Thursday night, I sat down with more than 15 scientists to watch Shark Week. Most of them don't watch the annual spectacle—they've become embittered after years of Discovery's fear mongering, mockumentaries, and lies. But this particular episode was different—it was all about our home, Hawaii. We all wondered how the sharks that roam our islands' waters would be portrayed, and we joked about how many times we'd hear ominous music or see blood in the water. We wouldn't have been so jovial if we knew what was in store. I would argue that Sharkageddon is the worst Shark Week special this year, perhaps even to date. At least with the mockumentaries, there was the expectation that the audience would understand they were fake, even if that expectation was wildly off. Megalodon and Shark of Darkness carry disclaimers saying that the events were dramatized and that there is "debate". Sharkageddon, on the other hand, is billed as truth. It pretends to lay out the facts and be a documentary. And it isn't. Almost everything said in the hour-long program is wrong. I won't go into how the shark "danger scale" is ridiculous at best (cookie cutter sharks a "5"? Not unless that's the lowest number!). I'm even going to gloss over the poor reenactments full of threatening music that make it look like sharks magically sneak up on their victims in crystal clear water (hint: that's not what it looks like during shark attacks). Instead, I'm going to focus on false statements that were delivered as if they were cold, hard facts, and how Discovery used shady filming tactics to try and convince the world that Hawaii is in the midst of a Sharkageddon.
FACT: There is no evidence that shark attacks in Hawaii are on the rise.
Let's start with the premise. The program is based on the notion that shark attacks in Hawaii are increasing; a "sharkageddon", as they define it. The entire show is based on this notion—trouble is, there's no evidence for it. Period.
It's not ok to distort your axis, Discovery. That's unethical. Look closely at the graph Discovery places near the beginning of the episode. The gridlines aren't consistent, such that the distance between 1 and 10 is only half the distance between 10 and 20. This is data distortion 101—a clear attempt to skew the data visually to make you think shark attacks are increasing more than they actually are. And that's even if the data were accurate, which they're not. I'm not sure where they got their shark attack numbers from, but the Division of Aquatic Resources in Hawaii has more than 20 years worth of shark attack data freely available on their website. There were 14 unprovoked shark attacks in 2013 and 10 in 2012. Note: even Discovery's map only has 12 shark bite points on it. While the number of attacks was higher than in other years, the simple fact is shark attacks vary greatly from year to year. Here's the real graph of shark attacks by year over the past decade:
