Of all the animals in the underwater kingdom, sharks are definitely one of the most Metal. Their menacing, monochrome exteriors and love of a mosh pit (a.k.a. a sharknado), as well as the vital role they play as apex predators in marine ecosystems, screams Metalhead. So it is no wonder that Netflix’s latest reality competition series, All The Sharks, where contestants try to photograph as many sharks as they can, is hosted by the world’s only Heavy Metal marine biologist, Tom ‘The Blowfish’ Hird.
MetalTalk chatted with Fish, an individual so individual that even his nickname has a nickname, over a Zoom call, where instead of being surrounded by sharks, he was surrounded by his home-built Nerf gun wall and action figure collection. And some obligatory fish tanks at the back. “I’m essentially a child with income,” Fish said in response to my admiration of his Zoom station.
Despite what AI tried to tell me, that ‘The Blowfish’ referred to his larger-than-life ability to explain science to laymen, the story behind the nickname is as simple as he needed an aquatic-themed name to go on his surf club hoodie at University. “Call me Pufferfish,” he originally told the guy, but after a quick look at Fish’s passport photo, he was informed, “You don’t look like a pufferfish. You look like a blowfish.” And that was that.
It helped when he became a presenter to have a distinctive name, one with “more catch to it than Tom Hird, who sounds like someone who’s gonna sell you insurance or an extra pair of windows or something,” Fish said. 
Sharks Are Metalheads
While the great white shark frequently holds a particularly strong place in a marine biologist’s heart, because they are “just awesome”, Fish said his favourite shark is the tasselled wobbegong. “It just doesn’t look like a shark,” Fish said. “It’s got these huge barbels, so, you know, it’s got a beard. It’s clearly a Metalhead. But it looks like someone who listens to Kyuss or like real proper desert stoner rock.
“It is an incredible ambush predator as well. It can open and close its mouth so quickly that it can prey on a school of fish without the other fish noticing that it’s there; it will even use its tail as a lure. But again, not a poster child for sharks as it doesn’t fit into the big five.” The big five is a group of sharks highlighted for their notoriety, size and power: great white sharks, hammerhead sharks, tiger sharks, bull sharks and whale sharks. Much like certain genres of Metal, they tend to steal the limelight when it comes to shark documentaries and Hollywood features.
Despite his love of the underrepresented, bearded, desert stoner rock shark, Fish is a Prog Metal man and huge lover of Tool. I asked him which shark would most likely be a Prog Metal fan, and he said: “The hammerheads because they’re the most recently evolved species of sharks. They’re the new punks on the scene, if you will. They look a little different, and they’re big thinkers. They inhabit an interesting space between deep waters where you’d find all the other sorts of classic sharks, but then also more interesting, unique habitats. So they don’t mind dipping their fins into something a bit different.”
Fish is the only person alive to have ever played Heavy Metal, twice, live to sharks – once in the UK and once in South Africa. Armed with his bass guitar, he played directly into the water through a speaker, which sharks came over to investigate. He said the science behind it came from Australian researchers who played AC/DC through an underwater speaker a few years ago, and found that it attracted sharks because the baselines of Metal mimic the sounds of struggling fish.
“I believe KISS at one point tried to play live music to Sharks,” Fish said, “but sharks aren’t KISS fans because KISS sucks.” 
“As the world’s only Heavy Metal marine biologist, you better believe there’s gonna be Metal in it.”
Although not officially known as the Heavy Metal Executive Producers, Myke Clarkson and Devon Massyn from the All The Sharks team are also big Metalheads, and there were lots of Metal shenanigans going on behind the scenes, such as blazing along the crystal blue waters of the Bahamas listening to Left Lane Cruiser. Fish said: “Anything I do always has to have a hint of Metal in it, otherwise I won’t do it. It’s as simple as that. As the world’s only Heavy Metal marine biologist, you better believe there’s gonna be Metal in it.”
All The Sharks
Fish’s latest presenting adventure was hosting Netflix’s All The Sharks, a six-episode series that sees shark experts and enthusiasts travel to six different countries in the hopes of winning $50,000 for charity. It hit the top ten in 60 countries. And a review by Esquire described it as having “the human thrills of Drive to Survive, the deep-sea tension of Jaws and a smattering of Squid Game’s game playing.” People on the internet are already calling for a second season.
Fish said: “We knew that what we were creating had the potential to really spark something off in people’s heads, mainly because no one has ever done a show like that before. It has its own unique elements of travel, adventure, obviously natural history, and then competition.
“With the shark element, the behind-the-scenes team – the underwater operators and the producers and stuff – are people who have credits as long as your arm in natural history shows, Blue Planet, Shark Week, you name it. But they are also the ones who, like myself, and indeed many others, are kind of fed up of seeing the same five sharks on TV every time that they themselves have filmed 60 million times over.
“So when it came to the Sharks, of course, you saw the star players, but a big draw for us was to be showing the smaller sharks. The species of sharks that have never been broadcast before. They’re not in any way rare or you can’t find them, but they’ve never been considered worthy for sort of mass consumption.”
I commented that I never thought I would hear myself, or anyone else, describe a shark as cute, but that is no longer the case. Fish confirmed there are loads of cute sharks in the world, just going about their business. Like the epaulette shark, also known as the ‘walking shark‘ because of its ability to ‘walk’ along the sea floor and even on land when needed. The nightmarish potential for spreading fear by talking about ‘walking sharks’ is another thing All The Sharks squashes with its beautifully captured, non-sensational footage.
Fish said that with shows like Shark Week, it’s kids’ science and all pantomime. “It’s obviously manufactured to be big, blazing one-offs,” Fish said. “You get a big burst of rock ‘n’ roll if you will, and bang, off you go. But what you don’t see for those shows is the huge amount of effort that is put into trying to get the sharks to even appear.
“I’ve been on boats at various points during my filming career for eight hours. Just sitting there, and there are no sharks, and we have got tuna heads in the water. We’ve got big bags of chum in the water. We are trying our absolute best to get stuff to come to us. And it doesn’t, and you don’t see that; you only ever see the sharks immediately and instantly appearing.”
It’s not just sharks that All The Sharks has in abundance, but marine-themed puns. Fish said: “I know Myke [Clarkson], whenever he could get a bad pun in, he would. The thing is, this show, other than the fact that obviously Netflix commissioned it, is a show that has been built by people who love sharks, that features people who love sharks, and that is filmed by people who love sharks.
“Things like the bad puns and camaraderie between the teams and stuff, that all comes through because we haven’t given it an edge. It doesn’t need an edge because it’s filled with sharks. That is your edge.” With team names like Gills Gone Wild and Great British Bait Off, and any excuse to shove a fin in – The Big Fin-ale – it’s puns gill-ore.
It turns out that Fish actually likes alliteration the most, but will happily dig to the lowest common denominator and get a pun in or a bad joke. Fish said: “I’ll try and pretend I’m a professional, but no, I’ll do it. I’ll absolutely make a fool of myself. I mean, I’ve dressed up as a polar bear and caught salmon with my bare hands in Canada.” 
Fin-al Words
If, after watching All The Sharks, you feel the mighty urge to get in the water and find some sharks, Fish has some words for you: “Go in and do it. Go. Don’t be nervous. Just jump in. Hundred per cent.” There are quite a few operators now going out of Devon and Cornwall – Fish recommends Newquay Sea Safaris – where you can do day trips to see the “absolutely stunning” blue sharks.
Or, if you fancy warmer climates, places like the Bahamas have a really rich shark tourism industry with experience catering to beginners. However, Fish cautions that you should always do your research. “Research the provider because there has to be a responsible nature to it. There has to be good ecotourism. There are, sadly, places around the world like Mauritius and Maldives, where you can get quite unscrupulous operators, people that will chase sharks.”
Check out the full interview with the world’s only Heavy Metal marine biologist on YouTube.
