Sharks are not inherently dangerous to human beings. That's not a facetious statement on my part. I'm quite serious. The truth of the matter is that sharks do not consider us food.
According to Shark Trust, "Negative interactions between humans and sharks are rare. For example, in 2000, there were only 23 ‘attacks’ (with no fatalities) on the 264 million people who entered the water at 68 United States beach monitored by the U.S. Lifesaving Association. In contrast over the same period of time there were 132 fatalities at the same beaches due to drowning or other causes."
You stand a better chance of being killed by lightning while playing golf or crushed by a vending machine than ever becoming the victim of a shark mistake. When shark mistakes do happen, they are generally superficial exploratory bites. In spite of the incredibly low occurrences of bites, there is probably no animal on the planet that scares the living hell out of us more than sharks. It's a visceral fear common to people the world over.
Convince a jittery world not to fear sharks? Rally us all into a “save the sharks” movement? Lets face it; we'll gladly rally together to save cute little puppy-eyed seals. We even have no troubles with the idea of protecting crocodiles, but protect sharks? Rob Stewart, the creator of Sharkwater, could not have picked a more difficult challenge.
Where does this deep seated and unfounded fear come from, a fear we almost all share? The easy answer is to blame the portrayal of sharks on the media and, of course, the granddaddy of all fear mongering shark movies, Jaws. An entire generation was literally scared stupid by this film. Talk to anyone old enough to have seen this classic 70's monster movie and I'll bet dollars to donuts a good chunk them are still afraid to swim in the ocean. It was such an effectively scary movie.
Is one movie really to blame for global misconceptions about an entire group of species? Surely not every man, woman, and child has seen Jaws. I have to confess, I'm torn when it comes to that film. You see, I am a bit of a shark nut. I love sharks. I think they are the coolest creatures on the planet.
Growing up I read every book and watched every documentary I came across. I dreamed of someday working for Jacques Cousteau and eventually becoming captain of the Calypso. Okay, so life didn't quite turn out that way, but I never lost my appreciation for these wonderful creatures.
Article comments
1 - Mat Brewster
I just watched Jaws (again.) I love that movie. Still scared the crap out of me.
I don't generally get scared of sharks while I swim in the ocean, but then again I don't usually swim in the ocean. I think the scary thing though is how amazingly well built they are for tearing creatures to shreds. They may not consider us food, but if ever one got a hankering for a little human we'd be easy prey.
That's scary.
2 - C.R.
Faboulous series on sharks..I especially enjoyed the interview....Congrats!
CR
Will definitely sign petition
3 - Nathalie
Matt,
It's true they are built to be the perfect predator. That's why I find them fascinating. It also says allot about them that they so rarely attack people considering the millions of people each year that swim where sharks hunt.
Just a cool animal all around.
CR. Thanks so much. I appreciate that!
Cheers
Nat
4 - bliffle
Cougars are a bigger threat to humans, since they DO consider us food. Generally, cougars don't spit people out the way sharks do. Lions, in general, consider humans rather tasty, and in Africa and India there are records of one or two lions rampaging and eating hundreds of people. Cougars are more solitary than other lions and have large individual territories so they aren't as likely to pick up bad habits from their cohorts. Humans quickly hunt down and kill cougars that attack people so they don't get an opportunity to rampage.
5 - Nathalie
That's really interesting. I didn't know the rate of attacks by big cats was so high. And yet we laws to protect them. We understand they are wild animals just following their instincts. Few people are interested in protecting sharks though, and they have little interest in us.
I think the conversation about sharks is slowly changing for the better though. (I hope).
Thanks for reading!
6 - bliffle
There are a few groups attempting to protect sharks, especially from shark fin hunters, who cutoff the high value fin and throw the lamed shark back in the water.
7 - Nathalie
True, there are a few dedicated groups out there. Sea Shepherd, Wild Aid and SharkTrust to name a few. You know allot about this.
Next week's article will be a more in depth look at shark finning, conservation efforts & the lack of regulations on over fishing. Hope you check in, I'd love to know your thoughts on it.
Thanks
Nat
8 - Marcia L. Neil
Cats traveling their habitual trails are easily surprised and lash out. Sharks traveling their habitual shoreline currents do so head first -- which means teeth first also needing oxygen. Any human who habitually eats either species will, in a Perryoid sort of way, be considered as a potential meal in turn.
9 - Kati
Thanks for the article. I love sharks, ever since I was a kid and read this book called Shark Lady, about a female scuba diver.
Sharks, and hanging out in and around the ocean in general, quickly put the rest of the world into perspective.
10 - Nat le Gros Monstre
Wow, thanks so much. Sharks are the original perfect creature, it breaks my heart they are disappearing. And swimming in the ocean does make everything else seem so small. I hope to do a shark dive in the near future and I'll definitely write about it.
I don't think I've read Shark Lady. I'll have to check that out.
Thanks!
Nat
11 - Silver Surfer
Why sharks get such a bad rap ... I'll you why: the bastards have got dirty great sharp teeth that can cut you in half, chew you up and spit you out in one wawful splintered moment. Even some of the more benign species can give you a very nasty nip.
I never go surfing unless there's at least one other person in the water, as it cuts the risk of shark attack by 50 per cent. The more, the merrier ... especially when there are schools of fish and dolphins around, as you can bet there is the odd predator lurking around the shoal as well.
On a more serious note: the harmless grey nurse shark, which looks awfully fierce but is really the labrador of the ocean,is now endangered in Australia because it was confused with man-eaters and hunted and killed almost to the point of extinction.
It is now teetering on the brink, especially on the east coast, despite efforts to create a coastal enviornment that will encourage them to breed. However, great whites still give me a bad dose of the willies.
Even bronze whalers, which local surfers see in the water all the time chasing schools of fish, can be very dangerous.
The thing is, when we go into their domain, we move right down the food chain - and it is their domain, not ours. We are just visiting, and need to respect that.
12 - Nathalie
Silver Surfer (awesome name)I knew the minute I started reading your comment you had to be in Australia. I simply must go there someday!
Of the hundreds of species of sharks, very few pose any real danger to people...and of those who do, instances of bites are remarkably low.
From their vantage point, we look an awful lot like the outlines of sea lions and seals.(especially surfers)and swimmers make the same racket as that of an injured sea lion. I don't think it's so much that we become part of the food chain but that we look allot like shark food. Yet the incidences of actual bites are still remarkably low when you take into account the millions of swimmers and surfers that enter their hunting grounds every year. I'll bet you wouldn't take your chances like that running next to a pride of lions.
I won't lie to you and say Whites don't scare me. Of course they do! They're huge, they got big teeth and they are the perfect predator (next to us). But they are also vital to the health of our oceans. On the eastern seaboard of the US, bay scallops and other shellfish fisheries are on the verge of collapse. Why? Because large predatory sharks have been all but wiped out, resulting in an explosion of skates and rays and other fish that feed on scallops. And so the delicate balance begins to crumble.
And for the record...yes, when I someday go for a cage dive (for I simply must) it will indeed scare the living sheiza out of me..but what a thrill it will be to get that close to the top predator of the Apex predators!
Until then..keep both feet on the board!
Cheers. Nat
13 - bliffle
Mere people don't have enough blubber to keep sharks interested, like seals do. They LOVE that nice fatty blubber, and when they discover people don't have much they spit them out.
Cougars, on the other hand, like lean red meat such as what deer sport, and people are very similar.
But some sharks, like nurse sharks and leopard sharks, feed on very low organisms and don't care about blubber. Yesterday I went to Shark Day at Alviso on the bay, where they had some captured 1-2 yr old leopard sharks about 2 feet long and children were quite happy to pet them without fear. Even when they reach maturity at 5-6 feet they aren't very dangerous.
Sharkmeat is favored for Fish'n Chips because they have no bones. Their skeletal structure is cartiliginous.
14 - Nathalie
What an amazing experience for those children!
Canada is refusing to acknowledge that the Spiny Dogfish is endangered because it's doing a great business exporting them to the UK for fish & chips. It's sanitized it by calling them Rock Salmon instead of shark. Very Frustrating!
15 - Marcia L. Neil
First came sharks--then came surfboards. Whenever a surfer considers trading the board for the moving back of a large surfaced shark, there is trouble.
16 - Karen
Sharks don't consider people food? The survivors of the USS Indianapolis would probably disagree. I think sharks are magnificent but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that they are innocent guppies.
17 - Jay
For the record, Sharks don't spit you out because they do not like the taste of humans. That's not the reason most shark attacks end up as just big bites.
Sharks are one of the few marine fish that cannot swim backwards. Their gills are designed to allow them to only swim forward. Therefore, when they do attack it's the reason most people make it out alive from a shark attack. They strike quick and precise to weaken their victim (whether it be a human or a fish) so that when they circle around again it's victim could not be all that far.
I'm not saying they actively hunt humans. Most of the time they mistake a surf board or other floating (fish like) marine toy for fish. If you look at a surf board in the water from underneathe it, it sure looks like a fish. It explains why surfers are usually the ones who fall victim to shark attacks.
I agree it is time to protect not only the sharks but ALL marine life as we are the number one cause for the decline of coral reefs, Inverts, and all other marine life in the worlds oceans.
People don't realize that by having the smallest species of crabs become extinct. You end up causing a chain reaction of exctinctions among other species. It's time to spread the word.
18 - Nathalie
Two really interesting comments. Karen, I'm not saying sharks are guppies either, but they are also not cold blooded killers bent on hunting down humans. You have to admit, that is the image they have thanks to Jaws and the sensationalized media reports. They are animals, just like lions, elephants, hippos and crocodiles. All of whom kill far more humans every year than sharks, yet they are all protected.
The fact is, there are only a handful of shark species that could kill a human and most of the hundreds of other sharks in the ocean could do little damage to us if they wanted to. (which they don't, no animal will waste its time and energy on prey it cannot easily kill and eat).
And of the bigger (so called man eaters), attacks on humans are so very, very rare. Considering the millions of people who swim in shark hunting grounds every year, it says something of their interest in humans. We're just not what they search for in prey and most attacks are indeed cases of mistaken identity
Now, as for the Indianapolis..that is something that I've thought about. I'm not going to pretend to be a scientist, but if I were to take an educated guess, I would say that in the case of sunken ships in a time of war you have hundreds of survivors floating in the ocean among the remains and blood of the poor unfortunate souls killed in the initial explosions that sank the ship. So you have hundreds of stranded survivors, many probably wounded and bleeding, floating in the middle of basically chum. I apologize for the gruesome image and I mean no disrespect to the deceased, I am just trying to ponder this unfortunate phenomena. Run through the Savannah bleeding and carrying dead bodies around with you, and I would hazard a guess that you'll attract a few carnivores. Many of whom might have otherwise ignored you, but for the smell of blood, and your wounds.
Jay, I agree with you also. Sharks are not the only marine species in dire trouble. With the technology available today, we have become far too efficient at fishing and are virtually emptying our oceans. Not to mention all the dumping of waste and oil spills and god knows what else goes on out there. The oceans have become a free for all. We are quickly robbing the big blue of life to our own detriment.
Thank you both for the interesting comments. They make for a good discussion...which in itself is a step in the right direction.