Into the BLUE
Monterey Bay wildlife to star in ‘SuperBowl’ of nature shows
Monterey Bay is ready for its close-up. Now it’s just a matter of making sure its biggest “stars” aren’t camera-shy.
That’s a key concern for the team behind “Big Blue Live,” a groundbreaking PBS television and multimedia event showcasing marine life along California’s coast. Over three straight nights beginning Aug. 31, producers hope to deliver extraordinary, real-time images of whales, dolphins, great white sharks, elephant seals and other sea creatures to millions of viewers across the nation.
To pull that off, the filmmakers will have to be nimble enough to get to where the action is.
“Nature is literally writing our script,” says James Honeyborne, one of the project’s producers. “We genuinely don’t know how it’s all going to pan out. Some things will go wrong. But that’s what makes it exciting.”
Touted as “nature’s ultimate reality show” and designed to celebrate the environmental rebirth of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanc-
tuary, “Big Blue Live” is a coproduction between PBS and the BBC. The latter has plenty of experience with ambitious, live nature programs, but this is a major first for PBS.
“We feel like we’re on the cusp of a new wave of storytelling,” says Bill Gardner, vice president of PBS programming and development. “We want people to come away feeling like they’ve gone on a really awesome vacation with us.”
Every summer, a vast array of animals travel thousands of miles to reach the waters of Monterey Bay — home to one of the biggest wildlife gatherings on Earth. “Big Blue Live” brings together scientists, filmmakers, animal behaviorists and other experts to chronicle and provide insights into this annual confluence.
The backdrop to it all is the remarkable rejuvenation of the once-endangered and now thriving ecosystem of Monterey Bay, which has survived decades of overfishing, pollutants and other stresses. Thanks to the efforts of environmentalists, scientists and politicians, the bay has rebounded in a big way.
It’s a “feel-good kind of story,” according to Dr. Joy S. Reidenberg, one of the scientists who will contribute to the “Big Blue” coverage.
She notes that 25 to 30 years ago, 80 percent of the marine mammals in Monterey Bay were on the en- dangered species list. “Now look at what has happened,” she says. “The ocean is resilient. If we protect nature, it will come back.”
Adds Honeyborne: “There aren’t many areas on Earth where you can say this place is better than it was 50 years ago. That’s pretty inspiring.”
“Big Blue Live” will be anchored by four hosts from an open-air studio at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and from aboard National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessels. Viewers will be offered live reports from air, sea and below the waves.
In addition, PBS is counting on a substantial social media effort fueled by residents and visitors in and around Monterey Bay. Gardner wants “citizen scientists” to tweet if they spot something interesting.
“We’re creating a multiplatform experience unlike anything we’ve ever done before,” he says.
With “Big Blue Live,” PBS and the BBC hope to capitalize on the recent resurgence of epic nature productions on television — a trend fueled by programs like the highly popular British series “Planet Earth” and enhanced by highdefinition photography and technological advances. “Good nature films are experiential,” says Honeyborne, who works with the BBC’s Natural History Unit. “They draw you into a world that you perhaps don’t know and allow you to escape into that world.”
And the “live” component is expected to enhance it even more.
“It’s a chance for us to bring the audience along and to create that sense of immediacy,” says Dr. M. Sanjayan, one of the “Big Blue” hosts. “This is not something happening far away, at sort of a disjunct time. This is something that is happening right now in your backyard. … I mean, this is like the Super Bowl for nature.”
But will nature cooperate? Honeyborne and his crews have done everything they can to predict where the most telegenic creatures will be. They traveled to Mexico in the spring in order to track the humpbacks and blue whales as they began their northern journey and had a crew in New Zealand to get shots of birds at the start of the world’s biggest, longest migration.
In a perfect scenario, Honeyborne says, they’ll be able to capture live footage of humpbacks feeding at the ocean’s surface. But the “holy grail” — the biggest TV star of them all? Blue whales.
“It’s rare to see a blue whale ever, so that would be absolutely incredible,” he says. “But at least we’ve got a cast of characters that are there and guaranteeable, including sea lions and, of course, sea otters — one of the cutest, most adorable animals on the planet.”
Whatever happens, the “Big Blue” team is determined to entertain, as well as educate, and provide viewers with what Reidenberg calls “wow moments.”
“That’s part of the excitement,” she says. “I study whales for a living, and even though I’ve seen a whale breach many times, it’s still a wow moment for me. I’m still going to pause and go, ‘Amazing! Did you see that? That’s amazing!’ ”