Well, for the 2nd year in a row, I finished all my Shark Week reviews as usual (on Facebook, every not) and then forgot to collect and post them here on my site!  :O  The only reason I can come up with is that reviewing every show on the day they happen is exhausting, and when recovering afterward, I move on to other projects.  –Shrug!–

So year, VERY late are all the reviews for Shark Week 2025, which proved to be another good year for the annual event…

Reviews are out of 5 stars/sharks — the more the better! Enjoy!

SHARK WEEK 2025

SUNDAY – 20 July 2025

DANCING WITH SHARKS —   (of 5)

I’m assuming that Tom Bergeron is a host of some dancing show, and I guess this show is the same format as one of those shows, with judging and everything.  Luke Tipple is hosting off shore, while shark diving experts will be “dancing” with sharks, to some kind of choreography.  This seems a silly premise to me.  Silly shows had, I thought, been on the decline for Shark Week, and I’m not enthused that a show with so much comedy is starting this Shark Week.

I’m going to list the “dancing” participants/shark “experts,” but may not go into much more detail. Janelle Van Ruiten starts, then Jaimie Ferguson, Kayleigh Grant, David Martinzez, and Connor Cassidy rounds out the shark divers/dancers, most of whom run some kind of tour diving business.  All wear some kind of costume wet suit, and all the “dances” are obviously heavily edited to make them seem continuous.  And I can’t tell if the reactions are really from the live audience, or if they’ve been “sweetened”; at times, it sounds like a laugh track.  And really, there’s no way this could be “live,” as it purports to be.

Kinga Philipps, shark conservationist, is one of 3 judges, and they pick Connor, Jamie, and Janelle to go to the finals, which are a 1-minute long “dance” interaction.  And SPOILER — because this is supposed to be about science not show —  the winner is Jamie.  No shade on any of the shark “dancers” here but, as a shark lover, this didn’t work for me.  Maybe the show is trying to make people love and not fear sharks, but… Teasing dangerous animals is not something that works as entertainment for me.  It felt like exploitation of people and sharks. Only some good footage of sharks saves it from a 1-star/shark review.  Not a great start to 2025’s Shark Week.

AIR JAWS: THE HUNT FOR COLOSSUS —     (of 5)

Colossus the famous jumping shark hasn’t been seen in years in the waters near False Bay, South Africa.  It’s possible he was killed by rogue orcas Port and Starboard.  Dr. Alison Towner has a photo of what may be Colossus in New Zealand, but she studies the local South African population, while Andy Casagrande, shark filmmaker, and,shark attack survivor Paul De Gelder keep an eye out down in Kiwi land, the only other place sharks are consistently known to breach (jump).  With Andy on the job, you know you’re going to get some cool shots of jumping sharks.

Andy and Paul haul out the “seal sled,” a floating platform that tends to attract large sharks.  In a dicey moment, Paul overbalances the sled and ends up momentarily underwater with the whole rig.  No Colossus, though, so they put down the one-man WASP diving cage.  More big sharks, but…  Alison, meanwhile, has dropped a camera 20 miles offshore where they tracked a tagged shark, and she discovers more large sharks in deeper water.  Orcas are theorized to hunt sharks closer to the surface. But no Colossus in either spot — so far.

The seal sled comes back out, this time with a decoy towing from the back of it (and Paul as “bait” again).  And they get a huge shark breaching, so they send footage to Alison for analysis.  Sadly, the dorsal fin image just is not clear enough to be sure. Alison hopes, though, that the big sharks survived the orcas… Somewhere.  Alison hopes to go to New Zealand and look for herself.  The Air Jaws shows are usually pretty sensationalistic, but this one is good and scientifically compelling, too.

GREAT WHILE ASSASSINS —     (of 5)

And speaking of going to New Zealand, Alison Towner makes the trip to study how orcas hunt and kill great whites.  She picks nutty Dickie Chivell to help get up close and personal with the sharks.  Orcas have recently been hunting sharks near Australia, and it’s possible great whites are on the orca menu in the waters between there and NZ now.  Andy Casagrande is along to photograph their studies, because of course he is.  Alison wants to observe scars on the sharks’ bellies from orca attacks.  Dickie, of course, falls out of the shark cage, but escapes unharmed.

Then he invents a new smaller seal sled, about the size of an elephant seal for him to lie on and try to attract sharks.  Did I mention he’s a nut?  But apparently a fearless fool is good for shark science — or at least television.  The decoy-Dickie draws some sharks, but Alison doesn’t see any orca attack scars.  Dickie now brings out an orca decoy/costume he can walk across the bottom, to see how sharks react to orcas.  After initially being spooked, the sharks come back, and one tries to bite the tail of the fake orca, a common predation tactic.

Alison and the crew theorize that orcas may take advantage of white shark blind spots, and decide to find out where those might be.  Dickie poking sharks with a fake orca head seems to prove that the sharks are unaware of the spot behind their pectoral fins, right along the side where their liver lies.  That combined with its tunnel vision/concentration while hunting, could make them easy prey for the highly intelligent orcas.  An entertaining show with some good science, ending the night on a high note.

SUNDAY 2025 SUMMARY —    (of 5)

After a really rough start with a puff piece celebrity/comedy show, the first night of Shark Week 2025 bounces back with 2 strong shows featuring Alison Towner and the camera work of Andy Casagrande.  I’m a little tired of the Air Jaws series, but they’re well enough produced that they can be a really good watch.  Though I graded tonight’s Air Jaws the same as White Shark Assassins, it’s the 2nd show — about orca predation and shark vulnerabilities — that’s the best of the night.  The two strong shows can’t make up for the first weak one, though.  Let’s hope for less comedy and more science to come.

MONDAY – 21 July 2025

GREAT WHITE SEX BATTLE —    (of 5)

Dr. Riley Elliott and Kori Burkhart have designed 3 experiments to see whether male or female great white sharks are “superior” predators. They go to New Zealand’s Stewart Island to test the differences between females (larger) or males (more aggressive).  They will test courage, speed, and power.  The underbelly of the shark is a defenseless blind spot. Which sex will swim over the top a huge, realistic shark decoy, thereby exposing their underbellies, despite the risk (courage) to get offered tuna bait  In the hour-long test, it takes the sharks a while to realize the decoy is harmless, then they come in for the bait aggressively.  Males coming in sooner, “win courage” 3 to 2.

Next, strength and power in a “tug of war” against a shark-safe “bite bag” filled with bait to measure pulling power. Females win this one 310# to 230# of pulling power.  Third and final tie-breaking test is air time, measuring speed and explosive acceleration.  They do this not with a towed seal decoy, but by lowering bait into the water and then pulling it straight up out of the water.  Both sexes hit a match with 1.46 seconds.  So, to break the tie, they hang a frozen ball of chum — attached to a scale — in the water to see which sex will consume the most in 30 minutes.  The males take an early lead, but the females come back to win the challenge and the “battle.”

The scientists observe that the females need more food to reproduce, so them guarding food sources and consuming more food makes sense.  My wife, Kiff, calls shows like this “stupid shark tricks,” and I have to agree.  “Who’s better” tests have limited scientific value, IMO.  Though there is some cool shark footage.

JAWS VS. MEGA CROC —    (of 5)

Dr. Tristan Guttridge, Rosie Moore, and Dr. Sora Kim propose to answer the question: who’s the real king of the water, testing strength, intelligence, and the breach?  Is it the great white or the huge Nile crocodile?  They’ll gather data and then simulate the ultimate showdown.  You may remember that I’m not fond of “who’s best” shows in Shark Week (possibly from the previous show), nor fond of simulated CG battle shows (from previous Shark Weeks).  Tristan & co. lower a chumsicle with sensors in it to test whether the shark’s bite force can penetrate the shark’s armored hide.  They decide it can with 1300 psi.  Rosie and Sora in the US, are testing Nile crocs, which is at a croc sanctuary.  (I don’t know if this is a gator by another name or if they imported a croc.)  They test it with a slab of meat, which it bites at 3700 psi.

 Pulling power is up in this show, too, and the shark crew uses a crane with scale to test it.  They get 600# of pulling.  Team Croc puts a hog’s leg on a rope and then tugs against their croc.  They get 360# of pulling.  Intelligence is the last test.  Team Shark tries to train sharks that a target equals food, and if they pull it, they’ll get fed.  That works pretty quickly.  The croc passes a similar test quickly, too.

Then they turn to mosasaur fossil records to (allegedly) gain more info what such a battle might have been like, when reptiles and sharks competed in the seas.  I love me some dinos (and marine reptiles), but… Like the previous show, they decide to test breaching speed.  Team Shark’s testing in the dark seems just silly and dangerous  to me, though pretty.  And not nearly as effective as the test in the last show.  They get 26 mph.  In a more sensible daytime test, Team Croc gets 22 mph.

CGI simulation time.  Both animals predating on a whale carcass, as seen in real life, but soon they turn on each other.  Naturally, because this is Shark Week, the shark wins.  Though both should be grateful that they aren’t facing a mosasaur.  The CG is laughable.

Again, pretty shark pictures, but I’m not sure this qualifies as science.  Nor am I sure that doing “theme shows” every night is the best way to attract a diverse audience all week long.  I come to shark week not just to see pretty pictures of sharks, but also to learn things.  Shows like this teach me very little.  I did like the croc footage, though.  That’s new.

IN THE EYE OF THE STORM: SHARK STORM —     (of 5)

The In the Eye of the Storm series usually examines a harrowing event in chronological order, from different points of view.  Looks like that’s what they’re doing here, too, with a series of shark attacks near Keaton Beach, Florida, in 2022.  They use eyewitness video, news footage, and interviews in compelling edits, including police and rescue video.  First is a woman bitten by a bull shark while scalloping, raced to shore in a boat for EMS by her brother who works fire and rescue — trying to evac her before a storm grounds the rescue helicopter.  The woman survives but loses her right leg below the knee.  It had been nearly 150 years since the last shark attack on this part of the Gulf Coast.

Two years later, 2024,138 miles away, a family was vacationing on another gulf  beach when the wife, Liz, was struck   by a shark. Fortunately, a nurse and her cohorts were on the scene and police and rescue arrived quickly.  The husband and bystanders corral the 3 kids and race to the hospital.  Liz survives but loses a hand and is mutilated in her crotch.  Even before the nurse can wash off, there’s another attack nearby.  A little girl this time, with terrible wounds to arm and leg.  Again, a different nurse on the spot helps until EMTs arrive.  But there was a 2nd victim, untreated, 50 feet away with a foot wound.  That’s 3 victims in one day, and unclear how many sharks are responsible.

The 4th of July, a few weeks later, on South Padre Island, Texas, on the Gulf Coast, a man on vacation, Brandon, whose fiancee is a nurse, is bitten on the leg. Nearby, Tabatha, is grabbed by a shark, which her husband punches to get it off her.  He’s bit on the leg for his trouble, but more concerned about his wife.  The shark is spotted and tracked until it leaves the shore.  The show ends with:

“Thanks to the heroic actions of eyewitnesses and emergency medical services, there were no fatalities during the 2024 outbreak.”  That’s good to know, despite the gruesome (blurred) footage.  As with its regular Eye of the Storm series, this program’s no-nonsense, no fear, no hype approach makes this likely the best shark attack program I’ve seen, and the best show of the night.  Only 4 sharks/stars because I’m not sure I’d watch it again.  This series is hard not to get emotional with.

MONDAY 2025 SUMMARY —    (of 5)

The first two low-science, stupid-shark-trick shows had me really worried, but fortunately, despite being a shark attack show, The Eye of the Storm redeemed this night of shark week for me.  It brought the strengths of the show, which usually covers natural disasters, to the Gulf Coast shark attacks, and did it without any of that kind of “great white serial killer” nonsense.  The sharks were not demonized; the fact that attacks are rare was stressed and — as always with that show — the survivor stories were compelling.  But it wasn’t enough to bring the day up to more than a 3 star/shark rating.  At least it didn’t have a comedy/celeb show like Sunday 2025 did.

I should mention that this is the first Shark Week in a while where we haven’t had a host to give some unity to the programming between shows.  The last 3 presenters they had — Dwayne Johnson, Jason Momoa, John Cena —  did a good job.  Not sure why they went away from framing the week.  Budget?

TUESDAY – 22 July 2025

GREAT WHITE NORTHERN INVASION —     (of 5)

White shark populations are exploding in northern North America, even in Nova Scotia, Canada, even near swimming beaches.  Happily, Andy Casagrande is here, and the local Flower fishing family and biologist Sarah Burko have been tagging & researching the sharks.  They want to put cameras on a local ship sunk to make an artificial reef and decide to dive despite spotting great whites hunting the area.  (They do have shark spotting sonar equipment to give them some warning.)  When a shark circles their escape cage, they head to the surface unprotected while their ROV distracts the shark. Then they try tag some of the sharks they’ve spotted while placing the cameras, though that proves harder than hoped.  The presence of male, female, and juveniles makes them wonder if these are mating or pupping grounds.

The next day, they move out for more tagging.  And that’s what the rest of the show is about, which is fine. Because tatting is both science and adventure.  With all of the sharks they’ve tagged in 3 years, they can develop profiles of where the sharks are and places they frequent.  From northern Nova Scotia to Florida in the winter and back again.  This is a good traditional shark s how, with slightly scary narration and music.

HOW TO SURVIVE A SHARK ATTACK —     (of 5)

Famous shark-attack survivor and Shark Week regular Paul De Gelder hosts this show that tells you what it’s about in the title.  Paul will recreate the kind of incident that left him without limbs, in theory to help you and me survive what happened to him.   To do this, he’ll be fitting an expendable prosthetic limb to himself and let a tiger shark rip it off of him.  “Do not try this, ever,” Pal warns.  Naturally, we will have plenty of re-creations and dramatic video.  Joining Paul are photographer Mark Rackley, Bahamian shark wrangler, Alonzo Curry, and surfer and shark researcher Blakemarie Martinez.  They will create 4 different scenarios where Paul will lose his sensor-filled fake prosthetic arm.  It’s a nutty idea, but he hopes to show how to react if attacked.

Tiger Beach Bahamas is the locale for their “scuba diving attack” scenario.  They make a shark attack Paul’s fake arm, and then simulate what should happen next, which includes a tourniquet, getting to the surface quickly, and heading to a shore hospital.  They recover the severed fake arm and obtain data from it.  Second demo, how to survive a shipwreck in open water — like the Indianapolis sinking.  The stage a sinking in fairly deep water (perfectly clear) and then, as before, suggest steps to survive.  (Too many to recap here.)  Mostly stay calm, and signal for help when you see it nearby.

Near shore swimming attacks are next. First tip, no jewelry in the water, it can mimic the shine of fish scales.  No thrashing, smooth calm movements.  If a shark approaches, push it’s snout down and away.  In deeper water, wear a mask and fins. Face the shark and strike out to push its nose away at the last moment.  I guess I will give some of their tips. 😀 Last scenario: Kayaking, and Paul’s using a bite testing prosthetic leg on this test.  He suggest tips for surviving in the kayak and if you’re in the water.  But don’t dangle your limbs out of the kayak!  Paul does, and quickly loses his fake leg to a shark.  Again, treating the wound and getting help is top priority.  Just to make things harder, they tip the kayak, spilling paul into the water.  As with all this, don’t try it at home.  And if it happens, stay calm.  And don’t punch, because they’re faster than you.  Even with all their prep, Paul accidentally got bit — fortunately on Paul’s prosthetic arm.

This is an interesting show with useful tips for worst-case scenarios, too many tips to describe in even a long review like this one.  It’s a show with plenty of fake gore and sensationalism, but with good hosts, I liked it — though hopefully none of us will ever need the tips.

BLACK MAKO OF THE ABYSS —     (of 5)

Sightings of a mysterious 14-foot  black-skinned mako shark off California bring a team including Keith Poe, Tristan Guttridge, Paul De Gelder, and Kendyl Berna to investigate.  Is this some kind of a mutant or hybrid?  So, they go fishing for makos in deep water, with a copter dropping a huge chum slick to lure the sharks in.  They get a mako to check the bite on for comparison to the black, and a blue shark, too.  Paul suggests the black mako could be a mako-white hybrid and creates a male white shark decoy to see how makos will react to it.  The makos don’t seem to like the decoy, but are more interested in the bait.  They do find a darker mako — a longfin father than the usual shortfin makos. Longfins are not native to these water, though they do tend toward black coloration.

Having failed to get a DNA sample, despite nice pix, they decide to induce makos to jump with a fishing strategy, to see if they can identify them as short- or longfin in photos.  But the one that leaps doesn’t seem clear in either category.  They follow up with some deep water drone work and night fishing. Tristan leaves his cage to try to get a sample of what might be a black, but it’s just not safe, and he has to give up.  Though it looks like they’ve found 2 mor specimens, though they can’t say exactly what they are.  They conclude the original was most likely a longfin, though perhaps it could be a hybrid between long- and shortfins, or even an unknown species.  Good show, dramatically shot and told.

TUESDAY 2025 SUMMARY —     (of 5)

With 3 very shows and no bad or mediocre shows, Shark Week 2025 is easily the best night of Shark Week this year so far.  Black Mako… was my favorite of the three, and gave me some info about makos that I’d forgotten — two known species — as well as having some dramatic moments.  De Gelder’s shark attack show had plenty of drama and good tips, and the Northern show was a fun tagging hunt.  None of them rang my chimes enough to get five sharks/stars, but a great improvement that I hope will continue with tomorrow’s Josh Gates-serries shows.

WEDNESDAY – 23 July 2025

EXPEDITION UNKNOWN: SHARK FILES —     (of 5)

Despite the title, it’s not really Expedition Unknown, it’s another installment of the Expedition Files — a sub-show/spin-off in which Josh Gates narrates historical stories or little known locations. I’m a bit disappointed by this, as I enjoy Josh’s globe trotting adventures more than these re-creation shows.  The first story is the infamous Summer of Sharks where the Jersey Shore was terrorized by shark attacks in 1916.  Four people were killed by sharks, including several miles upriver from the shore.   As usual, this show is a fairly accurate recap of the events.  A great white was caught and blamed, but it’s likely the river attacks were by a bull shark, one of which was caught nearby, days later. Current thinking is that most likely it was multiple sharks and multiple species.

Next, 1852, when, at 2am, a British ship, the H.M.S Birkenhead, is headed across South African seas when it strikes an unknown rocky reef and sinks. 445 people will perish in the shark-infested waters.  “Women and children, first,” are ordered into the too few lifeboats, leaving the men and crew to drift among the wreckage.  192 people survive the great white shark feeding frenzy.  Sadly, we now know that the ship was near Shark Alley, and went down near dawn, when the great whites feed.

In 1934 in Australia, there’s a resort attraction that features a live tiger shark.  Visitors are horrified when one day the shark vomits up a severed human arm.  But it turns out, the arm wasn’t bitten off by the shark, but cut off by a murderer.  The cops discover the arm belonged to a small-time hood and former boxer, and they come to believe the victim was killed, chopped up, and thrown into the sea, where the shark took the arm for a snack.  Eventually, the evidence leads to a crime boss, who is later jailed for another crime.  And the shark apparently got the arm from eating another shark that had eaten the arm, explaining why the arm wasn’t more digest.

Despite my initial trepidations, the shows good production and compelling recreations combine with “why this happened” scientific tidbits to make this an interesting watch.

EXPEDITION X: MALPELO MONSTER SHARK —      (of 5)

This show is a spin-off of Expedition Unknown that investigates legendary creatures and events, like the Jersey Devil and UFOs.  Here, Josh Gate’s team, Phil and Heather, are looking for a sea beast rumored to live off of the Columbian coast of remote Malpelo Island.  The monster is allegedly more than 20 feet long, and lives among the many sharks in that region.  The shark has been filmed once, by scientist Sandra Bessudo, but it doesn’t seem to fit into any known species.  Diving near the uninhabited island is dangerous, and the waters may have more sharks, from a dozen species, than any other location in the world.

Expert diver Phil joins Sandra in diving to look for the monster, while Heather keeps watch and sends supplies from an inflatable Zodiac boat on the surface, including an AI camera that can differentiate shark species.  Dr. Jorge Fontes has a special fin-clamp shark tag with camera, which they hope to attach to the monster shark. If they can’t do this now, in shark breeding season, they will have to wait another year to try again.  They dive in 2 groups, 100-200’ deep off of a rock shelf to look for the monster.  Using underwater remotes, they locate the creature, and Sandra swims toward it, but it accelerates away from her.  Phil then gets within a hand’s breadth of the creature.  Sandra gets a second chance and tags it.  Which may be the first time Expedition X has ever actually found a monster.

2 days later, Phil dives out of a Zodiac to retrieve the tag.  And the footage reveals it encountering a second monster shark — which they now believe to be small toothed sand tiger sharks, 3-5’ longer that other known species, and never before seen here.  It seems likely that lost monstrous have come here to breed.  Almost as astonishing, Expedition X is the best shark week show so far in 2025.  (And possibly the best Expedition X show ever.)

ALIEN SHARKS: DEATH DOWN UNDER —      (of 5)

Forrest Gallante is in Australia looking for 2 elusive sharks, the Port Jackson Shark and the Australian Ghost Shark, both of which happen to be venomous. He wants to test the sharks’ venom, and see how bad it is. As usual, and Alien Shark episode gives us more sharks and wildlife than other Shark Week shows, including Raggies (rag-tooth sharks, I assume), stingrays, scorpionfish, and other plentiful reef life.  In his quest, Forrest takes a 130 volt zap from a coffin ray, finds a banded wobbegong, and numerous other critters, and sees some actual shark cannibalism.  Yikes!  But soon, he’s caught a Port Jackson shark, and is testing the venom on himself by jabbing his hand into the spine.  (Cringe!!!)  It hurts ,of course, but I guess not much more than a bee sting.

The Australian Ghost Shark venom should be more powerful, if they can find it.  Along the way they find an inflating swell shark, a fur seal, a saw shark, and plenty of other fish.  The ghost shark proves elusive, despite diving under piers and fishing by line.  As the darkness deepens, they finally hook one.  Then they scrape some venom off its spine, so they can dilute it and see how it reacts to Forrest’s blood.  Then they inject a diluted solution into Forrest’s arm, which becomes intensely painful, until they put a heat pack on it, which helps break down the venom.  Forrest says it’s one of the most painful things he’s ever experienced.  This is the first ever data on a human reaction to Ghost Shark venom.  And aside from being a nutty thing to do, this was another fascinating Alien Shark show.

WEDNESDAY 2025 SUMMARY —      (of 5)

Well, it’s about time we had a really good night of shark shows on Shark Week 2025 — and this was that night.  Given that there were 2 Josh Gates shows and an Alien Sharks episode, I had hopes; happily, those hopes proved out, even after the disappointment of realizing that Expedition Unknown was really just Expedition Files, that show still turned out fine, though more history and recreation than science.  Expedition X and Alien Sharks more than made up for that, with plenty of science, adventure and brass balls on at least 3 of the crew: Phil, Sandra, and Forrest — though Forrest also gets the crazy award. Average rounds up to our first 5-shark/star night of the year.  Here’s hoping the rest of this Shark Week is as good!

THURSDAY – 24 July 2025

SURVIVING JAWS —     (of 5)

Tom “The Blowfish” Hird and Michelle Jewell celebrate the 50th Anniversary of JAWS, which inspired them to become marine biologists, by comparing reality to the mythos in the film.  First, because great whites can only see contrasts, they want to know if great whites are attracted to flesh tones of nude people or yellow raft colors (like Chrissy and Billy Kitner from the film.  Fish dons a flesh-colored wetsuit, while Andy Casagrande dons a yellow one, for a trip into a plexiglas fronted cage.  Who will be shark bait?  With no bites on flesh colored, Fish switches into a white suit, for high contrast. Conclusion: High contrast colors attract shark attention.

Next, they decide to test if punching a shark’s nose will deter an attack. Fish tries to us a punching machine to drive off a shark, but only succeeds in getting himself knocked out.  A shark as big as Jaws won’t care about a puny human punch.  Next, they want to see if an electric pulse (EMP) can deter a shark, as the shark was electrocuted in Jaws 2.   It was hard to get the sharks close enough, but it did seem to work. Maybe.  Then they test whether a shark can body slam a boat to help sink it, so they set up a mock Orca transom with sensors in it, and try to get sharks to hit the target. Getting hits was tricky, but the glancing blows did enough that a huge shark could definitely damage a boat.

I’m not sure if comparing film to reality with some science is of huge scientific value, but Michelle and Fish are charming, and with Andy aboard, you know the pictures will be good.  This was a fun show.

CAUGHT! SHARKS STRIKE BACK —     (of 5)

This is a amateur video shark encounter show, with clips punctuated by comments from shark scientists/experts.  In the past, these could be amusing, unless they focus on the scares.  Experts include Kinga Phillips, Tom “Blowfish” Hird, and Julie Andersen, and they’ll give us some science facts as well as explanations for the sharks’ behavior. One lesson I’m learning is don’t attract sharks deliberately unless you’re a shark scientist — and be careful who you trust to take you on a shark dive  In a planned break, Luke Tipple takes a wrestler guy shark feeding.  Then we get some very compelling video of a spear-fishing couple who ends up with a great white circling them as the current takes them away from their boat.  They keep their heads and get ashore, but then have to get back past the shark to their boat.  Happily, they manage it.

After that, there’s a long sequence of a great white who becomes fixated on a kayaker who’d been fishing in deep waters off New Zealand.  Again, keeping one’s head and moving away from the shark works… eventually.  Then folks trying to take a break with a deep sea swim run into a hungry treat white who actually bites off the leg of a woman swimmer — the most graphic clip in this show.  Then a spearfisher catches a tuna, which her refuses to let go of, despite having 2 bull sharks trying to take it from him.  He’s lucky not to get hurt, but he keeps the fish.  More spearfishing follows — always a good way to attract sharks.

The host/commenters suggest that if people are encountering more sharks, it may be because of trying to get attention on social media.  Sounds right to me.  Don’t be stupid around sharks!  Giving this a good mark for the interesting clips.

FRANKENSHARK —    (of 5)

Tristan Guttridge, Emily Spurgeon, Kristian Parton, and other shark nerds decide to create a composite shark out of the 550 known species.  Why?  I’m not sure.  Seems like another silly CGI-fest idea, but we’ll see where they go with it. They want to create some kind of shark that can stand up to an orca.  (Because orcas can take down even the largest sharks.)  The plan is to take pieces, and of course, they’ll go through all sorts of shark footage to find the right parts for their Frankenstein.  Tristan dives with tiger sharks to show off how good their teeth are.  And as if to prove it, one of the shark wranglers gets bit near the end of the experiment.  Maybe that was a bad idea.

Yet, Tristan then decides to dive with bull sharks to test their aggression.  “This is just too dangerous,” he says in the middle of it.  Yep.  Then he dives with hammerheads, to test their electro-sensitivity with the “shark shield” electric anti-shark device.  Nurse sharks avoid it when they get close, but the hammerheads won’t get within 10 feet of the thing.

The team’s monster ends up with the body of a whale shark, teeth of a tiger shark, internal anatomy of a bull shark (giving both aggression, and the ability to survive in fresh and salt water),a hammerhead head for maneuverability and electro-sense, finally they give it a thresher shark tail to stun its prey.  At 60’ long, it’s about the size of a big rig truck.  Of course, there’s CG (which they’ve given scary bumpy skin, rather than smooth shark skin, because of course they have).  Then they pit it against 1 orca.  If you can’t guess who will win, you haven’t been paying attention.  Sigh.

This show gets points for showing a lot of different sharks as they consider their monster.  But big points off for ending with a rigged “who’s strongest” CGI battle — though this one is better than the one earlier in the week.  Fun for some, but not science.

THURSDAY 2025 SUMMARY —     (of 5)

Mixed bag tonight, with Surviving Jaws and Caught! Being more amusing than I thought they’d be, while Frankenshark ended exactly the way I feared it might: with another not-so-great CGI battle between the titular character and an orca, with entirely predictable results.  (I’m sorry, shark lovers, but as much as I love sharks, orcas are the baddest-ass predators in the seas, and I find it slightly silly to wish otherwise.  If you’re going that way, go back to the age of the mosasaurs, if you want really savage seas.)  Anyway, I’d rather just have shark testing like in Surviving… than in the last show fo the night.  As of now, Wednesday still reigns as the best night this year, and I’m not seeing much in the last 2 days to challenge it.  But… That’s why we watch the shows… and I review them.

FRIDAY – 25 July 2025

GREAT WHITE REIGN OF TERROR —     (of 5)

In 1957, 9 people were killed by sharks over 5 months in South Africa.  Is there a new swarm of fatal attacks building?  Shark biologist Ryan Johnson and Gibbs Kuguru are investigating the first recent attack, where the surfer’s body has never been recovered, but the bite on his body board tells the tale of his death.  Is the same pattern from 1957 repeating on the Wild Coast? The team is joined by Andy Casagrande and Prof. Matt Dicken to investigate the root cause of the attacks and prevent more.  The teams wonder if orcas Port and Starboard, who have now taught other orcas to kill sharks, have forced the predators eastward, to the areas where people have been attacked.  All the sharks they find in Mossel Bay are juveniles; where are the adults?

Free diver Zandi “The Black Mermaid” Ndlovu joins in to help scout some shark locations.  The team tags a great white shark to see if its migration is up the Wild Coast, as they theorize.  Andy and Matt make a risky Wild Coast dive to find the sharks’ prey, when they find a big shark hunting, they decide to get out while the getting is good.  With no seals to eat, are the sharks going for dolphins… sardines…?  To find out, they tow a dolphin decoy without chumming the water.  And it does appear that white sharks may be following dolphins up the coast, as prey, having been mostly driven from their traditional hunting grounds.  Tagging sharks and following their movements may help warn swimmers and other beachgoers.  Despite the sensationalist title, a good show.

FLORIDA’S DEATH BEACH —     (of 5)

Forrest Gallante says that the area of New Smyrna Beach off the east coast of Florida has more shark attacks than the rest of the world combined, and he wants to know why.  With Smyrna as a prime area for surfing and spring break, there can be hundreds of thousands of people at risk some days.  The area is in the blacktip migration, but they find plenty of other sharks when they look a mile offshore, too, including nurses, lemons, and tigers, though tigers are only 2% of bites in Florida.  Local surf legend Gnarly Charly says they’re everywhere, “like cockroaches.”  To help him investigate blacktips further, Forrest assembles a team of expert divers, shark taggers, photographers, and cameramen, including Tristan Guttridge.  They go to the Bahamas to study blacktips, where they’re easier to find.  They plan to “simulate Spring Break” with a lot of swimming noises, jewelry, fishing bait smells, and a human dummy.  This only produces a couple of sharks with no interest in the dummy.

So, they go to offshore Florida, where blacktips are said to be.  Despite breaking every shark safety rule in the book, they find no blacktips, and are about to give up when a rare warm-water great white shark appears, which may explain why no other sharks are in the area.  Great whites offshore would send blacktips fleeing into the shallows.  A local drone operator has a film of a great hammerhead chasing down and eating a blacktip.  So, the decide to try to tag a hammerhead to help them find blacktips.  They also try to bait some blacktips in, but they find lemons, nurse sharks, and even a tiger.  Finding more big sharks offshore lends more credence to their theory that the blacktips, which are biting people, are fleeing to the shallows where they encounter people.  Soon, the diver are swarmed by a shiver of hungry sharks and an aggressive tiger and forced to return to their boat.

Happily, the hammerhead tagging team is having far more luck than the “blacktip finding” team, who have struck out 3 times now.  Their new plan is to use a blacktip decoy to see if a big shark will strike it, confirming their theory of predators driving blacktips ashore, causing a rise in attacks.  And they will use a tagged shark as their test predator.  Interestingly, they don’t get the hammerhead their aiming for, but a lemon chases it, and a tiger than appears to bite it.  So, it looks like the bigger sharks are causing the bites by the smaller sharks.  Interesting show with a lot of exiting footage of different kinds of sharks and more than a few human amusing failures.

BULL SHARK SHOWDOWN —     (of 5)

Dr. Craig O’Connell and Paul De Gelder set out to compare US and Australian bull sharks to find out which species are “superior.”  It’s a silly nationalistic premise, but maybe we’ll get some good shark stuff out of it — though the tongue-in-cheek tone may make it amusing, either way.  Paul De Gelder’s narrating caption labels him “Shark Chew Toy,” which makes me laugh, as does the 2 characters having a spaghetti western-style confrontation to start.  The prizes?  The winner gets a trophy, and the loser gets a tattoo of the winner’s choosing.  Naturally, there will be challenges: 1) Chomp Factor — cue the bite meters. Both “captains’ have teams working with them, but… We don’t need to go into who they are or how the tests work, because although this has some science, it’s mostly entertainment — and pretty pictures of sharks with names like Darlene, Sue-Bob, and Whiskey Rae (who all get funny captions). USA 129# per foot of shark.  The Aussies give their sharks names on the spot (the US sharks were known): Shazza, Kazza, and Rhonda. 103# per foot.

2) Aggression, which they will measure from taking a testosterone sample. The US goes back to their shark friends, the Aussies hook a shark, US: 2 nanograms/mililitre, Oz, 2.6. — All tied up at 1 US, 1 Oz. 3) Killer Instincts: bait will be dropped in the water, and whichever sharks strike fastest, wins. Each team gets 2 chances.  Naturally, they have silly testing methods.  Oz: 32.2 seconds.  US: 9.3 seconds… US for the win!  And Paul gets a US flag tattooed on his ass.  I know I’ve complained about these “face off” shark shows, but the comedy angle on this one made it fun — even if the scientific value wasn’t very high.

FRIDAY 2025 SUMMARY —     (of 5)

With the scary and exploitation-sounding show titles, I didn’t expect much tonight.  So, it was a nice surprise when all the shows turned out to be interesting and have some scientific value — even the showdown show.

Also nice to see Dr. Craig O’Connell for the first time this year.  Hoping he may pop up in the last 2 shows of this Shark Week, tomorrow.  Of course, Paul De Gelder and Andy Casagrande are always welcome, but we also got good selection of male and female scientists, shark wranglers, etc. that we don’t see all the time — even if I didn’t give all of them a shout out.  The more different people loving sharks and trying to save the ocean ecology, the better.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed for the seventh and final day tomorrow.

SATURDAY – 26 July 2025

ATTACK OF THE DEVIL SHARK —     (of 5)

Djabwey, the Devil Shark, is alleged to have lurked near Saba Island in the Caribbean for 25 years, but never attacked humans until 2 recent deaths.  DNA analysis proved that both people were killed by the same shark.  Is it the legendary Djabwey?  Dr. Austin Gallagher and Kinga Phillips are teaming up with local fisherman Nikki Johnson and scientist Tadzio Bervoetz.  They go to “the Devil’s Spine” to take biopsy samples from large local tiger sharks and maybe actually find the killer shark.  The Saba bank is part of an active volcano system, which heats the local waters and sandy bottom.  The wild tigers that come for their bait are not intimidated by the presence of many human free divers (who get closer to the shark and bait than seems wise).  They get a sample but the sharks are super aggressive.  They believe the warm volcanic waters and near constant sonic rumbling may be amping them up.  Can they recreate the heat and rumbles artificially to lure in big tiger sharks?

They put a device to do that on the bottom; it looks like a beachball-sized metal sphere on legs.  When they activate it, tigers come in almost immediately.  They get some samples and turn off their sphere.  Clearly volcanic conditions attract tigers.  The attacks began after local seismic/volcanic activity.  They move the sphere to a new local while tagging continues along the Devil’s Spine.  They then decide to do a night dive with the sphere to see if they can get even bigger sharks, doing scuba without cages.  (No cages in this show.)  Reef sharks arrive quickly, and tigers follow, including a 16-footer.  Three months later, the analysis comes.  They did not find the killer, but they did tag a shark they’d tagged twice before.  Clearly, the sharks live her, and fishermen are seeing the same sharks over and over again.  With the volcano amping up aggression, maybe there’s not one Djabwey, but dozens, the spooky narrator concludes.

 Though the narration and music amped up the drama and scares here, this was a good show.

BATTLE FOR SHARK MOUNTAIN —      (of 5)

Off the east coast of Africa there’s an underwater mountain that attracts some of the most dangerous sharks in the world, tigers, hammerheads, and bulls.  Dr. Craig O’Connell and Ryan Daily and their team plan to place cameras to catch interactions between sharks and prey, perhaps explaining why so many sharks congregate here.  Craig and Ryan must do a cageless open-water dive to confirm the presence of bull sharks, during their migration.  What they find, besides sharks, is a huge school of giant trevali (GT) fish up to 5 feet long, preparing to spawn.  These fish are big enough to actually attack sharks by ramming their gills.  Amazing sight.  They theorize the bulls will attack the fish during the spawning, when they’re vulnerable.

After setting up their special underwater camera rigs, they catch a bull shark and attach a fin-cam to her. The cameras capture amazing footage of sharks and other fish: a bull shark prowling at night, GT males turning black as they prepare to mate, spinner sharks, a marlin, and another breed of trevali “escorting” a bull shark away from the school, en masse.  Craig uses a silver lure to attract the attention of the GTs, and as soon as they break group,  But they don’t actually attack; Craig and Ryan believe most of the predation takes place at night.  As the full moon for spawning  approaches, the bull sharks swim near the edges of the GT schools.  Then a storm puts the team out of action until just before the full moon.  Did the storm drive both sharks and prey away?

Craig and Ryan dive near dusk, and find sharks waiting as the GTs arrive, but then the scientists have to leave or risk being caught by the predators in the dark.  They have to rely on the cameras, which they moved to the top of the mount.  The cameras catch the spawning rush of the GTs toward the surface, the bull sharks pursuing, but not the actual conflict — though they see pieces of fish in the aftermath.  Then the fish head out, and the bull sharks migrate back to South Africa.  A really good show with great images of a variety of sea life, plus and actual scientific question, which they didn’t quite answer as much as they wanted.  That’s science!  One of the best of the week and a great finishing show. 

SATURDAY 2025 SUMMARY —     (of 5)

Two good shows to finish the week, though I preferred Shark Mountain to Devil Shark. Without the scary music and overly dramatic narration, I might have given the Devil that coveted 5th shark/star.  Still, it’s nice to finish the week on a high note.  A 4 and a 5 average down to 4.5, which sadly rounds down to 4 for the night.  Still one of the better nights this Shark Week 2025, though!

SHARK WEEK 2025 SUMMARY

Shark Week 2025 started off rough, with one of the worst shows they’ve put on recently, Dancing With Sharks.  The only thing that saved it from a 1-star/shark review was pretty pictures of sharks.  Happily, though the shows that followed it sounded rote, the turned out pretty good.  Monday was saved from mediocrity only by the last show, which transferred The Eye of the Storm’s usual compelling format into Shark Week.

Tuesday got on track, finally, with a solid lineup of shows.  Thanks to Discovery star Josh Gates, Wednesday delivered a trio of superb shows, with Alien Sharks (the non-Gates show of the night) continuing its tradition of excellence, and Expedition X delivering one of the best shows of the week.  If only every day of Shark Week 2025 was as good as Wednesday.

Thursday slipped back, with the “shark facts” being the only thing saving Frankenshark from getting a really low score, though the other shows being very good.  Despite the sensational titles, Friday turned out to be a very good day for shark science.  And Saturday capped it all off with one excellent show and one just missing that mark by amping up the spooky factors instead of just letting the natural suspense play out.

So, what’s that add up to?  Did the good outweigh the mediocre and give the week a winning score?  Let’s do the math – 3 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 27 / 7 (rounding to the nearest whole number) = pretty darn good, despite a rough start.  Though I did miss having a shark week host, and we still need Whale Week!

2025 SHARK WEEK FINAL TOTAL —     (of 5)

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