TV-Reviewed

I don’t consider “Jaws in Illinois” to be a particularly strong episode in MonsterQuest’s history. It deals with a subject I am familiar with, more so than some of the other stories the producers investigate. I live in Illinois and know a fair amount about the sharks which have been caught here, many, many miles away from the ocean.

I did like that the Bull Shark was properly blamed for most shark attacks and especially the famous New Jersey attacks in 1916. Anyone who knows anything about sharks knows that Great Whites wouldn’t be found in the little river that those poor people were killed in. Only a Bull Shark could be responsible for them.

A Bull Shark From Louisiana

While there was a search for the Bull Sharks in Louisiana (why not Illinois, given the title?), there was also one in Canada as they were looking for Greenland Sharks in the St. Lawrence River. Until this year’s Shark Week on Discovery, I don’t believe I had ever heard of this species of shark. I am certainly not a shark expert in general, but I’d like to think that I would be able to identify most of the common ones.

The Greenland Shark is a relatively unknown entity due to its habitat. This particular shark prefers the very cold, deep, dark water near the Arctic. A question was posed regarding why the creatures weren’t solely found under the ice like they used to be. This seemed like a silly question to me given the warming climate. There’s very little ice left compared to what it was several generations ago.

Again, there wasn’t much in the way of surprising information in this episode. I thought they could have given more information on the Greenland Shark, but they didn’t tell us much of anything. Scientists don’t know a whole lot, but I can’t say that I learned anything by watching this episode.

Rating: 5.6