How accurately are sharks portrayed in popular culture?

Although Tracy Morgan lives every week like it's Shark Week, this week it actually is. Discovery Channel's popular midsummer week of shark specials is in its 21st year of shark-themed shows. But Shark Week isn't the sea king's only pop culture platform. The deep sea's most mysterious and feared creature has been featured in TV shows and movies as terrifying monsters, lovable sidekicks, and badass crime fighters.

We asked senior shark biologist Jack Morris from the Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida to tell us if sharks can really live on a vegetarian diet, team up with dinosaurs to defend humans, or organize themselves into an underwater Mafia.

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Jaws (1975)
Otherwise known as the shark movie, Jaws sparked an industry of shark films, shark tours and, general shark mania. In the film, a giant great white shark attacks several people off the Jersey shore, sending the town's police chief, a shark hunter, and a marine biologist on a hunt for the killer shark. Out on the ocean, they are confronted by a much cleverer opponent than they expected.

Biologist says:
Morris says that Jaws could have attacked so many people because he mistook them for prey. A shark may be going after a fish, and because the bottom of a human foot is so white, quick movements could be very similar to that of a fish. It also can be explained by a lack of food in the area where the shark lives, forcing the shark to go for alternative food sources.

Although Jaws may have kept people away from the beach in the '70s, Morris doesn't think that people nowadays see sharks the way they did when the movie was released. "I think people have realized that it is just a movie, and even the author of the book [Peter Benchley] was a big shark advocate until his death."