Shark Week has become a holiday in and of itself. The event entered its 34th season in 2022 and fans are watching more and more documentaries about every kind of shark imaginable. People subscribed to Disney+ have plenty of options as well, thanks to the streaming service including National Geographic programming.
For years, the entire idea of shark documentaries was about showing how dangerous and deadly they are. However, this caused many misconceptions about sharks, and more recent docs have gone into what makes them special, exotic, and in many cases, beautiful. However, there is always a sense of danger, even in those, and Shark Week remains popular thanks to taking fans up close to the dangerous beasts.
Jaws Vs. Boats
Jaws vs. Boats has an interesting storyline, as it follows the trend of sharks attacking boats more in recent years. A team of scientists set out to find out why sharks attack the boats by luring the sharks in and exploring what it is that makes them attack.
One misconception about sharks is that they attack humans a lot, but that isn’t true, and sharks often avoid humans at all costs. This documentary reveals the actions of the boat crews are often the reason sharks attack, and this could help change the situation in the future.
Shark Queens
Shark Queens is another Nat Geo documentary, this one following great white sharks in South Africa and tiger sharks in the Maldives. The entire focus here is that the scientists want to learn if it is the female sharks that rule the ocean.
This is one of the better shark documentaries on Disney+ in recent years, and it shows how smart these female sharks are, even showing one avoiding being tagged early on by scientists. Another big draw is Professor Eric Clua, who is one of the best human characters in any shark documentary.
Shark Side Of The Moon
One of the most intriguing shark documentaries to watch in Shark Week is titled Shark Side of the Moon. Not to be confused with the low-budget horror movie of the same name, this documentary links shark behavior with the stages of the moon.
This documentary takes viewers underwater and watches the actions and reactions of the sharks during different phases of the lunar cycle. With ties to the frequency of shark attacks lining up with the moon, scientists look at this phenomenon.
Camo Sharks
In the documentary Camo Sharks, scientists seek the answer to whether sharks can change colors to confuse their prey. The experiment uses color boards to learn if the sharks are really changing colors, or if something else is happening that can explain this phenomenon.
While great white sharks camouflage themselves naturally thanks to their grey colors blending in with the water below, color-shifting could change things drastically for their deadly attacks. There is also a fun part with a glow-in-the-dark shark that even adds to the mystery of the majestic creatures.
Maui Shark Mystery
Maui Shark Mystery features marine biologists tracking the movements of tiger sharks off the coast of Maui. The reason this is a “mystery” is that the sharks are not behaving normally and it is up to these scientists to figure out what is going on.
This is not a documentary about revealing why the sharks are acting strangely, though. Instead, this is about the scientists training to reach the sharks and attach the tracker to them. Viewers might want a follow-up to find out what results from the tracker, but if anyone wants to see what goes into training for such an endeavor, this documentary is the best.
Counting Jaws
Counting Jaws is a documentary with a title that is quite literal. In this Nat Geo doc, a team of scientists set out to count how many Great White sharks are in the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast of North America. The teams basically planned to count the sharks in three tribes off the costs of California and Mexico.
While counting sharks doesn’t sound that entertaining, the curiosity about the Great Whites makes seeing where they mostly live is always interesting. There are a ton of sharks in this documentary and the scientists are just snapping photos while viewers can see the sharks in their natural habitat.
When Sharks Attack
While documentary series about shark attacks are rare, with most Shark Week features looking more at their lives outside of predator sensibilities, When Sharks Attack does look at the horrifying moments when attacks rock a community.
In this doc’s premiere episode, four shark attacks take place in four months outside of Los Angeles. With cases rising, scientists investigate the case and figure out what is happening and why. The following looks at attacks in other locations and attempts to figure out what caused the rare shark attacks.
World’s Biggest Hammerhead?
In the 2022 shark documentary, World’s Biggest Hammerhead?, Nat Geo presented how a team of scientists from Florida International University set out to find the biggest hammerhead shark in the world.
While the world’s largest hammerhead caught was 14.5 feet long and over 1,282 pounds, scientists believed there might be bigger ones and headed to the Bahamas to see if they could find one.
Baby Sharks
For Shark Week fans who want something irresistibly cute to watch, look no further than Baby Sharks. First off, forget about the ear-worm song that parents grew to hate, because this movie is not about that song. Instead, this is a new documentary in 2022 that lets fans know everything they could want about baby sharks.
Viewers will learn what these baby sharks eat when their jaws are not yet strong enough for regular shark food. Scientists reveal the different species of baby sharks and how each of them is unique in how they grow and develop before setting off on their own in the fight for survival.
Sky Sharks
One of the best shark documentaries on Disney+ to watch during Shark Week is Sky Sharks. Do not confuse this documentary with the B-grade action movie of the same name. In this, the film crew uses aerial footage to look at how close the sharks really are to populated areas and determine if there is any real danger.
This shark documentary has so much to love when it comes to the footage the crew got of sharks, from drones, planed, surfing, and more. What viewers learn is there are a lot of sharks near populated areas, and the fact there are very few attacks shows they are not as dangerous as some would believe.
