Tiger Shark Attacked Netflix Crew of David Attenborough Documentary

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Tiger Shark Attacked Netflix Crew of David Attenborough Documentary

The crew on Netflix’s recent David Attenborough documentary series Our Planet II were attacked by tiger sharks while filming the series.

Hungry tiger sharks prevented any footage from being collected

In a recent interview with The Independent, director Toby Nowlan detailed how the team had some unusual encounters with the sharks while collecting underwater shots of whales near Laysan, an island in Northwestern Hawaii. According to Nowlan, a group of tiger sharks attacked their inflatable boat, puncturing holes in it and forcing them to flee.

“This ‘v’ of water came streaming towards us and this tiger shark leapt at the boat and bit huge holes in it. The whole boat exploded,” Nowlan said. “We were trying to get it away and it wasn’t having any of it. It was horrific. That was the second shark that day to attack us.”

Nowlan called the behavior “extremely unusual,” and ultimately chalked it up to the sharks looking “incredibly hungry,” according to him.

“They were incredibly hungry, so there might not have been enough natural food and they were just trying anything they came across in the water,” said Nowlan.

Producer Huw Cordey also confirmed the story, saying that “it was like something out of Jaws” and that “the crew was panicked, and basically made an emergency landing on the sand.” Cordey noted that the original idea was to get some footage of tiger sharks, but the sharks were not having it and they were unable to get any.

Our Planet II premiered on Netflix on June 14, 2023 and is now available to watch on the streaming platform.