The crew, who were collecting footage of a Laysan albatross’s maiden flight for David Attenborough’s Our Planet II, had been aiming to get shots underwater during the six-day trip.“This ’v’ of water came streaming towards us and this tiger shark leaped at the boat and bit huge holes in it. The whole boat exploded,” Nowlan said.
“We were trying to get it away and it wasn’t having any of it. It was horrific. That was the second shark that day to attack us.”The crew, who were collecting footage of a Laysan albatross’s maiden flight for David Attenborough’s Our Planet II, had been aiming to get shots underwater during the six-day trip.“They were incredibly hungry, so there might not have been enough natural food and they were just trying anything they came across in the water,” he said.
They were only about a half mile from land and made it safely ashore but later sent out a small rubber dinghy, Nowlan said, which was also attacked and had its motor knocked out, this time by giant trevallies, fish which can weigh up to 132-pounds. Producer/director Toby Nowlan described the terrifying scene noting, “They were incredibly hungry, so there might not have been enough natural food and they were just trying anything they came across in the water.”“The original idea was to do an underwater shoot with the tiger sharks waiting in the shallows at Laysan. But the first day the tiger sharks were around, the crew got into these inflatable boats – and two sharks attacked them,” Cordey said.