Discovery’s Shark Week circles TVs, da-dum, da-dum

August 11, 2012 - 2:50 pm | Category: Entertainment

The soundtrack from the 1975 movie Jaws, rumbling in our heads as we dip our toes into the ocean, is a summer tradition. As is Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, which this year kicks off its 25th year of jaw-dropping programming on Sunday.

And the most emotional premiere this year could well be Shark Fight (Wednesday, 9 ET/PT), which profiles shark-attack victims who lived to talk about it.

Among them: Mike Coots, who in 1997 lost his leg to a tiger shark while surfing off the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Five weeks after the attack, Coots, who was 18 years old at the time, was back in the water. He now surfs with a prosthetic leg.

The resilient Coots holds no grudge; he has made peace with one of the world’s most frightening predators. “Pretty much my whole life was about the ocean,” Coots says. “After I was bitten, I just felt blessed to be alive and never had any hostility or any anger toward sharks.”