The new Netflix show “All the Sharks” drew competitors from all over the world, but a member of the championship team came from La Jolla.
“All the Sharks” invited four teams of two members each to photograph sharks around the globe. The rarer the shark, the higher the point value. Points also were awarded based on the number of photos and the number of diverse species captured.
After jumping to an early lead and claiming the most points in the first two episodes, Brendan Talwar, a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, and his teammate, marine biologist Chris Malinowski, kept the momentum going to the very end.
The team, known as the “Shark Docs,” outlasted the three other teams across six episodes to take home the shark-shaped trophy and $50,000 for nonprofits. Talwar and Malinowski competed on behalf of the Colorado-based Ocean First Institute, where Malinowski is director or research and conservation, and the Florida-based Reef Environmental Education Foundation.
Every episode of the show is available for streaming at netflix.com/title/81711583.
Talwar told the La Jolla Light that the show had its highs — traveling the world with one of his best friends and showcasing some of the planet’s diverse ecosystems — and lows, including complete exhaustion at the end of the competition.
Ultimately, he said, the biggest win was for the nonprofits.
“We’re really excited to bring the money to them more than anything,” Talwar said. “I remember saying early in the season that we didn’t have to win, I just didn’t want us to lose. But as we got closer to the final locations, our sights were set on winning the money for the nonprofits. It will do a lot for them, and that motivated us.”
The experience did a lot for Talwar, too, including fulfilling a childhood wish. During one of the episodes at Darwin’s Arch in the Galapagos Islands, a group of orcas swam around the Shark Docs while they were on a dive.
“That was my favorite moment, hands down,” Talwar said. “It wasn’t a shark, but that has been at the top of my bucket list since I was a child. I’ve been obsessed with killer whales since then and I always wanted to see them.
“So there we were as scientists in the most incredible dive site, which is also the birthplace of evolution, and we saw them. To have all that happen all at the same time, we were crying on the boat when we were done. It was just the most joyful thing.”
“We were happy to sacrifice points to hang out with killer whales,” he added with a laugh.
Additionally, he said, diving in South Africa provided an opportunity to encounter and showcase species Talwar didn’t know existed or don’t exist anywhere else on Earth.
“We were amazed to see how diverse and vibrant these species and environments were,” he said. “It showed that these are important animals and ecosystems that we need to understand and protect. The show brought that to people.”
But the memorable experiences came at a physically taxing cost.
“When you watch the final episode, you can see how tired everyone is by the end,” Talwar said. “It’s nonstop, and I can see in our faces how exhausted we are and we all lost a ton of weight because we were swimming for days and days.
“This show is filmed in one go; it was one trip around the world. We would do four dives a day for three days at each location. … Sometimes it would be two days of flying before you land and do it all over again. We were exhausted.”
Talwar also lamented that some of his messages about the importance of conservation didn’t make the final cut.
“Every time I spoke on camera, I was talking about conservation, and that didn’t make it on the show,” he said.
“[Malinowski and I] are scientists, so we were hesitant to compete,” he added. “When people say ‘reality TV,’ I want to run away, but we realized the show could make people excited about sharks and rays. We’re so thrilled to see it go that direction. And we were the science team, and sometimes scientists are depicted as nerdy or less capable, so we were happy to represent our field well.”
Building off the momentum of the show, Talwar and Malinowski launched a science- and conservation-based podcast called “The Shark Docs” that will be released one episode at a time for the next month on YouTube.
Talwar said some people have reached out to say their children were getting excited about the show.
“I had one friend send me a clip of their [child] running around the living room watching the show yelling ‘Hammerhead! Hammerhead!’ and that was amazing,” Talwar said.
Talwar, who originally is from Kentucky, spent time in coastal Florida during his youth, which sparked an interest in ocean ecosystems.
Years later, while studying mountain lions and wildlife management in New Mexico, “I learned that the issues they face are similar to what sharks face,” Talwar previously told the Light. “That program ignited my passion for problem-solving and all the complexities of wildlife management. Ever since, I have applied that idea to ocean animals. … How can I use science to solve a problem?”
Talwar arrived at Scripps Oceanography in 2022 for his postdoctoral work and continued his research and advocacy.
But with his ongoing research — focused on the use of DDT and its impact on fisheries — coming to a close later this year, he hopes to secure more funding for a shark-centered project that would keep him at Scripps.
“If we get that funding,” he said, “that would be another huge win.” 