Every summer, a television program comes along that somehow manages to transfix audiences with a combination of fascination and terror ” welcome to “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel.
Fortunately, members of the San Diego community do not have to sit in front of their televisions to experience the awesome marine animals; the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography offers a live, up-close and personal Shark Week of its own.
The shark-themed event, which runs in conjunction with the Discovery Channel from July 30 to Aug. 5, promises to excite while focusing on educating the public. Nigella Hillgarth, executive director of the aquarium, explained that the central purpose of Shark Week is to “really change some of the attitudes and ideas that people have about sharks.”
Birch Aquarium hopes to achieve this goal through various activities and events, including a Shark Chalk Art Festival, hands-on live shark encounters, marine life exhibits with more than 10 species of sharks, feeding shows in the giant kelp tank, and shark exploration exhibits with Scripps scientists and graduate students. The aquarium also hopes to draw large crowds with the help of Time Warner Cable and the Discovery Channel, which promote the event by actually mentioning it on national television.
Hillgarth believes the biggest attraction will be the live shark encounters in which people can actually touch four different species.
“For every kid, it’s something they don’t forget,” Hillgarth said.
Other exhibit highlights will be the Shark Chalk Art Festival from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, July 30, in which artists “bring sharks to life” on the pavement, and an evening lecture on Southern California sharks by Dr. Jeffrey Graham on Monday, July 31, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Graham, a leading shark expert, will present some of the innovative research being done at Scripps. Those who wish to attend the lecture must pre-register online at the Birch Aquarium Web site.
For Hillgarth, Shark Week is ultimately about education and “taking away a lot of the fear.” People have no reason to fear sharks, especially in California, because “a very, very small number of fatal shark attacks occur on the West Coast,” Hillgarth said.
While most sharks are not dangerous, “only some species, such as the great white, can be dangerous under certain conditions,” she added.
Because of declining shark populations, much of the research at Scripps involves conservation efforts. Contrary to the general public, Hillgarth believes that “sharks should fear humans more than we should fear them.”
In May of this year, a large hammerhead shark was caught off the coast of Florida containing 55 pups close to birth. Scientists previously thought that hammerheads gave birth to only 20 to 40 pups in one year.
“The discovery brings awareness to just how many live pups a hammerhead can have, and when you look at the rules about taking them off the coast of Florida ” one per person and two per boat ” it doesn’t seem like it would have an impact, but taking a breeding animal out of the population will have a great impact,” Hillgarth said.
The Birch Aquarium, 2300 Expedition Way, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $11 for adults, $9 for seniors, and $7.50 for youth.
For more information, call (858) 534-FISH or visit http://aquarium.ucsd.edu.