Aboriginal Peoples Television Network

Searching for a Monster

Featuring exclusive, never before filmed in the wild footage, SEARCHING FOR A MONSTER that chronicles an incredible 4 year scientific quest to find one of nature's most reclusive, little-known creatures, the Greenland Shark. The Greenland shark is the largest of its kind in the North Atlantic. 6 metres long and weighing in at almost a ton, it's known as the forgotten shark" because of its extremely reclusive nature and unique (amongst sharks) capability to live year-round in frigid arctic water(s). To date, less than a handful of scientists or divers have ever studied or filmed them. Some research, supported by local legends, suggested that the shark swims into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and up the magnificent Saguenay River to feed and spawn, but no one knew for sure. For the last 4 years, 2 intrepid diver-adventurer-scientists, Dr. Chris Harvey Clarke of Dalhousie University, Halifax and Jeffrey Gallant, director of the Shark Research Institute (Canada) in Montreal, have been on a unique underwater quest to study this elusive, mysterious monster, in a corner of the world where it is not supposed to exist. Part science, part detective story, part adventure, Searching For A Monster is a world-exclusive documentary about 2 men's passion for sharks, their insatiable, dangerous journey to achieve an impossible dream and an entertaining, adrenaline pumping tale of hunting, finding and filming this creature (in the wild) for the very first time. "

Weather Bombs

Pacific weather bombs" are a new and deadly force of nature. Unpredictable, powerful in scale and scope, they appear, then disappear so fast, they are virtually undetectable, until hapless fishing boats fail to return to port. Today, meteorologists are scrambling to forecast them while the Coast Guard trains elite, special search and rescue teams to save the unsuspecting. What happens when a wayward tropical storm collides with a stalled low-pressure ridge over the vast northern Pacific Ocean? Answer; a compressed pocket of raw natural power. In other words, a weather bomb. With typhoon force winds and seas boiling to 30-metre swells, these instant, unpredictable storms are an increasingly common feature of winter weather off of the rugged coast of Vancouver Island. Using a web of hi-tech sensing equipment, weather forecasters like Environment Canada's Owen Lange are honing their detective skills to learn what makes this bomb tick. Specially-trained Coast Guard teams are left to deal with the aftermath. At their worst, weather bombs have sunk fishing vessels, caught like sitting ducks, in their sudden old-testament fury. Rogue waves have even plucked the unsuspecting right off terra firma. Yet despite their devilish reputation, weather bombs have created a curious fan base. Instead of closing their shutters, some islanders are now playing host to throngs of the curious and daring. Some are "storm watchers," hypnotized by nature's terribly beauty. Others are surfers, searching for the perfect wave in what is now recognized as the world's surfing hot spot. Weather Bombs blends storm science with an exhilarating and dangerous adventure on the high seas. "

Immortals of the Arctic

No one has ever found a bowhead whale that died of old age. Now, armed with startling new data, scientists ask... just how old can this animal get? Estimating animal longevity is extremely difficult, but U.S. and Canadian biologists, studying bowhead whales off of Barrow, Alaska and Igloolik, Nunavut have determined this may be the oldest living animal on earth. Elephants can live to a venerable 70 years and the giant tortoise, generally recognized as the oldest, up to 150 years. But now, DNA analysis has proven that the bowhead whale can live 200 years and longer, making it the planet's elder statesman. Although still hunted by native whalers, the bowhead thrives in northern waters, and as studies on the undisputed champion of longevity continue, new questions are being asked about our own quest for immortality.

Last of the Wild Mustangs

The North American west was once a wild horse dominion. As late as the 19th century, huge herds roamed the prairies alongside the buffalo. A century later however, only a few hundred wild 'mustangs' remain, and a large percentage of those are found in Canada, roving the foothills of Alberta and remote valleys in B.C.. But rather than being considered the last vestige of the old, wild, west - today they're hunted, scalped and skinned like muskrats. Nature and history have colluded to make wild mustangs the most aloof of creatures, since their survival depends on remaining free. In captivity they literally 'will' themselves to die. A horse running wild and free is one of the rarest sights in nature and for now, they still exist on the edge of Canada's last frontier.

Polar Safari

In the winter of 2001, a unique expedition embarked for Hudson Bay. An intrepid team of hot-air" adventurers had spent two years planning to soar over the Bay and remote northern Quebec, to challenge themselves on one of the most unpredictable and dangerous places on Earth to fly a balloon. In conjunction with the adventure they planned to study, perhaps for the first time, winter wildlife behaviour, silently and stealthily from above. Simply put, they wanted to get as up-close and personal with animals in the least intrusive fashion ever devised. Rarer still is the fact that the Bay has never been traversed before by hot-air balloon and their achievements put these intrepid adventurers in the record books. "