UC Merced professor will be on Discovery’s Shark Week

MERCED, Calif. ( KSEE/KGPE ) – A UC Merced professor who is a shark expert got the experience of a lifetime and will be featured on Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.

UC Merced officials say that Professor Sora Kim will be featured on Shark Week as she swims with great white sharks and discusses an enormous legendary sea creature that takes on different forms in different cultures but has a basis in science.

The mythological sea monster that will be referenced in the episode is Leviathan, which has been drawn in various forms throughout the ages, and referenced in such books as the bible and “Moby Dick.” UC Merced officials say that it is represented as a serpent or dragon, although some scientists and artists depicted the sea monster as just an enormous whale.

Officials say Hazmat Productions, the company that makes shows with a “Jaws vs.” theme each year, flew Kim out to New Zealand’s Stewart Island over UC Merced’s spring break to film the episode.

According to UC Merced’s website , Kim is a shark ecologist who studies animals through the isotopes found in tissue samples, but she is especially interested in shark teeth as they are preserved in the fossil record.

UC Merced officials say that although she has been scuba diving and snorkeling, this will be the first time in her career that she cage-dived with great white sharks.

“I was struck by how curious and agile they are and how fast they can move. They would come in really fast and turn so quickly to swim past the cage,” Kim said.

Kim worked with Shark Week last year and was accompanied by a shark expert and a conservationist.

Kim’s episode will be featured on the prime-time, premiere-night episode on Sunday, July 7 at 9 p.m. EDT or 6 p.m. PST.

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