Shark Week 2024 has come and gone, and as usual, Shark Week delivered. It’s so fascinating to watch it every year and learn what marine biologists and shark experts are discovering  about one of the apex predators in the ocean. 

In the past, there have been celebrities who have participated in Shark Week, including Sal, Q, and Murr from Impractical Jokers, Ronda Rousey, Shaq, Guy Fieri, the sharks from Shark Tank, including Barbara Corcoran, Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary, and Mark Cuban, Bear Grylls, and many others. This year, there  weren’t any celebrities who participated in the festivities (besides host John Cena). Nonetheless, Shark Week was a smashing success. 

One of the big themes surrounding this year’s Shark Week was the mating rituals of sharks, which is something that’s been one of the biggest mysteries scientists have been trying to figure out for years. On Monday, July 8, two of the three shows were about shark mating: Big Shark Energy and Shark Frenzy: Mating Games. 

Other topics that were prevalent during this year’s Shark Week include the size and weight of sharks, the unusual locations of some sharks, as well as shark attacks. 

Every year during Shark Week, one of the most fascinating parts is to see what kinds of experiments and tests the marine biologists and shark experts come up with to answer the question that brought them out on a boat in the middle of the ocean with a whole team. For example, in the show Monster Hammerheads Species X, a whole team, led by Dr. Austin Gallagher, went down to Turks and Cacos, a British Overseas Territory southeast of the Bahamas, to study an aggressive population of hammerhead sharks to determine if it could possibly be a new species. In the show, they had to get tissue samples from the sharks to send back to the lab for testing. 

While hammerheads were their primary objective, they also attached a camera to a tiger shark to see if that could give them any clues about where the hammerheads could be. 

In another show called Belly of the Beast,  a team led by Dr. Austin Gallagher created a 29-foot. whale decoy in New Zealand to study huge female great white sharks that are dubbed “Queen Boss” that are ruling over male-dominated clans. 

Shark Week is so fascinating to watch because I believe one of the goals is to get people who tune in to change their perception of sharks. Sharks have a bad reputation, which often stems from the media and movies. Yes, sharks will attack humans, however, out of the 475 known species, the large majority are small and harmless and only about 10-12 are actually known to pose a threat to humans. 

According to The Bad Rap on Sharks, “Between 2004 and 2008, a total of 196 shark attacks occurred in the United States, with only four fatalities. Even though shark attacks gain the most publicity, there are many beach-related accidents that cause more injuries and deaths each year than sharks, including car accidents driving to the beach, drowning and boating accidents.”

To me, sharks are one of the most amazing animals on the planet, and they need to be treated with the respect that they rightfully deserve, as the ocean is their territory and they’ve been around longer than the dinosaurs.

Every year, Shark Week teaches viewers more and more about sharks that we didn’t know before. They are truly special creatures and they have earned the right to be one of the top predators in the ocean. I can’t wait for Shark Week to come around again next year!