Sharks are one of our favorite animals on the planet. Just ask our amazing Shark Week fans. But even though millions of people text and tweet their excitement about all things shark, we recently came to a sad realization - there is no shark emoji.

Dolphins, whales, fish and dozens of other animals have been honored with their own emojis. But not sharks. Why, we ask? How are we supposed to properly express our excitement about Shark Week and Shweekend without a shark emoji?! The truth is, we can’t. So please join us in asking the Unicode Consortium to create a shark emoji.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPv5dULCVKo

How do we do make this happen? 

The Unicode Consortium is a non-profit that regulates the coding standards for modern software and computers, including the alphabet and emojis you use on your iPhone and Android. Recently, the wonderful folks at Unicode Consortium announced they have accepted 38 new emoji characters as candidates for Unicode 9.0 (to be released in mid-2016). And, drumroll please . . .  a shark emoji is one of the nominees! Help us make sure the shark emoji is chosen. Sign the petition and ask Unicode Consortium (the masters of all things emoji) to approve and release the shark in 2016.

Here at Discovery, we know you love sharks just as much as we do. Every signature helps us get to our goal and promote shark and ocean conservation. Watch Shweekend starting Saturday August 29th at 9/8c or go to changethetide.discovery.com  to find out more about what you can do to help these amazing animals.