Trying to fool Great Whites
SUMMER has come to the Northern Hemisphere and that means it’s Shark Week time again. The longest-running cable TV programming returns with shows meant to provide further knowledge and dispel misconceptions about sharks and the efforts to conserve the species.
Now on it’s 31st year, the shows will run until Aug. 4 on Discovery Channel and they are streamable on its website and the Discovery Go app. The channel, on its website, noted that they have prepared “more than 20 hours of shark programming throughout the week,” including shows presenting “brand-new shark research technology” including the first “‘drone-towed’ seal decoy and cutting-edge surveillance tools.”
“Shark Week will uncover mysteries on some of the most unique shark species in the world,” the website said.
Last year, Shark Week’s 30th anniversary garnered 34.9 million viewers.
Among the shows running during Shark Week is Andrew Mayne: Ghost Diver which premieres on Aug. 2 in the US. The show will feature illusionist Andrew Mayne as he attempts to create “the first-of-its-kind Shark Suit to overcome the senses of a great white shark and make him invisible to the world’s most perfect predator” in order to put himself in the middle of a Great White Shark frenzy in Australia.
“I was looking at ways to make it easier for researchers to get close to sharks and observe them without disturbing them. I have a background in magic and illusion design and wondered what if that, if anything, crossed over to an entirely different species that has much more adept senses than I do,” Mr. Mayne told BusinessWorld in an interview on July 24.
He added that throughout the show, he will be seen testing a couple different version of the suit as he gets feedback from experts “about what I needed to focus on and what happened when the ultimate experts: the sharks, thought of my experiments.”
While he admitted that he only had a short time to test the suits, but he was hopeful he could learn something and he did. Overall, he said the whole point of the experiment was to be able to observe sharks better and to protect them.
Other programs over Shark Week include Laws of Jaws: Dangerous Waters which airs on July 30, with hosts Paul de Gelder, Mike Dornellas, Nick LeBeouf, and Jamin Martinelli reenacting five recent shark attacks to find out how things could have ended differently.
On Shark Trip: Eat. Prey. Chum, actor/comedian and retired US Marine Rob Riggle takes some of his celebrity friends to swim with the sharks. The show premiered on July 28.
For this year’s Shark Week, ocean conservation group Oceana partnered with Discovery Network to “help protect sharks from a global shark fin trade that harms as many as 73 million sharks each year,” as they try to raise money to fight against the trade and educate fans of Shark Week about the importance of sharks in maintaining a healthy ocean ecosystem.
The network will also be working with Ocean Conservancy to help clean up “beaches and inland waterways” in the US “to keep the homes of sharks and other marine life clean and habitable,” said the website. — Z.B. Chua
