In 2000, Scubazoo teamed up with Novista TV to produce Thresher Island, a documentary about the elusive pelagic thresher shark (Alopias pelagicus). The story follows well known shark photographer Doug Perrine on his quest to photograph this elegant, yet difficult to find, deep sea shark.
This production is the first ever detailed documentation of thresher sharks. Scubazoo’s underwater cameramen filmed and photographed them in all their splendour, up close and personal and interacting with other marine life. The story covers the impact of the local fishermen and dive tourism on the thresher’s marine environment and the threats to sharks locally. This local situation is related to the desperate plight of sharks worldwide due to the enormous demand for their fins for shark fin soup. Similar to the symbiotic relationship between sharks and other marine creatures, Thresher island proposes that there is also a possibility of a healthy relationship between sharks and man – one that keeps both species alive and well in the future.
Shoots took place throughout 2000 taking in dive destinations such as Layang Layang, a small Malaysian atoll in the South China sea as well as in the Philippine island of Malapascua where sightings of Thresher sharks are common around the cleaning stations found on Monad shoal.
We’d like to thank Dik and Cora of Malapascua exotic resort for their help, excellent accommodation and service.
Preview and buy rare thresher shark footage and thresher shark photos from Scubazoo’s stock library.
