Jimmy Hall, recently named to lead the series, was killed this week on an expedition to the Arctic. Just as Animal Planet adventurer Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray far from his beloved crocodiles, so did Hall die far from his sharks-- BASE jumping from a mountain or glacier in a remote area near Sam Fjord on Baffin Island in Canada. He was in the area to film an ecological documentary.
Hall had already filmed part of a Shark Week special in the Bahamas. He was set to head to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to swim with great whites.
Poor Jimmy was 41. He'd spent most of his life on the north shore of Oahu (location of the movie Blue Crush-- one of Tabloid Baby's Top 50 movies of all time!), where he operated Hawai'i Shark Encounters.
Hall was famous for filming an encounter with a great white shark off the North Shore in 2005. He traveled the world seeking adventure and appeared on shows like Today, Inside Edition-- and Discovery's Stunt Junkies.
Shark Week is scheduled to air this summer on Discovery.
Learn more about Jimmy Hall and post messages here.