Dive Pacific Iss 171 Oct- Nov 2019

Shooting big sharks, up close
What I’ve learned from years of close encounters
By Dave Abbott, Liquid Action Films
www.liquidaction.co.nz
Images © Dave Abbott, unless otherwise credited.
Dave has worked on productions for Discovery
Channel, PBS and National Geographic in the US,
Arte & ZDF in Europe, NHK in Japan, Globo TV in
Brazil, NHNZ here in New Zealand, Channel 1 &
BBC in the UK, and IMAX. His work has featured
for shows like Shark Week, Big Pacific, Great
White Shark 3D, Untamed, Coast New Zealand
and Our Big Blue Backyard.
Ever since I was knee-high I’ve
had an enduring fascination for
sharks, fuelled by endless hours
watching shark documentaries
and reading every shark book and
paper I could get my hands on.
I know I am not alone in having
such a fascination, but for me this
obsession resulted in my pursuing
a career that has seen me spend
hundreds of hours underwater
filming these marine predators.
Misconceptions
From a filming perspective sharks
take some beating. Most people
love to see big, dangerous predators
on their screens, and shows
like Discovery Channel’s Shark
Week have drawn millions of
viewers for 30 years now.
While some of the entertainment-focused
documentaries made
for Shark Week have been overly
sensationalized and included
dubious science, there are plenty
of others that feature fascinating
shark research and go a long way
to correcting common misconceptions
about shark behaviours.
Shooting for this type of shark
documentary and working alongside
shark scientists is a rewarding
process, and assignments filming
big sharks have given me some of
the most memorable moments of
my life.
Risk factors
I have been lucky enough to work
with most of the big ‘iconic’ shark
species from Great Whites and
Makos to Bull and Tiger sharks,
…all have one thing in common; they are innately cautious
and usually non-confrontational but…
Night dive in the midst of a hunting pack.
…all have one thing in common; they are innately
cautious and usually non-confrontational but…
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