory enough to make a week [of programming.] It was a very good idea at the time.”

When Kurr, who wrote, directed, edited and photographed “Sharks of the Wild Coast” and “Shark Attack Files II,” began making shark documentaries, he was mesmerized by--and petrified of--the creatures.

“I had shark phobia like everybody else,” he admits. “I was very afraid of sharks and it just slowly evolved into a respect. I understand if you see a shark and you are in the water, the odds that he will attack you are so remote, it is not even worth considering.”

Kurr has interviewed more than 30 shark attack victims and none, he says, blame the sharks. “I think in every case somehow that person gave off a cue to the shark that they were a potential meal,” he explains. “They were maybe surfing in the wrong area. They were maybe thrashing about and splashing about and acting like food. In every case, every single person told me they would return to the ocean. They became interested in sharks as a result of the attack.”

For “Sharks of the Wild Coast,” Kurr led a two-month expedition along the coast of Africa and across the Indian Ocean to shoot 10 different species of sharks including great whites, sand tigers, bull, gray reef and whale sharks-the largest fish in the ocean.

“We wanted to do film where we didn’t use bait [or chum] to attract the sharks,” Kurr says. “We wanted to take documentaries to a new level and film natural shark behavior without using bait. In almost every case we were able to film sharks without using bait because we went where we knew they would be.”

Kurr and his crew found the most prolific area in the world for whale sharks off the coast of Mozambique.

“We used little ultra-light aircraft to find the whale sharks for us and, then we would pull up along over them,” Kurr says.

In all of his years making documentaries, Kurr had never encountered a whale shark.

“I jumped in the water with one,” he recalls. “ I think the one I saw was 40 feet long. I could have swam in his mouth, but I just basically floated above it. They are completely harmless. They eat plankton and small little fishes. They are so stoic, you can’t really alter their path. It was swimming five feet under the surface, so I was able to grab on to its dorsal fin and just got it to tow me through the water. What an incredible experience. I can’t even describe it.”

Kurr, who is in production on two more documentaries for next year’s “Shark Week,” says it’s a challenge to come up with new ideas for films. “The species that gets the most attention are the great white and tiger sharks,” Kurr says.”

However, he prefers to make films on how people relate to sharks, especially focusing on scientists who are doing research on sharks.

“We have in ‘Shark Attack Files II’ really interesting stories” about sharks that suntan and don’t develop skin cancer, Kurr adds.

Quattrone hopes viewers will also learn from “Shark Week” the need for shark preservation.

“Unfortunately, in some parts of the world, human beings have done a pretty efficient job of getting rid of these magnificent creatures,” Quattrone says. “That is the sadder part of this. But if people become more interested about a subject, if you raise the knowledge level a little bit, maybe we can educate everyone a little bit.”

“Shark Week” airs programs Aug. 10-16 at 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. and Aug. 17 from 1-10 p.m. on the Discovery Channel.

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Program Bites

“Shark Week” kicks off Sunday with the retrospective “Shark Bites: A Decade of Shark Week.” Discovery is premiering four new documentaries during the week: “Swift, Smart and Deadly” (Monday), “Sharks of the Wild Coast” (Thursday), “Shark Attack Files II” (Friday), “In South African Waters” (Saturday). Repeats of the popular documentaries “Tales of the Tiger Shark” and “Legends of Killer Sharks” also are scheduled. (Please see daily listings in TV Times for nightly “Shark Week” lineup.)