Shark Week 2023 got off to a thrilling start with the "Belly of the Beast: Feeding Frenzy" special, and the aquatic action continued with "Alien Sharks: Strange New Worlds." Marine biologist Forrest Galante visited the waters off South Africa in search of some of the stranger sharks than just the great whites famed for hunting in the area. He and his team encountered a lot more than just sharks during their investigation, however, as they found none other than Port and Starboard, a.k.a. the orcas famous for hunting great whites. Galante spoke with CinemaBlend about why trying to film the killer whales seemed like a terrible idea!
Forrest Galante is a familiar face for Shark Week fans, and his search for "alien sharks" resulted in some fascinating finds like footage of pyjama sharks mating, sevengills thriving in an unexpected place, and even sharks that glowed. The team also visited the waters off of Seal Island, which longtime Shark Week viewers know as a place for finding great whites breaching in Air Jaws specials. Longtime viewers also learned last year that orcas have been decimating the population of white sharks in the area, with two named Port and Starboard as the main culprits.
When I spoke with Forrest Galante during Discovery's recent Shark Week press junket, he confirmed that it "was very unexpected" when they encountered Port and Starboard while searching for alien sharks. In fact, according to the marine biologist, even the idea of trying to showcase those two orcas originally seemed like a waste of time. He explained:
Well, you know, what's funny is going into the show, Laura, my producer Mitchell says to me, like, 'Oh, wouldn't it be great to sort of really lean into Port and Starboard and tell their story?' And I was like, 'That's a terrible idea. We're never going to find literally two individual orcas in the entire ocean. The likelihood is slim to none. We'd need months to track them down.' And then sure enough, here we are diving, and the world's two most famous orcas go swimming right by the boat.
The waters off of South Africa have been so greatly impacted by Port and Starboard and other orcas that Shark Week 2023 began with the "Belly of the Beast" special driven by the effects of killer whales on great whites after Discovery got a little gory with the two species in 2022, but that doesn't mean that it's easy to find two specific orcas in a very large ocean!
It was extremely unlikely that the "Alien Sharks" crew would find them, whether or not they were looking... and then, there Port and Starboard were! Forrest Galante went on to explain how finding the orcas shifted their dive:
It was very fortuitous, so we changed plan and we got their little cameo. They didn't exactly give us a ton of time, but we got them in the show as much as they'd allow us and that helped tell the story and the plight of the sevengill and what's going on with Port and Starboard hunting them and eating their livers and pushing their population down. It was great that that all worked out the way that it did.
Port and Starboard making this cameo on "Alien Sharks" rather than in a special focusing on great whites during Shark Week 2023 (hosted by Aquaman star Jason Momoa) can help to raise awareness that the most famous species of shark isn't the only one being targeted en masse by orcas. The killer whales are a threat to sevengills as well as great whites, and how many fans realized that before "Alien Sharks" shone the spotlight?
The Shark Week action continues on Tuesday, July 25 with "Mako Mania: Battle for California" at 8 p.m. ET, "Raiders of the Lost Shark" at 9 p.m., and "Monster Hammerheads: Killer Instinct" at 10 p.m. ET, all on Discovery. These specials and more will also be available for fans with a Max subscription.
