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.