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By Jessie Moniz Hardy
Published Apr 14, 2014 at 8:00 am 

Stunned awe was the feeling when film producer Dan Radford finally came face to face with a humpback whale.

Mr Radford, from the United Kingdom, is co-producer of ‘Ocean Vet’, a new television series featuring local vet Neil Burnie.

The crew was recently on the Island to film the first episode for the series that has been presold to Cineflix Rights, a division of Cineflix Media Inc, a leading, independent UK television content distributor. The first episode of ‘Ocean Vet’ is about humpback whales which are currently passing Bermuda in their spring migration phase.

Neil Burnie preparing to take a biopsy from a whale, Choy Aming and Dan Radford filming.
(Photo by Pierangelo Lanfranchi)

“I am the principle photographer,” Mr Radford said. “It is the first time I have filmed a species like the humpback whale underwater and dived with them. The first time was the most awe-striking moment of my life. Until I see the birth of my child, I won’t witness anything as amazing as that.

“I don’t think I was expecting to feel as stunned as I did when I first saw a humpback whale in the water. There is a sense of anticipation and natural adrenalin before, but when you are in that moment, everything else fades away and the two of you are just floating in the ocean.”

He said he had seen humpback whales when he was 16 years old off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, but had never been in such proximity to them, in the water.

“I would say it was probably the most magical thing I have filmed in all my years doing it,” said Mr Radford.

Dr Burnie and other members of the crew will be speaking tonight at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI) and showing some footage they have taken.

Most of the series episodes will be filmed later in the summer, but this particular episode had to be filmed now to take advantage of spring migration patterns. The episode looks at the effects of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) on migrating humpback whales. POPs are from chemicals produced in manufacturing plants that have washed from land into the ocean. The chemicals attach themselves to small pieces of plastic in the ocean. Currents transport the plastic all around the ocean.

One of the stars of the first episode of Ocean Vet. (Photo by Pierangelo Lanfranchi)

“Humpback whales gulp 50,000 litres at a time,” said Series Producer Andy Smith. “When they take in seawater they also consume these plastics with the POPs. It can cause immune system failures, reproductive problems, cancers and in some cases, death. We are trying to understand what levels of toxins are in the whales that are passing Bermuda.”

To do this Dr Burnie has to take a whale biopsy. He said that biopsying a whale is actually a lot easier than it sounds.

“We approach the whales in a small inflatable boat with a prop guard to protect us from the whales and to protect the whales from us,” he said.

He fires a device at the whale as it takes a dive. The device takes a 40 millimetre long piece of tissue from the whale skin and blubber. Dr Burnie said studies have been done on other whale populations undergoing this testing and there is no adverse reaction. There is no evidence that they even register the feel of such a tiny scratch. It is basically the equivalent of a human being stung by a mosquito.

The samples will be sent to a lab in Canada. Some of the samples will also be processed by the Southern Ocean Persistent Organic Pollutant Research Programme based within Griffith University’s School of Environment in Australia.

“They have offered to test our samples for no charge because they are unique,” he said. “They are dying to compare the results from the Mid-Atlantic with similar biopsies they have taken from the southern ocean population. There is more of this research done in the Pacific than in the Atlantic.”

Mr Smith said one of the big challenges to filming had so far been the spring weather in Bermuda.

“The wind and waves have been the most challenging part,” Mr Smith said. “To film these sequences we are using two to three boats out on Challenger Bank using equipment that doesn’t like salt water. The whales are only here for a certain amount of time. I was getting slightly nervous that we hadn’t got what we needed up to two days ago. Then, we had one of the most amazing days ever. We went out with Choy Aming who has been whale spotting for last 20 years. We had five or six whales swim with us for four hours. We got some footage that made everyone cry. The footage is mind bogglingly beautiful.”

Vet Neil Burnie and Dylan Ward on the "set" of Ocean Vet.
(Photo by Pierangelo Lanfranchi)

Mr Smith said sometimes filming could be stressful as everyone had different roles.

“Sometimes,” he said, “the boat driver will be trying to keep the boat still, Neil will be trying to do what he has to do with the whales, the camera operator will be trying to film. The tension builds; there are huge surges of adrenalin, with people shouting ‘turn right! turn left!’ It brings up a few disagreement on a number of occasions, but in a friendly way. We are all friends at the end of the day, though.”

He said it was “ridiculously exciting” when they learned the series had been presold to Cineflix, a massive international distribution company. They are known for selling high quality television programmes.

“They love ‘Ocean Vet’,” he said. “They think it has a huge potential for sales around the world.”

Dr Burnie said ‘Ocean Vet’ wasn’t originally his idea, although he had always dreamed of being in a television programme.

“Andrew Smith contacted me about another television show they have made, airing on United Kingdom and United States channels, called ‘Rod and Rucksack’. We were originally discussing spear fishing.”

As they conversed, Dr Burnie told him about the wonders of the sea around Bermuda including 100lb groupers, blue marlins, tiger shocks and rays.

“Andy and I said we think we have got the potential for 12 episodes of a television programme about the ocean,” Dr Burnie said. “It would feature entirely different species in Bermuda. We wanted to make a television show and educate the public as to what the risk is if we don’t manage our oceans properly. We would never dream of treating a pristine piece of park on land, the way we treat our ocean.”

Other topics for the series will include eagle rays, black groupers, lion fish, six gill sharks, the Sargasso Sea and more.

“I think every single episode has something to offer everyone,” said Mr Smith.

They will be giving a talk at the BUEI at 7.30pm. Tickets are $25 for non members and $20 for BUEI members available from 294-0204 or from the BUEI’s gift shop.

For more information, see the ‘Ocean Vet’ Facebook page.