Australia has always been a little ahead of our time (pun intended), and now they may have come up with a way to decrease the number of shark attacks in specific areas. Between the increasing reports of shark attacks along the Caroline coast and the sensationalism of such attacks by the media, we’re all feeling a little squeamish about dipping our toes in ocean waters. But shark attacks, believe it or not, are quite rare with only an average of 16 attacks reported in the United States each year. When we have these outbreaks like in North Carolina, where eight people have been attacked in less than a month, it seems like the sharks are just prowling the beach for snack time. This leads us to believe that sharks are monstrous creatures, and that the only solution is to kill them.
The Australian government decided to create a Twitter account, Surf Life on Saving WA, for the sharks that monitors and reports the locations of sharks when spotted. They have tagged a total of 338 sharks with transmitters, so that when one of these sharks is about ½ a mile away from the shore, it will trigger a computer alert that will then send out a tweet. Each tweet will describe the shark’s breed, size, and location. “Public report 4m tiger shark sighted Herald Point, Albany. sighted 14:10hrs 24/06 Reported: 14:21hrs 25/06” is just one of the many tweets posted on Surf Life Saving WA or @SLSWA.
On the east coast of the United States, we have the famous Mary Lee-a modest 16ft and 3,456lbs great white shark. She is our “neighborhood friendly” shark that we track up and down our coast. She is now a famous Twitter celebrity, and her fans absolutely love her. “@MaryLeeShark Are you going to make it onto #sharkweek 2016? (south NJ shoreline) I really hope so… I love you @SharkWeek”. Ocearch is one of the main non-profit organizations that focuses on tracking and researching great white sharks. It is used for researchers and other communities to attain information on the movement, biology, and health of sharks that will protect their future and enhance the safety of the public. Both Mary Lee’s Twitter account and Ocearch are aiming to achieve the same goal- to make sharks seem less scary through social media. According to the president of Ocearch, Chris Berger, “The ultimate goal is to replace fear with fascination and curiosity.”
Shark Week is an annual event whose original conception was aimed to de-stigmatize sharks as monsters to the public. This week long event has been occurring on the Discovery Channel since 1988, and features both real and fictional shark programming. It originally began to create respect and awareness of sharks, but overtime its popularity flourished and eventually became the longest-running cable television programming event in history. Throughout the weeks before and the week of shark week, our social media has been flooding with posts and advertisements relating to sharks. Numerous brands have been revolving their advertisements around shark week, and now this event is being referred to as a national holiday. It is one of the easiest ways to cultivate engagement from readers by tagging on social media. McDonalds tweeted, “Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the fryer. #SharkWeek.” Redd’s Apple Ale branded their beverage with, “By land or by sea, #REDDS is always ripe for the picking. #SharkWeek.” The Discovery Channel originated the hashtag #SharkWeek, which was trending throughout the entire week, to make it easy for anyone to follow along and to connect worldwide. Companies jumped at this opportunity to use social media as a medium to promote their product or brand alongside Shark Week, and as an added bonus they also helped raise awareness of our world’s sharks!