STARKVILLE, Miss.—As Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” enters its 38th season, public fascination with apex predators continues to rise. But while television audiences tune in for the drama, two Mississippi State graduate students are part of the network of scientists who help provide necessary data behind the public’s often-varying opinions on sharks.

Alena Anderson and Danielle McAree, graduate researchers in MSU’s College of Forest Resources, are contributing to long-term scientific studies that plumb the depths of shark biology and behavior, a field that inspires equal parts curiosity and fear.

https://www.msstate.edu/newsroom/article/2026/07/ahead-shark-week-how-msu-graduate-students-are-taking-bite-out-shark