Head over to sharkpurpose.com, the new primary sight for booking the highly regarded ecological presentation that combines entertainment and science.

Hey, what do you know? Yet another case of humans hungrily and eagerly consuming the convenient lie of blaming nature for problems we created.  This time, we look to the ocean. 

Orcas were blamed for South Africa's most iconic ocean animal, the great white shark, switching from argubly the densest population on the planet to disappearing altogether.  As if this was the first time white sharks had ever dealt with orcas.  But that wasn't ludicrous enough...it wasn't just orcas, but even blaming the entire disappearance on only two specific orcas.

For years a handful of activists and scientists screamed the truth of the situation, but Shark Week, news outlets, and even opportunistic scientists, eagerly climbed aboard the blame boat for this one.  
​
Finally, now that it's likely too late, people are finally listening to scientists on the other side of the argument. Presenting his data for the first time to the internet crowd, Dr. Enrico Gennari shares his work on Skyler Thomas's podcast.  

#orcas #whitesharks #badscience #towner #orcas blame #enricogennari

As the exploitive, damaging practices of The Natal Sharks Board increasingly remind me of OCEARCH, I am reminded to share with the public some old (and some previously unreleased) interviews with Ralph Collier on the topic.
Here is an excerpt focusing on internal vessel ruptures.

In this multipart series, Ralph Collier, of The Shark Research Committe, talks to Skyler Thomas about OCEARCH. What are some of the health issues sharks are facing that organizations such as OCEARCH are inflicting upon them, but the public does not see? In his years performing necropsies, Ralph Collier determined that sharks bled to death from the rupturing of vessels during capture and containment. So in addition to the lactic acid build up, mortal exhaustion, stress, and oxygen deprivation, we can now add that sharks are likely bleeding internally, also. #ralphcollier #sharkweek #ocearch #damage #mortality I

If you get excited about seeing a shark looking like this, it is likely that you need to reconsider if you are a fan of wildlife conservation or a fan of wildlife exploitation.

While I am not a fan of Shark Week nor the shows Ralph has appeared on, it does not invalidate his stance on this topic, especially when it comes down to hard, cold science and common sense. 

Skyler Thomas continues to expose Discovery Shark Week and those who participate in the production of each season's shows.  'How to Survive a Shark Attack' is so bad that it had to be broken down in separate parts.  Here is part 1.

Thomas claims that the show doesn't even meet the basic premise of the excuse used to make the show while also providing inaccurate information throughout the overly dramatized production.  

IIn this episode, I question whether 'How to Survive a Shark Attack' really provided much in terms of helping viewers learn how to survive a potential shark bite, or if it was, instead, yet again, a series of silly, dramatized, unnecessary pranks. This isn't nearly the worst Shark Week show of 2025, and yet it was dreadful. So dreadful that I must break it down section by section. 00:00 How much fear has been inspired in just the first minutes? 01:45 Why must it always be a white shark? The water is extremely shallow and tropical. Perhaps, instead, they could choose a bull shark since a bull shark is, after all, what bit Paul. 95% of the time, both Shark Week and Hollywood use great white sharks as the source of fear in their shows. And yes, these shows are based on fear. Look no further than OCEARCH for your answer, if you aren't needlessly tagging or featuring white sharks you just don't get the money. 04:26 The show quotes unprovoked shark attacks from 2023, yet this show was produced in 2025. Why would Shark Week choose the statistics from 2023 when 2022, 2024, and 2025 were available and all these years had more positive statistics? Perhaps Shark Week is going out of its way to scare people. 07:01 Shark Week featured images of provoked attacks and natural predations of sharks on fish, while quoting the statistics of unprovoked attacks. This seems disengenuous. How does seeing a shark being tricked into biting a prosthetic arm help people at home survive a shark attack? 10:55 Why must Shark Week insist upon claiming synthetic blood excites sharks? 11:57 There is always ample shark touching involved on ecotourism dives as well as shark week shows, whether it's good or bad, it is happening. 12:38 Is Paul OK? 13:35 Applying a tourniquet is the best advice I can give credit to in this film, but they barely show it. 14:40 Isn't this bad for sharks? 15:36 Is shark species used in the demonstrations not important? 16:03 It's OK for Shark Week to touch, but not others. 16:18 Why must Shark Week pretend that their team of experts is scared and in critical danger while they do nothing more than what inexperienced tourists do by the millions each year? 16:47 Some people are revered as shark experts because they were bitten, others are condemned for being bitten, while still others are condemned for managing to never be bitten. What gives? #sharkweek #skylerthomas #howtosurviveasharkattack #sharkattack #pauldegelder

A legend in South Africa and the shark diving community at large, Walter Bernardis is adding his voice to this year's live podcast shows.  But why Walter, specifically?

Shark WeAk podcast host and filmmaker, Skyler Thomas notied that Shark Week has been featuring what many would consider enemy number one to sharks, The Natal Sharks Board, on their shows the last few season (a deplorable move, even by Shark Week standards).  What Walter and Skyler have in common is a fight against the Natal Sharks Board, which is in essence a fight for sharks (and the other marine life that die while the Shark's Board is trying to wipe out sharks.)

This year Walter shared a screenshot with Skyler of the hate messaging he received for speaking out against Shark Week, which begs the question.  Do Shark Week fans actually care about sharks or just want to be entertained at any cost?  And by any cost we mean a willingness to blatantly be lied to by scientists just to tell an entertaining story.

#sharkweek #sharkweAk 

Below is the introduction video for this year's podcast explaining the situation.

Skyler Thomas takes aim at Discovery Shark Week's damaging programming with a new podcast, this time featuring shark diving veteran, Walter Bernardis as cohost.  Viewers can participate in the live shows every Thursday morning via YouTube's interface.  

Part 1 takes a humorous approach talking over the original footage with sarcastic remarks much in the style of the classic Mystery Science Theater style.  Parts 2, 3, and 4 are more straight to the point, explaining exactly how the audience is being deceived by what's being shown and being said.

Shark Weak 2024 kicks off by looking back at one of the most offensive shows from the 2023 season, 'Belly of the Beast'.

#sharkweek #sharkweak #bellyofthebeast #parody

"Government scientists" would like you to look at ten white shark deaths caused by orcas in ten years rather 1,000 white shark deaths in 10 years caused by government endorsed sources. 

White sharks face a nearly impossible survival situation in South Africa, and the cause is not orcas. 

Part 4 - Ecology and Common Sense.
All research papers can be found here

What if we remove the arguments between the scientists and just look at common sense? What conclusions might you draw regarding the disappearance of white sharks in South Africa?

​This video uses an ecological approach to consider why an animal might leave an area it has utilized for a very long time. The ecological considerations lead to common sense conclusions. Sadly, the scientists who are in the news thanks to the orca hype seem to be completely disconnected from ecological concepts or are either ignoring these concepts because their government affiliation requires them to.

Key concepts in this video: The anthropocentric pressure on the white shark population in South Africa is so extreme that even without the orcas the chances of these sharks ultimately surviving are very slim. Between calculations of the demersal shark long line fishery's white shark victims and the KZN shark nets annual average catches, somewhere in the range of 100 white sharks are killed EVERY YEAR in South Africa just from these two sources. By comparison, the orcas have killed 10 white sharks in 10 years. Remember, this is before even considering the white sharks killed by recreational fishermen or off-shore fishing fleets, whether targeted or not. But at the core of the issue is the removal of the food source. How can a species be expected to survive (or stay in an area) if its food source has been removed? It's pretty hard to survive without food. What a large percentage of the population fails to realize is that the white sharks in South Africa only feed on seals at the islands are relatively small portion of the year. The rest of the time they are in shore feeding on smaller sharks. The very sharks the fishing industry is targeting. It's sad that people whose very careers are owed to the white sharks are happy to sell out those very animals for government job security and a little extra fame by promoting the blame of the orcas. I've met Matt Dicken and Alison Towner and can tell you that they are scum human beings. Alison Kock is also scum, the only difference is I haven't met her. What they have in common is the exploitation of species, Towner and Kock jumping on board with OCEARCH when they came and killed and mutilated the sharks there for TV, while Dicken earns his paycheck from a company killing up to 40 white sharks a year.

For those who want to dig deep, all the papers can be found at this link: https://www.whitesharkvideo.com/resea...

This series is a piecemeal approach to tackling the different subtopics of this larger topic of blaming orcas for the disappearance of white sharks from the white shark capital of the world, thus I recommend the other videos in the series.

Here is the full playlist:    • Orca VS. Great White  

The bulk of the footage used in this video is from my 2007 and 2014 trips to South Africa’s cape coast. Maarten Jozef Billen contributed greatly to the 2014 trip by filming and taking photos, which both appear in this video along with my footage. Other images were taken from news articles.

Music by Tyler Newman.

​#orca #whiteshark #southafrica #alisontowner #alisonkock #mattdicken #overfishing #natalsharksboard #skylerthomas #enricogenari