Living The Marine Dream

Newcastle Herald

Friday July 9, 2004

with Michael Gadd

AUSTRALIAN filmmaker Leighton de Barros is a survivor of the world's most popular reality TV show so he was never going to let a few sharks bother him.

More of a drama was the all-important element that makes or breaks a show: money.

But he defied a lack of that and followed his heart to Western Australia's north to chronicle the activities of a world heritage area known affectionately as Shark Bay.

A veteran of seven series of America's Survivor franchise, de Barros added the role of producer to his resume to make a film about the area with his Canadian marine biologist friend Lars Bejder.

"It was simple. Lars was going and I had to go with him before he went home to start writing," de Barros said.

"We tried to get pre-sale funding that no one went for but I thought bugger it."

Shark Bay boasts the oldest living organisms in the world and the largest and richest seagrass beds in the world, which support the second-largest population of dugong and huge numbers of sharks.

The unequalled riches attract scientists from all over the world but few catch the vision of de Barros.

He shows the darker side of dolphins. "They're not as lovely as they're made out to be," he said.

He also dives into shark-infested waters to tag giant sea turtles and releases an endangered bilby.

Despite the lack of funding for Shark Bay, it was the logistics that made things tough. Amenities were basic, to say the least.

But all that was nothing compared to the ordeals of Survivor contestants he witnessed first-hand. "There's no way I would want to do it," he said. "Especially in the tropics, they are such harsh conditions.

"Thailand was the worst, with the heat and humidity. Whether it was day or night we were never comfortable, so I can't imagine how the contestants were feeling after not eating properly."

De Barros was also an eye behind ABC's Wild Australasia series for three years, taping such scenes as shark feeding frenzies.

He speaks in a blase tone about the dangers of working with the sea's most dangerous predators, but does say their threat is very real.

"Nothing we do is completely safe. Things can always happen, but they're calculated risks," he said.

"You'd never do it at dawn or dusk when the water's murky. If the sharks come at you, though, you just push them away with a stick."

De Barros said he had seen a cameraman mate have a "hole ripped out of his neck" by a sea lion and had been chased himself by a playful southern right whale.

"It might have been playing but anything like that gets your blood pumping," he said.

Wild Australasia knocked some high-profile reality shows off their perch but, as a wildlife lover, de Barros finds it disheartening that the genre's popularity depends on dangerous critters.

"It's sad that it's got to be about sharks, snakes or crocs for people to watch it," he said.

"Shark Bay won't light the world on fire but it's a great part of Australia that people should get a chance to see."

Richard Morecroft Goes Wild: Shark Bay, Saturday, 6.30pm, ABC

© 2004 Newcastle Herald

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