Shark Week’s Paul de Gelder on Becoming a Mascot for the Annual Discovery Channel Event

Discovery Channel has spent several years finding notable figures to host their annual Shark Week celebration of the impressive fish, initially starting with Discovery icons like the MythBusters or Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe, while recent years have seen them bring in talent like Jason Momoa, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, or Shaquille O’Neal to serve as MCs. While John Cena might be this year’s official host, you’re more likely to tune into any number of specials on Discovery Channel and see Paul de Gelder on your TV, thanks not only to him leading five all-new specials for 2024, but also for his contributions from previous years being broadcast during the seven-day celebration. Even without fins or gills, de Gelder has become an integral and recognizable component of the event. Shark Week kicks off on the Discovery Channel on Sunday, July 7th.

While three of de Gelder’s specials, Great White Serial Killer: Sea of Blood, Sydney Harbor Shark Invasion, and Shark Attack Island, focus on communities and inviduals who have specifically been injured or killed due to shark encounters, Deadliest Bite aims to determine which shark species has the most powerful jaws while The Real Sharkano explores whether a native community in a remote locale may have uncovered the secret to cohabitating in the region safely with sharks.

Having lost two limbs from a brutal encounter with a bull shark in 2009, de Gelder would have every right to stay as far away from the fish as possible, only for the incident to motivate him to educate the public about the creatures.

ComicBook caught up with de Gelder to talk his new specials, his significance among Shark Week audiences, and more.

ComicBook: In what might be the most difficult question for you to answer: what’s your favorite kind of shark?

Paul de Gelder: Aww, why would you do that to me?

Everyone wants to know what you think, everyone’s demanding you answer.

How are you supposed to answer that question? The enormity and fierceness and ferocity of the great white versus the beauty and calm and elegance of the tiger shark or the weird alien head of the hammerhead? How are you supposed to choose one of those? Like the whale shark, peaceful, covered in beautiful spots? There’s no way. I’m not doing it. Next question.

You gave us a few different answers, so all your fans demanding online, they have a few things to choose from. Given your career of working with sharks and being associated with sharks, a two part question that might be the same answer for both parts, but what is the thing you get asked about the most and what is the thing you kind of wish you never had to be asked about again?

It’s the same question: “Did it hurt?” In the early days when people asked me that, I thought, “That is the stupidest question I’ve ever heard. Go over there and kick that coffee table with your bare shin and then times it by a million and that’s how much it hurt.”

But then I got it after a while. I was like, “Okay, well, obviously adrenaline might’ve played a part or something like that, but I can honestly say it absolutely, devastatingly, painfully … It took the fight out of me, that’s how much it hurt, to the point where I had to accept the fact that I was going to die. Then when the shark removed my hand and removed my hamstring — the attack was only eight seconds, and so that gave adrenaline time to enter my system. And while I was swimming back to the boat with one hand and one leg through a pool of my own blood, I didn’t feel pain, but I felt fear. 

It wasn’t until I was on the wharf waiting for the paramedics to come that I actually felt real pain again. So I guess the body’s this amazing mechanical thing that allowed me to not feel pain to survive, to swim my way back to the boat, but then once I was safe and relaxed, the pain came back. I’m just very grateful and lucky to be alive.

Now what you can do is you can put a link to this interview on a business card, so anytime anyone asks you that question you can just be like, “I’m just going to save everybody some time. Here you go.”

Scan my QR code. I’ll get t-shirts made up.

You’re no stranger to Shark Week. This is not your first rodeo, if you will, which I think is an apt phrase given the bull shark of it all. 

I often ride them.

From a bigger perspective, both before you personally got involved in Shark Week and now that you are such an integral component of it, what does Shark Week represent to you? What makes this week so special, so iconic?

Just to hear that, what you said, that I’m an integral part of Shark Week, is mind-blowing to me. I didn’t have cable, as we call it in Australia, Foxtel, we didn’t have that a lot of the time because we weren’t rich enough to pay for TV, we just had our normal three channels. So whenever I had the chance to actually watch it, that was it. All I wanted to see was sharks. 

I drew two things when I was a kid: sharks and dinosaurs. I loved them, I knew nothing about them, but Shark Week was just this big thing where you got to see these mythological creatures that I’d never seen. I think that’s something that stays with you through your whole life, and there are very few things in life that will actually do that. Getting to tune in once a year for this whole week-long extravaganza of Shark Week with new science, with new action, with new characters, it’s such a cool experience to be a part of.

I think for people to watch, as well, because most people will never see a shark in their life, like a real shark with their own eyeballs, and so this is an opportunity for them to tune in and see this somewhat mythological being. It’s like almost watching a scary sci-fi movie where you’re scared and you’re feeling thrilled, but you’re on the safety of your couch. It’s the same as that, but we’re actually doing it. This is actually real. 

I think it’s that special emotion and feeling that it brings to everyone. Then, obviously, just like us, you can work towards becoming involved in things like this. It is not outside the realm of possibility that viewers, many of whom now are on Shark Week, you could grow up to do this stuff. You could be a marine biologist, you could be a shark scientist, you could be a shark cinematographer, a shark conservationist. Anyone can do this, and that is amazing.

I feel like you and I are a bit of kindred spirits because when I grew up, I loved dinosaurs and I loved sharks. I went a route talking about Jurassic Park, talking about Jaws. I was a presentation person at an aquarium in Chicago to talk about sharks. It’s so funny to hear you specifically say, “I love dinosaurs. I love sharks,” because that’s me.

I wonder if that’s a boy thing. We just love the animals that can destroy things. And they’re so much easier to draw than lions and tigers.

“How many teeth do they have? One million, roughly.”

One line. And it’s done. They don’t have hair.

I only got to watch one of your specials this year, but I feel like every night of Shark Week people are going to get to see you on their TV. So of all the specials that you’re participating in this year, which is your favorite? Or which was the one that brought you the most surprise?

Well, we’re going back to the “What’s your favorite shark” thing now. I love them all for different reasons. Great White Serial Killer: Sea of Blood, as sensational as the title is, you would’ve seen watching it that it’s a very serious investigation, and it’s very emotional and touching and compassionate. Then also, we’re exploring avenues to try to help sharks and people. But then you go to Deadliest Bite, and I’m in the Bahamas in Florida literally hand-feeding a 13-foot tiger shark and hammerhead sharks. And then in The Real Sharkano I was free diving with sharks on breath hold 60 feet below the surface, 300 feet away from an active underwater volcano while it was erupting.

How do you choose? There’s so many things that I got to do that were firsts for me this year. Then, obviously, all of my friends have got their own shows as well where they’re doing new science, new adventures, new areas, new sharks. It’s an extravaganza. Seriously, how am I supposed to choose from that? But I will say the volcano thing was very, very cool. I never thought I’d get to do something like that.

I mean, Paul, you’re really putting a hat on a hat on a hat. Leave some stuff for the rest of the people. No, you’ve got to do the sharks with also the volcano on top of it. Leave some for the rest of the people.

“And for my next trick I’m going to parachute onto a snowboard and snowboard off a cliff and then free dive into the ocean with sharks.”

Well lastly here, since you mentioned you never imagined getting to do some of the things that you’ve done this year, is there an elusive dream project that, whether it’s timing, scheduling, the seasonal changes in sharks, is there still a dream project that you haven’t gotten to do yet that you’re still hoping you’ll get to do for Shark Week 2025?

Yeah, there’s so many sharks that — they only send me to the dangerous ones that can kill me. I feel like half of my job is just “don’t die.”

They might be telling you something, Paul.

Yeah, I know. “We’ll keep employing you as long as you’re alive.” 

So one of the sharks that I would love to see is the Greenland shark. Under the ice sheets of the Arctic, freezing cold, they’re so elusive. They’ve been found with whole reindeer inside their stomach. Totally blind, live for 500 years. That is one animal that I would love to see.

That’s typically my go-to answer for my favorite kind of shark, because of everything you just mentioned.

Kindred spirits.

It’s also, “Oh, I went to The Bahamas. I went to Florida … but no, my dream project is to go to the icy depths to see things that don’t move and just sit on the bottom.”

Yeah, absolutely. That sounds amazing. I love to see things that normal people don’t get to see. I would love to — I don’t know if you’re familiar with, I’m going off script now if I’m talking about that, don’t worry about it. Let’s stick to Shark Week.

But just the adventure, the excitement. It’s a realm that most people will never see. But, as I said before, you could have the opportunity, if you desire it enough. And anything that is worth doing obviously takes work, and I can honestly say for me and everyone that works on Shark Week, this is so much fun, it’s so valuable. Just the beauty of the Internet and social media allows everyone to have a voice. People get in touch with us all and they tell us how much our stories have changed their lives, or how much now they want to be involved in ocean conservation. And that is the best part of it.

Well, Paul, I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me today, and make sure to hit me up if you need a co-host for your Greenland shark special. I’ll make myself available.

Amazing. 

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Shark Week kicks off on the Discovery Channel on Sunday, July 7th. Sydney Harbor Shark Invasion premieres at 11 p.m. ET on July 7th, Great White Serial Killer: Sea of Blood premieres at 10 p.m. ET on July 8th, Deadliest Bite premieres at 8 p.m. ET on July 9th, and The Real Sharkano premieres at 8 p.m. ET and Shark Attack Island at 10 p.m. ET on July 12th.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter.