Netflix crew narrates shark attack in Hawaii

The show’s director, Toby Nolan, told the Radio Times that the crew were out on the water in inflatable rafts in order to get underwater footage of tiger sharks near Laisan Island in northwest Hawaii, when they were attacked by the sharks.

“This water came rushing towards us and this tiger shark jumped on the boat and punched huge holes in it. The whole boat exploded,” Nolan said. “We were trying to get rid of her, and she didn’t have any. It was just awful.”

The crew was following the migratory pattern of Laysan’s albatross chick in the first episode of the documentary series. Large seabirds are almost entirely endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. The chicks are raised by their parents for about six months before they take their first flight.

In an attempt to capture footage of tiger sharks, one of the birds’ predators, documentaries were attacked. Their raft was damaged but had enough air to return to land just over half a mile away.

“The filming itself was a lot of fun,” series producer Hugh Cordy told Forbes. “It took us six days to sail there from Hawaii, and I think we are the first natural history series to depict the maiden voyage of the Laysan albatross. They are the longest-lived birds ever, and they make this enormous journey around the planet for years before they breed for the first time.”

Nolan added that it wasn’t the first shark that day to overwhelm the crew over food. He speculated that the behavior was “extremely unusual”.

“They were incredibly hungry, so maybe there wasn’t enough normal food,” he said. “And they were just trying anything they could come across in the water.”

Faced with the attack, Nolan continues to defend the creatures. In an Instagram post, he praised the sharks as “prowling the open ocean.”

“I feel like sharks could use better PR right now,” he said in the post with the hashtag “sharks are friends.”

While shark attacks in Hawaii are uncommon, tiger sharks are one of the most dangerous species due to their “random feeding behaviourAccording to the Hawaii Department of Water Resources. The department explained that tiger sharks tend to attack humans in the water more than any other species in Hawaii.