Shark’s fin soap, anyone?

SINGAPORE — We were a little shocked when we heard that we might find shark’s-fin soap on Shark Week producer and film-maker Jeff Kurr’s sink.

Discovery Channel’s popular annual week of television documentaries about the animals has been running for 28 years and Kurr has been involved in 25 of those. So don’t worry, no sharks were harmed in its making. Besides, it’s soap not soup — and it’s part of Kurr’s large and incidental collection of shark paraphernalia, which you can go ahead and be jealous of.

“Discovery sends me the coolest swag. It sends me a boxful of stuff every year — everything from hats to can openers to shark’s-fin soap. It’s not made from sharks, thank God,” he said.

He continued: “I have an entire closet full of shark stuff. Basically, I end up giving it away to kids in the neighbourhood or people who come over. In fact, I was wearing a Shark Week T-shirt in the show Island Of The Mega Shark, and I had a bunch of people asking on Facebook where they could get that T-shirt. It says, ‘It’s a bad week to be a seal.’ I’m not big on fashion so you can spot me wearing a shark T-shirt pretty much 365 days a year.”

That’s exactly the sort of reassuring thing you want to hear from someone whose career is devoted to documenting shark behaviour through innovative film-making techniques such as using underwater cameras, thermal imaging, remote operated submersibles and helicopters and, yes, robotic seals. All in the name of clearing up the bad rep that sharks have gained in pop culture.

“The way I get my message across is to show how beautiful they are and to showcase their grace and majesty,” he said. “In a lot of cases, the news media oversensationalises shark attacks. And if you consider the number of shark attacks there are, they’re so rare. In fact, I heard an interesting quote today — that you’re more likely to be killed by a champagne bottle cork than a shark.”

He added: “People always want to know if I’ve been attacked. I can happily say never. I’ve had a few close calls but normally, (it’s because of) something stupid that I did or I wasn’t paying attention. You have to be respectful and cautious. A lot of times, when you’re filming, you’re so focused on looking through the viewfinder, you forget to look behind you and there’s a shark right there.”

It’s one of the risks he takes to provide hard-core Shark Week fans with their annual feeding frenzy. “There are definitely a lot of super-obsessed shark people out there. I can imagine there are a lot of people in their basements (whom) I’m sure are very excited that Shark Week is there to feed their hunger for sharks,” he quipped.

Yes, and by the way, where can we get that T-shirt?

Shark Week premieres on Monday at 10pm, with a different programme each day beginning with Island Of The Mega Shark, on Discovery Channel (StarHub TV Ch 422 and Singtel TV Ch 202).