If you live in the UK, the first episode of a landmark BBC series entitled Shark goes to air on 7 May. The site has been filmed over several years, and many Wetpixel members and contributors have been involved, including Andy Cassagrande and Morne Hardenberg.

The series is described as:

“A major wildlife series on the sharks of the world with over thirty species filmed, showing how they hunt, intricate social lives, courtship, growing up and the threats they face.”

In order to get the footage, the BBC team spent a total of 2,646 hours underwater, using 1.5 million litres of air with only one camera being “eaten” by a shark.

The team used some modern diving technology to get close to the sharks:

“We needed to be able to follow the animals, and if you use static cameras you’re just not going to be able to get that,” says Rachel Butler, a marine biologist and assistant producer on Shark. “We used equipment called closed circuit rebreathers, which allowed the cameramen to stay underwater for three or four hours without having to resurface. We would spend hours underwater just waiting.”

Episode 1 of shark goes to air at 8.55 BST on 7 May. The series will no doubt become available via other sources for those that can’t tune in