A New Discovery on Discovery

Around 10:00 tonight, I received one of those rare phone calls that come with a sense of urgency. On the other line, my mom excitedly instructed me to turn on Channel 7: the Discovery Channel. Luckily, the Comcast guy came today and we are finally enjoying television and internet after nearly two weeks of prehistoric living. I turned on the TV, and adjusted the dial (well, used the remote) to change to Channel 7. Familiar images of penguins with tropical backdrops of the Pacific Ocean and lava-covered islands flashed across the screen. A show highlighting the unusual wonders of the Galapagos Islands, which I was fortunate enough to visit exactly one year ago, was on. Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Wild Pacific.

It didn't take long for me, and even some of my friends, to get hooked to this show. Sure enough, we were drawn in for an entire extra hour after the first hour-long show. By the third hour, at midnight, we all agreed we needed to physically turn off the TV so we could actually go to sleep. That's how good it was - we had to literally pull ourselves away from it.

The show addresses the issue of climate change in a nonaggressive manner with an underlying tone of hope. Rather than disciplining viewers for the state of the environment and providing little options for future resource conservation, Wild Pacific emphasizes changes environmentalists are making around the world to save our wildlife and our planet.

The particular episodes I tuned into highlighted the horrific practice of shark finning, which consists of catching sharks, removing their fins and throwing them back in the ocean while still alive. Without fins, sharks can't swim. Without movement, sharks can't breathe. The sharks die, and the fins are sold into the sickeningly lucrative and primarily Asian market to be made into shark fin soup. This topic was actually my choice of study while I visited the Galapagos last year. Unfortunately, it is another environmental issue that people are unaware of, but should absolutely know about, and Wild Pacific provided an informative and realistic message on the matter.

The show highlighted other areas of environmental devastation, such as the growing loss of coral reefs. However, Wild Pacific also showed something I had never seen: the farming of coral reefs off the coast of Fiji. Biologists are basically replanting coral reefs to replenish the ecosystem - fascinating and inspiring.

Something that affected me most was the segment on tuna fishing. Due to the growing technologies and fishing advancements, larger numbers of fish can be caught at faster rates, resulting in the current listing of the Yellowfin Tuna on the Endangered Species List. On another note, the nets that catch these fish don't only catch fish. Unfortunately, dolphins, turtles and even sharks get tangled in these nets and basically drown to death. You know, after watching this, I'm not sure if my conscience will allow me to eat tuna again. I've always acknowledged the "Dolphin Safe" symbol, but now I'm not exactly sure how much I can trust that. And, now I know that it's not just dolphins that are affected by tuna fishing.

And if all of this isn't enough incentive for you to watch the show, how about the fact that it's narrated by one of my personal favorites, Mike Rowe, who is best known for his hosting of the well-liked Discovery Channel show, Dirty Jobs.

So, here I am at 12:30 a.m. on a Tuesday feeling too inspired to go to bed just yet, and needing to write this all down. Tune into Wild Pacific and see for yourself if you are as inspired as I am. Goodnight!

To watch some clips from Wild Pacific, visit this link and make sure you select the clips from this show:

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/discovery-channel-screening-room/?campaign=dsc-int-hp-dl-wp