Site of the Week
Virtual Shark Buffet http://www.discovery.com/stories/nature/sharkweek/sharkweek.html
This shark-centred site features a number of smaller sites, a few in particular being worth a visit. Aiming to explain the natural history of sharks, and get away from the whole ‘daaaaaaaaah-dum’ mythology surrounding them, ‘Shark Realities’ documents the work of researchers in the Bahamas as they try to understand more about these greatly misunderstood creatures. A series of dispatches from Dr. Sonny Gruber’s Bimini shark station explain the research being done, you can listen to a question and answer session with Dr. Gruber, and some great photography shows the team’s work in progress. From here you can access the ‘Shark Tank’ section, which features short factfiles on a good collection of species, from great whites to lemon and nurse sharks. The ‘3D Shark Encounter’ requires a plug-in (which is available for download), though while it claims to be a view from inside a shark tank, it looks a lot more like a pieced-together image, and it probably won’t strike you as the greatest 3D feature you have ever seen. For a different type of entertainment, try the ‘Interview with a Shark’ section, which follows the life of ‘Kenny’ - a shark who is, we are carefully reassured, fictional. Kenny has been spending time living alongside the humans at Discovery Channel Online, and he shares his experiences for the benefit of younger visitors. As well as answering questions on shark life and doing his bit for human-shark relations, he explains some of the conclusions he has drawn during his time on land: “I’ve learned that people are much more polite to me in person than they are on the phone,” he explains…
Richard Northover
Info-content ** Readability *** Appearance ** User friendliness * Kids *** Plug-ins iPix, RealPlayer