Shark Week 2016: guide

Subscription Television’s longest-running themed event, Shark Week is back next month.

Discovery has seven days of sharktacular programming, beginning at Sunday 4 December with premiere titles every night at 8.30pm and 9.30pm, including the season premiere of Abalone Wars.

Revealing the current threats faced by the ocean’s greatest predator, Shark Week delivers remarkable new insights into these magnificent creatures. You’ll be glued to the edge of your seat with all-new jaw-dropping and compelling shark stories, as this 24/7 event explores these creatures of the deep. This year’s lineup includes 14 premiere titles at 8.30pm and 9.30pm AEDT every night, with two documentaries filmed in Australia and narrated by Shark Week host, Andrew ‘ET’ Ettingshausen; Isle of Jaws and Super Predator.

This year we go in search of Great Whites that have disappeared from Neptune Island (South Australia), look at the hostile relationship between sharks and dolphins, hunt for a super predator that ate a nine-foot Great White, explore why and how Reef sharks are re-populating Bikini Atoll – a nuclear testing site that was destroyed in the Cold War, plus much more.

Abalone Wars makes its Shark Week debut as well, with the world premiere of Season 5. With personal demons hounding the fleet, treacherous ocean conditions and shark sightings at an all-time high, the battle for survival is more real than ever. Plus this season Andrew ‘ET’ Ettingshausen pays his mate David ‘Bucky’ Buckland a visit and crosses abalone diving off his bucket list.

Featuring some of the world’s most respected marine biologists, researchers and science institutions, Shark Weekhighlights some of the most recent breakthroughs and developments that uncover fascinating new findings about these species so that humans can understand them a little more and appreciate the vital role they play in the ecosystem.

From the main players – Great Whites, Tiger sharks and Bull sharks, to Reef sharks and Makos, to the rare and mysterious Oceanic Whitetip, get up close and personal with the ocean’s greatest predators all from the safety of your couch when Shark Week starts Sunday 4 December at 8.30pm AEDT. It’s guaranteed to be jawsome!

Shark Week premieres:

Isle of Jaws │Premieres Sunday 4 December at 8.30pm AEDT
In Isle of Jaws, narrated by Andrew ‘ET’ Ettingshausen, award-winning shark photographer Andy Casagrande and marine biologist Dr. Jonathan Werry team up to investigate the strange and complete disappearance of Great White sharks from Neptune Island off South Australia. Answering the big question of where did the sharks go, Andy searches west along the known Great White migration route and discovers a large concentration of all male Great White sharks off an uncharted island. Together with Dr. Jonathan Werry, the pair gets up close and personal with a dozen large Great Whites in the hopes of solving two of the most closely guarded of all the species’ secrets; where they mate, and where they have their young.

Jaws of the Deep │Premieres Sunday 4 December at 9.30pm AEDT
Marine biologist and shark expert Greg Skomal and the REMUS SharkCam team return to Guadalupe Island, 400km off the coast of San Diego, to find the world’s largest Great White shark, Deep Blue. The team plans to deploy a new sub that can reach depths of up to over 600 metres, a far cry from the 90 metre limit of their other robot sub. The aim; to dive into the dark abyss and enter the deep sea world of the Great White for the first time and discover exactly what they are doing down there. From never before seen footage, the team build a profile of how the Great Whites move and just how they can strike from the depths below to ambush their unsuspecting prey. But the hunter becomes the prey when their submarine is attacked!

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.

Abalone Wars (Season 5, Episode 1) │Premieres Wednesday 7 December at 8.30pm AEDT
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?

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!