Spoilers forward for the “Cocaine Sharks” particular of Shark Week 2023 on Discovery.
Discovery is celebrating the thirty fifth anniversary of Shark Week within the 2023 TV schedule with every thing from a harrowing nice white encounter that felt straight out of a movie to some cameos from the orcas who’re decimating the shark inhabitants in South Africa. “Cocaine Sharks” concerned an investigation into the stories of cocaine bales being dumped into shark-infested waters off of Florida, which concerned dropping some “shark cocaine” into the ocean. Shark behaviorist Tom “The Blowfish” Hird was down within the water for the particular, and he opened as much as CinemaBlend concerning the experiment and expertise.
A venture known as “Cocaine Sharks” airing simply months after the Cocaine Bear film launched may sound like a horror movie set within the ocean, however the Shark Week particular mixed a enjoyable method to a weird subject with severe scientific points. Pushed by stories of sharks being fueled by cocaine dumped within the waters off of Florida, Tom Hird went all the way down to the Keys to attempt to determine what truly occurs when sharks work together with that drug. With no scarcity of shark species in these waters and experiments by no means completed earlier than, there was loads of motion to fill the hour after the staff created their shark model of cocaine.
Naturally, a Shark Week staff could not very properly collect 1000’s of kilos of actual cocaine and dump them into the ocean to check a speculation, so they’d to determine one thing that would serve the identical objective to sharks with out upsetting the ecosystem or doing any hurt to folks and animals. The top end result was a substance made out of extremely concentrated fish powder that was decided to be the closest stimulus to cocaine, which may very well be packaged up into bales and bait bombs for testing on sharks.
The shark cocaine definitely affected them, as they ranged from erratic to agitated to downright feisty, with some even going into full hunt mode after being uncovered regardless of no prey current. The end result was Tom Hird in some tough conditions underwater surrounded by frenzied sharks, together with a too-close-for-comfort encounter with a hammerhead. Once I spoke with the shark behaviorist in the course of the latest Shark Week press junket, I requested how conscious he was of his environment whereas underwater and whether or not there have been any surprises when he reviewed the footage, and he shared:
A number of the most fascinating moments are when we have now the bales going off and we obtained the fishy shark cocaine out – so our replicated cocaine, if you’ll – as a result of the visibility simply disappears. The one factor that once you’re diving with sharks is you need good visibility so you may see the sharks, you may gauge their behaviors and stuff. And naturally, the factor to recollect once you’re diving is, you actually have gotten tunnel imaginative and prescient, that what you are seeing is there. So, one of many issues, it myself, was going alongside, and I might see a shot and go ‘Oh, yeah, I can see two lemon sharks there they usually’re fairly energetic,’ however you then see the most important shark… as a result of you may’t hear them.
Loads of totally different sorts of sharks confirmed up in the course of the totally different phases of the “Cocaine Sharks” experiment, together with lemon sharks, hammerheads, bonnetheads, and even some tigers. Tom Hird was proper in the midst of these shark cocaine-fueled creatures, and I can confidently say that I used to be completely comfortable to be watching from the consolation of my sofa as a substitute of by his aspect within the Florida waters! The Blowfish continued:
Taking a look at these photographs, and in addition seeing how shut we had been in that maelstrom, additionally seeing issues like that afterwards that you simply suppose, ‘Wow, that actually places it into perspective!’ As a result of once you’re down there, you understand it is kicking off once you’re like, ‘That is enterprise, I am loving this!’ And you then see afterwards and you are like, ‘Candy Jesus!’ and you’ll actually, actually take pleasure in it at that time.
Tom Hird very clearly had enjoyable with the “Cocaine Sharks” expertise, and appeared all the way down to develop the experiment sooner or later by the tip of the particular. On condition that Shark Week 2023 (hosted by Aquaman star Jason Momoa) was making an attempt one thing new with this particular, I requested Tom Hird what he hoped that viewers would take away from “Cocaine Sharks” after it aired. He defined:
I simply hope they take pleasure in it. , we’re not making an attempt to be a severe documentary… We’re having enjoyable. We’re doing a little actual science. We’re simply skimming the highest of giant, enormous topics, and I hope folks take pleasure in that they usually see that, and that they additionally they take away as properly that really there’s a query to be requested about what chemical substances are going into the ocean. Not simply sewage and oil, however what different chemical substances are going into the ocean? As a result of finally these issues come again round to us. So we do should be interested by what is going on in us, what is going on by means of us, and the place it is ending up.
Whereas the particular was enjoyable and even lighthearted within the method to determining reality from rumor concerning the tales of cocaine-fueled sharks within the Florida Keys, it additionally has an essential message: what goes within the water not solely impacts the creatures that stay there, however will finally have an effect on people as properly. Shark cocaine is not going to trigger folks any bother because it’s simply fish powder, however that is not going to be the case with every thing dumped within the ocean.
Tom Hird additionally shared that there is “an exceptional quantity of caffeine within the oceans,” and joked that it is in all probability the fault of “us Brits simply consuming tea, to be truthful.” As an American chatting with the Brit, I needed to point out the Boston Tea Get together, to which The Blowfish responded:
Disgusting waste of tea, disgusting! The truth is, I do know that is a little bit of a joke, however that replicates what we’re doing, you understand, dropping tea within the water. That tea diffuses, and if there are sharks or fish or something in that water, they’re gonna get a success of it. That is what ‘Cocaine Sharks’ is. There’s cocaine going into the water, so we all know that is occurring. We have seen the information stories, we have got the Coast Guard stories, there’s tons of stuff going into the water, [and] there isn’t any approach that an animal as intelligent and as sensible and as wide-ranging as a shark hasn’t come alongside, checked out that and gone, ‘Oh, I’m wondering what that’s.’
Whether or not Discovery goes again to the tales of cocaine sharks sooner or later stays to be seen. Shark Week usually revisits previous investigations and experiments to dig a bit deeper, and I would not be shocked if this example down in Florida is on the heart of one other particular or two down the street.
The Shark Week motion continues on Thursday, July 27 on Discovery, with “Jaws within the Shallows” at 8 p.m. ET, “Monster Mako: Recent Blood” with Dr. Austin Gallagher (whose “Stomach of the Beast” obtained Shark Week 2023 off to an thrilling begin) at 9 p.m., and “Shark vs Snake: Battle of the Bites” at 10 p.m. You too can discover Shark Week specials streaming with a Max subscription.
