�Teeth of Death, Blood in the Water, Top Five Eaten Alive and The Killing Games. Each and every one of these titles has one thing in common: ���all are collective episodes of Discovery Channel’s ever so beloved Shark Week.��
For those of you who don’t know, though I can’t image there are many, Shark Week is an annual, week-long television event dedicated to the ocean’s greatest of predators. It continues this week and has become one of the most engrossing events to have ever been created, having in 2013 reeled in nearly 53 million viewers, and could arguably be deemed as a nationwide holiday. Premiering on July 17, 1988, Shark Week was originally created to defy common misunderstandings about the predators and quell the fears of those who shared their oceans. � While these misconceptions were most likely caused mainly by Steven Spielberg's box-office hit "Jaws," it’s easy to see why those fears exist.
The truth is, sharks are scary! They’re wild animals, and we know we can’t change that. We hate what we don’t have control over; were so use to being at the top of the food chain and honestly, to be anywhere else is terrifying. It’s hard to accept that there are things in this world that are stronger than us, but it’s true! These are the animals who eat other living things and can be found in every ocean that makes up the 70 percent of Earth’s surface. These are the animals we share home with. They take our breath away when we stand inches away with only glass to separate us. They roam the ocean in majestic packs that inspire young hearts to learn more and control a population that we have only meddled in. I still remember the nights I’ve shared with my shark-loving friend Jenny as we stayed up late watching reruns of documentaries on the powerful fish and nearly sobbing as we heard the news of nine year old Sean Lesniak’s powerful letter to ban shark finning in Massachusetts. There are people still out there, people like Sean who love sharks! Sure, they eat to live and eat a lot and yes, we have multiple sources of evidence explaining that sharks aren’t partial to us when it comes to an all-you-can-eat-buffet, they have, on more than one occasion, attacked and/or fatally wounded a human being. Even so, they are our underwater neighbors; they are the lives we share the planet with.
It also doesn’t help that media isn’t exactly on their side. Think back to the news stories you’ve heard throughout your lifetime. Think about all the movies you’ve seen, all the television shows you’ve watched and even to the podcasts you tuned into halfheartedly on several lonely nights where sleep was an unreachable goal that you had long given up. We’ve witnessed real footage of shark attacks and seen pictures online of what these predators are capable of. Many were there for the premiere of "Jaws" in 1975 just as many are here right now for that of "The Shallows" in 2016. That’s 41 years! 41 years and then some of this stigma, of this domesticated hate we’ve pushed on to an animal that has never once consciously hated us back. They’ve been hunted by us, caught by us even killed by us because misunderstandings that should have never been brought about in the first place.
So no, this isn’t just because of Shark Week and it’s surely not all the fault of the media, even though it takes these uncommon real life circumstances and distorts them to get watchers and likes and ratings. The war on sharks has been caused by a vast misunderstanding by all of. Maybe we didn’t mean to and maybe many will disagree, but haven’t we all played some role in this act?
As a species, we have to take responsibility and acknowledge that this is a problem that can only be fixed by all of us. We have to realize that this is not our world alone, but one to be shared among many. I know it’s scary and it’s uncomfortable; it’s hard to consider that we might not be the only lives on this planet worth living.
It doesn’t matter if you watch it on the newest Apple product, or you hear it on the world’s oldest ham radio because once you hear it, you can’t un-hear it. Once you let that fear become something more, it’s hard to see the life behind what you believe is a monster.
