The DPA 8011 has been a vital tool for sound recordist Ashton Ward when making a documentary about Raine Island, filmed just off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Made by NHNZ (Natural History New Zealand, a Fox Television Studios Company), the film tells the story of the dramatic confrontation between green turtles and tiger sharks at a remote island in Australia's Coral Sea.
Each year thousands of turtles congregate at Raine Island to lay their eggs after hazardous journeys from far away places such as Timor, Borneo, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. But once they arrive at the island, their ordeal is far from over. Tiger sharks are gathered in large numbers, waiting for their lunch.
Ashton Ward is the owner of Wild Blue Music out of Queensland, Australia, a sound and music production house with a wide range of expertise and experience in areas such as field and location recording. His brief for the 2 expeditions to Raine Island involved recording the sounds of the island — collecting a library of the bird calls, turtle sounds, ocean ambiences, etc., in order to provide the documentary with a realistic soundtrack "...to help show the world what this amazing place is like!"
Ashton used a DPA 8011 Hydrophone to collect the underwater ambiences in various locations around Raine Island.

"There is an amazing amount of noise in the water around a coral reef," he explains. "This is made by various fish feeding and courting activities, the sound of waves and water moving through the reef — but probably the largest contributing factor is the Snapping Shrimp."
These tiny crustations can be present in their thousands and make a huge chorus of sound which scientists have proved is made by the collapsing of a bubble formed when the Snapping Shrimp close their claws. "The 8011 is a great hydrophone — it was sensitive and put out a good strong signal but it also had a lot of clarity in the top end which made the reef sounds really sparkle."
"It was a pleasure to use and we had a couple of beautiful balmy nights on board the boat where we lowered it into the water and had turns with the headphones listening to the night time reef. On one occasion, on a glassed-out moonlit evening, working with the hydrophone from a Zodiac, I was able to capture a call from a Baleen Whale passing in the distance. Even though the whale was a long way off this was a pretty special moment."
The Raine Island documentary feature is due for release on the National Geographic Channel later this year.