Discovery’s popular Shark Week returns Sunday night with a sequel to last year’s most popular show: “Belly of the Beast: Bigger and Bloodier.”
Back is marine scientist Olivia “Liv” Dixon who travels to a new location, New Zealand’s Stewart Islands.
There she and her teammates settle in the belly of a 29-foot whale decoy corpse — nicknamed Paul — for what the show calls, “The biggest feeding frenzy ever with 18-foot ‘Breeder’ sharks.”
Dixon, a Brit based in Boston, knows what matters most to study them.
“In order to get up close to see sharks’ specifically social behaviors, you need good water visibility. And New Zealand has this habitat: Shallow water that’s crystal clear that lets you see the White sharks in a very natural way.
“We know from tracking sharks, they move off but they always come back to Stewart Islands.
“We actively can see them there and observe them. The same thing happens here off Cape Cod. Sharks need to go and feed.”
Dixon has long been entranced by these carnivorous sea creatures. Has she had an evolution with understanding sharks? Or being corrected in some of her assumptions about them?
“I definitely have, after actively working with sharks for a couple years now. Most interesting is how it’s really species dependent. Each species has its own unique behaviors, their own unique personalities.
“I’ve often found with the bigger sharks, the White sharks, you can almost see them being extremely intentional with all of their movements and behaviors. That’s something that I was really unaware of!
“I’d made the assumption: sharks are sharks. But they are so individual — on a species level and at an individual level. That knocked my socks off a bit, honestly.
“Because you get to know these individual sharks and they’re really not dissimilar to us. They have personalities. They’re making life or death decisions every day.”
Why this fascination with the apex predator?
“I completely get some people think, ‘What on earth is she doing? This is completely nuts.’ Maybe I’m a little bit crazy but I just think they are so fascinating.
“Unlike humans, they can’t communicate what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. Or what they’re thinking about.
“Studying an animal, I’m trying to tap into its mindset and behaviors. Sharks are so incredible because they have unbelievable adaptations to survive in one of the most extreme environments on Earth, which is the ocean.
“Yes, they get a bit of a bad rep and they’re a little bit scary. But I like the unknown, the mystery and the little bit of fear that keeps me on my toes.”
Shark Week begins on Discovery tonight at 8 p.m.
