When you hit your 25th anniversary, you just have to go big. And on August 12, Discovery will mark a quarter-century of filling our summertime airwaves with the toothy predators of the watery deep.
Shark Week, that annual celebration of selachimorphae, is marking its 25th anniversary. And to commemorate that milestone, Discovery Communications’ headquarters in Silver Spring will once again be adorned with a giant, inflatable shark.
Yes, people, Chompie is returning after a two-year absence, Discovery announced on its corporate blog today.
Chompie, who was last seen in 2010, is composed of five pieces—a head, a tail fin, two ventral fins and a dorsal fin that rises from the roof. Looming over downtown Silver Spring, he measures 446 feet from nose to tail, with a span of 200 feet. Were he an actual great white, Chompie would weigh 84,000 pounds, according to Discovery.
The Chompie display was manufactured in 2006 by CMEANN Productions, a California company that manufactures large-scale, inflatable promotional materials. When the installation was first deployed during Shark Week that year, it did not have a name. But when it reappeared in 2010, it was given its name.
Actually, there’s something of a backstory to just how Chompie became “Chompie.” Last year, when fans of the big shark noticed he was absent for Shark Week, there was a bit of a naming dispute between Discovery and a Silver Spring blogger who claimed he coined the name “Chompy.” But Discovery insisted on the “-ie” spelling, and an attorney specializing in trademark law agreed that as property of Discovery Communications, the inflatable shark was the company’s to name. Hence, Chompie.
Unfortunately, Chompie can’t show up every year. Being mounted atop an office building and subjected to the elements for three weeks doesn’t exactly do wonders for Chompie’s physique. After all, he’s made of air-filled fabric and stitching, not cartilage, muscle and skin. But when he does appear, he makes Shark Week so much better. The shark-costumed mascot Discovery dispatched to Silver Spring passersby last year was cute, but no replacement.
Chompie will be hoisted, by crane, to his perch in late July, according to Tammy Shea, Discovery’s vice president of corporate communications. Once up there, he must be continuously inflated by 10 air blowers that collectively pump 2,000 cubic feet of air every minute.
Shea adds that in addition to Chompie, Discovery is planning other festivities for Shark Week’s 25th anniversary, including screenings and other events to take place around its Silver Spring base. And, if you want to actually watch the Shark Week programming, Entertainment Weekly has the schedule.
