Expert Adventurer Forrest Galante Reveals Details of His Recent ‘Alien Shark’ Encounter (Exclusive)

Kelli BenderThu, July 23, 2026 at 8:45 PM UTC

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A scene from “Alien Sharks: Untamed America”Credit: Forrest Galante -

Forrest Galante’s Shark Week 2026 special, Alien Sharks: Untamed America, highlights unique shark species across U.S. waters

Galante filmed elusive basking sharks near Boston using spotter planes and drones to capture rare underwater moments

Outside Shark Week, Galante works as a wildlife biologist and runs a wildlife film production company

Shark Week is almost here, and wildlife biologist Forrest Galante has a sneak peek at some of the fins and fun to expect this year.The annual TV event starts July 27, and Galante, an expert adventurer and avid animal lover, has a special feature in 2026’s Shark Week.

“Shark Week is the same age I am. It’s been going for 38 years, and I’ve never known a time when there wasn’t Shark Week,” Galante tells PEOPLE about his lifelong love of the Discovery special.

For 2026, Galante has Alien Sharks: Untamed America as his Shark Week special, which airs on Discovery on July 29 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, and promises a celebration of America’s incredible diversity of unique sharks and rays.

“I think that people think that you have to travel to the ends of the Earth to see incredible wildlife. I think that’s the general consensus in America. And yet we have by far some of the most incredible wildlife right here in North America and anywhere on the planet, especially when it comes to elasmobranchs, which are sharks and stingrays,” Galante shares.

In Alien Sharks: Untamed America, the wildlife biologist travels across the U.S. to prove his point, highlighting sharks off the West Coast, in the Gulf of Mexico, near Florida’s coast, in the waters of the Northeast, and more.

“It’s an awesome, awesome show. One of my best,” the longtime Shark Week contributor shares.

Forrest Galante in “Alien Sharks: Untamed America”Credit: Forrest Galante

Galante says that, among his American shark adventures documented in Alien Sharks: Untamed America, one in particular stands out.

“The basking shark, the second-largest shark in the world. They’re an incredible species. They’re so weird with this bulbous nose and huge gaping mouth. I mean, they’re just incredible,” he shares.

To find the sharks, Galante traveled to the Atlantic waters outside Boston, “the only place that they get them in the United States.”

To get the often-elusive animals on film, Galante and his team used a spotter plane to locate the basking sharks.

“Then the plane would radio us to tell us where the sharks were. Then the drones would go out to find them. Then the drone would hover over the shark while we maneuvered the boat in front of the sharks. Then we’d jump into the water to get these brief moments of interaction,” Galante says on how the footage for Alien Sharks: Untamed America was obtained.

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A basking shark in “Alien Sharks: Untamed America”Credit: Forrest Galante

He adds that being near the massive sharks was “absolutely incredible. Basking shark has been on my bucket list since I was probably 10 years old”

Galante is sure that Shark Week viewers will find the basking shark encounters riveting too.

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Outside of Shark Week, Galante stays busy with his production company, Phantasticus Pictures—the largest wildlife production entity in the world aside from the BBC— and his thriving YouTube Channel. Both, along with other projects, keep him busy and traveling year-round.

“Tomorrow I go down to a super remote part of Baja, California to look for Humboldt squid. It is the first time they’ve shown up in probably 20-ish years. So I’m going to go try and dive with them,” Galante says of his future animal plans.He isn’t done learning more about sharks either, admitting “I’ve got potential Shark Week shows planned out for the next 10 years. The list never ends. And that’s what’s so great about wildlife is it’s always amazing, and it’s evergreen. It never gets boring.”

While Galante has seen more sharks than many others, he still says his wish list for shark encounters is long.

Credit: Forrest Galante

“There’s over 500 species of sharks in the world, and I’ve probably seen 40 of them,” he notes.

Galante encourages Shark Week lovers to share their passion with their peers as an act of shark conservation.

“Learning about them creates a fascination. That fascination very easily turns into a love. And once you have a love for something, you want to protect it. So the key thing is just to give yourself exposure to it,” Galante says.

Shark Week 2026 will premiere on Discovery on Sunday, July 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. To learn more about Shark Week 2026 and its slate of new shows, visit sharkweek.com.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”