If its summer, that means its Sharkfest on Hulu and Disney+, and Dr. Mike Heithaus is here to help rehabilitate this denizen of the deep from the inaccurate demonization of “Jaws.”

“A lot of us shark scientists feel a need to rehabilitate the image of sharks, which is actually not unique to sharks either,” Heithaus, 50, said in a phone interview. “Big predators in general have often been stigmatized. But even without ‘Jaws,’ people have this fascination and fear of sharks.

“That’s why it’s important they know these animals are really important to oceans and are fascinating in their own right.”

Heithaus leads a team in Saturday’s “Investigation Shark Attack” that studies multiple shark attacks on humans in the Gulf of Mexico Texas shores.

“What we’ve tried to do is take a shark’s side and view what’s going on with incidents with people.

“We have a great team of experts and take our different expertise with sharks to try to figure out not just what happened in a particular incident, but ask, Why are sharks there? How are they using their environment?

“Even though we can never be in the mind of a shark to know exactly why it did what it did, we can put the clues together to think about what might have happened.

“Then we provide that information to remove a lot of fear of sharks from people and give them hints on how to avoid these unfortunate situations.

“The first thing to keep in mind about shark incidents is that they are incredibly — incredibly! — rare. It’s a lot more dangerous driving to the beach than it is getting in the water relative to sharks.

“Even things like rip currents and drownings are, in most places, far more dangerous than the sharks. There are,” he conceded, “a few places like in Cape Cod, where you’ve got white sharks hunting seals, where you might not want to be in the water.”

Global warming affects ocean temperature and coral reefs. Sharks too?

“In a lot of ways, sharks are like people. We have our temperature range we really like — and so do sharks.

“So, as these warm waters move further north or warm up earlier in the year, sharks follow that. We’re seeing shark nurseries, like these bull sharks that can go from salt water into fresh water, moving further north.

“We’re seeing baby white sharks further north, in waters off Maine and even off Canada.

“What we don’t know for sure: How much of that is warming waters? Or is it combined with the fact that those populations were nearly wiped out and after decades of protection are starting to come back?”

“Investigation Shark Attack” streams July 5 on Hulu & Disney+