When Television Attacks! Shark Week 2024 Has Begun

Using negative depictions of sharks to “attack” public sensibilities in such a way that they tune in to watch a series of ever-increasingly hysterical television programs is not a particularly novel approach for cable executives. Sharks are entertaining, and the public both likes and fears them. Surely by now, the phrase ‘cash cow’ should have been put out to pasture in honor of the ‘cash shark’ as we mark the 36th year of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.

Shark Week is a shark ‘attack’ bonanza. This year, titles include “Belly of the Beast, Deadliest Bite, Caught! When Sharks Attack, Great White Serial Killer, and Shark Attack Island.” The issue is not that there are no sharks that bite or very seriously injure and kill people. The issue is that the over-saturation of menacing shark stories is a lie. It is a fabrication that rakes in profits and ratings from the real-life terrible occurrences that happen to people and a false and commercialized fish story.

And no one is happier for Shark Week’s ‘attack’ focus than soon-to-be President Donald Trump, whose dislike for sharks and strong political position against shark attacks is both strange and well documented. I’m assuming this will be part of the upcoming Republican platform.

In fact, in 2022, I wrote a piece for the Washington Post looking at the relationship between United States Presidents and sharks (10 of them have talked about them). I concluded, “Sharks have long been used as a political foil, creating a feeding frenzy, wherein presidents circle and attack sharks to create a moment of opportunity for themselves and their agendas.”

But the truth is always more interesting than fiction. And the fact is that people do not blame sharks for shark “attacks.” I have conducted three academic surveys in Australia (and Australians know what a shark attack is). The data from two beaches that had recently experienced serious or fatal shark bites — and one on a neutral beach showed that more than 90% of people picked something other than “the shark” to blame for shark bites.

In 2012, gave a TED talk (here it is ) about how the phrase “shark attack” first came into use and it started because of a fight between researchers in the United States and Australia. In the 1930’s the phrase “shark accident” was just as common.

Globally, the language is changing because about 40% of reported shark “attacks” have no injury at all. A shark may circle a boat, bump into a kayak, or come across a Jet Ski, but there is no injury — 40% of the time. Last year, the state of California even changed the way it refers to human-shark interactions so they are referred to as shark “incidents.”

This is not the final phase of the woke agenda. This is not about being politically correct toward sharks. Sorry, Tucker. It is about telling the public the truth so they can manage their risks when they go into a wild ocean ecosystem. Telling the public that sharks are serial killers does not make any swimmer safer. And sending a boat out to kill “the shark” does not work. They just come back in the sequel.

I’ll finish with this. In a 2015 IPSOS survey of the United States, they polled public fear of sharks. It was found that being terrified of sharks runs highest in the Northeast (55%), followed by those in the Midwest (51%), the West (50%), and the South (48%). The MIDWEST was second!

As we all celebrate another Shark Week, this is a season to remind each other of the importance of protecting ourselves from television executives. I hope my scientist friends who are being exploited and the public who is being misinformed will be careful this summer and not go too deep into sensational-infested waters.

I completed the world’s first PhD on the “Politics of Shark Attacks” in 2014 at the University of Sydney and wrote the academic book “Flaws” in 2019. There are a host of excellent scientists and academics doing amazing work to inform the public about shark research and education, and I encourage you to go find them. Happy Shark Week!

Chris Pepin-Neff (they/them) is an academic and researcher. This work does not reflect the opinions of their employer. They also host a podcast entitled “Shark Bites and Gay Rights.”