As Bullwinkle the Moose says, “This time for sure!”  Meaning, this year (2026), I’m going to remember to post my Shark Week reviews before next year, 2027.  So, here we go…

SHARK WEEK 2026

Here are my reviews for 2026, in broadcast order, as usual.  Ratings are out of 5 stars/sharks.

SUNDAY – 26 July 2026

K-POP SHARK HEROES —    (of 5)

Comic Actor Ken Jeong, Rei Ami (from K-Pop Demon Hunters) decide to re-brand sharks from the scary memes online, but need to learn more.  They team with Tristan Guttridge and Sora Kim to dispel shark myths.  Rei and Sora dive with reef sharks, while Ken and Tristan chum to induce a frenzy near the surface, proving sharks aren’t interested in eating the divers below. Rei cage dives near shore with bull and nurse sharks (while Ken stays safe in a submarine) while the scientists throw fish-scented non-fish objects into the water. Sharks will investigate with a bite, but then not eat the items, because they’re not fish.

Next dive, back into the ocean, they release human and then fish blood into the water.  Only the fish blood attracts sharks (which MythBusters proved years ago).  Ken then releases a ‘bait bomb” for no particular reason, aside from attracting sharks.  Later, Rei and Sora dive with electrical plates on the bottom to test the sensory abilities of great hammerheads.  The plates give vibrations like stingrays to lure them in.  Rei is stunned by their beauty.  In the end, Ken finally gets in the water, but only on Tristan’s back like a little kid.  They end with Ken’s K-Pop music video made during the trip.

Comedy is super subjective, and I didn’t find this very funny, but at least there was a variety of sharks and some science.  Better than the 2025 kickoff.

AIR JAWS: RED, WHITE, & BREACH —     (of 5)

Jeff Kurr, Andy Casagrande, and Dr. Alison Towner come to Southern California to investigate why great white sharks are now breaching in the US.  They meet photographer Carlos Guana, who’s captured 18 breaches near Santa Barbara, shows them his best site.  Andy gets in a camera-rigged kayak to investigate, and as he goes out, the drones and cameras catch a breach.  They wonder if it has to do with bait balls, or trying to predate dolphins, but the middle-of the day breaches are very different from the dusk & dawn ones elsewhere.

They set up high-def cameras while Andy mans the kayak again.  Again, they capture a breach.  So next time, they set the cameras to high-speed. It’s amazing how well the drones track the sharks and help them set up for pictures.  They theorize that these sub-adult sharks may be training for attacking larger prey in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico.  The team sets up their usual decoy trolling strategy there along with Dr. Mauricio Hoyos, local shark biologist. Eventually, they catch a full breach, the first time seen by the team and filmed in North America.  And though that’s not definitive proof of their “training breach” theory, it does prove that sharks on this continent breach while hunting, too.  Very good show in a new location for Shark Week.

INVASION OF THE MEGA SHARKS —     (of 5)

Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, Capt. Maggie McKenna, and Paul De Gelder investigate giant great white sharks from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, 14’ or larger.  Neil has a modified veterinary dart gun to deliver tags to these big sharks without hooking or capturing them. Dr. James Sulikowski hopes to ultrasound the sharks, too, to see if they’re breeding here.  They go to Nova Scotia, where Neil has previously seen a 20’ shark. Once they’re working, the ultrasounds and measuring seem to take precedence over the tagging, and they deploy a smaller boat to help.

Even with the gun, shooting tags into sharks is still tricky, because you need to get the shark close enough for an accurate shot to the dorsal fin.  But they manage to tag 4, which they then follow to hopefully find more large sharks, including that 20-footer, Big Rose.  They put down a baited remote (BRUV) to see the sea floor, when the sharks aren’t coming to the surface. They find one, and Paul does a bottom cage dive to see more. Yes, sharks are down there but can they lure them up?  A big chunk of Tuna will help.

Sure enough, it does, and they lure up Big Rose, all 20’ of her.  She’s probably 3000# and over 50 years old.  Sadly, she was too fast to tag, and she doesn’t come back once she grabs the bait.  Over the next month, they tag 3 more sharks. In 3 months they identify over 100 great whites, one of whom swims down into the Gulf of Mexico.  They also spot a newborn, and it seems almost certain that the Mud Island area is a white pupping ground.  Good show.

SUNDAY 2026 SUMMARY —     (of 5)

With the intro comedy show being better than last year’s, Shark Week 2026 gets off to a better start, and the two good shows to follow really help.  I almost gave …Red, White, & Breach a 5-shark (star) review, but I need to leave some room for shows later in the week, and it didn’t really reach any scientific conclusion.  Invasion… was also good, but just tagging different great whites in different waters and finding a possible pupping ground.  That’s interesting and a very good start, but I hope to see more breeds of sharks as we move through the week.  Good start!

MONDAY – 27 July 2026

BULL SHARKS DINNER BELL —     (of 5)

Shark conservationist and shark attack survivor Paul De Gelder and Florida Apex Predator Specialist Rosie Moore team up to find out, “What rings the dinner bell for bull sharks,” thus causing a spike in recent bull shark attacks.  Simulated rain seems to attract more bull sharks and clouds the water, both favored hunting conditions for bull sharks. But a strong current separates Rosie from her safety diver, and a shark turns up eating her surface marker.  Fortunately, a drone locates her a half mile away nearly an hour later, exhausted but safe.

Next, they test several bait boxes — one with lean fish and another with fatty fish (and a third with pork chops, simulating human meat) –at the ocean bottom, where lemon sharks claim the territory and ward off the bulls and others. They have to reset and try again.  The fatty fish (bonito) crate seems to make the bulls more aggressive.  The last element they want to test is sudden movement in the water, and the bulls seem to be attracted to that (including Paul jumping in from a height), and they may compete with each other to be first to a potential food source.

Then, they combine all 3 elements, and of course that really amps the sharks.  If humans can avoid these things and especially combining them, it may help avoid bull shark attacks.  A good show with some exciting moments — and a shark species not often focus upon — though their 3 recommendations are pretty general.

HOUSE OF SHARKS —     (of 5)

This show posits that there are three white shark “clans” that rule the waters off of Edwards island, New Zealand: House of Hades (west), House of Bluff (north), House of Edwards (east), each with a distinct genetic makeup and/or social connection. Dr. Tristan Guttridge, diver Kina Scollay, and Marine Biologist Melissa Christina Marquez will be investigating this and trying to obtain genetic samples. Among their tools, a shark-shaped single person submersible.  They do get some samples, but decide to switch to a floating platform and a cage, as the sharks may be avoiding the shark-shaped sub.

Having started in the east, they head to the west (House Hades), stopping briefly to drop baited camera traps (BRUVs) on the north (House Bluff).  Based on what they see and sample, they posit that that the north may not be a house but a common hunting ground, and the “clans” may not be organized by territory as much as by who they “socialize” with.  Next, they use the sub, platform and drone-dropped bait bombs to attract sharks, a “fishing trip” they continue into the night.  Cleopatra, the largest shark in the waters, severs the sub’s safety line, and it sinks until it inflates its emergency flotation system.  “It’s over. I’m not doing that again,” says Tristan.

Their samples prove that the sharks they’ve sampled are all related to the sharks on the eastern coast of Australia, where perhaps they are all breeding.  The Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon-type patina they’ve given this show is amusing, but turns out to be only a storytelling device to jazz up another white shark show.

BIGGEST MAKO ON EARTH —      (of 5)

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, is a vacation paradise with a shark-watching side business.  Recently, recreational divers spotted what may be the largest mako shark ever seen, estimated at 15 feet. Dr. Tristan Gutridge joins Marine Biologist Clara Calatayud, who’s been tagging makos for years.  She theorizes large mako females may be her after mating, fueling up for their migration to California.  Baiting the area, they find blues, a 7-foot mako, and even a leaping thresher shark, but no mega mako.  With little luck, Tristan moves north to the colder waters of Catalina Island, California, and local tagger, Keith Poe and biologist Kendyl Berna.  They hope to find out how much a mako can eat in one feeding with 500# of tuna.  The mako they find eats more than 10# of it’s body weight in one go, more than 100# of tuna.  They believe a mako would have to earth that kind of percentage to grow to monster size.

Next, they use huge chum balloons at various depths to try and bring lager makos up from the deep.  Kendyl will observe from a cage, and sees the male they fed earlier back for more, and then a larger female who swims out of range. The decide to replace the metal cage, which can have an electrical field, with a transparent plexiglas “ghost cage,” which more cautious sharks may come closer to.  But Tristan leaves the ghost cage to get better measurements, and soon the makos are coming toward him.  He retreats to the steel backup cage.  As night falls and they pour out the remnants of their chum, an even bigger female mako arrives.  They fight hard to keep her close enough to measure. The two earlier ones were 11 and 12’. Sadly, they couldn’t get the laser measuring beams on the final, even larger fish, perhaps past the known 13’ “limit.”

They didn’t get the proof they craved, but their first-hand experience suggest that there are even bigger makos out there.  Best show of the week so far.

MONDAY 2026 SUMMARY —     (of 5)

A very strong 2nd night of Shark Week 2026, with two 4-shark/star shows and the first 5-shark show of the year.

If you read Monster Shark on a Nude Beach, when it was on Kindle Vella, you know that I’ve a fondness for makos — so that may have colored my review somewhat.  (Don’t worry, the book will be out in standard print and e-book format soon.)

But it was nice to have only one white shark show tonight, and that one with a slightly different angle than the usual Air Jaws approach.  Add that to 2 shows about other species, with more than a few extra types of sharks thrown in, and it was a very good night.  Let’s hope the rest of the week lives up to this standard.  A solid 4-sharks for Monday 2026.

TUESDAY – 28 July 2026

JURASSIC SHARKS —      (of 5)

This show looks at prehistoric sharks and other types of long-extinct marine fishes.  As such, it combines present-day research with paleontology in alternating segments.

Dr. Austin Gallagher and his exploration partner Yuki Watanabe explore Suruga Bay, Japan, looking for little-seen ancient species in the deep trenches of the bay.  They lower a wireless camera rig to 2000’ to look for sharks in total darkness and find a Yokozuna slickhead fish, 10’ long with blue eyes, and a Kitefin shark, a deepwater shark with a tail that looks like a kite.  Later, they find the ghost shark, one of the most ancient species on the planet originating 400 million years ago, a huge sleeper shark that tries to eat their camera, and a rare frilled shark.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kesley Banks looks for sharks in the Texas plains, which is rich with fossils from when an ancient ocean covered the area.  They find evidence of the Texas Supershark, 30’ long, from 300 million years ago, and its competitor the Scissortooth Shark, some of the weirdest looking sharks ever, and also the Ginsu shark, which fought mosasaurs back in the age of dinosaurs.  Much improved computer graphics bring all these strange creatures to life in animations.

Elsewhere, in a digression, another group of scientists tries to tag sixgill sharks, in the Mediterranean Sea, with a submarine 1700 feet below the surface.  They pass on a huge female but manage to tag a large male.  This will help scientists to understand how the species lives and feeds.

Kesley then goes to find evidence of the megalodon in the ocean off the Texas coast.  She dives on an abandoned oil rig dubbed “Jurassic Park” by locals, down to the sea floor.  Luck is with her, and she finds a megalodon tooth on the bottom.  As with the other segments, we then get an animation showing (in occasional gory detail) what such monsters might be like today.  Since the science content is good and shark species diverse in this show, this doesn’t bother me (as it often has on past “this vs. that” shark shows).  Here, it helps demonstrate what these prehistoric sharks may have been like with modern settings for context.  Great show.

JAWS VS. ORCA —      (of 5)

Great white sharks are being hunted and killed by orcas (killer whales) across the world. Off the coast of Spain, orcas are even disabling sailboats, and Dr. Tristan Guttridge, Dr. Renaud De Stephanis, and videographer Kina Scollay think the anti-ship hunting behavior may be easier to study than orcas teaming up against sharks.  They decide to set out to get their sailboat attacked deliberately to study this orca behavior.  Tristan’s sailboat is equipped with a fake rudder, in addition to the real one, in hopes of  protecting the real one.  This “trap” works far too well, and soon the safety boat is being pursued and pushed off course by the orcas, forcing them to scurry into shallow waters to escape.  Despite this, Kina still dives with the aggressive orcas throughout the show.

Reviewing the video shows the orcas working together and attacking precisely on the rudders of both the sailboat and the safety ship.  Kina thinks he heard the orcas communicating with each other as they attacked the ships.  So, they customize their sailboat to both see the attacks better and listen to the orca chatter.  One orca, Atlas, seems to have taught all the other orcas to do this, and he and his pod are the ones the scientists have found to study.

The pod attacks the sailboat and actually bends the fake rudder, seeming to use it as a control point.  The team theorizes that orcas could do the same with sharks, forcing them into better positions for the kill.  And of course, because they’re social animals, orcas, like humans, can work as a team.  Despite the humans’ best efforts, the orcas disable the sailboat, and it has to call for rescue to be towed back to port.  With the data they’ve collected, the scientists recreate the attack pattern.

The orcas coordinate their attacks in frequencies the shark can’t hear.  They surround and control a great white, flip it on its back, and then eat the liver.  All this predation is depicted in near-real animations that I wish had been labeled as such while using them in other parts of the show.  Despite that minor flaw, this is the second great show of the night, though it is more about orcas than sharks.  Now, where is Whale Week?!

CHUM ISLAND: CATCHING A KILLER —     (of 5)

An increase in South Australian attacks by a very dark-skinned white shark has Dr. Riley Elliott concerned, especially as no bodies have been recovered.  Unlike most shark attacks, one surfer survived an initial bite, but the shark then came back and took his leg — more of a hunting behavior than a mistake.  A dive into the predation area proves that there is no absence of prey in the area, so the sharks won’t be starving.  Riley theorizes that a new group of sharks unfamiliar with humans (who are not good food for them) may be the cause of the incidents.  These sharks may come from New Zealand, where they don’t encounter humans often.

There, he joins with tagging expert Kori Burkhardt to tag and tissue sample the sharks, which will help show what they’re eating.  In a frantic tagging attempt, Riley falls in the water, and barely gets back aboard as a shark charges him.  Great whites have color-changing skin cells to match their environment, so Riley and Kori theorize that the darker sharks have come from deeper waters, and don’t live in the New Zealand waters normally.  Guessing the new sharks may fear the regular boat, they assemble a floating “Chum Island” platform/raft that will have huge frozen chum baits, chumsicles, attached to the sides.  They tag only one dark shark, and decide to move to where they’ve tracked that one, and leave Chum Island and Kori’s shark cage farther from the boat.

The dark shark they’ve tagged is even more aggressive in the new location.  The  sharks are very aggressive with both the floating island and the cage, separating the cage from the island.  But Riley and Kori persist and tag the final two dark sharks before calling the boat to rescue them and their equipment.  Four months later, in South Australia, Riley compares the dark shark movements with right whale migrations, and the two seem to match.  The whales have nursing grounds near the populated shores, Riley dives to see if he find a dark shark in the waters.  He finds one, and that gives credence to his hypothesis, that non-native sharks may be causing the rise in attacks.  More whales means more sharks and more possible attacks.  The solution is more tags to warn the public.  Good show, with some dramatic moments and decent science.

TUESDAY 2026 SUMMARY —      (of 5)

2026 Shark Week improves with every night.  In fact, the first 2 shows were so cool that they made the 3rd one less interesting by comparison.  I couldn’t pick a winner between Jurassic Shark (great multiple shark content) and Jaws vs. Orca (some long-overdue orca science; where’s Whale Week?), and Chum Island had some cool ideas and excitement, too.  My only complaint about tonight’s shows is that the CGI FX have gotten so good that it’s becoming difficult to tell the animated sequences from the real ones.  In Jurassic Shark, this wasn’t much of a problem, but Jaws vs. Orca had some very realistic portrayals of things we (during the show) found out have never been observed.  I wish Discovery would label anything that isn’t real footage as “recreations” or “simulations.”  Still, 2 out of 3 great shows drag the nightly average (rounded to the nearest number) to another 2026 high point.

WEDNESDAY – 29 July 2026

EXPEDITION X; ATOMIC SHARKS —     (of 5)

Phil and Heather, the usual Expedition X team, go to the Marshall Islands to investigate reports of strange aggressive sharks, to see if they might be atomic testing mutations.  After 72 hours of travel, they meet with shark expert Luke Tippel who plans to take samples with biopsy spearguns. They’ll be looking for reef and nurse sharks, the 2 species reported at the center of these recent attacks.  They dive on a reef filled with sharks to tag and sample reef sharks, but see no sign of the unusual, single dorsal nurse shark (or sharks).

Then they go to Ebeye to talk to officials about the 67 dropped A-bombs and shark witnesses and attack survivors.  The decide to dive on the Prinz Eugen, a twice-nuked test ship to look for sharks and see if the hulk remains radioactive.  Manning an underwater remote (ROV), Heather determines that the wreck is no longer radioactive, so Phil and Luke look for sharks, even venturing inside the dangerous wreck.  Near the wreck, they finally spot a single-fin nurse shark, one of the possible mutants, but they fail to sample it.  Later, every shark sample contains radioactive contamination, and one shows a unique mutation — the shark that reacted most violently to being sampled.  What this proves remains to be determined in the future in this, the world’s largest shark sanctuary.

Good show, but I docked it a star mostly for not pointing out that sharks are not attracted to human blood in the water (which has been scientifically proven) — as a bite victim asserted — and because they didn’t get all the samples they had as a goal.

EXPEDITION FILES: SHARK SECRETS —      (of 5)

A special Expedition Unknown Expedition Files looks at historic shark stories, including the USS Indianapolis, an alleged sea monster carcass in Scotland, and the first person in history known to be killed by a shark.

Host Josh Gates describes the harrowing sinking of the USS Indianapolis, where about 600 survivors were killed by sharks while waiting for rescue when their secret mission was torpedoed by a Japanese sub.  Only 316 US sailors survived, with the killers said to have been oceanic whitetip sharks.  We now know that the Indy sank near a sea mount, an oasis in the ocean of desert, and home to diverse sea life, including sharks.  Additionally, the noise of the sinking, lasting perhaps an hour, would have been plenty to draw many sharks to investigate.  Today, we know that it’s not human blood that attracts sharks, but noise and motion. This doomed the survivors.

In 1808, on an island off the northern coast of Scotland, an unknown carcass washes ashore — perhaps a sea serpent.  But in 2022 a sample of the carcass of the Beast of Stronsay resurfaces promising to perhaps solve a 200-year old mystery.  (The recreation of this and other historical incidents on the show are impressive.)  Drawings seem to show a serpent-like creature with 6 legs or limbs, which some experts at the time think is a new species, while others believe to be a basking shark.  But why six limbs?  And how does this mesh with local legends, even into 1830 and 1910 of sea serpents? Most of the sea serpent carcasses investigate since have been basking sharks, but…  In 2022, a researcher, Dr. Firth, found a new sample in a Scottish library.  But the DNA testing of that sample is yet to come.  (Stay tuned, I guess.)

Cut to a new story of a fisherman in ancient Japan who was, perhaps, the first person proven to be killed by sharks, 500 years before Greek accounts tell of sailors killed by “wild beasts” after a sea battle.  In 200 BC, a Greek poet gives us the first named shark victim, Tharsys, attacked while loosening an anchor from the sea floor.  But 3000 years ago on the Seto Inland Sea, a man killed by a shark was buried in a shell mound, and discovered in the early 20th century by a Japanese archaeologist.  The twenty-year-old was missing a leg and a hand and bears mysterious marks that in 2016 are identified as shark bites. Evidence suggests he was killed in a struggle with a shark, probably a tiger or a great white.  But a body with similar wounds from Peru is 3000 years older — a 6000-year-old attack.  So there may be older evidence to come.

Like last year’s Shark Week Expedition Files, this 2026 edition does a great job of bringing its shark-related stories to life.

ALIEN SHARKS: UNTAMED AMERICA —      (of 5)

Shark biologist Forrest Galante says the US is home to one of the most diverse shark populations in the world.  To celebrate the US’s 250th anniversary, Forrest will go all over the US coasts exploring our most alien sharks.

He starts in California by looking for the California swellshark, which can swell up to twice its size and biolumines — glow in the dark.  As he investigates, though, he and his cameraman are circled by great white sharks, forcing them back to the boat and on to a different location.  So they fish with pole and line off a Santa Barbara beach instead.  He quickly lands a leopard shark, which his very young son catches and then releases.  (“Do not attempt,” the show warns.)  They also catch a shovelnose guitar shark, and a baby leopard, but no swellsharks.  So, off to the nearby Channel Islands, where Forrest witnesses a mass migration of many species of whale on the way to his ultimate destination.  There he dives in the kelp forests where he finds a California horn shark (venomous), sea lions, and finally a swell shark (and its eggs).  A night dive quickly yields one Forrest can handle and demonstrate its glowing ability.

Next, down to Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico to search for the bonnethead shark, which is a hammerhead-type with a head like a shovel.  He goes to an oil rig, which acts as an artificial reef, and chums a bit to attract some silky sharks and a huge congregation of sharks (which he swims with).  The bonnethead is more likely to be hiding near the rig but they don’t find any.  So they head inshore and try to lure the sharks into a funnel trap with scraps from a seafood boil.  And that works, literally netting them a 41.5” (huge)  bonnethead shark.

Now over to the Florida Keys to find the highly endangered smalltooth sawfish, which live in the mangrove shoals.  There, Dr. Dean Grubbs baits lines to tag the fish and try to help them survive extinction.  After tagging a lemon shark and attaching a remora to a friend’s face, the crew catches and tags a finetooth shark before finally landing a 13’ long sawfish.  (I love these creatures and saw one in a Florida aquarium when I was a kid.)

Finally up north to Cape Cod to find a sea monster (see last review) in disguise, the basking shark.  They locate one with a drone, but it eludes them initially.  Scuba tanks might scare it, so they have to freedive to film and interact with this 25’ monster.

With more sharks and sea life diversity, Alien Sharks continues its run as the best series on Shark Week.

WEDNESDAY 2026 SUMMARY —      (of 5)

This was my most anticipated day of the 2026 Shark Week, and it did not disappoint.  Aside from failing to point out a scientific error in the Expedition X show (sharks are NOT attracted to human blood, so you can’t chum the water with your own blood), the shows tonight were end-to-end entertaining and excellent.  Especially, of course, Alien Sharks, a series that so far as I remember has been a 5-shark/star experience every year it’s been on.

Despite the ding I gave Expedition X, tonight averages out to another 5-star/shark rating, making two nights in a row for this year.  Good job!  And if you have to watch only one night this year, this would be the night to pick.  At least so far.

THURSDAY – 30 July 2026

WHAT SHARK ATTACKED —    (of 5)

A team of investigators analyze footage of shark incidents to determine what kind of shark was involved in each unsolved attack.  The show features real attack footage, which is gone through by shark expert Kinga Phillips, heavy metal marine biologist Tom “The Blow Fish” Hurd, and apex predator expert Rosie Moore.  They start with a spear fisher (reef shark) and move on to a free diver (nurse shark).  We then get conservationist Liz Parkinson conducting a nurse shark bite-force test — 200-300#, it turns out. The next victim is snorkeling in Australian shallows when a 13’ tiger shark takes off his leg.  Also in Australia, a surfer is saved by his surf board from a white shark that takes a huge chunk out of his board, with a bull shark also at the beach.

Off the Florida Keys, a 10 year old is watching sea turtles when attacked from behind by a bull shark that takes his lower leg.  This does not diminish the kid’s love of the ocean.  Also in Florida, a 15-year old diving for sand dollars is bitten by another bull shark.  A 16-year-old Florida surfer waiting for a wave is struck by a young spinner shark.  On the other side of Florida, a 9-year-old on vacation almost loses her hands to another bull shark.

At the end, we’re reminded that you’re more likely to be struck by lightning than bitten by a shark.  That’s good, but the whole show has been built around attacks, with only a few bits of “let’s test this” science.  Nor did they remind people to be more aware of their surroundings, though they point out humans are encountering sharks more often.  So, I can’t give it high marks.  Happily, all victims survived this show’s incidents, though some lost limbs.

HOW TO TRAIN A GREAT WHITE —    (of 5)

Dr. Austin Gallagher, his wife Annie and, Dr. Cullen Brown wonder if great white sharks can be trained, contrary to popular belief.  So they set up some animal-training experiments to test the sharks’ intelligence. First, they test if a white shark can recognize its own reflection in 1 or 2 mirrors. Though they might recognize 1 mirror, 2 seem to bother them. And I will point out, since the scientists don’t, that white sharks hunt not only by sight, but by smell and sensing electricity.  And soon, one shark both takes the bait and attacks the mirrors and cages.  They think he’s showing smarts, but feels more like adaptability to me.  Next, the crew sets up an 8×6’ tunnel to see if the sharks will swim through it to get a fish.  For hours the sharks avoid the tunnel, so they try to entice them closer with bait.  They get one shark in, but it turns back out, later they pull a fish through and get one, Posh, to follow.  They’re impressed; me, not so much.

Next they want to see if they can entice a shark to breach and take a bait out of the air.  They manage to get the sharks to lunge for bait in the air, which makes for some great pictures.  I’m hoping this lesson will not be applied to people on kayaks or small boats later.  Next, they try to get a Pavlov’s dog effect by using lights on buoys for night feeding.  Will sharks learn the light means bait?  Sharks Posh and Lorenzo come and take the bait.  The next night the researchers light the opposite buoy with the same result.  Finally, they turn on the light with no bait, and the sharks do come back. But the show admits there will have to be more studies to reach any conclusions.  Which is the only time the show seems to acknowledge these stunts are not strong science.

So, I give them points for that in the end, and this was fun to watch but pretending it’s science…?  Nope.  Just “stupid shark tricks” for humans.  There’s a difference between training and enticing, and until the end (maybe), this show seems to not know the difference.

ULTIMATE SHARK DIVE —    (of 5)

Molly Carlson is a professional cliff diver.  She will attempt to dive 50’ from a helicopter into a 16 x 16’ cage (made of netting) amid shark-filled waters.  Shark Week regular Paul De Gelder will help teach her about sharks, which she says she’s afraid of, and help her prepare — especially for a worst case scenario.  First, she cage dives with reef sharks responding to a bait drop, so she can become accustomed to it.  She freaks out, but the training is just beginning. Stunt performer and shark conservationist Liz Parkinson will do the next dive with Molly, which will be without a cage.  Molly will be collecting 3 acoustic receivers from a small sunken shipwreck during this dive, to give her a task to remain calm with sharks around.  The last one, she has to do alone, and despite some fears, she manages it and seems comfortable by the end.

Next dive, she will observe an underwater controlled feeding, learning from Paul how to watch the sharks and turn them aside with a touch, if needed.  Paul also demonstrates how they react when he thrashes around; the sharks treat him as prey.  Now she’s ready, on day 3, to jump into the “cage” in the open sea — during less than optimal conditions: high winds and waves with a storm coming.  After hesitating and waiting a bit, of course she does it.  Otherwise, there’s no show.  A pretty amazing stunt, but all the science was teaching her about sharks.  Better than I expected for a “stupid human tricks” show.  But still only a “good” 3 sharks.

THURSDAY 2026 SUMMARY —    (of 5)

The titles of this year’s Thursday Shark Week shows had me worried that they might be high on sensation and low on science, and I was right.  Not that I mind a show that just entertains, which is why all the shows tonight ran into the 3-shark/star (good/entertaining) rating.  None were heinous, though the first didn’t say what we could do better to not get bit, the second pretended it was a science study for most of it — when it was only a tricks show — and the third was just a stunt.

But all of them had some worthwhile footage of sharks, and none of them propagated the myth that all sharks are killers.  I’m glad we’re beyond that now, apparently.  My wife asked if I was being too easy on this bunch, but since they didn’t spread bad myths and were entertaining, I’m comfortable rating them, and the whole day, as a 3.

FRIDAY – 31 July 2026

SECRETS OF THE GREAT WHITE KILL —      (of 5)

Dr. Riley Elliott & Kori Burkhardt are investigating how great white sharks off of Edwards Island, New Zealand, hunt tuna, seals, and smaller sharks.  Step one is to tag and track great whites.  Since tuna can swim 50mph, how does a great white, which can only swim 35mph max catch these fish which can make up one third of its diet?  Riley and Kori create a fake school of dead tuna to troll for their experiment.  A shark first picks off a straggler from the back of the group, but then hits the middle, and soon other sharks arrive, and take all of the small group out.  Small schools are easy prey, and sharks count on disorganization after a first shark coming to pick them off.

Next, they want to set up underwater cameras near a seal predation ground, though obviously this is a very dangerous place to dive. Riley hand places some cameras in the shallows, and then they lower a camera rig near the underwater drop off, where many great whites lurk.  They discover that adult seals dive deep, avoiding the sharks’ surface predation, but young seals must learn this by deadly trial and error, just as young sharks must learn to ambush the seals.  They demonstrate this with a seal pup decoy.

Finally, they want to study how great whites prey on smaller sharks that often hide in kelp beds.  First step is putting a fin cam on a great white, by baiting it in, next to their boat.  Then, they troll a bait shark from one kelp bed to another.  Great whites will ambush if they’re in position, if not, they stalk slowly from behind, where their coloration is camouflage, and then put on a burst of speed to grab smaller sharks.

I didn’t expect much, and there tend to be too many great white shows (which get repetitive) on Shark Week, but this turned out to be an entertaining and scientific show.

SHARKZILLA TAKES NEW YORK —      (of 5)

Dr. Craig O’Connell thinks that really big sharks have returned to the coast of Long Island, and they may be hiding in the deeps of Hudson Canyon.  Sadly, nuclear waste was dumped there years ago, and is now leaking.  Could mutations caused by these leaks have created a larger, faster, meaner type of shark — a Sharkzilla?  Craig hopes to find, tag, and take tissue samples from these animals.  With him is Mark Rackley, legendary photographer, safety diver Alexis Flotteron, and biologist Julie Crews keeping an eye topside.  At night, they drop a specially baited camera rig into the dark depths, 600+ feet down and find a massive great white and a huge mako.

Next day, chumming above the 4000’ deep canyon brings them a super-aggressive mako, which charges both Rackley’s camera and Craig.  He ends up hand feeding her, barely avoiding being bitten and then hits her with a 3-year tag.  Next its a fake porpoise decoy baited with swordfish parts.  But the sharks are wary of the decoy, so Craig creates the scent of a dead whale with blubber bags attached to their diving cage.  This lures in a 12-foot female mako, large enough to cause the Sharkzilla carnage seen on the Long Island coast.  Craig leaves the cage to try to tag her.  Instead she tries to eat Mark’s camera, repeatedly, and Craig’s tagging attempt bounces off.

When she returns at dusk, though, Craig manages to tag her and then gets a tissue sample.  He finds no radioactivity in her tissue, but surprisingly the shark heads toward the Hamptons.  Is this area a pupping ground?  To find out, he must catch the mako with pole and line, bring her to the boat, and perform an ultrasound.  They catch another 12’ female, but she is not pregnant.  Shortly after, though, they catch a recently born mako, reinforcing the Atlantic nursery hypothesis. Craig theorizes that the savage predation off Long Island is female makos gorging themselves before giving birth.

Dr. O’Connell usually puts on a good show, and this mako-centric outing is no exception.

MY STRANGE SHARK ADDICTION —    (of 5)

Four people who love sharks share their obsessions.  Ashley (55) goes diving near St. Thomas every weekend and has a reef shark “boyfriend” named Alan.  Her husband thinks it a little weird, but she plans an anniversary date for him to meet Alan.  For a moment, it looks as though Alan may ghost her, but eventually he shows up with some sharky friends.  Since filming, Ashley has actually touched Alan, and also learned that “he” is really a girl.

Mike is a dentist obsessed with sharks, and wants his whole family to share his love.  His house is filled with shark memorabilia and his minivan has shark teeth painted on it.  He wants to put a 9’ hammerhead model over the fireplace in their bedroom, though his wife disagrees.  He has some neighbors over and does shark education with their kids, and then demonstrates is 5-foot mako laser shark, which can actually light things on fire and pop balloons.  His hammerhead has been exiled to the basement.

Casey (30) won’t go into the ocean and won’t even venture ankle-deep into the water because of his shark phobia.  He’s gone to Florida to get over his fear, starting with videos and moving up to a shark petting zoo.  His last test is to hold a small shark on his lap at another shark experience place.  He manages to do it, despite his fears, and even participates in feeding the nurse shark he’s holding.  He and his girlfriend are planning a beach vacation with their kids.

Emily (45) has spent over 20k getting sharks tattooed on her body, 106 tattoos with 71 species — almost a world record.  She’s going with a six-gill shark and a blackmouth cat shark on her legs to try for the record.  The tats are beautiful.  Since the show, she’s been certified as a World Record holder by Guiness and also gone cage diving with a great white.

I thought this show might be goofy fun, and it was.  With pop-up captions, it definitely had some educational value, too.  But I can’t see giving it more than 3 sharks/stars. 

FRIDAY 2026 SUMMARY —     (of 5)

After Thursday’s shows, I wasn’t expecting a lot from Friday 2026’s Shark Week.  Much to my surprise, the first 2 shows ended up being really good.  The first did more interesting testing on white sharks than yesterday’s “training,” and the second did some interesting exploration in the Atlantic with aggressive makos — though the atomic connection of the title turned out to be a bust.  But I figured that was just to sell the show.

I expected the shark addiction show to be silly; the promos promised as much, so that did what it promised, though that doesn’t mean it had a lot of science.  The focus on people instead of sharks means it dragged the night’s average down to a 4 instead of a 5 average rating, but I’m okay with that.  One more night to go!

SATURDAY – 1 August 2026

GREAT WHITE HIGHWAY —     (of 5)

“Nova Scotia is in the middle of a white shark invasion,” and a team including Andy Casagrande and Christine de Silva will investigate what the locals now call the “Great White Highway.”  The show starts with a shark attack story on a woman, Taylor, swimming with friends off of a boat near a local island, gory recreation.  Walter Flower & daughter Allie track sharks and got pictures of a whale carcass predation where one of the six white shark bumped their boat.  They go with Andy and Christine to who will dive to place camera rigs near Cross island to study the great white population.  They take a handheld sonar rig to help warn them of incoming sharks.  With the sharks and current, they can’t find a good anchor, but do get some shark pictures.  While nearby, a paddle boarder fends off a shark attack, so they head there to drop a protection buoy, which will alert people to tagged sharks.  Though again, they have to anchor it by hand, if they can.  They manage it, though a shark arrival chases them from the water.

Meanwhile, 30 miles up the coast, a woman, Maria, testing her GoPro has a close swim-by with a 10-12’ shark, they get to shore safely, as does a US tourist in another nearby location.  The team pick another point near a shipwreck for a second protection buoy.  The buoys show a lot of sharks in the area, but they need more tags and call in Dr. Greg Skomal (my fave!) to help raise public awareness and information as he’s done on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.  He wants to know when the sharks mate, pup, and where they go.  They bring a chum catapult to help with chumming, as splashes attract sharks.  They see some big sharks, despite it being November (?) but not all the tags they want.  With 70 interactions on the buoys, they need to have more buoys to  to protect the human population.  Encounter survivors will keep swimming.

I was concerned with the scary recreations in this — and would prefer they be labeled as such — but then Greg showed up and the science took over.  Good show.

THRESHER SHARK: STUN TO KILL —      (of 5)

Thresher Sharks can use their tail to kill prey within 1/30th of a second.  Dr. Craig O’Connell and scientist Aliah Banchik hope to study the thresher’s hunting  techniques, and they go to the Philippines to find a reliable population in the ocean near Malapasca Island.  The threshers come to a bait ball, stop in the water, and use their tails — which measures half their body length — to create a shock wave (up to 80mph) to stun their prey.  The team’s 3-step mission: 1) Size up the sharks, 2) lure them into hunting mode, and 3) get the shot.  But the first place they dive has been taken over by tiger sharks; no pelagic threshers to be seen.  So they move to a second site where they see a thresher leaping right off.  But this is a cleaning station, where the sharks come to have small fish remove parasites. The threshers are likely hunting nearby.

Craig has created a slap meter that he and Aliah use measure their own slaps underwater for comparison to the shark.  10psi for Aliah; 8.5 for Craig, less than ⅓ of a thresher’s bite force, and the sharks’ tail force is many times stronger.  Knowing a shark’s size, Craig can estimate the tail whip force using math and knowing the shark’s size, which they will discover using lasers.  The 9’ thresher they measure could strike with an estimated 850psi; the 10’ one at 1100psi.  To capture a thresher attack, Aliah has created an artificial swirling sardine bait ball (super cool) lure, URSULA.  When the sharks are skittish, they turn off URSULA’s motors.  But in the end, the sharks don’t take the bait; the threshers are too smart.  So our team invents a new lure, THORE, similar to the previous, but with silvery fish on clear plastic strips to be towed by Craig on an underwater scooter.

But after the sharks move in, they aren’t fooled.  So now our crew will try a line held by 2 divers, Craig and Aliah, with fake moving fish in between, a “fish curtain.”  They get close, and one thrasher makes a little tail move, perhaps defensive, before moving off.  But then a huge baitball is spotted nearby, so the crew goes there and just jumps in with their cameras.  After all they tried, in the end it’s nature herself who provides them with an actual tail slap.  The team hits their 3 goals.  They’ve also proven that thresher sharks are really hard to trick, unlike the  great whites and makos that Craig has worked with, who respond readily to bait strategies.  The crew had a lot of failures, but that’s science!  Good show on a shark I hope we see more of in future Shark Weeks.

SATURDAY 2026 SUMMARY —      (of 5)

The final day of Shark Week 2026 is over.  In a few minutes, I’ll review it as a whole, but for now, a short summary of Saturday 2026.  Two good shows.  The white shark one gets a few points off for scary recreations that are not labeled as such — making it more difficult to tell between the real survivor footage and stuff made for the show.  Otherwise, a good show on Nova Scotia’s growing great white population.

The thresher show was even better, with plenty of footage and plenty of scientific experiments to try to lure the threshers into showing off their famous tails.  That the humans’ efforts came up short is super realistic: science proposes ideas, tests them, and then either succeeds or learns what they’ve learned for the next test.  A good end to the week.  Two shows with a 4.5 average rounds up to 5 sharks/stars for one of the best days this year.

SHARK WEEK 2026 SUMMARY

Another shark week is over, and 2026 was a lot of fun, with a mixed bag of science and entertainment shows.  Overall, my impression is that it wasn’t as good as the best recent Shark Weeks — like 2023 — but there was still plenty of good stuff, with no fake megs or “all scare” shows.

Highlights include the always reliable Alien Sharks, Biggest Mako On Earth, (surprisingly) Secret of the Great White Kill, (also surprisingly) Sharzilla Takes New York, and Thresher Shark: Stun to Kill, though your shark mileage may vary.  There’s almost definitely something this week for everyone.  We also had a decent representation of shark species and a decent mix of female shark researchers, both of which are nice to see.

Overall, I had a great time.  And that’s the real point, isn’t it?

Let’s run the numbers: 4 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 30 divided by 7 = approximately 4.29.  Which rounds down to a final score of 4.  Not as good as the all-time great 2023, but equal to 2024 and 2025.  Let’s keep shooting for more diversity, more great shark footage, and more good science, Discovery Shark Week!  (And maybe dump the comedy shows, or make them better.)

See my site — www.sdsullivan.com — for reviews of previous years and shows.

2026 SHARK WEEK FINAL TOTAL —     (of 5)