The Dorsal Fin

The Daily Star (a UK "news" source) has really outdone itself with its story, Killer on a Beach, a report about a thresher shark washing ashore at Hayle Beach in Cornwall. The story is so over-the-top with ridiculous sensationalism that it would be funny, if it weren’t so pathetic. The "Killer on a Beach," title almost seems tame compared to the secondary title, "A SHARK that can decapitate a human with the lash of its tail has been found on a British beach." While there is an unconfirmed anecdotal account of a fisherman being decapitated by a breaching thresher, the source of this story probably also knew a kid in elementary school who ate Pop Rocks, while drinking Coke, and exploded. I suppose it’s possible to be decapitated by the tail of a thresher. If somebody took the time and effort they could probably decapitate a human with that plastic knife that comes with the Play-Doh Fun Factory (perhaps, Hasbro should add that as a warning). The Daily Star goes on to describe the thresher’s tail (caudal fin) as "razor-sharp." I’d invite the Daily Star Staff reporter to try to shave with the tail of a thresher. The article also notes that the thresher is a "close relative" of the great white shark, and it even goes so far as to include a photo of a great white shark merely swimming along, with the caption of "Lethal shark on the rampage."

Congratulations, The Daily Star, you are truly special!

Note: It is generally accepted that the common thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus) is not considered to be aggressive toward or dangerous to humans, although divers are cautioned to treat thresher sharks with respect (this is a general rule with all aquatic life). Injuries (non-decapitating ones) to divers have been documented as a result of being struck by the thresher’s whip-like tail, which can occur if the shark is provoked.

And the winner (or is it loser?) is…ContactMusic." Why is Contact Music reporting a story about sharks in the first place?" you might ask. Well, it’s Steven Spielberg related news, of course. He directed that shark movie back in ’75. What was it called again? Oh yes, “Jaws.” That’s the one. Hence, any story regarding great white sharks should automatically be associated with Spielberg (in the eyes of some media outlets, at least).

ContactMusic’s article, “Jaws sightings close Massachusetts Beaches,” is about as utterly ridiculous as they come. Just to clarify the headline, multiple sightings of great white sharks near the coastline are what prompted the closing of several Chatham beaches, not sightings of the movie Jaws. The article goes so far as to say that the recent white shark sightings near Chatham, Massachusetts are "terrifying residents of nearby Martha’s Vineyard" (where Jaws was filmed). Say what? Was there any reporting done to substantiate the terror has fallen upon the residents of Martha’s Vineyard? It seems that the good people of Martha’s Vineyard wouldn’t be too fazed by white shark sightings, considering that there have been white sharks reported around the Vineyard repeatedly in recent years. I guess the white sharks around Chatham are more fear-inducing than the ones that were in closer proximity to Martha’s Vineyard in the past.

Thanks for spreading unnecessary fear, ContactMusic. Now, back to reality.

Rockford Illinois’ WREX Channel 13 ran an interview with Shark Diver Magazine’s Thomas Sergent yesterday. Sergent attempted to dispel the fear campaign that Discovery Channel has been serving up with this year’s Shark Week. (WARNING: The video does feature a few brief scenes of finning and a couple of shots of dead white sharks)

Sergent’s message was conservation-oriented and focused on how sharks have more to fear from humans, than we have to fear from them, based on the number of sharks killed annually by humans. However, that didn’t stop reporter, Bob Schaper, from interjecting an utterly ignorant statement into his interview with Sergent, which basically undermined the very message Sergent was trying to convey…

“Let’s face it. There are some sharks that like to gnaw on you, and, you know, just like drag you down and eat you, and chomp on you.”

There really isn’t any excuse for statements like this in what is supposed to be an objective news report. Not only does the statement reflect a sense of bad reporting, it is counterproductive to the intended message that Sergent was trying to communicate. The sheer lack of common sense of the statement makes me wonder if Schaper was playing “devil’s advocate” and began the statement with something to the effect of, “What do you say to people who think…” and that part was edited out. That scenario would at least make some sense.

This really should come as no surprise to anybody who has been following the marketing campaign for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. Last week I touched on the fear-based campaign, and I saw further evidence of it yesterday while doing a Google News search for the search string “Great White Shark.” I noticed in the Google Ads that Discovery Channel’s “bring fear back to Shark Week” attitude was in full-force. To their credit, out of the five ads that I came across, one of them was “fear-free” and simply, descriptively, and effectively advertised Shark Week. The remaining four rely more on conjuring up fear towards the animals they are featuring in their upcoming programming…

While doing a search on “sharks” today, I ran into another “Graphic Content” ad for FrenziedWaters.com, Discovery’s horror-themed promotional website for Shark Week.

Discovery Channel, your marketing campaign continues to disappoint me and is a disservice to shark conservation efforts.

Yeah, that was a rhetorical question. If I want horror and terror, I’ll watch a horror movie, NOT Shark Week. (Hey, I like Jaws just as much as anybody, but it’s a FICTIONAL horror movie.)

Creativity-Online’s recent article about the promotional website, Frenzied Waters, for the Discovery Channel’s upcoming Shark Week is filled with references to instilling fear into Shark Week’s potential audience. I don’t consider Creativity-Online’s article to be irresponsible journalism, as they are merely reporting on what the Discovery Channel and Campfire have cooked up to promote the upcoming Shark Week. In fact, while Campfire’s promotional website does nothing but perpetuate negative stereotypes about sharks being man-eaters (and apparently, dog-eaters), they are in the business of creating media campaigns that capture attention and were hired to create a fear-based horror-themed campaign. In that respect, Campfire’s campaign for Shark Week sets out to do exactly what they were hired to do. To Campfire’s credit, from a design and technical standpoint, their site is impressively put together, regardless of the content.
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