I know a lot of people are obsessed with Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. I’m not one of them but that’s because my dad has had many–many–close calls with Great Whites over his years as a surfer and I find sharks to be genuinely pretty scary. But Jason Momoa is a huge fan of Shark Week and is hosting it this year. He’ll introduce the new content and interview different shark experts. As a vocal environmentalist, this is a natural fit for Jason and he seems totally thrilled to be a part of it. He told People Magazine that he’s wanted to do it for five years but this is the first time it’s worked with his schedule. He taped all his segments for Shark Week while on location for Chief of War in New Zealand.

In the new issue of PEOPLE, the Aquaman actor, who hosts the annual event on Discovery Channel this year, says he’s “been begging to do it for a while now. We’ve been trying to do it probably since 2018.” The issue had been coordinating his busy schedule with Shark Week’s production. This year, however, the stars aligned. “Thank God we could squeeze it in,” says Momoa, who taped his segments in New Zealand while in production on his upcoming Apple TV+ series Chief of War.

And though some may assume the actor was enlisted because of his convenient movie tie-in (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom hits theaters in December), Momoa has a deep knowledge of the subject matter. “It’s my original passion. This goes back to something I’ve wanted to do my whole life,” says Momoa, a self-described “nerd” who studied marine and wildlife biology in college before he pursued acting.

Momoa, who’s also known for his conservation work and crusade against single-use plastic bottles, says he was most excited to “meet the people who encounter” sharks, like Kina Scollay, an underwater cinematographer and shark researcher, who survived a shark attack 20 years ago. “I got to meet people I’ve always wanted to meet and pick their brains, so that was fun,” he says. Momoa, a Hawaii native, watched Shark Week growing up, and tuning in is a tradition he carries on with his family. “It’s a fun thing that I can share and learn with them,” says Momoa, who shares daughter Lola Iolani, 16, and son Nakoa-Wolf, 14, with his ex-wife Lisa Bonet, 55.

[From People]

In her recent coverage about him, Kaiser pointed out that a lot of folks probably assume Jason is just a hot himbo but he has causes he cares deeply about. He has long crusaded against single use plastic and plastic water bottles. The issue of single use plastics dovetails with Shark Week and ocean conservation quite neatly, because single use plastic is a huge problem in the ocean. I used to volunteer at a marine mammal rescue and so many baby sea lions and elephant seals would come in having swallowed balloons or plastic bags or water bottles. Marine mammals swallow their food whole without chewing it so they don’t know that plastic isn’t edible. They see something that looks jellyfish shaped and they just eat it. Then the plastic sits in their bellies and makes it impossible for them to digest or absorb any other food they eat. If they’re lucky, someone sees them and they get rescued. But a lot of them don’t make it. They can also get plastic stuff caught on their flippers and sometimes it slices open their skin. I’m sure the same kind of stuff happens to sharks all the time, and sharks are important for a balanced ecosystem. I hope Jason Momoa gets more people to watch Shark Week or pay attention to it, and I look forward to seeing his weird, bohemian-hot outfits as a TV host.

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photos credit: Getty Images for Netflix, Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon and via Instagram