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Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, which has been running from this past Sunday (August 9) and wraps up this coming Sunday (August 16), has become something of a global event.
Having entered its 32nd year, Shark Week provides the channel’s biggest viewership of any event during the year, and has been dubbed “Discovery’s Super Bowl”.
That’s due in part to the popularity, but also because the younger audience it attracts makes for valuable advertising space, and the channel raked in $22,3 million in ad revenue during the seven days last year.
Don’t worry, shark fans, that’s not one of the five facts. For that, we go to Newsweek, starting with each whale shark’s spot pattern is unique as a fingerprint:
Whale sharks are the largest species of shark, as well as one the largest creatures that live in the ocean, measuring around 40 feet long. As is the case with human fingerprints, the spotted patterns on the back of each whale shark are unique.
Organizations like the World Wildlife Fund can use this to help identify and keep track of the animals.
Terrified of sharks? You shouldn’t be, but if you are, you suffer from galeophobia:
People have phobias of all sorts of things, and one phobia that is not so surprising is the intense fear of sharks dubbed Galeophobia. In 1975, when Steven Spielberg released Jaws, audiences around the world were given an up-close look at the potential dangers of sharks—leaving many scared to enter the water.
Due in part to the portrayal of the shark in the film—a creatures out for the blood of humans—shark populations declined in the years following the release of the film, also because of overfishing.
Donald Trump is said to suffer from galeophobia, according to Stormy Daniels, who added that he was “obsessed” with Shark Week.
In his own words:
Sharks are last on my list – other than perhaps the losers and haters of the World!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2013
So it goes losers, then haters, then sharks. Got it.
Next up – sharks are unable to make audible noise:
Over 400 species of sharks exist, and not one of them has the ability to make sound—at least an audible one. They do not have the ability to make sound the way humans do, or more relatively, the way whales do.
Dory, in Finding Nemo famously claims she can speak whale, which is the sound we all might associate with the sound a whale makes, but there is no such sound associated with a shark.
Can you hear that? It’s not a shark. Move on with your life.
Our fourth surprising fact is that shark embryos in eggs can sense danger:
While some sharks have live births, like humans, some sharks lay eggs. As the shark develops and grows inside of the egg, the bottom of the “mermaid’s purse,” as the sac is called, opens up so the shark can start getting the nutrients from seawater.
But, when the sac opens, it does make the undeveloped animal a bit more vulnerable to surrounding predators, which is when the sixth sense comes in.
Scientists say the sense develops after the sac opens, which allows the animal to sense the electricity of a possible predator and freeze themselves to not cause a stir.
Meanwhile, all human embryos can do is boot the inside of the uterus for attention.
Our final fact today is that, whilst sharks cannot live in cyclones or tornadoes (sorry, Sharknado fans), they can live in volcanoes:
In 2015, scientists discovered sharks swimming around one of the most active underwater volcanoes in the world, which should only really be hospitable to microscopic organisms. They were spotted not long after an eruption which stumped scientists.
The volcano, Kavachi, is located near the Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific ocean. Given the nature of the location, it is hard to study in person so scientists sent down robots to get a closer look.
You can find out more about those volcano sharks here, or if you’d prefer, just watch this short National Geographic video:
Good stuff. Now let them be.
One South African who is definitely enjoying Shark Week is photographer Chris Fallows, whose amazing breaching photo from Seal Island was recently beamed around the world to great acclaim.
[source:newsweek]
