Shiver of hammerhead sharks surprise university professor and take social media by storm

A university professor in the US who let slip to his students that he had an irrational fear of hammerhead sharks was, to his shock, recently greeted by a classroom full of them.

The Daily Jaws (TDJ) caught up with Dr. Jeff Amato (JA), who teaches geology at the undergraduate and Master’s degree level at New Mexico State University, and just so happens to be a fan of Jaws and sharks.

He’s been teaching there since 1999 and his specialty is structural geology (how rocks deform by faulting and folding) and geochronology, the study of determining the ages of rocks. And now thanks to his students, Jeff has a tweet that rocks for the ages.

Y’all know Jeff, know how he makes a living (Image by Dr. Jeff Amato)

TDJ: How did wind up being greeted by a class full of hammerhead sharks?

JA: I’ve found that starting a seminar class with an “Icebreaker” questions makes the students more comfortable talking in the classroom. After I ran out of ideas for icebreakers, I asked the students for some topics, and one student, Thomas, asked “What is your irrational fear?”.

After all the students shared their irrational fears, I said that mine was hammerhead sharks. I’ve always felt that they are particularly menacing and even though I am a firm adherent to evolution, this particular creature really looks alien in origin.

From what I understand, one of the students thought of the prank, probably because it was a few weeks before Halloween, to get the costumes and surprise me in class, and believe me, I was totally surprised!”

TDJ: What has been the reaction on social media?

JA: I posted the photos on my professional Twitter account right after class, around 10:30 am. One of the students in the class was the first to “like” the tweet, I didn’t think anything about it until the evening, when two of the students told me that I was “Twitter famous.”

I then saw that within 10 hours it had over three million “impressions”. By 6 am the next morning it was eight million impressions and 185,000 likes. As of now, it has over 14 million impressions, over 353,000 “likes,” and over 30,000 retweets.

I have gained nearly 2,000 followers as a result. Believe me, none of my other tweets have generated anywhere near this much attention. The only comparable tweet was an early one in which I posted an airplane seating chart showing where geologists prefer to sit, but that didn’t gain anywhere near this level of traction.

These sharks, swallow their knowledge whole (Image by Dr. Jeff Amato)

TDJ: Have you been featured in local media as well?

JA: I have been approached by a media company in the UK and by Univision, a large Spanish-language media company based here in the southwest US. My university, New Mexico State, is also planning on including it one of their newsletters. I have also been messaged by friends from high school and college that I haven’t heard from in a while.

TDJ: What is it you love about teaching?

JA: I love teaching both the introductory classes to students who never had geology, and graduate classes such as this seminar…I try to make the material interesting, and I have worked over the years to make the activities we do in class informative and engaging.

My favorite class is “Natural Hazards” which covers earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and hurricanes (no Sharknados we see – The Daily Jaws).

I think that understanding natural hazards can be really helpful to students later in life, when they are deciding where to buy a house, or what to do in the event of a large earthquake near the ocean (go inland and uphill to avoid tsunamis!).

TDJ: Where does your irrational fear of hammerheads come from?

JA: The only sharks I’ve ever encountered in the ocean have been nurse sharks in the Caribbean offshore of Belize, and I know those are quite docile.

I have seen hammerheads in the big tank at the amazing Monterey Bay aquarium. I don’t know that my fear of hammerheads is all that serious, as there are more severe risks out there, such as being hit by a car on my bicycle or getting hit by lightning while doing geology in the mountains.

TDJ: How long have you been a fan of sharks?

JA: I’ve always been a fan. Sharks are fascinating. Any species that has survived for this long, at least tens of millions of years, is really impressive, in terms of adaptability.

TDJ: How do you feel about Jaws?

JA: Jaws came out when I was about eight years old, so I didn’t see it in the theater when it first came out. I probably saw it on HBO at a friend’s house when I was in high school, or maybe on regular network TV in the late 70’s or early 80’s. It’s an amazing movie! I’m sure I’ve seen it over a dozen times.

It is, by any definition, a “rewatchable” film, I only hope that people realize that sharks need to be protected, and not irrationally feared or killed for their fins.

TDJ: What is your favourite scene or moment and why?

JA: My favorite scene is when they are telling stories and comparing scars, and Hooper opens his shirt (to which Brody says “You’re wearing a sweater?”) and gives that quote “Mary Ellen Moffat: She broke my heart”. It was only much later that I realized that the story Quint tells about the USS Indianapolis was largely true.

TDJ: Who is your favourite character and why?

JA: The casting is incredible—I particularly liked the Richard Dreyfuss character, as he was the scientist! I also liked when he pulled the license plate out of the shark.

TDJ: With a keen interest in volcanology, how do you feel about sharks - including hammerheads - living in an active volcano? 'Sharkano' home of mutant sharks erupts — The Daily Jaws

JA: I was unaware of the Karachi situation. I’m sure it’s a great place for sharks, because the volcano isn’t erupting constantly. It’s not like they are swimming around in lava! But I wonder if there’s some higher heat flow there that warms the water and draws in prey.

TDJ: Talking of volcanos, Dante's Peak (1997) is just Jaws with a volcano, but which do you prefer?

JA: I have seen Dante’s Peak once. It’s not bad. One of my grad school friends, Jake Lowenstern, who works for the US Geological Survey, was a scientific advisor for that film, so it’s apparently more accurate than a lot of disaster movies. Such as Sharknado! (Which I haven’t seen).

TDJ: Finally, what has it like being internet famous?

JA: Being temporarily “internet famous” for my hammerhead fear is surprising and strange, but it was nice that there were so many positive comments about the students–and me.

There’s something about this that made people smile and that’s why it achieved so much attention. Given how much negativity there is in the world, I’m glad that I could be a part of something positive.

I would also like to shout out my graduate student, “Amahi,” who was the ringleader on this particular prank. It was definitely one of the most memorable classes I’ve ever taught!

Dr. Amato was kind enough to answer the above questions over email for The Daily Jaws, questions set by Dean Newman.

You can follow Dr Amato on Twitter