Between shark and man

Every modern discussion of sharks and humans begins in the same place: 1975. That was when Steven Spielberg's Jaws came out, and put a fear of the cold and threatening deep (and, yes, 5000-pound saw-toothed fish) into a new generation of moviegoers and swimmers.

Jaws trailer (1975)

The great white shark, immortalized on celluloid as one of the natural world's most ruthless apex predators, actually appears to be a finicky eater with little taste for humans.

As U.C. Davis marine biologist Peter Klimley told Reuters in 1999, "[The sharks] clearly make a decision on what they are going to swallow. Most surfers they just spit out." Klimley and a group of scientists spent four years examining the predatory behavior of great white sharks around rocky outcroppings off the California coast where elephant seals, the sharks' favorite prey, gather.

Watch a breathless narration of seal slaughter

Obviously, it makes good television, the idea of a ruthless and bloodthirsty beast. There's good evidence of the opposite, however... After roaming the seas for 400 million years, sharks are facing their first real threat: human beings. Often labeled “man-eaters,” sharks have been feared and hunted for centuries. Today, overfishing, worldwide demand for shark products and poor
management are pushing sharks to the brink.

Shark attacks are rare and isolated, but they tend to intense media coverage. This negative attention can hinder shark conservation. Many people fear sharks, but dogs, snakes, bees, and even pigs kill more people than do sharks.

How can you protect yourself for that rarest of rarities, a shark bite? According to a Washington, D.C., group called The Ocean Conservancy, don't swim with baitfish or marine mammals, near outfall pipes at dawn or dusk, or – and this is important, if obvious – while bleeding.

For more on the Great White and its kind, head over to the Discovery Channel, where each year they celebrate Shark Week.

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