Have you ever extended a shoot because of weather or is that too difficult to do? Sea World had recovered JJ the grey whale that had washed ashore in Southern California. It weighed about a thousand pounds and when they released it, eighteen months later, it weighed close to 20 tons. This was the largest animal ever released back into the wild and the plan was to put it on the bow of this Coast Guard buoy tender and release it off the coast of San Diego.

Well, everything was going fine. The media was there from all around the world. We were actually on the tender that JJ was being released from and it was supposed to happen on a certain date. But it was during the time of El Nino, and we had to wait five days for the release of it so we just stayed in San Diego. Even the day of was sort of iffy but we waited around and Jack waited around, changing his schedule. That was a significant enough event to do that. And I want to tell you, when they swung it out off the bow on this big sling and released it down in the water, the boat actually listed about 10-15 degrees because that animal was so heavy. And off it went. It was pretty amazing.

Maybe this was a case of Jack's Luck. Even on the morning we went out, they were saying it was going to be really rough seas, and if you're prone to seasickness you might not want to come. We were going down the channel that heads out of San Diego into the Pacific Ocean and the sun broke through the clouds. Beautiful morning. Clear day. And you just couldn't ask for any better day and we decided that was another case of Jack's Luck - it really does happen.

You've been filming here in the Katmai National Park area of Alaska for the past week and I'm curious how it has been going.

Great. I don't think we've ever been to a place where virtually every time you turn around, there's the animal in question. This is not a case of riding through the African bush in a land rover and scouring the countryside for leopard or lion or whatever it is you're looking for. We're here to see the Alaskan brown bear and we've seen so many of them now it's becoming old hat.

You walk out of your cabin, there's a bear. Right out in front of the lodge, bears going up and down the beach. You cruise down the river; the bears are everywhere, fishing for salmon. The bears are right there with you. You go hiking, the bears are right there. Just happens that we're here at the right point and time. We can't recall being in a situation that was so prolific with one particular animal. And of course, this is the largest terrestrial mammal, carnivore. It's just amazing. You have to respect them but I think it's kind of like peaceful coexistence with seeing them here in the Katmai area. And you know, watching them do their thing, it's fascinating.