In Praise of the Gentle Shark
You are three times more likely to drown at the beach than to be attacked by a shark.
Sharks are beautiful, graceful creatures.
They have a bad rap.
Every day scuba divers outside of cages encounter sharks while diving in the ocean, and rarely do the sharks even get visibly annoyed.
There is no reason to fear sharks.
There is no reason to think of them any differently than we think of dolphins.
Shark attacks are extremely rare.
Sharks are not extremely rare.
Humans swim at the beach all the time.
And yet, while some 800,000 people a year get medical attention from dog bites in the United States alone, there are only about 70 shark attacks a year worldwide- despite hundreds of millions of humans swimming in shark habitat at popular beaches every year.
Only about 70 people are attacked by sharks a year. That many people drown to death at the beach every year in the United States alone.
And most of all, scuba divers encounter sharks all the time without any trouble- and with no cage!
In fact, sharks are more likely to be aggressive around cage divers because the cage diving industry feeds the sharks and drives them into a feeding frenzy in order to ensure that you encounter a shark.
And yet shark attacks around cage divers are virtually unheard of, despite the incautious humans who stick their hand through the bars of the cage, doing the kinds of things that we all know tourists often do!
Imagine how much safer you are around a shark not being driven unnaturally into a feeding frenzy, but rather just going along going about their day!
There are only a few species of sharks that are known to attack humans at all.
Out of many hundreds of species that frequent well-populated beaches where millions of humans swim in their habitat every year.
Most shark species are no more harmful than a grouper or a dolphin.
Even the most dangerous shark species rarely attack humans- and even there it is a case of mistaken identity at the surface of the water, often a surfer on a surfboard, someone in a very specific situation where it is easy for the shark to mistake us for a seal.
If you learn about sharks, you can learn how to avoid attracting this kind of attention.
If you are scuba diving, even around a large, dangerous species like a great white shark you are unlikely to be attacked unless you provoke them.
These are beautiful, graceful animals that rarely ever attack humans even though millions of humans who have no idea how to avoid shark attacks swim in their habitat every year.
If you are scuba diving and you see a shark, don't get scared- get overjoyed!
You have a chance to see up close one of the beautiful marvels of nature!
A graceful, beautiful, powerful, intelligent animal and a wonder of nature!
One who rarely ever gets aggressive around humans unless they are provoked- even though millions of humans who don't know how to behave around sharks swim in their home every year!
So this is my tribute to the gentle shark!
You are more likely to be attacked by the neighbor's dog than by a shark- even if you swim in their territory every day, which many people do, for every natural ocean beach is part of their territory!
The gentle shark- an animal no more dangerous than a stray dog!
This is my tribute to one of the beautiful, intelligent animals of nature- the many hundreds of species of sharks!
God loves you! Understanding brings love and banishes fear!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson