Shark Week

[JumpinMacFlash]

The Discovery Channel bugs me sometimes with some of the shows they put on, but I absolutely love Shark Week. They had a show today about a documentary group researching great whites. This guy grabbed the dorsal fin of one and rode it! They also had a Dirty Jobs where Mike Rowe tested shark suits. I've wanted to go in a shark cage ever since seeing my first Shark Week. I think it'd be a helluva adrenaline rush.

 

I try and watch some of it every year. Am I the only one? Please tell me I'm not.

[aracko]

Is today the first day or have I missed 3 nights allready? I love shark week.

[JumpinMacFlash]

I'm pretty sure it started Sunday night. I've missed a couple days too because of work. Second shift sucks.

[trwi7]

It started July 29th. They seem to be concentrating a lot on bull sharks this year.

[hammytime]

As a regular watcher of Shark Week (awesome programming, every year), I believe the new shows will all air again this Saturday. As for shows from past Shark Weeks, some of those are airing for a second time this week during the day (check local listings). Some of today's programming has already been on this week. It did start the 29th, and Saturday is the final day for this year.

 

I enjoyed the VirtuQuarium (on a program from a past Shark Week). Some of the new stuff seems like reprocessed information (I swear I've heard some of it before), but the photography is awesome.

[Fatter than Joey]

Our family watches a lot of the shark week programming. Recently my wife and I watched the show about the USS Indianapolis, which of course is alluded to in Jaws.

[cweber39]

Ftj- How was that? I saw previews for that episode in movie theatres and a forgot about it. I really wanted to watch that one.

[soup can for prez]

yeah shark week is always really interesting did anyone catch the one about the WWll crew that was stranded in the ocean?

[Fatter than Joey]

Soup -- that was the USS Indianapolis -- this was referred to in Jaws. My wife had family on that ship, so it is always of interest to her.

 

I thought it was a pretty good show. It wasn't a hokey made for TV deal, like the one that was made 10-15 years ago with Stacy Keetch and that Caruso guy from NYPD Blue. Basically it was a show about this investigative expert who went and examined all the data, overlayed it with shark behavior and tons of interviews with the survivors, and painted a different picture than perhaps has been sensationalized by the movies.

 

I thought it was a bit drawn out -- and some of the reenactments were a bit much, but it is very typical Discovery channel programming, which if you like -- this will not disappoint you.

[burniebrewer]

I used to always watch Shark Week but now I never hear about it until its too late.

[hammytime]

Ocean of Fear (about the USS Indianapolis) is on again Friday night, and again Saturday morning.

 

I believe you can go to Discovery.com, in their television schedule, and get an e-mail reminder for a show or shows you want to see. I know Animal Planet has that option, and since Animal Planet is part of the Discovery "family", I think you have the same option with Discovery programming.

[jhart05]

Soup -- that was the USS Indianapolis -- this was referred to in Jaws. My wife had family on that ship, so it is always of interest to her.

 

 

I didn't get to watch it yet. I've got it saved on TiVo.

 

But my Grandfather was also on that ship.

 

Unbelievable what he had to do to survive that experience.

[Fatter than Joey]

My wife's grand-uncle died on that ship -- My wife's grandma and cousins go to the reunions that they have. I think he died in the sinking of the ship though. -- It was quite the ordeal for certain.

[jhart05]

I haven't been over there yet. Many of my family have thou. He went on to have 8 children and geez I lost count of how many of us grandchildren there are and now great-grandchildren.

 

My Grandfather got kind of lucky, if you can call it that. When the ship got hit by the Jap sub, he was awake and close to the deck. He had just gotten out of the shower, so he spent the 4 or 5 days floating in the ocean completely naked, except for his boxers.

 

He never talked about it with any of us of course, he did show us his shark bite thou, but never really said how he got it. I've read some articles from the local paper that interviewed him when he got back. He was able to find a life raft. One guy was loosing his mind and wanted to jump out of the raft. So a Marine and my Grandpa had to beat the guy up and tie him down to the raft to save him. It got so cold at night that they had to jump in the ocean to stay warm and just take their chances with the sharks.

 

Every time I think about him or read the various things my family has about this, just can't help but get emotional about it. But I feel it has helped me get thru some tough times thou. I just think about him, and nothing I have to deal with could even match what he went thru to allow me to be here today.