Shark vs Whale

Release Date: July 28, 2020

Watch Date: May 29, 2024

“A routine drone survey turns deadly when Ryan Johnson, a marine biologist, films a humpback whale being attacked and drowned by a great white shark. The never-before-seen behavior causes a complete perspective shift on a creature Johnson has spent his life studying, prompting him to follow humpback whales on their migration and map places that may make them vulnerable.”

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   I need to be super honest with you, I barely watched this film.

   The kids picked it, again, which has been fun, but the problem about watching nature documentaries with children is that they lose interest about 10 minutes through. Plus, every time a whale was hurt, I had my eyes covered by my son, who is very helpful and knows that I’m a sensitive soul who likes marine life more than most other people.

   But I did still manage to learn a few other things. One, this seems to only be recorded behavior from a single shark, Helen. Two, just because it’s only been observed once doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened before, and I’m pretty sure they referenced some whales clearly having wounds from sharks. Three, this can only work in certain environments where food for sharks might be less abundant and whales might be more vulnerable. And fourth, and most importantly, a group of sharks is called a shiver.

   A shiver.

   That’s amazing.

   It did lead the family down a rabbit hole where we ended up looking up the funny names of several groups of animals. A bloat of hippopotamuses? Really? That seems kind of mean.

   Anyways, I think this was probably a really interesting documentary about a never-before-seen behavior. But I absorbed what I absorbed and the film has come and gone and I don’t anticipate watching it again. Let me know if I missed anything interesting, I suppose, should you decide to give it a shot.