A 'Shark Week' Scientist Picks the Best and Worst Shark Movie
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Sharks have been swimming onscreen long before Discovery's Shark Week first began. From Jaws to The Meg and The Shallows, there are plenty of films for fans of the apex predators to sink their teeth into.
While wildlife biologist and Shark Week star Forrest Galante notes that Hollywood gets "very, very, very little right" when it comes to shark movies, he tells Parade, "At the end of the day, it's entertainment. You should just embrace them and enjoy them for what they are and not let that translate into being scared of the ocean."
As for his favorite? "This is gonna upset some people and I'm with it. The best shark movie has got to be Sharknado," Galante says. "I mean, it's just so preposterous and over the top and, you know, sharks and a tornado, yes please."
Related: Everything You Need to Know About Shark Week 2023
Perhaps even more surprising is his worst movie pick: Steven Spielberg's 1975 classic, Jaws. The Alien Sharks: Strange New Worlds star explained, "The reason Jaws is the worst movie is not because it's not a good movie. It's a great movie. In fact, I enjoy it a lot myself, but because Jaws is sort of single-handedly responsible for a mass hysteria around sharks when it came out and I believe Spielberg himself said one of his biggest regrets in his career was making that movie because of the amount of sharks that it ultimately ended up killing."
Galante added, "You can't be a shark biologist without thinking that that had some negative consequences."
Although Jaws still "slaps" for Galante's Shark Week colleague Dr. Austin Gallagher, the latter points out that what shark movies get wrong are the personal grudges sharks hold for people. "Or that they'll come back because they're really interested in one person," Dr. Gallagher continued. "They don't operate like that. They'll come try to investigate something and if they're not interested about it, they'll leave. They're not gonna stay around on a coral reef for you know, five, six, seven days trying to eat something."
With the 35th annual Shark Week now underway, Dr. Gallagher hopes viewers realize just how amazing sharks are. "Our planet is much cooler with them on it. Sharks are endangered, so even though they have their whole week [of] TV, and they're on the posters here, they do need our help," he says. "They need to be conserved. I think that's something that's really important to take away and the more positive, factual information we can get out there about sharks into the world, the better."
Continue reading to find out what the two Shark Week scientists had to say about some of the biggest misconceptions about sharks (often propagated by the movies) and how to avoid encounters with the apex predators.
Myths about sharks (and tips to avoid encounters)
1. They're killing machines
"Hands down the biggest misconception is that sharks are mindless killing machines," Galante says. "They're anything but that. They are incredible, complex creatures. Some with dynamic social capabilities. Some with large emotions, very, very unique behaviors. And I think most people think of Jaws or whatever and think that they're mindless killing machines."
2. They can smell blood from miles away
"People love to say that sharks can smell a drop of blood in an Olympic swimming pool. No one's ever tested that, so there's no data to support that," Dr. Gallagher says. "I don't know how that one made it out there, but whoever propagated that one, good on them." That said, he adds, sharks do have a "legendary" sense of smell. "So they can sense blood from a long distance away. But, you know, a couple 100 feet, maybe a quarter mile. Not miles. Not that far."
3. They're always lurking and ready to attack
Shark encounters happen, of course, but there are ways to vastly reduce your chances of coming face-to-face with an apex predator. "Sharks are crepuscular hunters, which means they hunt at dawn and dusk the most, so don't swim at dawn and dusk," Galante advises. Likewise, don't swim near river mouths, where the water is dirty and sharks are actively feeding, and stay away from areas where fisherman are cleaning their catch or actively throwing out lines. "That's putting bait in the water," Galante warns.
Related: 125 of the Hottest Summer Puns for Warm Weather-Loving Buoys and Gulls
4. They're looking to eat humans
Dr. Gallagher calls sharks "opportunistic," explaining that they "will go after something that is there, that might be easy for them to take down, but they're not gonna, you know, specifically go after people."
Galante seconds that. "There are shark encounters, there are shark bites, but sharks really don't attack people," he says. "It is a case of mistaken identity and the way to avoid it is just make smart choices."
For instance, he says, avoid wearing "sparkly" and "shiny" bathing suits that could be mistaken by a shark as "a flash from a fish." And don't bring a plastic water bottle or, say, a can of beer into the water, as the crunching sound they make "is very, very emulative of fish bones crunching."
"Be educated as a beach goer," he concludes. "Make good choices about where you swim, when you swim, learn a little bit about sharks and you can reduce the likelihood of a negative encounter to near zero."
