Jonathan Davis, M.S.
Marine Biologist, Texas Parks and Wildlife

Discovery's Shark Week has a longstanding reputation for abuse of its science experts. A top example is that of Jonathan Davis, who answered many general questions about sharks on camera for a show called "Voodoo Shark" (though he didn't know that). Near the end of the interview, they surprised him with questions about a mythical monster shark called the Rooken. He'd never heard of it, and had nothing to say; so they followed up with a question about the possibility of any large sharks at all in the area. "I'm not 100% certain that it would happen, but it could happen," he answered.

Cue the editing razor. Shark Week grafted his second answer onto the first question, flagrantly misrepresenting what he'd said, making it sound that he was supporting the possibility the Rooken was real and local. To make it worse, he found to his horror when the show aired that the narrator introduced him with "[Jonathan Davis's team] believes that if there is a monster shark entering Lake Pontchartrain, it would likely be sticking to this area."

Science Friction is a new documentary film that will expose these faux documentaries, and give the scientists a chance to clear the record.

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