Shark Week is on the verge of returning to Discovery Channel in the 2023 TV schedule for its milestone 35th year with host Jason Momoa, and the annual celebration of sharks is exploring new depths, making new discoveries, and taking new risks for the goal of learning more about the many species. The week will kick off with a special called "Belly of the Beast: Feeding Frenzy," which involves Dr. Austin Gallagher and his team trying something that had never been done before with white sharks... and facing the problem of a pair of "serial killer" orcas.
I spoke with Dr. Austin Gallagher, who has appeared many times on Shark Week over the years (including when Shaq faced his fears), during a recent press day for the Discovery event, and I asked him what about "Belly of the Beast: Feeding Frenzy" makes it a good way to start out Shark Week on July 23. He shared:
'Belly of the Beast' is an unbelievably exciting adventure. We got white sharks, we got South Africa. That's like a recipe for success right there, but on this show, we took a new approach. We used this whale carcass decoy to get closer pretty much than ever before to white sharks, which is just amazing. But what was really cool was that we were able to make new observations and we saw the largest white shark probably ever in South Africa, certainly one of the largest white sharks ever for Shark Week. We were able to tag it, you know, get extremely close to it. That action, that adventure, that science, and a little bit of teeth – it's like literally the perfect recipe for opening Shark Week, and it's a huge honor.
Longtime Shark Week viewers know that great white action is on the way for any special that visits South Africa, but "Belly of the Beast" won't be another installment of Air Jaws. Instead of a seal decoy, the team used a decoy whale carcass for the very first time to attract the sharks, and trying something new clearly paid off! That's not to say that Dr. Gallagher and his team will have an easy time tagging one of the "largest white sharks ever for Shark Week," and fans will have to tune in to Discovery on July 24 to see the whole story.
Of course, the Shark Week specials that visited South Africa in 2022 also explored the problem facing great whites, which is that orcas have learned to target these sharks, kill them, and devour their livers, which has massively reduced their numbers in the area. When I noted that situation that was documented last year, Dr. Gallagher shared whether viewers will see a different side in "Belly of the Beast" in 2023:
This special was really driven by that notion that the population of South African white sharks has changed because of the orcas and it's forced us to take a new approach to trying to study and ultimately conserve these large sharks. So that's really the jumping off point. Port and Starboard, the two orcas that have been the sort of almost serial killers of these white sharks off South Africa, they do get a shout out in the show.
Tragically for great white sharks, orcas have been living up to their popular name of "killer whales" off of South Africa and becoming what Dr. Gallagher dubbed "almost serial killers." Port and Starboard may have cute names, but what they're doing to great whites in the area isn't exactly adorable! The shark expert continued:
But I think what this show does is that it really demonstrates how hard we have to work as researchers to get the data that we need, and even just find these animals for these shows and that these populations of sharks are really fragile. It's just so special, when you do get close to these individuals. That really comes across the 'Belly of the Beast,' and I'm so proud of that.
Orcas certainly aren't treated as a joke in Shark Week, but there have been plenty of killer whale memes floating around the internet in recent months as awareness spread about how intelligent the aquatic mammals really are. Shark Week goes the extra mile every year to remind viewers that sharks aren't human-killing machines like on Jaws and other films (which Steven Spielberg has said he regrets). Will "Belly of the Beast" give more awareness to the shark/orca situation? I asked Dr. Austin Gallagher that very question, and he explained:
That's a great question. I think it's huge. It really shows that sharks are top predators, but they're also prey, and literally, the apex top predator in the ocean is the orca, the killer whale. So this kind of shows that, which is really special. Look, these sharks are not going away. It's easy to get really depressed about the state of sharks worldwide, including with this orca thing off South Africa. It's changed the entire dynamic of businesses and tourism for white sharks. But to be able to see one of these large individuals come out of the shadows is a huge piece of hope. It's a pretty cool perspective, I think.
Fortunately for fans, the wait for Shark Week is nearly over. The seven days of shark action begins on Discovery with "Belly of the Beast: Feeding Frenzy" on Sunday, July 23 at 8 p.m. ET. It will be followed by "Jaws vs The Meg" at 9 p.m., "Serial Killer: Red Sea Attacks" at 10 p.m., and "Shark Week: Off the Hook" at 11 p.m. That's only the first night, so you'll want to keep tuning in for the full week! If you're not able to watch on Discovery, Shark Week will also be available streaming with a Max subscription.
