Returning: Abalone Wars

Season 5 of the locally-produced Abalone Wars begins on Discovery this week as part of the annual Shark Week.

It returns Wednesday 7 December at 8.30pm

Diving deep into hostile waters, Abalone Wars ventures inside the high stakes game of one of the world’s most dangerous professions; abalone diving. The series returns to Port Lincoln to follow the hardcore abalone dive crews as they battle to fulfill multi-million dollar quotas. The Southern Ocean, off the tip of South Australia, is home to more sharks per square kilometre than anywhere else in the world and abalone divers face the risk of death every time they dive. But that doesn’t stop this group of fearless men and women who battle against their nerves to scour the ocean floor for the much-prized delicacy dubbed “abalone gold”.

This season the seas are massive, the abalone are at their biggest and the shark encounters are increasing. This winter has seen the crews battle some of the worst weather and on top of that, they’re all way behind their catch rates so they have to push themselves into ocean conditions they’d usually avoid. It’s high pressure and there’s no shortage of drama. Plus in this episode, Shark Week host Andrew ‘ET’ Ettingshausen pays his mate David ‘Bucky’ Buckland a visit and tries his hand at this dangerous profession. Every day beneath the waves is a fight for survival, but when millions of dollars’ worth of abalone lay waiting, just below the surface, who can resist?

Here are the other highlights still to come as part of Shark Week.

Tiger Beach │Premieres Monday 5 December at 8.30pm AEDT
Tiger Sharks are known for their killing prowess and voracious appetite; but little is known about where they mate, where the pregnant females gestate and where the females give birth. Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, the world’s leading Tiger Shark expert, is on a quest to answer these questions by tagging and tracking 40 individuals across a shallow area off the Bahamas called Tiger Beach. Second only to Great Whites, the Tiger Shark’s killing power is legendary – and Neil bears witness to this as he deals with some aggressive sharks while on expedition.

Shallow Water Invasion │Premieres Monday 5 December at 9.30pm AEDT
Using a self-propelled shark cage called “The Explorer”, marine biologists Mauricio Hoyos and Grant Johnson will investigate a recent discovery at Guadalupe Island – Great Whites moving into shallow waters at night. This movement shows that sharks entering shallow water are normal behaviour – which would account for some of the shark encounters happening with greater frequency in the shallows along coastlines.

Sharks Among Us │Premieres Tuesday 6 December at 8.30pm AEDT
Shark encounters are increasing around the globe. The solutions to deal with the public’s growing anxiety range from culling to using nets and drumlins – all of which kill sharks. Dr. Craig O’Connell believes he has developed a system that will prove once and for all that sharks and people can peacefully coexist – and live – and it all has to do with magnets. He is joined by shark attack survivors Paul de Gelder (a former Australian Navy diver) and 16-year-old Hunter Treschi from the US.

Sharks vs Dolphins: Face Off │Premieres Tuesday 6 December at 9.30pm AEDT
Sharks and dolphins have shared the ocean for millions of years and as far as relationships go, you wouldn’t consider them best mates. Sharks have long been thought of as the boss of the ocean, but dolphins are not as innocent as you may think. Biologist Dr. Mike Heithaus, from Florida International University, has taken steps to understand the true nature of the relationship between these powerful underwater animals. Mike and his team set out into the hostile and dangerous oceanic environment and what they find during their research could solve one of the ocean’s deepest mysteries, which may answer why sharks attack dolphins far more than we ever knew.

Super Predator │Premieres Wednesday 7 December at 9.30pm AEDT
Australia’s Southern Ocean is alive with sharks, but there is also something mysterious hiding in the ocean depths; a predator capable of eating a Great White. Wildlife filmmaker Dave Riggs has spent eleven years trying to find out who this super predator is. In Super Predator, narrated by Andrew ‘ET’ Ettingshausen, Dave’s obsession to find the killer leads him to an oceanic battle zone that’s remained hidden until now. Called the kill zone, here, orcas, colossal squid and Great White sharks face off in an underwater battle where only the fiercest creatures of the marine world survive. The search for the world’s first super predator is on!

Return of the Monster Mako │Premieres Thursday 8 December at 8.30pm AEDT
Lurking in the coastal waters of the United States is one of the ocean’s greatest hunters. Fishermen are told stories about these monsters of the deep that appear when the moon is full to ambush their prey. Professional shark tagger Keith Poe, and marine biologists Greg Stuntz, Matt Ajemain and their team use state-of-the-art technology to try to document a live-predation of a 450kg Mako shark – what fishermen call a “grander.” Granders are enormous Makos that make a sort of transformation when they reach 3m and 450kg; they become more secretive and begin to hunt bigger prey, like seals. And they’re hard to find until Joe Remeiro and team jump in the water after dark and come face to face with them.

Wrath of a Great White Serial Killer │Premieres Thursday 8 December at 9.30pm AEDT
A newcomer has taken residence in the waters of the Pacific Northwest… the Great White shark. Shark expert Ralph Collier and Brandon McMillian seek answers to the main questions in this case – why are Great Whites travelling so far north and why are these encounters focused on this one particular place?

Jungle Shark │Premieres Friday 9 December at 8.30pm AEDT
Bull sharks are believed to be one of the most dangerous sharks of all, but they are not just a threat in the ocean, these predators also live in freshwater rivers. Marine biologist Dr. Craig O’Connell and Andy Casagrande travel up the Serena River in the rainforests of Costa Rica to try and find out why young Bull sharks swim up the river, and how they avoid the 12-14 foot American crocodiles living there. O’Connell deduces the sharks smell the crocs and creates a first-of-its-kind croc scent-based Bull shark repellant.

Nuclear Sharks │Premieres Friday 9 December at 9.30pm AEDT
Grandson to legendary underwater explorer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau, Philippe Cousteau, and his wife Ashlan Gorse Cousteau travel with marine biologist Luke Tipple to Bikini Atoll, the nuclear testing site famously destroyed during the Cold War. The nuclear devices detonated across the atoll vaporised two islands and destroyed everything living. Today, nature has proved resilient and restored the marine ecosystem, re-populating the atoll with Reef sharks. But since Reef sharks are considered non-migratory, where did they come from? Tagging shows they migrate atoll-to-atoll but it also uncovers an illegal fishing feet taking sharks from inside one of the largest shark sanctuaries in the Pacific.

Deadliest Sharks │Premieres Saturday 10 December at 8.30pm AEDT
In the deepest waters of our planet’s ocean lives the deadliest shark ever, the Oceanic Whitetip. Tiger sharks, Bull sharks, the legendary Great White – these are the most dangerous sharks on earth, but none compare to a shark that most people have never heard of. Scientists know almost nothing about this deadly predator, despite it being responsible for the majority of shark attacks. Using cutting-edge research and thrilling historical evidence, Dr. Michael Domeier and Dr. Barry Bruce are spooked by what they find when they look for rare Oceanic Whitetip sharks to see if the species deserves the reputation as the ‘world’s most deadliest shark’.

Air Jaws: Night Stalker │Premieres Saturday 10 December at 9.30pm AEDT
Famed shark photographer Chris Fallows embarks on his eighth Air Jaws adventure with shark expert Jeff Kurr and shark biologist Dr. Neil Hammerschlag. The team head to Seal Island in Cape Town, South Africa, to discover how Great White sharks hunt so effectively in complete darkness and unravel the mystery of why they hunt in the dark. As their research shows, even under the cover of darkness, there is no safe passage for unsuspecting prey. The Great White is the ruler of the night!