Local couple featured on Shark Week 2023, TONIGHT 8pm

Wildlife cinematographer Joe Romeiro and his wife, cinematographer and Ph.D student at URI, Lauren Romeiro to appear on Discovery Channel show to advance the discovery of mysterious marine species.

This well-respected wildlife team from Rhode Island gets up close and personal with sharks of all kinds, all around the world. They have spent countless hours in the waters off Rhode Island documenting and observing the animals that call this area home such as Great Whites, Makos, Porbeagles and Blue sharks.

Now as part of Shark Week 2023, an annual summer tradition airing on the Discovery Channel and discovery+, the Romeiros are bringing their local and global adventures to your living room.

Rhode Island is where Joe and Lauren have seen some of the worlds largest makos, but when a 14-ft giant mako shark was spotted in the waters off the Azores, they travel to the remote islands to search the teeming depths in hopes to capture the animal on film. Using noninvasive camera tag technology and remote deep sea cameras that go deeper and operate longer than ever before, the Romeiros were able to reveal amazing secrets and results they weren’t expecting.

This exclusive shark week special comes in perfect time for 2023 as the shortfin mako shark was recently protected in 2022 due to its endangered status. They are no longer able to be kept in any recreational and commercial fishery for the next two years in hopes that their populations will start to recover in the North Atlantic. Seeing a mako of that size is “like you’re looking for a unicorn and you just found Bigfoot.”

About Joe Romeiro

Joe is an award winning wildlife cinematographer and executive director of 333 Productions based in Rhode Island. Joe’s photography and cinematography work has been featured on Discovery Channel, National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Lionsgate Pictures, Animal Planet and more. He has spent thousands of hours working with sharks and is heavily involved with research, outreach and education on their behavior. Joe is arguably the foremost mako and blue shark expert in the world. He films these animals throughout the season and knows more about their movements and locations than anyone else in the area. He has also filmed the largest makos caught on camera for Shark Week. He has worked with many respected colleagues in the field to bring light to some of the worlds first knowns about shark behavior. He and his wife, Lauren, are respected naturalists and outspoken, dedicated advocates for shark and ocean conservation worldwide.

About Lauren Romeiro

Lauren is a marine scientist and photographer/cinematographer who graduated from University of Rhode Island with a B.S. in marine biology (2016) and master’s in oceanography (2017). She has been featured on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Lionsgate Pictures, and ESPN and is one of
just a handful of female underwater cinematographers featured on Shark Week. She is leading a 5-year study for her dissertation on their research vessel the R/V WARFISH out of Wakefield to examine the movement, foraging, and reproductive ecology of New England sharks (great white, mako, blue and porbeagle) through a multi-disciplinary approach using film and non invasive scientific techniques.

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