POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

In the Washington Post’s “Speaking of Science” newsletter, an unidentified author, writing in the first-person, provides the following take on “Shark Week,” along with a somewhat detailed commemorative overview of the career of Eugenie Clark, who broke gender barriers in becoming an expert on sharks, and then a few recollections of her own experiences as a marine biologist:

It’s Shark Week! And confession time. I love sharks. But I hate Shark Week. Every year, Shark Week feels like the latest disappointment in adrenaline junkied PR for an animal that, frankly, doesn’t need any more bad press. As a coral reef scientist, I’ve spent a lot of time with both sharks and shark scientists. The latter are usually a more rambunctious bunch.

Earlier this month, a new species of shark was named after the late shark scientist Eugenie Clark. Clark was a charismatic and pioneering scientist of the 20th century. I wonder what she would think of our modern, flashy Shark Week. She’s quoted as saying that the ” ‘gangsters of the deep’ had gotten a bad rap.”

 “They’ve got big teeth, but then so does your dog,” Clark said in her thick New York accent, in a Mote Marine Lab video

 Clark was born in the ’20s to an American father and Japanese mother. She started her work as a scientist at a time when women were actively discouraged in the field, and tensions with Japanese Americans post World War II were high. While typing school and secretarial positions were common postgrad career plans for young women in the 1940s, Clark said: “No, I don’t want to be anybody’s secretary. I want to do that stuff myself.” She set out to get a PhD in marine biology.

 Sleeping on the ocean floor in Mexico, she dispelled the myth that all sharks must keep swimming to stay alive. She found a fish from the Red Sea called the Moses sole that secretes a natural shark repellent. She also created the first fish test tube baby.

Turned away from Columbia University because as a woman she might leave early to start a family, Clark attended New York University. Her scientific accomplishments are many. When she stumbled upon sharks sleeping on the ocean floor in Mexico, she dispelled the myth that all sharks must keep swimming to stay alive. She found a fish from the Red Sea called the Moses sole that secretes a natural shark repellent. She also created the first fish test tube baby.

Eugenie Clark in the field as a young woman. (Mote Marine Laboratory)

During my own time as a coral scientist, we discovered a large population of whale sharks. They kept swimming over my sites, where I was monitoring Frisbee-shaped corals. Since we were short on staff, the shark researchers had to train me to wield a spear gun and assist with their tagging operation. Gripping a sling shot spear as tall as me and waiting for the captain to call out “shark!” was the most thrilling thing I’ve ever done.

It was a glimpse into the incredibly exciting world of shark science. One that certainly doesn’t need to be pumped up with fake shark attacks and scary music.

Without any segue whatsoever, here are several of Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes about “Shark Week”:

This is maybe the most important week of the year in the United States. It’s Shark Week. Did you know that? I went to church to kick things off because it’s important to remember what Shark Week’s really about. Shark Week started in 1988, back when sharks were still carrying beepers. And 30 years later, here we are.

I don’t know how the Discovery Channel keeps coming up with new shark shows. These are real shows: They have “Shaq Does Shark Week.” They’ve got “Guy Fieri’s Feeding Frenzy,” “Cash Cab: Shark Week Edition,” “Naked and Afraid of Sharks,” and “Bear Versus Shark”—which, if you think about that one, in a battle between bear and shark, home field advantage would be huge, right?

They get big ratings every year for this. Meanwhile, do you know how many people are killed by sharks every year? I looked this up today. Five. There are five shark fatalities per year in the world. We are deathly afraid of an animal that kills fewer people than Tide pods.

And here are a few from Stephen Colbert:

Everyone’s in a celebratory mood. I’m not surprised. Happy holidays! It’s Shark Week! Merry Shark-mas! Or, for my Jewish shark viewers: Mazel-teeth!

And why is this Shark Week different from all other Shark Weeks? Because this is the first Shark Week since we learned that, in an attempt to seduce Stormy Daniels, Trump invited her to watch two and a half hours of Shark Week. Or as the kids call it, Netflix and krill.

Colbert did advise his viewers not to jump to correct him—pointing out that three species of shark (including the basking shark featured in my previous post on “Shark Week”) survive on krill.