Tag Archives: Shark Week

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Is there a shark in Lake Ontario? Umm, no.

Posted on: by George Probst

A video purporting to showing some fishermen encountering a shark off Wolfe Island in Lake Ontario was recently posted to YouTube. The video has been making the social media rounds and drumming up all kinds of online arguing about the “shark” seen in the video. The video even drew concern from Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, Bill Mauro. However, it would seem all the hype was for naught, unless you count the publicity it has generated for Shark Week 2014.

According to Canada’s Global News, it turns out that the video is actually part of the marketing campaign for Discovery’s upcoming week of shark programming and is nothing more than a PR stunt. According to a press release from Discovery, a ‘life-like’ prosthetic shark was used for the video.

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Shark Week’s Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives draws online criticism

Posted on: by George Probst

Discovery Channel’s 2013 edition of Shark Week has gotten off on the wrong fin in the eyes of some viewers. Last night’s “Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives” has drummed up a lot of negative buzz in the online world. Discovery’s Facebook page is loaded with comparisons to last year’s faux documentary “Mermaids: The Body Found,” which also caught a lot of heat online. Others are referring to the show as “The Blair Shark Project” in reference to the 1999 “Blair Witch Project.” Reddit shark fans also expressed disappointment and threatened to boycott Shark Week.

It seems some viewers are disappointed with Discovery’s latest offering would prefer to see ‘real-life’ documentaries as opposed to fictionalized storytelling being pawned off in documentary fashion. Complaints about the disclaimer at the beginning of the show being “unreadable” have some referring to the show as a farce. Rich Juzwiak at Gawker refers to the disclaimer as ‘too-fast-to-read.’

Did you watch “Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives?” If so, sound off in the comments about what you thought of the show and Discovery’s decision to include a “mockumentary” in the Shark Week line-up.