Discovery Channel’s Shark Week begins this Sunday, July 23rd, at 7 p.m. Eastern Time, and concludes on the 30th.

And what a week it will be:

In addition to a daily schedule of shark-related films, the week kicks off with the most spectacular sports event since 2012, when daredevil Felix Baumgartner free-fell from the edge of space.

Anyone who has paid attention to the media for the past month knows that mega-medalist* Michael Phelps will race against a Great White shark off Cape Town, South Africa.

“Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White” begins at 8 p.m. on the 23rd—followed by “Shark-Croc Showdown” (no Phelps) at 9 p.m.

The eight-day schedule of events has numerous other shark-filled specials. Phelps will also appear inon the last night; not a rematch with the shark but in an educational special, “Shark School with Michael Phelps.”

SIP SHARK COCKTAILS AS YOU WATCH THE RACE

RECIPE 1: SHARK TANK PUNCH
COCKTAIL OR MOCKTAIL

We published the recipe for photo #1 last year.

Substitute blue gummy sharks for the red Swedish fish in the photo. Or, for a touch of the macabre, keep a Swedish fish or two among the frenzy of sharks. Why a frenzy? See below.

As with the second recipe, it can be made as a cocktail or mocktail.
 
 
RECIPE #2: SHARK ON ICE
COCKTAIL OR MOCKTAIL

Lemonade and blue curacao turn this drink green in this recipe from Sparkling Ice.

For a blue drink, substitute a clear carbonated drink (club soda, Sprite, 7Up, etc.)

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the vodka and curaçao in a shaker; add the ice. Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass.

2. TOP with Sparkling Ice Classic Lemonade and garnish with some blue shark gummies.
 
 
SHARK TRIVIA

[1] Shark tank punch from Cocktails Details. Here’s the recipe.

[2] Substitute the Swedish fish for blue gummy sharks (photo courtesy Candy Crate).

[3] Create a shark lagoon in a cocktail glass (photo courtesy Sparkling Ice).

According to Sharks-World.com, a group of sharks is called a frenzy, gam‡, herd, school or shiver (pronounced shivver, an earlier spelling of the word).

Frenzy and shiver sound right to us!
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*Phelps has 39 world records and 23 Olympic gold medals.
†“Nouns of multitude,” in this case, collective nouns for animals, were first developed in the Middle Ages (when people had nothing else to do after dark, we guess). The first documentation that survives, the Egerton Manuscript, dates from circa 1450.

These “books of courtesy,” as they were called, encompass animals, people and professions: a misbelief of painters, a stalk of foresters, a tabernacle of bakers, et al. Here’s a list of collective nouns for animals, and a discussion of how some nouns were derived (a murder of crows, a sentence of judges, etc.).
 
‡In terms of “gam,” the only definitions we could find are the slang referring to a leg, and a mid 19th century English dialect, perhaps from “game,” or shortened from “gammon,” early 18th-century slang for nonsense or rubbish.