A shiver of sharks is heading to Australia for exciting new show
A prehistoric Helicoprion, a tiger shark, bull shark, hammerhead shark, great white shark, and a 14-metre-long whale shark are just some of the sharks heading to Sydney as part of an exciting new ground-breaking shark exhibition.
Sharks, shark movies such as The Reef and Bait, and infrequent shark attacks are no stranger to Australia, with the live action sequences in Jaws even being filmed off the southern coast, ahead of the film’s release in 1975.
These sharks are – like Bruce the mechanical shark from Jaws – set to be impressive models that will be the centrepiece to the Australian Museum’s Shark exhibition, which will even include an interactive shark tank for all those budding Matt Hoopers.
Not that any visitors will need to get wet, or need to have any spit, as they’ll be able to marvel over 180 different shark species in a cylindrical theatre, where the magnificent fish will swim around visitors.
The state-of-the-art exhibitions include a shark-tracking app where shark activity can be monitored favourite beach areas, giving a real-life insight into sharks near you.
Using a 3D interactive scan, visitors will also be able to journey from one of of a shark to another, and also encounter the world of sharks in a 360-degree view, through the eyes of a hammerhead shark.
Arts Minister Ben Franklin told The Sydney Morning Herald that this ultimate shark show “was one of the largest and most significant glimpses into sharks that an Australian museum has ever produced.”
Helicoprion is an extinct shark-like fish. Almost all fossil specimens are of spirally arranged clusters of the individuals' teeth, called "tooth whorls", which in life were embedded in the lower jaw.
It’s also a hugely important and timely one, as shark’s greatest enemy is us, man, with over 100 million sharks being killed every year, whether that is by global warming, ocean acidification, shark finning, overfishing or pollution.
The buck stops with us, and hopefully insightful and interactive shows like this can help show that it isn’t the shark that is a monster, they are misunderstood and majestic. They shouldn’t be feared, they should be revered, but most of all they should be saved.
After spending over half a year in Sydney, the show – which opens there at the end of September – will be heading for a tour of North America.
Words by Dean Newman
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