Is Shark Week Raising Awareness or Resurrecting Jaws?

Discovery Channel's annual week-long shark-a-thon kicked off last night with a show called Ultimate Air Jaws. Using state-of-the-art technology, a team was able to slow down footage of sharks leaping out of the water to catch their prey. It gives viewers a new perspective on the grace and efficiency of these ocean predators. I'm okay with that, despite the sensationalism in the show's name.

But then the Shark Week schedule takes a turn from fostering understanding to feeding fear, with titles like Into the Shark Bite, Shark Attack Survival Guide and Shark Bite Beach.

Each year, sharks attack 70 to 100 people, with 5 to 15 of those being fatal. Each year, people attack up to 100 million sharks, and it's deadly every single time.

Shark Week has been going on for over two decades; over the last three decades, shark finning has depleted some shark populations by as much as 90 percent. I remember watching Shark Week as a kid, when the shows focused on how amazing and misunderstood sharks are. Where did the conservation message go? 

This year's Shark Week partners with Oceana, Ocean Conservancy and Pew Charitable Trusts to provide shark facts and conservation info on their website and scattered throughout the programming. But it needs to be more than just sound bytes. The real threat in the shark-human relationship needs to be front-and-center, not an afterthought.

People aren't bitten by sharks as a result of a chance encounter. The victims are people who have a close relationship with the ocean as surfers, divers or marine biologists and their injuries often serve to strengthen their respect for sharks and their resolve to protect the misunderstood animals. But let's be realistic: that's not how Joe Public reacts when he's watching a When Sharks Tear Off Limbs episode.

Imagine what Shark Week would look like if the main programming was about how humans attack sharks, about how their fins are sawed off while the sharks are still alive and then the bodies are dumped back into the ocean to sink and drown or starve. There's plenty of gruesome footage to go around; they can still draw in viewers with the cheap thrill of violence, but without perpetuating irrational fear and hatred of animals who desperately in need of protection.

Photo credit: hermanusbackpackers