Netflix Docuseries Crew Attacked by Sharks While Filming Episode: ‘Like Something Out of ‘Jaws”

Filmmakers say crews got up-close-and-personal with some sharks while filming a Netflix docuseries in the middle of the ocean.

Crew members for Our Planet II, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, were collecting footage for the docuseries near Laysan, one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, when they encountered tiger sharks in the water, according to British magazine Radio Times.

Series Producer Huw Cordey told Forbes that the crew planned to conduct “an underwater shoot with the tiger sharks,” but ran into trouble when “two sharks attacked them.”

“It was like something out of Jaws,” Cordey said.

Director and producer Toby Nowlan told Radio Times that he watched in horror as one 15-foot tiger shark “leapt at the boat and bit huge holes” in one of the inflatable boats crews were riding in.

“The whole boat exploded,” Nowlan added. “We were trying to get it away and it wasn’t having any of it. It was horrific.”

Crew members “panicked” before making a beeline for the island, Cordey told Forbes.

Fortunately, the boat was only about 100 meters (328 feet) from shore, and successfully reached the beach before the watercraft fully deflated, according to Radio Times.

Laysan is located about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from the main Hawaiian Islands, according to the outlet. Tiger sharks often lurk in the waters around the remote island, where some feed on birds like the Laysan albatross, a native bird that was highlighted in episode 1 of the Netflix series, per the report.

These sharks are among the largest in the world, and are “known to eat most marine animals, sea birds, the occasional terrestrial animal,” according to the Florida Museum. They are also known to attack humans on occasion, and are responsible for many attacks on humans.

Nowlan told Radio Times that the tiger sharks crews encountered were acting “extremely unusual” the day of the attack.

“They were incredibly hungry,” the director said, “so there might not have been enough natural food and they were just trying anything they came across in the water.”

All four episodes of Our Planet II are now streaming on Netflix.