10. Virgin Mary shark?
This white-tipped reef shark named Ibolya at a Hungarian aquarium stunned the world when she gave birth to her pup without the help of a male shark! How? It’s a process called parthenogenesis where some reptiles and plants reproduce a clone of the mother to ensure survival of the species when males are scarce. That's just way too freaky, even for Shark Week.
9. It’s Hammer-time!
This hammerhead shark has to be one of the nastiest creatures in the sea. There’s no hiding from this sinister swimmer since their flat heads evolved with eyes perfectly positioned to allow a complete 360-degree view. Scary.
8. Shark with military honors
Named for the large brown spots behind its pectoral fins, this epaulette shark has 26-35 rows of teeth. But unlike other sharks, these stylish fish don’t really swim. Instead, they waddle on their fins along the bottom of the ocean. Though they mostly eat crabs and worms, they can reach gigantic proportions.
7. Moby Dick shark
The whale shark is currently the largest living fish on planet Earth. Reaching up to 41 feet long, this cold-blooded vertebrate mostly feeds on plankton; however this titan does have numerous rows of teeth and some divers claimed they’ve nearly been sucked into this shark’s massive mouth.
6. We’re gonna need a bigger boat
Okay, so this isn’t a real shark. But the mechanical shark used in Jaws was so ridiculously unreliable, Steven Spielberg nicknamed the robotic fish “The White Turd” because instead of attacking, it mostly sank to the bottom of the ocean, costing the production time and money. Thankfully, we now have CGI to create sea monsters.
5. Time-traveling terror
Featured on Discovery Channel’s Sharkzilla, this full-sized replica of Megalodon invokes true horror. Luckily, this mega-mouthed shark went extinct about a million and a half years ago, but it still sends shivers down our spine. This super-predator could be as long as 52 feet! So what did this leviathan eat? Whatever it wanted.
4. Trapped and tormented
This reef shark is pissed off. Caught in a net as part of Discovery Channel's show Shark Fight, this muscular eating machine will thrash, flail and writhe until it is free or dies of exhaustion. A trapped shark is probably the most dangerous creature in the big blue. Stay away!
3. Rotting shark with an ammonia aroma
This dish is an Icelandic delicacy called hakarl and is known for its strong ammonia smell. It’s made by gutting and decapitating a Greenland shark, then burying it in the ground where it ferments for 6-12 weeks. Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain was quoted as saying hakarl was the “the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing” he ever ate. We'll take him at his word.
2. What very big teeth you have!
This 10-foot predator was caught in drum lines off Australia when another shark, possibly a 20-footer, took two giant bites! Amazingly, this shark was still alive when fisherman pulled it on board their ship. Now, that’s bada**.
1. Take a Viagra, seriously
Why is this can the scariest of all? Because the shark fin soup industry is threatening the stability of the world’s shark population by killing nearly 100 million sharks each year. Sure, these toothy gill-breathers are ugly and brutal, but they are a necessary part of the ocean’s food chain. Superstition surrounds this meal in Asia, suggesting that shark fin is an aphrodisiac, but there is no evidence to support this centuries-old claim. In addition, the process of “finning,” where fishermen slice off the shark’s fin then dump the shark back into the water, makes for a slow, cruel death.