Photo credit: by George Desipris

It’s the most jawsome time of the year! Discovery Channel’s Shark Week is back! Shark Week started in 1988, 13 years after the release of Jaws, a movie that brought (a Hollywood imagining of) sharks to the masses. However, sharks are often depicted in the media as villains of the ocean and mindless killing machines, a stereotype that couldn’t be more untrue. The truth is, sharks are important to the health of marine food webs and ecosystems throughout the ocean, including in many of America’s national marine sanctuaries. 

Shark Week 2019 on the Discovery Channel will include more than 20 hours of shark programming with the goal of connecting people from all over the world to the mysterious world of sharks, and will provide more immersive content online and on social media. This week, we will focus on shark species across the National Marine Sanctuary System. Have a question about sharks you’d like us to answer? Send us a message in a bottle here.