Museum hosts LIVE Television Event August 31 Showcasing Marine Life along the West Coast
For immediate release ‐ January 01, 1970
Contact: Jon Pishney, 919.707.8083. Images available upon request
RALEIGH — Once a year, in late August and early September, an extraordinary confluence of some of the world’s most charismatic marine creatures occurs. Visit the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for a live look at California’s Monterey Bay and watch one of nature’s great “reality” shows, featuring humpback whales, blue whales, sea lions, dolphins, elephant seals, sea otters, great white sharks, shearwaters and brown pelicans. This broadcast of “Big Blue Live,” presented in collaboration with UNC-TV, takes place Monday, August 31 at 8-9pm ET in the Museum’s WRAL Theater. Museum doors open at 7pm with additional Museum programming starting at 7:30pm. Free.
Delivered through state-of-the-art filming technologies and live reports from air, sea and below the waves, this new production from PBS and the BBC is a rare glimpse into the once endangered and now thriving ecosystem of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The multi-platform event will be anchored by four on-air correspondents from a reporting hub at the Aquarium and from aboard NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Office of National Marine Sanctuaries’ research vessels.
The on-air correspondents include Dr. M. Sanjayan, the host of “EARTH: A New Wild,” recently on PBS, and currently the senior scientist at Conservation International; Liz Bonnin, a science broadcast journalist based in the UK known for her work on the BBC science programs “Bang Goes the Theory” and “Stargazing Live”; Dr. Joy Reidenberg, the host of “Sex in the Wild,” recently on PBS, and a comparative anatomist with expertise in marine mammals, will be on location as a primary science contributor, providing insight into the anatomy of the wide range of marine life that populates Monterey Bay; Steve Backshall, an award-winning naturalist, writer and TV anchor known for his work on BBC’s “Deadly 60.” Matt Baker, a UK-based news anchor known best for his work on “The One Show,” a daily magazine program airing on BBC will appear on the BBC live broadcast. Leading scientists and other experts will provide additional insights on different aspects of marine life and ecology.
Show up early for a presentation about fish biodiversity on America’s Pacific Coast by the Museum’s new Research Curator of Ichthyology, Alex Dornburg, at 7:30pm. Dornburg will also be taking questions from the audience following the showing of “Big Blue Live.”
“Big Blue Live” airs on PBS — in North Carolina it will be shown on UNC-TV, North Carolina’s statewide public television network— over three consecutive nights, August 31-September 2, at 8pm ET. The show will have multi-platform support from digital and social media, as well as from PBS Learning Media and UNC-TV Learning Media at www.unctv.org.