The music rises at the thrashing of the ocean. As the orchestra hits a crescendo and snaps, the waters break and leaping out of the waves is one of the most feared predators known to man…
Shark Week has begun. I don’t know when it happened, but it has become an event. There are shirts available with catchy phrases like “Go Shark Yourself” and my husband even saw an article on Yahoo asking how are YOU planning your Shark Week viewing party?
It began on the Discovery Channel back in 1987, so it’s been on the air for 23 years. I’ve have always known there was a Shark Week, but I didn’t realize that it was something that has been on the air for so long. My husband and I look forward to it every year. One of our favorite episodes was the one about tonic immobility, which is a natural state of paralysis. The shark can stay in this state for 15 minutes before recovering. Just watching the scientists place these great predators in that kind of state so that they can be in the same waters with them without a cage is incredible to watch.
When I was 5, I told my mom I wanted to be a marine biologist (in addition to becoming a nurse, a doctor, and a stewardess). When I went on field trips in elementary school to the Scripps Aquarium or to Sea World, I always left with some kind of book on marine life and one of them was about sharks. Even recently, when we went to Sea World with our son, Deon’s mother and cousin, we made a point to visit the Shark Encounter and most of the things we bought for Dominic were shark related.
So, Happy Shark Week everyone! It all begins tonight at 9pm EST on The Discovery Channel.
funny story: while recovering from my surgery I watched about 10 episodes of Shark Week that my parents DVR’s for me. I don’t have cable and haven’t for more than a year so I missed last year’s Shark Week. The year before that I was moving across the country in the middle of it. That’s why I loved the new format with old episodes playing for a couple of hours before the new episode aired at 9. Like you I had every intention of becoming a Marine Biologist (and an archaeologist, and a palentologist) and then one day I realized that almost half the population of my graduating class in high school wanted to be marine biologists. Even the kids who could swim! oy, one day I will take a trip to South Africa and witness air jaws for myself, or maybe just hit up a fishing expedition to the Coronado Islands. Wanna go? 😉
I would love to go! I think Deon is already going on a fishing trip in a couple of weeks, so he can give me a heads up on what to expect, lol 🙂