Monday, August 3, 2009

Reinventing Sea Monsters

9 comments:

The Bumbling Bohemian said...

Kudos Patric.

Dave Thomas said...

Well said man, last nights show was garbage.

Discovery has been hijacked internally by a team of focus group mystics.

They do not know what shark programming is anymore.

SharkinJohn said...

I watched very little of "Blood in the Water"(YEP, the SAW filmakers will be makig next years Shark Week) and a few minutes of the Les Stroud show last night (I actually did like some of the footage of the Great White in Australia eating the huge tunas, what power) and cannot believe the depth of gore and ripping people to pieces Shark Week has this year. I thought the Frenzied Waters vids were bad. How about the commercial of the person floating on the water and then being hit by an imaginary shark and screaming? A long way from the "Shark University" commercials from years back. Their marketing is pure b-movie, horror film trash. Not that I want to watch an hour long show on angel or horn sharks swimming around, but this year is AWEFUL! And so far, I have not seen any scientist or Shark Experts I recognize. Who are these people?

George said...

Nicely put.

Ramon said...

So much for putting “all of their media weight” behind the effort “of educating viewers about the plight of sharks and encouraging them to take action,” as Discovery Channel president, John Ford claims.

Ha!

Source DF

SharkinJohn said...

Forgot about the "Sharks After Dark" show. If anyone has not seen it, "Sharkville" featuring Ryan Johnson was on NatGeo LAST YEAR and is top notch work. Very good as far as conservation-minded and really cool to see a newly discovered behavior that he got on tape. Just an FYI to counteract Anti-Shark Week 2009!

Anonymous said...

i am disgusted at the shark week apologists out there

they come from the research community, the ngo community, and the dive community

how can rational people allow their long careers to be used for shark porn?

there's no conservation messages here, it's a feeding trough with star struck folks who was lost the meaning of real shark conservation

John said...

Shark Week's "Blood in the water" is about a rouge shark that attacked people near New Jersey in 1916. Are you denying the events, or do you just think they shouldn't mention it because it makes sharks look dangerous?

Guess what? They are dangerous. Sharks are awesome because they are powerful killers. As much as you might like to think of them as puppy dogs, the fact is they do hurt people who are not careful.

There is a reason they don't have tuna week. Sharks are predators. Let them be sharks and don't ridicule TV for showing it.

Horizon Charters Guadalupe Cage Diving said...

I think you are missing the point to this exercise.

Since 1914 there have been no multiple recorded attacks in that region. It was a "one off event", almost 90 years ago.

Dragging out and "recreating" a horrific event to kick off a week long orgy of anti-shark sentiment is what this is about.

Yes sharks attack people. We know and accept this.

Over hyping this fact to sell cars, drugs, and dish soap on cable television is what most people are protesting against.

This species is currently suffering through the highest rate of destruction of any species on the planet right now. 90 million animals a year.

Is this making sense now?