So, I’m watching the last few minutes of Ultimate Air Jaws (the series of programs capturing great white sharks leaping out of the water to catch seals) and I have to say, I’ve seen repeats of these programs probably millions of times, but they never get old. Also, high speed camera footage will never not be cool.
Any other dopers out there tuned in?
Sharks rule! I love the way they several rows of teeth growing out so the carnage never has to stop.
Plus now is the best time to tell people let’s do it like the did on discovery channel.
I’ll catch as much as I can. @craigyferg’s contribution is at 9 pm CDT Wednesday. If you go to discovery.com and click on shark week, there is quite a bit of info.
Every year.
So far I haven’t seen anything new, but I’m waiting for Ferguson’s show. Seems like there are a lot of repeats this year.
Me too!
I love sharks!
You should see the Discovery HQ building here in Silver Spring, MD. They have Chompie set up again this year. He’s much more impressive in person.
I usually try to catch part of the show which has the great whites going air born. Now *that *would be a sight to see IRL!
Yeah, so far so good. It’s worth a look.
Yeah, my husband and I knew we were in for a treat when one of the shows yesterday featured the northern California coast.
We were interested because of a previous show, probably not even Shark Week-associated. I think it was a National Geographic special set in the same area where they had a setup with seal-shaped surfboards, with cameras mounted in them and pointed down into the water to catch shark behavior before “is that food?” strikes. There was one that showed nothing but dark water, then a spot, and then almost instantly BOOM and the board was flying way up out of the water because that tiny spot had been a great white going at a super-fast ramming speed. :eek:
I did catch a similar thing on yesterday; the shaped camera platform had some biiiiig jaw marks in it.
I doubt that Discovery Channel had anything to do with it, but this prankster’s timing was perfect for Shark Week:
I saw that. Gotta love a good prank!
I feel sorry for them in a way – one show last night mentioned that sharks injure about 100 people a year worldwide, but we kill 100 million sharks every year. That’s killing a million of them for every one of us that gets hurt, a ratio no vengeful SS officer ordering reprisals ever aspired to.
That said, they are wild animals. On that same show, there was some older footage of a shark scientist (just kidding! He was a human scientist who studies sharks) stood among large bull sharks to show that if you let them know you were present and not a threat, they wouldn’t attack.
One bit him on the calf, severing arteries and avulsing the calf muscle, almost costing him the leg.
In the interview (now some time after the attack, the leg had what looked like skin grafts showing) the scientist said he couldn’t figure out how it had happened. I wanted to raise my hand and say, “Ooooh! Ooooh! I know this one! You’re standing in a school of large sharks!”
But that was just me being a smartass really. He’s right when he points out we have more annual injuries from most other animal species we interact with. Statistically sharks aren’t much of a threat to humans.
I don’t know if we’re getting the same Discovery feed, but here every third week is Shark Week. It comes right after Anicent Egypt Week and Nazi Week.