Sink Your Teeth into Shark Week with Deep Trekker

Shannon Regan | July 24th, 2018

The annual week of shark obsession has arrived and this year during Shark Week, Deep Trekker will be featured on 'Laws of Jaws' - airing July 24th at 9PM ET / 6PM PT

LAWS OF JAWS Airing July 24th, 9PM ET / 6PM PT

shark week deep trekker rov underwater drone

Ah, Shark Week. One of the best weeks of the summer. The 30th anniversary of Shark Week, airing until Sunday, July 29 on Discovery Channel, will feature more than 19 hours of captivating aquatic and fin-tastic programming. Tune into these specials and dive into the unexplored mysteries of the deep sea as experts reveal groundbreaking scientific discoveries about the changing behavioral patterns of shark behavior.

This year, Deep Trekker will be featured on Discovery Channel's 'Laws of Jaws.' As shark attacks have been hitting the news recently, filmmaker Andy Casagrande and expert diver Liz Parkinson discuss the motive behind these attacks. By reenacting five harrowing real-life encounters and putting their own lives on the line, expert divers plunge into the most daring shark experiments ever attempted.

Are these attacks caused by human activity? Are we partially responsible? What role can humans play in reversing this trend?

Find out in LAWS OF JAWS, airing, Tuesday, July 24 at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on Discovery Channel.

Help Save Our Sharks

The presence of sharks in our oceans has seriously decreased as a result of fishing and habitat degradation. According to experts, a third of sharks are considered vulnerable to extinction, another third is near threatened and many are already endangered.

Shark species are key contributors to healthy marine ecology and biodiversity. The presence of diverse and abundant shark populations indicates that the marine system is in a good ecological state.

Many of us are unaware that sharks are cartilaginous fish, but their biological characteristics are more similar to those of large land and marine mammals than those of bony fish. Meaning, sharks grow slowly, mature late and produce relatively few young. Their populations typically increase at extremely low rates, rendering them exceptionally vulnerable to exploitation and slow to recover from depletion. In order to be effective, the management of sharks must reflect a precautionary approach and allow for sustainable fisheries, and focus on safeguarding crucial habitats that can serve as refuge, nursery and feeding ground for these species.

Nearly 100 million sharks are killed each year to support the unsustainable demand for shark fins, which are used in Asian shark fin soup. This particular taste has led to the practice of shark “finning,” the wasteful practice of slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the dismembered animal back at sea. Of the 591 shark species assessed by scientists within the IUCN, 21 percent are currently threatened with extinction and another 18 percent have a near threatened status, globally. Moreover, for another 35 percent of species the adequate information is lacking to make accurate population assessments.

Let's Work Together

Together we need to create awareness for sharks and our oceans as well as provide a platform for outreach and education. Deep Trekker ROVs provide the means for environmental research and surveying of our oceans and aquatic species using remotely operated vesicles (ROVs). Underwater research has never been easier with the 270 degree rotating 4K HD camera housed inside the Deep Trekker DTG2.