Alas, another year of Shark Week action is coming to an end on Discovery after celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2023 with Aquaman’s Jason Momoa as host. As usual, I tuned in to as much of the shark programming as possible over the seven days, and was even able to speak with experts including Dr. Austin Gallagher, Forrest Gallante, and Tom “Blowfish” Hird during a Discovery press event. As a lifelong Shark Week fan, it was all I could have asked for… especially since I was finally able to pose a question that I’ve had for quite some time, and I got the answer I was hoping for.
Dr. Austin Gallagher led the team on two standout specials of Shark Week 2023, including the “Belly of the Beast” production that started out the seven days of documentaries (and delivered a downright cinematic finale) as well as “Monster Mako: Fresh Blood” that made the argument for which species of shark is most powerful. The special that focused on mako sharks involved Gallagher going on a daring dive down into an underwater kelp forest, with visibility low and odds of encountering a shark high. The sequence reminded me of something I’ve wondered for many years of watching Shark Week: how exactly are the divers having perfectly clear conversations with each other while underwater in dive gear?
