Another Shark Week Has Come and Swam Away
- S. E. Presley
- Jul 29
- 5 min read
This past Sunday, the sharks of the world swam away from our TV sets to conclude another year of the best week of summer: Shark Week! We had the opportunity to learn about all kinds of sharks. In addition to well-known species like the Great White, Tigers, Bulls, Makos, and Blues, we also learned about lesser documented species like Oceanic White Tips, Salmon Sharks, and Seven Gills.
For many people, Shark Week is something fun on TV. It's a chance to learn about the oceans' mysteries, tap into primal fears, enjoy the occasional "what if" scenario if Megalodons lived, and understand conservation efforts as Discovery tries to de-mystify these fish from monsters to fellow inhabitants of Earth. It's a marker that summer is coming to an end.
Shark Week is a measure of time, a signpost in my life's journey.
I can still remember that summer morning in July of 1988. It was a hot Texas morning, as one might expect, but I also remember the sky was as blue as the ocean. I had gone out earlier for a workout in preparation for the upcoming football season: "State in '88!". Weights followed by running stadium steps. I was a Junior in high school then and was hoping to find a spot on a loaded team full of Seniors that season. ot, sweaty, exhausted, and desperately seeking a shower, I walked in the front door. Before I could close the door, I was bombarded by my mother calling my name in what can best be described as pure enthusiasm.
"Shawn? Shawn! Come here. You have to see what is on TV!"
As a typical teenager is prone to do, I would have told her to hold her horses until I took a shower at least. However, there was something in her voice that day. It was genuine excitement that was something we could share when all I wanted in life was to have as minimal contact with my parents as possible. My curiosity was piqued. I went into the back of the house, a converted dining room, now our living room. As I entered the room, sharks and divers were on the screen. More specifically, the Great White Shark. I was instantly fascinated.
"Look! This new program is called 'Shark Week, and they show shark shows all day for the entire week," my mother exclaimed. She quickly sat back in her chair and was instantly glued to the screen.
At this point, I, too, was locked in. I sat on the couch and became mesmerized by show after show of sharks. At this moment in time, nothing else mattered, not even that shower.
Since that first moment, Shark Week has become a summer staple of mine. watched it every summer from that first one until 1992. While I lived an everyday life as a teenager and then as a young adult, I still made time to watch the sharks. Great Whites, Hammerheads, the USS Indianapolis, and other stories. It was fascinating, and I was hooked, pun intended!
However, in 1993, I missed my first Shark Week. I was in Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX. While I cannot be sure, I doubt they would have let us stop training to watch Shark Week. I wasn't crazy enough to ask, either.
I also missed 1994 (in South Korea) and 1995 (in an apartment outside Mountain Home Air Force base that still needed to offer cable but didn't). At that point, I had forgotten about Shark Week. These things happen when one is stationed overseas and living without cable TV. Yes, children, there was a time in America when there was no streaming service. Cable TV was a luxury item for many people.
In the summer of 1996, my life changed. I was still stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base but lived in a townhome in Boise. What a great place! I was near downtown, I could see the mountains, and I was a single man in his mid-twenties living the dream! Why would I want anything to be different?
I was preparing to do my usual thing on a Sunday morning. It was a nice summer day, and I was getting ready to go out into the foothills to rollerblade into the city and then have lunch. As I descended the stairs, my roommate's son was watching TV. remember asking him what he was watching.
"It's Shark Week," he said without moving.
A flood of memories came over me. Shark Week! That's right. Oh, how much I missed you.
I sat down in a chair and started watching with him. Before I knew it, I realized I had missed my outdoor adventure, lunch, and even afternoon beers. Well, there were sharks on TV that needed to be watched!
2025 was the 37th Shark Week. As I signed off for the summer on the last evening of Shark Week, I wondered how many I had watched. I went back to the beginning in 1988 and "did the math:"
Years I watched Shark Week: 1988-1992; 1996-1999; 2003-2019; 2021-2025.
Years I missed Shark Week: 1993-1995; 2000-2002; 2020
I have seen 29 of Discovery's 36 Shark Weeks. In the grand scheme of life, this is an insignificant achievement. In my personal life, though, it's a fun achievement. It's one of those things I look forward to each year, and to be honest, I put it on my calendar.
I continue watching Shark Week because it has evolved (at a much faster rate than sharks have evolved, I must say!)
In those first years, it was pure love of sharks. After the dinosaurs, there was no more astonishing animal than the shark. A perfect mixture of horror and fascination, sharks are the stuff of legends. Sharks are beautiful and misunderstood creatures that are lethal, strong, fast, and alien. Shark Week was bringing enlightenment to the masses.
Then in the early 2000s, when I started the streak of 16 seasons in a row, Shark Week became something I would watch with my sons. t first, it was to share in the wonder of these mysterious animals in our blue oceans and seas (and in the case of Bull sharks, the green lakes and rivers, too) of our planet. week of "whoa" and "wow" filled the home.
As they grew up, it became a marker of sorts for summer. Do you know the period between the 4th of July and the first day of school? That time, sometimes called the "dog days of summer," can be dreadful. Shark Week was a welcome respite from the long, tedious days until school began. It gave hope that summer was nearing the end in a time when there was no holiday to break up the monotony. When the week was over, and there were no more sharks on the television, we knew that school wasn't far away.
In two years, my youngest son will graduate from high school. What will Shark Week become for me then? I won't have my sons watch it with me; they will be adults living their lives. It will no longer be that summer marker it is currently. So, I ponder, "Why watch?"
It will return to the beginning, a must-see watch for the love of sharks. Even then, it will be different. It will be forever intertwined with nostalgia as I reflect on past chapters of my life: A teenager, a wayward young adult, a military man, a newlywed, a father of small children, a father of school-aged boys, an empty nester, and finally an old, retired man who gleefully watches sharks for an entire week.
Maybe by then, I'll have grandchildren who will sit with me and enjoy watching sharks on TV as much as their grandfather did.
Please share your favorite Shark Week moments, stories, and personal experiences in the comments!
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