Discovery Channel: Shark Week 2009

Shark Week

Everyone’s favourite week of ocean terror is back!
Sunday 18 January 2009 - Saturday 24 January 2009

Mysteries of The Shark Coast
SUNDAY 18 JANUARY, 7.30PM
New Zealand Television Premiere
(1 ep x 120 mins)
Australia's northeastern coast is a hotbed for shark activity. Its tropical seas are home to more sharks and more different species of sharks, than any other in the world. However, there's trouble in the sharks' stronghold down under, as even here the sharks are disappearing. What's happening to them? Is it something we're doing or do we not fully understand the real lives of sharks? A special cross-discipline team made up of Australian marine biologist Richard Fitzpatrick, a filmmaker, a conservationist and an adventurer will band together to undertake the largest shark tagging expedition in Australian history. The rest of the ‘shark investigator’ team is made up of noted shark documentary filmmaker and host Mike deGruy, scientist M. Sanjayan and Ph.D and adventurer, Celine Cousteau. Their mission: to discover the cause for the mysterious decline in sharks along Australia's coast and figure out how we can help the situation. Discovery Networks’ mission was to support them by contributing $US 150,000 to this vital research which could affect the future of sharks in Australia. In the documentary, the team of shark investigators deploy crittercams and remote cameras in several locations to explore and record secret shark behaviours and to gather new insight into the still largely secretive life of the ocean's ultimate predator.

Mythbusters Shark Week Special
MONDAY 19 JANUARY, 7.30PM
New Zealand Television Premiere (1 ep x 120 mins)
After taking a bite out of some common shark myths, the MythBusters are thirsty for more! Grab your wet suits, spear guns and sunscreen and hit the deep blue to tackle another bite out of shark folklore. This year the team is out to test the peeper shark myth which explores whether gouging a shark's eyes prevents attack.

SURVIVING SHARKS
TUESDAY 20 JANUARY, 7.30PM
New Zealand Television Premiere (1 ep x 60 mins)
What do sharks really like to eat and how can we stay off the menu? Host, Les Stroud (‘Survivor man’) jumps into the water with species of sharks that have particularly bad reputations including the Bull, Tiger and Reef Shark. Watch as he tests how these animals determine what’s good to eat and what's not.

Dirty Jobs: Greenland Shark Quest
WEDNESDAY 21 JANUARY, 7.30PM
New Zealand Television Premiere (1 ep x 60 mins)
In this special, Mike heads to the edge of the Arctic Circle, on the northeast side of Canada (Baffin Island) in search of one of the most mysterious sharks known to man, the Greenland shark. These sharks are easily the least understood large shark and learning more about these slow moving behemoths could help scientists understand the ecological changes in recent years occurring so rapidly around the Arctic and what their immediate impact on the food chain is. When Mike and the crew arrive they quickly realise the biggest challenge of this job will be trying to keep from freezing to death. Not only is the life of the crew in danger, so is their equipment, as everything is completely frozen.

How Not To Become Shark Bait
THURSDAY 22 JANUARY, 7.30PM
New Zealand Television Premiere (1 ep x 60 mins)
Escapologist Jonathan Goodwin, egged on by his two sidekicks, is thrown into a perilous situation in order to show us how NOT to become shark bait. These guys are thrill seekers with a purpose who want to understand the science behind situations and test to the limit, everything that the world can throw at them. The more dangerous it gets, the more the hosts relish watching their friends learn How Not To Become Shark Bait.

Ocean Of Fear
FRIDAY 23 JANUARY, 7.30PM
Channel Premiere (1 ep x 60 mins)
This is the gripping story of the USS Indianapolis ship that was sunk by Japanese torpedoes in the Philippine Sea on the night of July 30, 1945 during World War II. Of the 1,200 man crew, around 300 men go down with the ship and 900 sailors, many maimed and burned, were plunged into the water and were left floating helplessly for four days, beset by hunger, driven mad by thirst and menaced and eaten by hundreds of sharks. Ocean of Fear examines why the sharks attacked the way they did and investigates the survival strategies of the men in the water, including the 300 survivors who fought the sharks. The ordeal of the crew is a testament to human endurance in treacherous conditions.

Other Shark Week programs include:

SHARK ATTACK SURVIVORS - Tuesday January 20 at 8.30pm
TOP FIVE: EATEN ALIVE - Wednesday January 21 at 8.30pm
SHARK FEEDING FRENZY - Thursday January 22 at 8.30pm
PERFECT PREDITORS - Friday January 23 at 8.30pm
SHARKMAN - Saturday January 24 at 7.30pm

ENDS

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