NEW YORK — If you think you’re safe avoiding sharks by simply staying out of the water, think again.
A few species of epaulette sharks have evolved to move their pectoral fins in the front and pelvic fins in the back to plod along outside the water at low tide. Just to be perfectly clear: That’s on land.
Relax, none are going to chase you home.
“They’re not sprinting. There are no ankle-biters coming to get anybody. It’s just this fascinating behavior taking place,” says wildlife conservationist and biologist Forrest Galante.
So-called walking sharks of Papua New Guinea are among the stars of this year’s Shark Week, with 25 hours of programming dedicated to all varieties of the apex predators on the Discovery Channel and streaming on discovery+ starting today.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be the week’s recurring master of ceremonies — a first such role in the 34 years of Shark Week. Celebrities with shows include the stars of truTV’s “Impractical Jokers,” the cast of “Jackass” and comedian Tracy Morgan making his Shark Week debut.
Morgan teams up with shark experts — including his 9-year-old shark-crazy daughter, Maven Sonae, who has a 20,000-gallon fish tank in her backyard — to identify the craziest and most ferocious in the ocean. “She’s my best co-star ever,” says Morgan. “She’s always been into marine life since she was a baby.”
The programing includes a look at giant makos off the Azores, great whites off Cape Cod and in South Africa, hammerheads in The Bahamas, cold-water sharks in Alaska and tiger sharks in Turks and Caicos.
As always, there is a deep respect for the creatures and strong science beneath the amusing titles and premises, like “Jaws vs Kraken,” “Dawn of the Monster Mako” and “Great White Serial Kill: Fatal Christmas.”
“Sharks are an incredibly vital part of our ocean. And as a scientist and science communicator, I want to do everything in my power to spread what wonderful, interesting and unique creatures they are and how important the protection of these creatures is,” says Galante, whose show “Island of Walking Sharks” airs Wednesday.
One of the more spectacular sights is footage of a pack of orcas killing a great white off the coast of South Africa. “It’s just such an incredible but very sinister and worrying set of events,” said Alison Towner, a marine biologist at the Dyer Island Conservation Trust. “I think it’s going to really blow the world’s mind.”
Towner is also part of the all-female led show “Shark Women: Ghosted by Great Whites,” which tries to unravel the mystery of why great white populations are thinning and highlights Zandile Ndhlovu, South Africa’s first Black African free diving instructor.
“Let’s be honest, there’s a lot of men on Shark Week. And not every demographic has always been represented. She comes in as this authentic South African woman and she’s given this opportunity, and that to me is a really important part of the show,” she says.
Shark Week was born as a counterpoint for those who developed a fear of sharks and a desire to eradicate them after seeing “Jaws.” It has emerged as a destination for scientists eager to protect the animals.
