Ocean creatures typically don’t command national attention, but there’s one week each year when they become impossible to ignore. That week has arrived once again. Shark Week, which first premiered on July 17, 1988, has returned to Discovery Channel this week to mark its 30-year anniversary.
Sunday’s launch featured a 10-show lineup headlined by Shaquille O’Neal and UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey, among others. The former NBA star made headlines when a small shark breached his protective cage, requiring him to be extracted from the water.
By the time the two-hour special Naked and Afraid of Sharks airs on Sunday, July 29, Shark Week will have presented 26 shows in total.
Yet as white shark sightings have grown more frequent in recent years, questions arise about whether these animals truly pose the threat that Shark Week suggests.
“Shark Week has gotten much better in terms of their science content around [sharks], but as is common to most media and TV, their promotions of it often still promotes the idea of sharks as being dangerous or a threat,” explained Tony LaCasse of the New England Aquarium. “We play on the fear aspect that most people have of large predators.”
While caution around sharks remains advisable, fatal attacks are actually quite rare, according to LaCasse. Massachusetts last experienced a fatal shark attack in 1936; the most recent non-fatal incident occurred in 2014, when two kayakers successfully fled after a great white shark bit their boats.
When asked about his primary recommendation for shark safety, LaCasse offered this guidance: “If you’re swimming in the outer cape, and you see a seal in the water, get out of the water,” “That’s going to minimize the chance that you have an accident.”
According to LaCasse, white sharks have inhabited New England waters in small numbers historically, but federal protection of seals has allowed their population to surge dramatically in regions like Chatham and Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge—areas where these sharks hunt their preferred prey.
“Over time, all those white sharks [Massachusetts has] that were dispersed throughout New England are concentrating around the elbow of Cape Cod because that’s where their food is,” LaCasse noted regarding the uptick in white shark encounters.
“If you’re going to the outer cape, the thing that hurts most people are other people,” he added.
Sharks will dominate screens beyond Shark Week this summer, as The Meg arrives in theaters on August 10. This film adapts Steve Alten’s 1997 science-fiction novel, Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror.
The cast includes Jason Statham, Rainn Wilson and Ruby Rose. Despite the similar title, The Meg bears no connection to the 2004 horror film Megalodon or the Megashark franchise.