Paul Atkins knew the sharks were out there. They were just a little camera shy.

As director of photography for Jean-Michel Cousteau's 2003 expedition to the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, Atkins had set up watery shop along a reef midway through the chain and was directing a team of divers trying to capture the dynamic life below the water line.

Keeping their distance were, oh, about 100 Galapagos sharks — apparently put off by the bubbly commotion the scuba-equipped divers were kicking up.

Atkins and Holly Lohuis, an education associate with Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society, lingered in the water after the divers were done, floating noiselessly with bubble-repressing rebreather tanks.

"Suddenly, (the sharks) all closed in," Atkins said. "They were all around us."

Atkins and Lohuis weren't fazed. "They weren't in feeding mode," Atkins said. "They were just curious. They were so beautiful and calm. So graceful. I got some beautiful shots of Holly gliding around with them."

The transcendent moment is preserved in Cousteau's new two-part documentary "Voyage to Kure," which airs Wednesday and April 12 on local PBS affiliate KHET.

The program takes an in-depth — and in depths — look at the unique ecosystem that exists within the 1,200-mile chain of islands and atolls, as well as the human-made threats to its survival. In publicity materials, Cousteau calls it "a realm that is thriving in many respects, but is perched on a very precarious balance between boundless diversity and ominous destruction."

Atkins and the Cousteau crew spent 32 days on land and in the water filming the diversity and abundance of wildlife in the federal- and state-protected area.

"It's such an extraordinary, magical place," said Atkins, who first visited the islands in 1987 for a British Broadcasting Corp. project, then again five years later for National Geographic.

"The water is clearer and bluer, and it's so packed with wildlife," he said. "It's so different, like being somewhere ... in the South Pacific."

In fact, part of the value in studying the Northwest Hawaiian Islands is the comparison it allows with the main Hawaiian Islands — 1,200 miles of what our inhabited islands could be like.

Gov. Linda Lingle, who accompanied Cousteau on a visit to Midway Atoll last December, hosted a screening of the documentary at Washington Place last month. In September, Lingle signed off on a move to establish a state marine refuge in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, setting aside all state waters as a limited-access, "no-take" protected area.

The team made the voyage from Ni'ihau to Kure Atoll aboard the Searcher, a 96-foot research vessel operated by the locally based Medical Foundation for the Study of the Environment.

It was the first voyage to the Northwest Hawaiian Islands and an eye-opening experience for the ship's captain, Jonathan Littenberg.

"I've spent my whole life around the water," said Littenberg, a Kailua resident. "You get lulled into thinking that it's not bad here. But then you go up there and it's the same environment, the same topography, but you immediately notice the great numbers of fish and wildlife. It makes you realize that we're doing something wrong."

Despite protections, the volume of human-made ocean debris that makes its way through the chain is shocking, Littenberg said.

"We came across a dead albatross and examined its insides," Littenberg recalled. "There were two or three plastic floats, a couple of plastic lighters and a half-dozen other pieces of plastic inside of it.

"It wasn't like we had to go out and find an example of that," Littenberg said. "That was just 15 minutes of looking around. It was disgusting."

Littenberg just completed a new project with Cousteau about humpback whales in Maui waters.

Those unfamiliar with Cousteau's work may be jarred by the stylistic difference between his documentary and the patient, meditative films of his father, the late Jacques Cousteau. The first half, in particular, features the sort of quick edits and fast-paced presentation more commonly associated with MTV.

Still, there is plenty of substance to go with the style. The second half includes a stirring report on the fragility of the ecosystem and the need to protect it.

"(Jean-Michel) Cousteau is a very passionate man," Atkins said. "Most importantly, he really cares about conservation. He was emotionally affected by seeing the debris.

"He felt his father passed away without accomplishing his mission of making the oceans cleaner and safer for wildlife. I think this documentary will put the Cousteau name back on the air in a major way."

Because of the scope of the project and Cousteau's desire not to overplan, Atkins had to draw on all of his expertise as a camera man and filmmaker to keep things from falling into chaos. He coordinated shoots with two other camera men, not an easy task when each required additional workers to handle lighting and other logistics.

Nature, too, was indifferent to Atkins' plans.

Shortly after leaving Ni'ihau, Atkins and the crew found themselves in rough, choppy water. Eager to get the project under way, they jumped in anyway.

When they came back up hours later, the found they had drifted hundreds of yards from the boat. The area was too shallow for the large ship to approach, and they did not have the smaller, inflatable boats they would normally rely on to rescue them.

Loaded with tanks and equipment and already tired from a day of diving and filming, the crew was forced to swim across the still-rough water back to the ship.

At times, danger and awesome beauty converged beneath the water. One of Atkins' most memorable experiences from the trip came during a night dive to film sharks and jacks feeding.

"There were probably 40 sharks and 30 large jacks swimming around, bumping into each other and bumping into us," he said. "They weren't after us; they were after the fish. And once they started, others would come. It was really spectacular.

"We just didn't want to get bitten by mistake."

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.