Yep, It's Shark Week

Every year Discovery Channel honours the greatest water-dwelling creature on the planet with it's very own week of shows:

The Shark.

Sharks are awesome.

Let's look at the facts.

1. They've been around for awhile and modern sharks began to appear about 100 million years ago. Do you know what that means?

In 100 million years they have only evolved slightly, meaning they are so perfectly adapted to their environments.

2. A prehistoric shark (that has since become extinct, arguably for the best as a very reliable source tells me they were able to breach at a maximum cruising altitude of 37,000 ft)  known as the megalodon was massive.

Look at this size comparison graph from wikipedia and tell me you're still afraid of a Great White Jaws-ing it's way over to you while a C. megalodon is swimming underneath you somewhere in the deep blue.

 

Yeah, keep waving there, man-bait.

Those bad boys could reach a maximum length of about 20 meters (67 ft) and weighed in at a whopping maximum of 103 tonnes.

Tonnes!

METRIC* TONNES!

3. Proving my paranoia correct, sharks are not just salt water bound. Certain types of sharks (bull sharks for example) can swim and are often found in fresh water rivers and lakes.

This thought is 100% terrifying.

My crazy thought process has been validated, however. All of those years swimming in lakes I"ve always sort of half floated with my legs close to the surface. My sister and I even had a pact that, when tubing, if one fell in the other went with her.

Live together, get eaten by sharks together.

To be totally honest, though, this was just as much out of fear of Jason Voohrees as it was of a shark attack.

The point is that sharks are awesome.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Discovery Channel's Shark Week needs to be more than just one show a night.

Show some respect to these beautiful creatures who's numbers are being depleted.

Shark Week!

* I have no idea why a metric tonne would be more impressive than your standard tonne. I suppose I could look it up but I'd rather continue to sit here eating marshmallows.