Shark Week 2015

I used to love Discovery Channel's Shark Week when it started out, but over the years, I've liked it less and less. Then there was the year they did the fake documentary on megalodon and I was disgusted. I skipped that year and the one after that, but I decided I'd give 2015 a shot.

On the plus side, I didn't see any fake shows although there were definitely graphics used that looked real and weren't labeled as being artist renderings or anything. But on the negative side...

There was a lot I didn't like about Shark Week in 2015. Like the fact that people were risking their lives with dangerous sharks just for the sensationalism, not for any scientific purpose. This one guy was an idiot two years running. Last year (which I didn't see), he apparently got on top of an outline of a shark that was floating at the surface while large female great whites got pissed off about this visitor. Really? WTF?

It sounded as if Discovery Channel had a poll for viewers to vote for stupidest stunt. That's not what they called it, of course, but that's what it came down to and guess who won? Yes, the idiot in the paragraph above. BTW, I went to their website and I couldn't find any links for a viewer's choice vote, but maybe that's because it's finished. But if viewers are voting for this crap, Shark Week is never going to improve.

The moments of true science were few and far between, which saddened me greatly. It was all sensationalism and more sensationalism. More unnecessary risks and people accidentally falling into the water with large, dangerous sharks during some attempt at more sensationalism. This is into water that they've been chumming and floating bait fish in to attract the sharks, so it was seriously dangerous. One day someone's going to get killed by a shark doing one of these stunts and it won't be the shark's fault.

Basically, Shark Week was another huge disappointment. You can do better than this Discovery Channel. I want science, not sensationalism.

Why I Stopped Watching Shark Week

Once upon a time, I used to look forward to Discovery Channel's Shark Week like a kid looks forward to Christmas. I've always been fascinated by sharks and I actually have done quite a bit of study on them on my own. Maybe if I'd been born closer to an ocean, I would have become a marine biologist and studied sharks for real. It actually was one of the careers I was looking at when I was in high school.

So Shark Week was a treat--a whole week of great new shark shows.

The change happened slowly. Discovery started scheduling shark attack shows in with the educational programs. Then it seemed as if every show featured some kind of "human in peril" angle even though shark attacks are rare and deaths from attack even rarer. I started watching fewer shows every year, trying to pick out the ones that had information and not sensationalism.

But then the Discovery Channel (forgive the pun) jumped the shark. They presented fictional material as if it were real. They lied to marine biologists and creatively edited their interviews to make it appear as if these scientists were supporting the drama as fact. This is completely unacceptable to me.

If I wanted entertainment, I'd watch Jaws. I want fact-based documentaries on sharks when I watch Shark Week. Nothing else.

There's more fake science AKA entertainment shows presented as documentaries this year on Discovery. I'm so disappointed in what has happened to this once great channel. I'm done with Shark Week. I'm done with any show that is fictional, but presented as fact.

Sadly, people still trust Discovery Channel. One of the guys I work with was talking about the show he'd seen over the weekend. I hated to burst his bubble, but I had to tell him it wasn't true.

Discovery Channel, you fail and this makes me so sad.

Mystery of What Ate This Great White

There's a show coming up on National Geographic Channel (NatGeo) at the end of the month that I'm totally going to watch. This tagged shark had her tag wash ashore 4 months or so later and what they found in the data surprised them. Watch for yourself:

Shark Week Prep

Shark Week starts tonight on The Discovery Channel, so to kick it off right, here's a little shark video. Major cool stuff.