Shark Week: 'Shark Feeding Frenzy'

True story: Two years ago I went on vacation to Belize. We took a snorkeling expedition as part of the trip, which involved taking a boat to a small island off the coast, in the Caribbean. After snorkeling for a couple of hours, there was a picnic lunch set up on the island by our guides. At noon exactly, a lemon shark started circling in the shallow waters off the island.

Why? Because the guides were in the habit of feeding the shark the leftover chicken from the picnic. The tastes of the gourmet shark had reached such a level of snobbery that the shark would eat only the chicken that was slathered in barbecue sauce -- and, dangit, it wanted its lunch promptly at noon. (Travel advisory: Do not coat yourself in barbecue sauce before snorkeling in Belize.)

So it was with great fascination that I watched Tuesday night's "Shark Feeding Frenzy" on Discovery, during which "Survivorman" host Les Stroud tried to ascertain what gets the digestive juices flowing on the critters.

As it turned out, it depends on the type of shark and the environment it's in. Great whites and tiger sharks will gobble up pretty much anything -- although not, as posited in "Jaws," a license plate -- that has a circulatory system.

In a series of clever experiments, Stroud tests what specifically sharks are attracted to. As it turns out, a side of beef suits them just fine, as does anything that has the outline of a sea turtle. The color yellow draws them in -- a fact that had anecdotal evidence from World War II sailors who referred to their life jackets as "yum-yum yellow" for their tendency to attract sharks. And, most grippingly, sharks were entranced by a recording of a rapid heartbeat, indicating that their senses are attuned to prey that's already in a state of panic by their presence.

No word on the effect of barbecue sauce, however.

-- Ann Donahue

Comments

[Mark Kawakami]

This was ridiculous. There was very little that could be described as "clever" about these experiments except for the very imaginative interpretation of the results. For instance, the color test could easily have as much to do with the shark's increasing familiarity with the strange object in the water, since the yellow suit was placed in the water last. An honest test would either have placed all three suits I'm the water at the same time or repeated the tests a second time to determine if the initial reactions were consistent.

And don't even get me started on the curious conclusion that the size of the bait offered in the meat taste test was a factor, especially since he took that totally unsupportable claim to a hysterical presumption that we humans are naturally sized for White Shark meals. I really hoped for something with just a tiny bit if intellectual rigor, especially since he kept claiming to have "proven" things.

[westcoastfishnut]

Mark - I have to disagree with you. The size of the bait or prey is a huge factor in a sharks diet - they evaluate how much energy it will take to catch and consume an item BEFORE they attack it. This is why great whites dont chase small mackeral or chase objects under 30 pounds. This show had some of the best underwater filming I have ever seen of sharks and the pacing of the show was great. Les Stroud is a decent host as well. Overall I liked shark week this year. Hope it's as good next yr!