Shark Week-shame on you Discovery Channel

[scubastevesa]

I am in the Scuba industry in South Africa -

We have been horrified to see these highly dramatized fake documentries -

Surely in this day and age we want to be promoting and educating divers and the general public about sharks - not just making up a load of rubbish to push up ratings -

This is from Wikipedia
"Shark Week is an annual, week-long programming block on Discovery Channel which features shark-based programming, real and fictional. In recent years fictitious programming, called "docufiction," were produced, such as Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives, Shark of Darkness: Wrath of Submarine, Monster Hammerhead, Lair of the Mega Shark, and Megaladon: The New Evidence to try to improve their ratings.^{[citation needed]} This strategy worked for the program Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives, as it became one of the most watched programs in Shark Week history, primarily for the controversy and backlash it generated.^[1] It originally premiered on July 17, 1988. Held annually, normally in July or August, Shark Week was originally developed to raise awareness and respect for sharks. Since then it has evolved into more entertainment-oriented programming

I include some links

[FONT=&quot]https://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-2015-Discovery-Channel-Shark-Week/186588614846757[/FONT]

and comment from Walter Bernardis who has featured a number of times on National Geographic with his swimming with Tiger Shark programmes

https://www.facebook.com/walter.bernardis.9?fref=nf

 

[jboneng]

Discovery have jumped the shark long time ago, and is heading in the same direction as TLC, even NatGeo TV is showing symptoms of the same disease. The only companies that make decent nature documentaries is the state financed ones like BBC.

 

[bubbly noob]

Sorry for asking (I guess)

- Why do people have to, or must, or feel like swimming with sharks?
Would you take a hike and hangout with Grizzlies, or take selfies with Lions in the middle of the savannah?

 

[drbill]

Agree on Shark Week... too much disgusting nonsense and misinformation. I know folks who have worked with them in the past who will never work with them again.

Bubbly noob... you ask why we would swim with sharks. I have dived with them in many places around the world including right here at home on Catalina. They are amazing fish to observe and film, and most do not pose any significant threat to humans. Even the ones we fear the most can be dived with. Howeverf, I wouldn't hike with grizzleys or lions in the area.

[video=youtube;6A0EKDX7DWw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A0EKDX7DWw&list=UUNsNlOpytV0zid_Awi3FChg[/video]

 

[bubbly noob]

Thank you ")

Agree on Shark Week... too much disgusting nonsense and misinformation. I know folks who have worked with them in the past who will never work with them again.

Bubbly noob... you ask why we would swim with sharks. I have dived with them in many places around the world including right here at home on Catalina. They are amazing fish to observe and film, and most do not pose any significant threat to humans. Even the ones we fear the most can be dived with. Howeverf, I wouldn't hike with grizzleys or lions in the area.

[video=youtube;6A0EKDX7DWw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A0EKDX7DWw&list=UUNsNlOpytV0zid_Awi3FChg[/video]

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Awesome little short there, Dr. Bill - and I used to have that exact same type of BFK (Big Freaking Knife) myself. It's believed to be slumbering in about 40-50 feet of water off the east end of San Nicolas Island now.

This is a clip taken by a diver in the Jupiter, FL area and compiled by Mickey Smith and Cameron Nimmo. Really captures the grace of diving with sharks, as well as the sheer variety we get in that stretch of the coast. I think Caribbean reef sharks are the only regulars not represented here, and that's because they tend to stay closer in than the 90-130' that this footage was taken in: [video=youtube;DPnmnHlIjAk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPnmnHlIjAk&list=UUCIleX-RWwBF8o0ON2sN07A[/video]

Back on the topic, yes - Shark Week has become a mockery. I know one prof (probably one of the folks Dr. Bill is referring to) who's been on it numerous times and can't stand to watch it. It's sad that a number of researchers still appear on the schlockier programs like "Monster Hammerhead;" they're either duped into thinking it's going to be a more professional documentary or the lure of exposure and filming fees (which some field labs depend on) is too strong to pass up.

 

[James Hawkins]

Thanks Dr. Bill, most excellent educational video. Oh, I wonder how many divers died in car crashes driving to a dive site? hmmm ... food for thought .... probably more than those who were killed by sharks.

 

[Shasta_man]

<<Would you take a hike and hangout with Grizzlies, or take selfies with Lions in the middle of the savannah?>> Too late they already do. People go to the rivers where the grizzlies are fishing. People in the National Parks are stacked up watching any bear that comes around. Or moose, which could be worse. How many videos have we seen of going to the safari park in Africa and parking next to the lion who charges the car?

I just love seeing them for the same reason I see everything: amazing to see the thing in person that you have heard or seen in a book for so long, plus the amazing technology of the creature like skin, teeth, fins, whatever.

It's a shame because just exposing some people to the mere existence of it is beneficial to know something exists out there and just lives its life in its place in the ecosystem. Most people get zero exposure to it and their reaction to unknown things is to destroy it, but it's heavily overshadowed by the sharkodile BS they push the most. Unfortunately, some divers aren't any more enlightened, which was shocking to me when I started diving.