Sharks may seem scary because of what’s on TV or in movies. But you’re more likely to be struck by lightning than to be bitten by a shark.

You can hear it in the eerie music. Or in the narrator’s tone. Something bad is going to happen. On Shark Week, a week of documentary-style shows on cable TV, suspenseful sounds often cue tales of terrifying shark attacks.

But such incidents are rare, says Lisa Whitenack. She’s a biologist and geologist at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. “You are more likely to get hit by lightning than to be bitten by a shark,” she says. More people die annually because of fireworks accidents than shark attacks. People swimming in the ocean are in sharks’ homes, Whitenack notes. And as long as sharks aren’t provoked, they usually leave people alone.

Whitenack and other shark scientists were concerned that the scary stuff on Shark Week was misrepresenting sharks. They also suspected that Shark Week didn’t contain much science and didn’t reflect the diversity of shark researchers. She and her colleagues set out to gather data on their hypotheses. “Because that’s what good scientists do,” she says.

Her team watched 201 episodes of Shark Week. For each 40-minute episode, the researchers kept tabs on which species of sharks appeared, who was speaking, what they said and more. The team also analyzed the research methods cited in the shows.

Shark Week often gave muddled messages, the researchers reported July 22 at the American Elasmobranch Society Annual Meeting. That meeting was in Phoenix, Ariz. Over half of the shows gave both positive and negative messages about sharks. And “in some cases, we saw stuff that was just not true or was exaggerated,” Whitenack says. “That creates fear.” For instance, one episode focused on possible encounters with a prehistoric shark. “The entire episode was fiction,” Whitenack says. But many viewers missed a message about the show’s staged events and thought the extinct creature could be alive today.

Often, the people talking about sharks on these shows weren’t scientists. And the experts featured were usually white males. That doesn’t accurately represent the variety of people who study sharks, Whitenack notes. Also, Shark Week claims to provide information about protecting and conserving sharks. Many shark species are rare and endangered. But the team found that only six episodes gave viewers ways to help sharks. “The messaging needs some work,” Whitenack concludes.

Just like scientists, viewers can and should ask lots of questions. With a bit of digging, people may be able to fact-check what they’ve heard on TV. “Don’t take it all at face value,” Whitenack cautions. “Just because it’s on TV doesn’t mean it’s true.”

Researchers watched over 200 episodes of Shark Week, filling out a worksheet on each one. They tallied up all the research methods mentioned. The category “other” includes methods that were only used once, such as research that measured how sharks’ muscles worked.

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annual: Adjective for something that happens every year. (in botany) A plant that lives only one year, so it usually has a showy flower and produces many seeds.

biologist: A scientist involved in the study of living things.

colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.

data: Facts and/or statistics collected together for analysis but not necessarily organized in a way that gives them meaning. For digital information (the type stored by computers), those data typically are numbers stored in a binary code, portrayed as strings of zeros and ones.

diversity: A broad spectrum of similar items, ideas or people. In a social context, it may refer to a diversity of experiences and cultural backgrounds. (in biology) A range of different life forms.

DNA: (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, double-stranded and spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. It is built on a backbone of phosphorus, oxygen, and carbon atoms. In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.

endangered: An adjective used to describe species at risk of going extinct.

information: (as opposed to data) Facts provided or trends learned about something or someone, often as a result of studying data.

lightning: A flash of light triggered by the discharge of electricity that occurs between clouds or between a cloud and something on Earth’s surface. The electrical current can cause a flash heating of the air, which can create a sharp crack of thunder.

sharks: A family of primitive fishes that rely on skeletons formed of cartilage, not bone. Like skates and rays, they belong to a group known as elasmobranchs. Then tend to grow and mature slowly and have few young. Some lay eggs, others give birth to live young.

society: An integrated group of people or animals that generally cooperate and support one another for the greater good of them all.

species: A group of similar organisms capable of producing offspring that can survive and reproduce.

Meeting: L.B. Whitenack et al. Content analysis of 32 years of Shark Week: trends in messaging, subject matter, and portrayal of sharks. American Elasmobranch Society Annual Meeting. July 22, 2021. Phoenix, USA.

Carolyn Wilke is a former staff writer at Science News for Students. She has a Ph.D. in environmental engineering. Carolyn enjoys writing about chemistry, microbes and the environment. She also loves playing with her cat.

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