Along with occasionally shocking shots of a shark’s massive jaws, viewers of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, which premiers on August 2, will experience several other scary realities of marine ecosystems, punctuated by a loud call for activism.
This year, Shark Week’s 22nd on air, marks a large step forward in the Channel’s promotion of shark conservation and protection. Earlier this week, Senator John Kerry announced that he will partner with Discovery to end the illegal, but prominent, practice of shark finning, a brutal process of removing sharks’ fins that sometimes ends in poachers throwing a live shark overboard, letting it bleed to death as it sinks to the ocean floor. Discovery will air public service announcements throughout the week that encourage viewers to call their senators and support Kerry’s efforts, and will also direct viewers to organizations like Ocean Conservancy, which has posted an online petition to end finning.
Read more about shark finning and conservancy programs in On Patrol with the Men Fighting to End the Great Shark Slaughter.
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August 4th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
This years Shark Week has revealed a bacchanalia of man made shark horror well beyond any concerns the shark conservation community and commercial shark diving community could have fathomed.
Without a doubt Discovery Networks have reinvented Sea Monsters, erroneously establishing the shark as the most feared predator on the planet.
34 years after JAWS, and 34 years of conservation science discoveries, pro-shark media, and conservation themed initiatives have been swept away by the 2009 Discovery Channel anti-shark juggernaut. This year broadcast in gory, blood soaked HD, to an estimated 30 million domestic viewers.
Great for advertising revenues, lousy for the perception of sharks worldwide who have been thrown back to the stone age with last nights docu drama, “Blood in the water” and this weeks entire line up of gratuitous Shark Porn.
As a commercial shark diving operator I find over hyping one small facet of a sharks entire Raison d’etre to be patently dishonest and a disservice to animals that are suffering one of the highest rates of destruction on the planet.
Approximately 90 million sharks are killed each year. That’s a stunning statistic. And yet Discovery Networks feels compelled to bring back the 1970’s shark mythos, blood and fear, with absolutely no Sympathy for the Devil.
At the same time Discovery Networks have rolled out a simply draconian and somewhat East Bloc ham fisted media campaign showing conservation for sharks. An afterthought pushed out by Discovery and it’s hand selected group of “Shark Porn Programming Apologists” to mollify the growing push back from an appalled research, science, and commercial dive community.
To those who are supporting the very dark decision by Discovery Network executives to bring back, promote, and hype the fear of sharks, rethink your position.
At a critical time when sharks, as a measure of the health of our oceans, need as much support as we can give them, programming decisions that demonize these animals for ratings, ad sales, and corporate profits are wrong, dishonest, and bordering on fraudulent.
Discovery started Shark Week 20 years ago with programming that was fresh, alive and informative. Our company along with many others have been involved in some of that programming and happy with the results.
Early Shark Week programming started with unflinching production companies striving to produce they best they could, fully engaging local operators to introduce them to the full range of shark behaviors.
Discovery has officially lost it’s way. It can come back, hopefully this is the final year of Shark Porn. Hopefully those within the community who are currently in bed with Discovery Networks “will see the light”.
As both the alcohol and tobacco industries have discovered you cannot sell these toxic brands to minors and then ask them to “drink and smoke responsibly”.
Discovery Networks cannot sell fear and loathing of sharks…and then push for conservation.
Cheers,
Patric Douglas CEO
http://www.sharkdiver.com
http://www.sharkdivers.com
http://www.sharkdivers.blogspot.com
http://www.guadalupefund.org
http://www.islandofthegreatwhiteshark.com
415.235.9410
[Reply]
August 5th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Did the Ocean Conservancy mention that shark finning is and has been banned in the U.S. for years now? And, that in order to sell a shark that you have to sell the whole shark and cannot just sell the fins? Oh no, I guess they didn’t because if people knew this then they wouldn’t give money to the Ocean Conservancy now would they.
[Reply]
August 10th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
A general comment on Discovery’s Shark Week line-up:
It’s not enough. With title’s like “Blood in the Water”, “Deadly Waters” and “Sharkbite Summer”, it’s still all about cheap thrills. The serious issue with Shark Week is that it panders to our fear of sharks and only anecdotaly mentions the real issues. The reality is that you are more likely to get hit on the head by a meteor than be attacked by a shark. Meanwhile, sharks are about to go extinct. In 2007, there was 1 human death caused by sharks worldwide. In the same year, over 100,000,000 sharks were killed by humans.
Shark populations are down 90% in the past 20 years. Portraying them as a serious killers prevents anyone from doing anything about their pending extinction. The shark is the apex predator of the ocean. Without sharks, the oceanic food chain is severely disrupted. People need to wake up and realize Shark Week is a cheap thrill that continues to perpetuate the lie that sharks present a real danger to humans. It’s simply not true.
Discovery Channel needs to dramatically change the focus of their Shark Week programming. Its a simple choice: cheap thrills that further the decline of the shark or the stark reality that sharks are about to disappear for good.
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