Photographer Ian Shive traveled to one of the final places on earth untouched by humans to learn how we’re all connected for the new discovery+ documentary, The Last Unknown, available to stream on March 18. Traveling to the Aleutian Islands, one of the most remote places on earth, may have been nearly impossible, but Shive told PopCulture.com ahead of the premiere that the five months he spent out in the middle of the Bering Sea gave an unparalleled view of how humans and climate change are affecting the world in which we live.
Traveling with the scientists of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service out into the harsh waters most famous as the setting of Deadliest Catch, Shive told PopCulture he wanted to be able to transport people to a place the vast majority of people will never be able to travel to due to the far-off location and environmental protections put in place by the government. “In many ways, we’re kind of time travelers taking people back to a place where animals and nature really ruled,” he explained of the appeal of the harsh landscape.
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Surveying and photographing the wildlife, Shive was shocked to see just how vast the populations are away from human reach. “It’s both fun and sort of glamorous to see these places, but one of profound self-introspection,” he explained, adding that especially in COVID-19, he reflected on what exactly isolation means and how it can “protect us.”
That doesn’t mean it was a walk on the beach seeing these sights. “We were constantly wet — most of the time we were half in the ocean and half being rained on,” he shared, admitting that the hardest part of the whole journey wasn’t the rough waters, but getting all of the camera gear to shore in the choppy waves without the help of any kind of docking system. Walking 10-12 miles with a couple of hundred pounds of gear multiple times a day, Shive said it was “the consistency of the rigor” that would wear them down.
Just one year’s survey isn’t enough to unlock the secret of climate change, with some populations looking healthy this year and others showing potential signs of damage, and Shive reminded viewers that “the real data is in trends.” What he did learn was “everything is connected.” From sea lions that travel thousands of miles to Los Angeles and back, Shive wanted to impress upon viewers with The Last Unknown how much a “life-giver” the ocean is for humans.
“We’re all connected in this great fabric of life, and if you lose one part of it, you lost part of yourself,” he shared. “Even though you can’t go to these places, there’s value in protecting them.” The Last Unknown is available to stream on March 18 on discovery+.
