According to the article, Kerry teams with cable channel to protect sharks, the Discovery Channel has “teamed up” with Massachusetts Senator, John Kerry, to support the The Shark Conservation Act of 2009, which is intended to strengthen the ban on shark finning in the U.S. and encourage international shark conservation. The article features a letter from John Ford, the President & General Manager of Discovery Channel, in which Ford states that Discovery Channel will be participating in “a public service announcement campaign, to air throughout Shark Week, with the goal of educating viewers about the plight of sharks and encouraging them to take action.” and that they will be “putting all of our media weight behind this effort.”

Ford also says, “As the #1 non-fiction media company in the world, Discovery Communications strives to educate and inform viewers about our planet. The flagship network, Discovery Channel, reaches over 98 million viewers in the U.S. alone and is committed to providing the highest quality content on television.”

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The video above is one of the shark conservation Public Service Announcements (PSA) that will be run during Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. If you’ve witnessed any of Discovery Channel’s promotional media for Shark Week, you’ll notice a stark contrast between the above message and the fear-based ad campaign. The PSA showed up today on The Ocean Conservancy’s YouTube Channel and is listed as being presented by The Discovery Channel and The Ocean Conservancy. While I fully support The Ocean Conservancy’s efforts, I find it hard to buy into Discovery’s commitment to shark conservancy, when they continue to exploit and misrepresent sharks for their own personal gains.

Expatica.com is reporting that Friday’s reported “shark attack” on an 11-year-old British girl at Sant Salvador de El Vendrell beach is now actually believed to be a bluefish attack. According to the report, “maritime experts later concluded that the bite suffered by the girl was too small to have been caused by a shark and was compatible instead with the marks that would be left by a bluefish.”

A blue shark had been seen, prior to the attack, 20 miles away from Sant Salvador de El Vendrell. In a knee-jerk reaction, maritime police caught and a killed a blue shark in the area after the attack, prior to the “shark attack” being debunked. Neighboring beaches were closed after the non-shark attack but have since been re-opened after maritime police patrolling the beaches found “no signs of bluefish.”

The knee-jerk tactics of attempting to hunt sharks down after a supposed attack is utterly absurd given the scientific information available today about shark attacks on humans. It’s also ridiculous to think that bluefish are no longer in area where bluefish live, as if a rogue bluefish swam in from some mystical bluefish hiding spot to bite someone and then left the area. The thought of maritime police patrolling for bluefish is comical, at best. No word on whether or not the police were able to sleep soundly after executing the wrong perpetrator.

Here’s to hoping that the 11-year-old victim of the bluefish bite heals up quickly and is able to enjoy the rest of her vacation. An animal bite which requires stitches is no less severe regardless of the species.

In light of Discovery Channel’s recent fear-based ad campaign, I thought I’d revisit Save Our Seas Foundation‘s “Rethink The Shark” ad campaign from 2007. The award-winning ads (based on a well-known scene from Jaws, no less) are proof-positive that an audience-gripping ad campaign can be created, while still maintaining a conservationist-minded theme. The ads were created by advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi Capetown. Three ads were created, all of them with the same lead-in as the ad posted above. The other two ads ended with a kite and a toaster.

I love how the ads take the fear and familiarity of Jaws and turn it around to increase awareness about just how rare fatal shark attacks are.

My Fox Tampa Bay recently released two video segments about shark attacks, which seem to be in response to Wednesday’s attack at St. Pete Beach involving 19-year old, Jenna James. Kudos to the producers and reporters involved with these segments for taking the high road and reporting the facts of shark attack odds and stressing awareness as opposed to fear when it comes to sharks and swimming in the ocean.
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Video footage featuring a shark, which some believe to be a white shark, swimming around in the ocean near Malibu, California is making the rounds on the local news outlets in the Los Angeles area. The quality of the raw shark footage video isn’t the greatest (there is a link for it at MyFoxLA.com). It certainly appears that it could be a white shark, but I’m not sure how one could be absolutely positive of the species based on the video footage. Given the size and silhouette seen in the video, if I had to venture a guess, I’d go with white shark. However, KTLA.com quotes Julie Scardina from Sea World as saying that the shark could be a mako. If it is a great white, it isn’t exactly groundbreaking news that a white shark would be observed in the area. Despite Scardina’s statement that “typically, white sharks are found further north,” white sharks are certainly no strangers to Southern California.
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At this point, I know I’m beating a dead horse, but I really feel like Discovery Channel’s YouTube campaign is just going overboard, particularly the Shark Week 2009 promotional video below, titled “Swimming girl is in for a surprise,” in which a girl is swimming along and is then snatched by an unseen force (presumably a shark). It’s followed by some bloody “Shark Week” text and then a Discovery Channel logo with the Earth apparently bleeding in the water.

If that’s not enough, Discovery’s YouTube channel page features a watery background with blood and articles of clothing floating about. The first seven videos in their “Shark Week Archives” playlist focus on shark attack on humans.
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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.

The Star News Online is reporting that Julia Anne Mittleberg, a 26-year old woman, was bitten on the foot by a shark on Wednesday (July 22, 2009). Mittleberg was in 3-4′ of water at Holden Beach, NC when the attack occurred. According to the report, the hospital has confirmed she is in “good condition”.

In other shark attack news, ABC Action News, is reporting that Jenna James, a 19-year-old female, was also bit by a shark on Wednesday (July 22, 2009) while swimming at St. Pete Beach, FL. James was bitten above the knee and did not see the shark, but the wound is said to be consistent with a shark bite. Her injuries are said to not be life-threatening but she underwent surgery, according to the report.
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CBS is reporting that police were called to a street in downtown Miami on July 21, 2009 due to the body pf a 6′ (1.8m) nurse shark being deposited on the road. Reports indicate that two men had tried to sell the shark to multiple fish markets, asking $10 for the animal. The men were seen carrying the shark around and even rode the city’s Metromover train carrying the body of the deceased shark. According to CBS, “authorities say the incident could lead to misdemeanor charges of improper killing and disposal of an animal, and selling a shark without a license.” The Miami Herald is reporting that the body of the shark was returned to the ocean, according to wildlife officials.

Personally, I hope the perpetrators are prosecuted for this act of needless stupidity.