A couple of months ago I was riding an exercise bike and was desperate for something to watch on TV. I saw that the history channel had a segment of their MonsterQuest series on box jellyfish, and that was pretty much my only option. It was so bad I was shaking my head in wonder throughout. I was just thinking of it today, and I thought it might be interesting to let people nominate scuba-related shows that they thought were particularly bad as well. I will try to describe this show, although enough time has passed that my memory of it is not what it should be.
The show started with a dire warning: deadly jellyfish, particularly box jellyfish, are growing in numbers prolifically and becoming a real menace to life and limb. They used very strong language like that to raise the fear level throughout the show. They also used the term "jellyfish" for everything, showing that no one with any marine science credentials was involved in the scripting or editing. Although they did single out the box jellies in particular, they frequently had shots of pretty benign jellies sprinkled throughout the show, never mentioning that the ones they were showing were not dangerous.
They said repeatedly that a single box jelly sting can kill in three minutes, and to show that danger they interviewed a guy who had entered the water at night and stepped into the tentacles of several box jellies, getting multiple stings all over his legs. He described the pain and the length of time it took him to get medical attention. (Single sting brings death in 3 minutes---Hmmmm.)
They sent a film crew to a spot off Australia where the box jellies have grown in such terrific numbers so that they could film this menace. The crew went into the water at night. They didn't see any box jellies, but they had some equipment problems, and when deadly gray reef sharks showed up, they headed for the safety of the surface.
The show then went to Japan, where the local sea has been invaded by a variety of jelly that is simply huge. (I missed the name of it when I left the room for a while.) These giant jellies are apparently everywhere except for the two places they tried to find them so that we could witness this massive invasion for ourselves. We saw a lot of film in which a guy went into the water and looked around, finding nothing except a starfish. (They didn't call that by its right name, either.) Apparently sea stars are not normally found in that region, so he took it as a sign that changing water temperatures are the reason that the giant jellies that he couldn't find are there is such great number.
It was time to go back to Australia to see once again the massive invasion of box jellies. Once again the divers were unable to find any. They were, however, terrified by a different monster--a sting ray! What a terror! They gave that fearsome beast a wide berth, reminding us as they did of the sad fate of Steve Irwin, the second man to die from a sting ray in the last 70 years. With great excitement they announced that they had found and filmed a very large jelly--not a box jelly and not one that is at all dangerous, but it was apparently a great find. Well, it was their only find, so I guess the excitement was reasonable.
Unfortunately, a storm was coming, so they had to leave without finding a single box jelly to film so that we could see how massive and threatening this invasion truly is. We just had to take their word for it.
So what's your nomination for worst scuba-related show?
The show started with a dire warning: deadly jellyfish, particularly box jellyfish, are growing in numbers prolifically and becoming a real menace to life and limb. They used very strong language like that to raise the fear level throughout the show. They also used the term "jellyfish" for everything, showing that no one with any marine science credentials was involved in the scripting or editing. Although they did single out the box jellies in particular, they frequently had shots of pretty benign jellies sprinkled throughout the show, never mentioning that the ones they were showing were not dangerous.
They said repeatedly that a single box jelly sting can kill in three minutes, and to show that danger they interviewed a guy who had entered the water at night and stepped into the tentacles of several box jellies, getting multiple stings all over his legs. He described the pain and the length of time it took him to get medical attention. (Single sting brings death in 3 minutes---Hmmmm.)
They sent a film crew to a spot off Australia where the box jellies have grown in such terrific numbers so that they could film this menace. The crew went into the water at night. They didn't see any box jellies, but they had some equipment problems, and when deadly gray reef sharks showed up, they headed for the safety of the surface.
The show then went to Japan, where the local sea has been invaded by a variety of jelly that is simply huge. (I missed the name of it when I left the room for a while.) These giant jellies are apparently everywhere except for the two places they tried to find them so that we could witness this massive invasion for ourselves. We saw a lot of film in which a guy went into the water and looked around, finding nothing except a starfish. (They didn't call that by its right name, either.) Apparently sea stars are not normally found in that region, so he took it as a sign that changing water temperatures are the reason that the giant jellies that he couldn't find are there is such great number.
It was time to go back to Australia to see once again the massive invasion of box jellies. Once again the divers were unable to find any. They were, however, terrified by a different monster--a sting ray! What a terror! They gave that fearsome beast a wide berth, reminding us as they did of the sad fate of Steve Irwin, the second man to die from a sting ray in the last 70 years. With great excitement they announced that they had found and filmed a very large jelly--not a box jelly and not one that is at all dangerous, but it was apparently a great find. Well, it was their only find, so I guess the excitement was reasonable.
Unfortunately, a storm was coming, so they had to leave without finding a single box jelly to film so that we could see how massive and threatening this invasion truly is. We just had to take their word for it.
So what's your nomination for worst scuba-related show?
