Shark Week 2014 premiere: 'Submarine' shark just a hoax like Megalodon, critics say

(A shark swims past a nativity scene set up in an aquarium in the Italian town of Cattolica December 26, 2005. REUTERS/Francesco Campani)

It seems that Discovery Channel kicked off 'Shark Week 2014' with a documentary of a fake shark, at least according to reports.

Last year, science and marine biology lovers were enraged when Discovery Channel mindlessly started its Shark Week with "Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives," a documentary of a shark they believe never existed.

Though respectable scientists and historians believe that Megalodon is an extinct creature, many of its viewers doubt the authenticity of the giant shark.

Shark Week 2014 suffered a similar premiere as last year, when the 2-hour mockumentary "Shark of Darkness: Wrath of Submarine" stared this year's Shark Week.

According to the documentary, "Submarine" is a 30-foot shark living off the coast of South Africa, terrifying its coastal towns and tourists for decades.

Gawker pointed out that, though Discovery Channel did put a disclaimer at the beginning of the documentary, it does not forgive the fact that the channel is again, spreading lies.

"Submarine is a legendary shark first sighted off the coast of South Africa in 1970. Eyewitness accounts say it is over 35 feet long. Its existence is highly controversial. Events have been dramatized, but many believe Submarine exists to this day," the Shark Week 2014 premiere documentary's disclaimer said.

Gawker mentioned the falsehood of the "South African Institute for Marine Research," who described Submarine on its Typepad page with an "insatiable appetite for human blood;" a description that's unlikely to be released by such an institution, strongly suggesting it doesn't even exist.

Lastly, Gawker also pointed out the dramatized part of Submarine, where a boat boarding whale watchers capsized in Hout Bay, the same location as Megalodon's supposed, and hopefully nonexistent, attack that was shown last year in the documentary.

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