As far as humans travel, it's nothing compared to some animals. To put just how large this distance is into perspective, we've put together an animation showing these animals and their incredible distances. The following is a transcription.

No matter how much traveling you do, these creatures have you beat. These are the animals with the longest migrations.

In the Yukon, Porcupine caribou travel 3,000 miles. This is the longest migration by land of any mammal on Earth.

Monarch butterflies fly about 3,000 miles each year. Some will travel all the way from Canada to Mexico.

Leatherback turtles will swim 10,000 miles across the Pacific between the US and Indonesia.

The globe skimmer dragonfly has that name for a reason. It crosses the Indian ocean between East Africa and India. The total trip is about 10,000 miles.

Humpback whales travel over 10,440 miles from Costa Rica to Antarctica and back. It is the longest mammal migration on Earth.

Great white sharks migrate 12,400 miles between South Africa to Western Australia and back.

But no one can cover more ground than the birds! The sooty shearwater travels 40,000 miles. It flies between New Zealand and Alaska.

At the top of the list is the arctic tern. It has been recorded migrating over 44,000 miles, flying from the Arctic to Antarctica.

You thought your commute was bad?

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Sharks often get a bad rap, but they aren't necessarily out to make you their lunch. We spoke with Coyote Peterson, who hosts the popular YouTube channel Brave Wilderness, about one of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to sharks. Following is a transcript of the video.

Coyote Peterson: That sharks are just straight-up man-eaters, which they aren't.

I'm Coyote Peterson. I'm a host of the Brave Wilderness Channel on YouTube.

Oftentimes, the only reason you're attacked by a shark is because, A: you're in the shark's environment — if you're out there swimming in the ocean — and sharks oftentimes mistake humans for prey.

So imagine yourself on a paddleboard or a surfboard. From underneath, you look like a sea lion or a sea turtle.  So that shark comes into the environment, and what it's doing, it's investigating, right?

Sharks never just grab onto something and tear it apart. Their method for catching their prey is actually to come in and do a test bite. Oftentimes, that test by can be so lethal, it ends up killing the prey.

And imagine how soft the human body is. If a tiger shark comes up and thinks, "Mmm ... maybe you're a sea turtle," and takes a bite, swims away, you're gonna to be in pretty bad shape.

So it's oftentimes people die from shark bites, not so much being eaten by sharks.

So as long as you're safe in the environment that you're in, and you pay attention to the warnings on the beach, pay attention to the local media — if sharks have been spotted in the area — it's actually rather simple to avoid sharks, if you're paying attention to your surroundings.

If you are in the process of being attacked by a shark, the sensory perception organs that they have in their nose, specifically their noses and their eyes, that's how they sense their environment.

So being able to hit an animal on its snout like that can oftentimes detur them from continuing the attack.

So if you're in the position where you're being attacked by something like a shark, obviously fight with your life no matter what you can do, to make sure that you can get away.

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• Instagram video published this summer showed men laughing at a suffering shark roped to their boat.
• Authorities in Florida acted on the footage and have now filed charges.

Three men have been charged with animal cruelty after a video emerged showing a shark being dragged behind a speeding boat.

The brief clip, believed to have been shot off the Florida coast, shows the shark repeatedly hitting the surface of the water while being pulled by a rope from the back of the boat.

As it bounces in the air and flips around, the camera turns to show three men on the boat.

One says "look it's already almost dead" while the others laugh.

The video went viral in July after it was sent to deep sea fisherman Mark Quartiano, also known as "Mark the Shark," who shared it on Instagram.

Outraged, he wrote: "CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME [WHAT] IS GOING ON HERE ???? JUST GOT THIS ON MY FEED!

"FOR ONCE I MAY HAVE TO AGREE WITH @PETA. #WHODOESTHISS*** #sowrong #notcool."

A news release from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said three men — Michael Wenzel, 21, and Spencer Heintz, 23, and Robert Lee Benac, 28 — had been charged in connection with incident.

They face two felony counts of aggravated animal cruelty. Wenzel and Benac also face a misdemeanour count of illegal method of taking a shark.

FWC chairman Bo Rivard said in a statement: "As we've said since this video and other images came to light, these actions have no place in Florida, where we treasure and conserve our natural resources for everyone.

"We appreciate the patience and support of the public as our law enforcement investigators worked with the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office to identify a number of serious violations that will be brought to the courts for adjudication.

"It is our hope these charges will send a clear message to others that this kind of behaviour involving our fish and wildlife will not be tolerated."

FWC said that the charges follow a four-month long investigation into the video.

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• Thousands of blacktip sharks have begun their annual migration past Florida, and the drone footage is truly incredible. 
• Over 10,000 sharks were seen hugging Florida's coast, just a short distance away from beachgoers. 
• Every year, thousands of sharks migrate to Florida waters to mate and eat. 

The annual blacktip shark migration past Florida is one of the coolest spectacles in nature. Thousands of sharks hug Florida’s coast, swimming along the beaches while following huge schools of mullet and other baitfish.

This annual event leads to some impressive footage showing thousands and thousands of sharks swimming just a frisbee’s throw away from beachgoers. Josh from BlacktipH, the largest fishing channel on YouTube, has been pulling some wild drone shots and fishing footage of this blacktip shark migration.

I’ve pulled together a few different clips and pictures to give you an idea of just how massive this shark migration is:

This footage was taken last week:

Here’s what the migration has looked like in years past when the drone is in the right place at the right time:

If you were glued to Twitter last weekend, then chances are you saw some pictures showing thousands of sharks swimming past Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida. That was just a fraction of the total number of blacktip sharks migrating through South Florida at the moment.

If you’re a sports fisherman and enjoy a good catch-and-release fishing encounter then now’s a good time to hit the beaches because the action is on fire. Along with the sharks you’ll find countless other species following the baitfish.

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• A man from the Bahamas is claiming to be a "Shark Whisperer."
• He alleges that he has the ability to lull deadly sharks into a hypnotic state of relaxation by stroking them on their heads.
• A video of his actions is equally scary and mesmerizing. 

Let’s go ahead and add ‘Shark Whisperer’ to the list of jobs that my guidance counselor never told me existed. I’ve never even heard of this man until today which is a little odd for me personally because he’s based out of The Bahamas and I’ve spent considerable amounts of time there over the years. I’m getting sidetracked already … Back on task: the only explanation here is this gentleman is teetering on the brink of insanity.

The ‘Shark Whisperer’ lulls these wild and potentially lethal sharks into a state of tonic immobility, a hypnotic state of relaxation. As the video explains, he does this by gently stroking the ampullae of lorenzi, electroreceptor organs on the shark’s heads, and this puts the sharks into a state of hypnotic relaxation:

Sharks aren’t inherently violent or post any sort of a threat. They’re not out to fuck up your day any more than a stranger is on the street. Just because you encounter a shark in the wild it does not mean you are in danger.

With that said, there’s a difference between recognizing that something isn’t hardwired to attack you out of nowhere and putting that potentially lethal animal in your lap and stroking its head. If I’m in the African bush and I see a lion sauntering up to me slowly, looking friendly, I’m not going to just sit down and wait for that lion fall asleep in my lap while I stroke its mane. I really can’t wrap my mind around this dude putting sharks heads in his lap with all of those teeth right next to his sex organs. This seems like it only ends with a ‘Florida Man’ headline.

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• Sharks are misunderstood, as I learned after swimming with them off the coast of Moorea.
• Media portrays them as vicious, but sharks aren't interested in humans.
• They have a sharp sense of smell and hearing to prey on the fish in their natural food chain.
• Sharks are quickly disappearing, which is problematic for the oceans. 

Let me make one thing perfectly clear before I get started — I have been afraid of getting attacked by a shark since I moved to Hawaii half a decade ago. What I knew about these ocean predators was what I've seen on television shows and movies, which could be summed up in a single word — terrifying. In an effort to abolish the fear I had, I did a popular cage dive here in Hawaii a few years ago. It had a surprising impact on me. I found that after doing it, I wanted to learn and experience more.

Life happened and I got busy, but at the start of 2018 I made a vow to cross off a big bucket list item — to free dive with sharks naturally — no cage, no chum, just me and them. So, when I traveled to Tahiti a few weeks ago and had the opportunity to do just that three miles off the coast of Moorea with a marine biologist, I jumped at the opportunity and into the water.

Here's what I learned from the harrowing experience and what you should know before you give it a try.

Most of what I knew about sharks is false.

I boarded the Moorea Ocean Adventures boat with marine biologist Matthieu Petit and my first question was "So, are these guys going to eat me for lunch?" He laughed a little bit, but not because it's funny but because he's completely exhausted with trying to dispel the media portrayal of sharks.

"I wish people knew real facts, not the picture of the monster eating humans for breakfast spread by movies and some media or the hysteria following each (very rare) accident that involves sharks." The International Shark Attack File reported that in 2017 there were only 5 fatal shark attacks worldwide.

Sharks are disappearing at an alarming speed.

There is one shark killed every three seconds in the world. "It's one of the biggest issues in the ocean right now," explained Petit. "Sharks are maybe the most important key species living in the oceans and making them disappear could have unknown, but very strong consequences, on a global level." This infographic is beyond eye-opening.

Sharks are not vicious.

I wanted to know why sharks get this bad-guy rap in movies and television shows if they're truly mis-characterized.

"Vicious is a word describing some human behaviors more than animal behaviors, but they are opportunistic," explained Petit. "This is why they have such an important role in the ecosystem. By targeting the weak, sick or injured animals, especially fish, they contribute to the good health of the fish populations and the whole ecosystem [no propagation of the diseases, favoring natural selection,etc]."

Sharks don't want to eat humans.

This is probably the most important fact and I cannot emphasize it enough. Let's take a look at why: Like I learned above, sharks are opportunistic and curious, so they are always exploring their environment, but humans are big. Only a few species [of sharks] are big enough to even consider humans potential prey. "99% of the times they meet a human, they have absolutely no interest in him," said Petit. "There is a particular thing we've noticed — the bigger the shark is, the more shy it is. It is very easy to attract small reef sharks close to the boat and humans, but to attract a big shark, you have to be patient as they escape the boats and the swimmers most of the time."

It's true — sharks are attracted to blood.

But not yours! Let me say it again for the people in the back — sharks do not want to eat humans. Their intention is to prey on animals that are in their natural food chain and, of course, one of the senses they use to do this is smell. "Their senses are incredibly developed," said Petit. But if it's blood you are worried about, perhaps you should turn your attention to what noises you are making. "Sharks rely on their sharpened sense of hearing to detect the sounds of an injured fish from very far away." This sound can be easily replicated by crackling a water bottle beneath the surface of the water, a tactic biologists use to study sharks in different waters and was demonstrated to me by the team. We were able to spot a lone lemon shark this way, which was incredible.

You can look them in the eye.

Sometimes I wonder if I watch too much "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel, because in my head I just kept repeating "whatever you do, don't make eye contact." In reality, this is next to impossible when they're circling you in the water and to be honest — their eyes look really cool. I asked about it when we surfaced and there's really no reason you can't look them in the eye "Why wouldn't you? In fact, you did it many times and nothing happened, except cohabitation between a human and shark with no aggression on either side."

Swimming at dawn or dusk still isn't a great idea.

For as long as I can remember, I've heard not to swim at dawn or dusk, since that's when sharks are feeding. Because sharks are opportunistic, you're not necessarily going to be attacked, but you'll be putting yourself in a questionable situation without the upper hand.

"Sharks are opportunistic so they will try to have the advantage on their prey," explained Petit. "The lack of visibility [at those times] is a very good advantage to them as they will sense your presence a long time before you do. That said, this is a warning particularly for bull sharks, tiger and great whites. 95% of the sharks species don't care about humans and the time of the day you swim in the ocean."

The shark anatomy is fascinating.

Through the barrage of questions I threw at the team, I learned an incredible amount about the anatomy of sharks, including a cool fact about the reproduction of gray reef sharks.

"Most species of sharks are not suited to breathe correctly if they stop swimming," said Petit. "So during reproduction, gray reef sharks gather in the channels. While they stop to mate, the strong currents continue to bring oxygen into their gills."

You're braver than you think you are.

Swimming with sharks sounds thrilling and exhilarating in theory, but then when it comes down to it and you see those apex predators circling the water you're about to jump into, your stomach just might drop to your knees. Nevertheless, I found myself easing right off the side of our boat and slipping into their world seamlessly given my newfound shark knowledge and comfort level.

One day, sharks might be gone.

Because these graceful, curious creatures are killed so rapidly for sport, fins and more — their population is fragile. If you share the same interest I did in sharks, or desperately want to overcome a misplaced fear, I cannot encourage you enough to forget what you think you know about them and go meet them in the wild with the help of someone who knows what they are doing before they disappear.

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• A 27-year-old fisherman and diving instructor named Dominick Martin-Mayes discovered hundreds of sharks and other fish tangled in a floating "ghost net" off the coast of the Cayman Islands. 
• Based on the number of creatures that were trapped, it is likely that the net had been cut adrift for a long time. 
• According to Martin-Mayes, many of the animals were so decomposed that it was impossible to tell which species they were. 

Hundreds of dead fish and sharks have been discovered by divers tangled in a huge, abandoned fishing net drifting off the coast of the Cayman Islands.

The floating "ghost net" has possibly been trapping and killing sea life in its path for months, as it drifts across the Caribbean Sea.

A diver who captured underwater images of the net said many of the animals were so decomposed it was impossible to tell which species they were.

Dominick Martin-Mayes, a 27-year-old fisherman and diving instructor who made the initial discovery, told The Independent he and some friends found the "solid net of dead, decomposing fish and sharks" on Monday afternoon. 

"At first we thought it was a log, but as we got closer we could see it was a net with floats," he said. "I jumped in the water first and was shocked at what I saw. It took my breath away - the first thing I saw was the juvenile oceanic whitetip [shark]. 

"I got my buddy who was with me to grab a knife and jump in. We did what we could to free some of the trapped life but most of it was already dead."

The Cayman Islands government subsequently issued an alert on Tuesday to boaters in an effort to relocate the net. Mr. Martin-Mayes said it had likely traveled more than a hundred miles from where they first found it - four miles north of Grand Cayman.

Tim Austin, deputy director of the Department of Environment, told the Cayman Compass the number of creatures tangled in it indicated it had been cut adrift for a long time. 

"If we can locate it, we can assess whether we can recover it or tow it somewhere to secure it until it can be dealt with safely," he said. "We don’t want it to end up in the reef and we need to stop its deadly ghost fishing."

Mr. Martin-Mayes, from Lymington, Hampshire, said he and his friends managed to rescue a number of fish and even a shark from the net, which he estimated to be up to 50ft across and 50ft deep.

They found buckets, rope, bottles, a long cable "disappearing into the depths," and even a tree tangled among the hundreds of carcasses.

"The more that get caught, the more that come in to eat it and get caught themselves," he said. 

But they were unable to stay in the water for long, due to strong currents, other ocean predators, and the risk they would get in caught in the net.

"The net’s sole purpose in life is to kill - you get your hand wrapped in it and you drown," he warned.

They tried to tow the net back to shore but it was too heavy.

Of its chances of being found by authorities, Mr. Martin-Hayes guessed it was "highly unlikely".

But he said: "Never give up hope, but it's a very small object in a very, very large ocean."

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• It's easy to see why people are so afraid of sharks; they're huge, better in water than humans, and have massive, sharp teeth. 
• However, while sharks kill one human a year, deer kill an average of 120 Americans annually. 
• An estimated 28 Americans are killed by dogs each year, though most dogs were previously mistreated by humans. 

There’s just a one in 1,384,594 chance of being killed by an animal in the United States, but you should still be extra careful around these species.

Deer

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• A photo has emerged of a woman lying next to a dead great white shark and grinning.
• The woman in question, a marine biologist, has come under fire for the shark "selfie" that has since gone viral but her colleague is defending her.
• Her colleague wanted to measure the shark but had no tools so asked his colleague to lie next to the shark to get some sense of scale.

Admittedly, it doesn’t look good. A photo has emerged of a woman lying next to a dead great white shark and grinning wide-eyed and excited at the camera. The woman in question, a marine biologist, has come under fire for the shark “selfie” that has since gone viral – but her colleague, Giancarlo Thomae, promises it was all done in the name of science.

The shark was found washed up on a Californian beach last weekend, presumably because it had beached the night before. Thomae, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, was alerted to the presence of the now deceased shark by his mother, who had seen a post on Facebook. Concerned the body would be swept away by the morning tide, he and his colleague headed over to Seascape Beach Resort to take its measurements before it was too late.

There was a just a small problem. They had no equipment to measure it with. Which is why, as they waited for colleagues to bring said equipment, the pair got creative. Thomae asked his colleague to lie next to the shark to get some sense of scale.

The photo, taken by Thomae, is vaguely reminiscent of trophy hunting photos, which may explain why it was met with such an outcry on social media when posted on Facebook by TV station KSBW. (The photo has since been removed.)

"Taking selfies really? Have some Effing RESPECT! Don't care if she's a 'scientist' it's tasteless," one person wrote.

"This could not be more messed up ... A dead shark is not a photo op,” said another.

“This was once a living being and it's just ok to lay next to it smiling? This is appalling aaaannnnnd i'm angry. Justice needs to be had,” demanded someone else.

In an interview with the Sacramento Bee, Thomae defended his actions.

“As a biologist and a nature-lover, it makes me happy that people care so much about wildlife,” Thomae told reporters. “I’m sorry if my photo offended anyone, but we just needed a scale for reference.”

In the end, they were able to measure the shark, which turned out to be 2.7 meters (8 foot 9 inches) and 227 kilograms (500 pounds), and take it away for a necropsy (aka an animal autopsy). As of yet, there has been no word on its cause of death. The juvenile male has several scars and wounds from tussles with sea lions (or "dinner" to the shark) but Thomae doesn't think they killed him, calling them "cat scratches". 

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• Princess Cruises now has Shark Week-themed cruises this summer from June to September.
• The company says the cruises will have advanced screening of Shark Week programming, shark decorations, activities for children, and specialty cocktails for adults.
• Princess Cruises also said there will be a shark diving experience.
• All Caribbean Princess voyages to eastern and western Caribbean, certain Grand Princess voyages to Alaska, and certain Sapphire Princess voyages to Scandinavia will feature the Shark Week theme.
• To learn more, you can visit the cruise company's website.

If anyone out there is a big fan of Shark Week, great news: Princess Cruises says it will now have a Shark Week-themed cruise.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Shark Week, Princess Cruises says it's launching Shark Week activities on select cruise ships from June through September.

A representative from Princess Cruises told INSIDER that passengers will get access to advanced screening of this year's Shark Week programming before it officially airs on July 24, as well as other shark-themed activities.

Ships will be decorated to suit the theme and there will be passenger experiences that involve arts and crafts — and even diving with real sharks.

While the entire ship — from its elevators and restaurants to the exterior hull — will be decorated with sharks, according to the company, there will be plenty of activities for both children and adults. 

There will be glitter tattoos and face painting of a shark for kids as well as arts and crafts activities where they can make their own clay shark models and jewelry from real shark teeth, which Princess Cruises says are ethically sourced.

"Sharks continually shed their teeth," the representative from Princess Cruises said. According to the representative, the larger shark teeth come from phosphate mines in northern Africa while the smaller teeth are collected from beaches in Venice, Florida.

Kids can wear fin-shaped hats and learn more about the oft-maligned sea creatures from experts. Adults will have access to specialty cocktails with names like Shark Attack Margarita and Great Blue Shark.

For those who want to get up close and personal with the real animals, Princess Cruises says it is offering Shark Diving encounters in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Whale Shark experiences in La Maz, Mexico.

Several Princess Cruise lines will feature the Shark Week theme.

Participating cruises include Caribbean Princess ships with eastern and western Caribbean itineraries departing on seven-day voyages from Fort Lauderlade between June and September. Passengers on select Grand Princess ships traveling to Alaska in mid-July will also enjoy shark-related activities. Sapphire Princess ships departing from the UK to Scandinavia between July and August are taking part as well.

So if you're really invested in Shark Week and interested in learning more, visit the cruise company's website.

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• Dozens of baby hammerhead sharks were found dead this week near Keehi Lagoon in Honolulu. 
• The number of dead baby sharks that mysteriously appeared on shore ranges from 50 to 100. 
• State officials believe the cause of death was not natural. It's likely that a fisherman caught them and dumped them on land. 

For the first time in a while, Hawaii's making the news for something other than its still-erupting Kilauea volcano, but sadly, it's nothing remotely good. As has been reported by a few outlets, including the Associated Press, it appears that dozens of baby hammerhead sharks were found dead this week near Keehi Lagoon in Honolulu.

The precise number is uncertain, but anywhere from 50 to 100 of the deceased shark pups were found piled up near La Mariana Sailing Club. State officials, including the Hawaii Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement, note that although the lagoon is a birthing location for hammerhead sharks, nothing natural would see them die out and be dumped on the shore like this.

The most likely scenario is that a fisherman (perhaps accidentally) caught them, and instead of returning them to the water, they dumped them on land and left the scene of the crime. The baby sharks were likely dead within just a few minutes, as they require constant movement to respire. Caught in a net, they would have been sufficiently immobilized and ended up asphyxiating.

Hammerhead sharks are fascinating creatures. As noted by National Geographic, their weird head shape and wide-set eyes give them a considerably better visual range than most other sharks. At the same time, they have sensory organs in that funny head of theirs, including one that allows them to detect the electrical fields of their prey – whether they're swimming before them or they're hiding under some sand.

Hammerhead sharks aren't a single species, mind you: they're a family named Sphyrnidae, and you've got plenty of genera and species contained within it. The great hammerhead has the most distinctive hammer, while the smooth hammerhead has a cranium that looks like it's had one too many encounters with a steamroller.

Per Honolulu Magazine, Hawaii is lucky enough to feature 40 different species of shark. The dead baby sharks are likely to be the scalloped species, which often use this lagoon for birthing in the summer months.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, these coastal and semi-oceanic creatures – Sphyrna lewini – are listed as endangered, which makes the latest incident particularly heartbreaking.

"All life-stages are vulnerable to capture as both target and bycatch in fisheries," the entry explains. Additionally, it notes that "hammerhead shark fins are more highly valued than other species because of their high fin ray count, leading to increased targeting of this species in some areas."

As noted by Motherboard, a bill, introduced in 2016, would make the knowing capture or kill of sharks in this way a crime – but the bill won't be passed until 2019 at the earliest.

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• Sharks are one of the most misunderstood — and feared — species on the planet. 
• Many don't know that sharks rarely attack humans, are clever predators, and play a large ecological role.
• Here are 13 facts about sharks that scientists want you to know. 

These predators routinely appear on movie and TV screens as single-minded maneaters — but in real life, they rarely harm humans.

SEE ALSO: A shark expert says this US coastline could be the next danger zone for great white shark attacks

1. Humans kill more sharks than sharks kill people

It's true: Sharks kill about six people per year across the globe, while humans kill between 75 and 100 million sharks. "The math on that is pretty simple," says Nick Whitney, Ph.D, senior scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium, who first got interested in sharks as a kid in Michigan because the movie version terrified him. Now that he studies them for a living, he's no longer afraid to swim in the ocean. "I know what lies beneath now, and in some ways, that makes me much more comfortable," he says. "Then again, if I see a lot of bait fish close to shore and birds actively feeding on them, I know there are probably bigger fish nearby as well, and there are likely to be sharks, too."

2. Only three shark species are responsible for most human bites and fatalities

Whitney says that of the more than 400 species of shark out there, bull sharks, tiger sharks, and white sharks are the most dangerous, but even with those groups, most bites are inspired more by curiosity than animosity. "If any of these three species wanted to kill a human and eat them, it would be easy to do," he says. "The fact that the vast majority of those bitten even by these three species survive, that's a good sign it was an investigatory bite." Whitney has been bitten twice, but says both times he totally deserved it. "Most of the injuries I've sustained during shark work have come from other humans or slip-and-fall accidents on the boat."

3. The US sees more shark attacks than any other country, but very few fatalities

Most of the bites in the United States happen in Florida. In 2017, sharks attacked 31 peoplewithout provocation (there were other incidents, where the person who got bitten was trying to remove a shark from a fishing line or found some other way to rile it up), but none died. The last fatal attack in the United States happened in 2015, in Hawaii. Worldwide, only five people died after shark attacks in 2017: one in Australia, two in Reunion Island (an overseas department of France near Madagascar in the Indian Ocean), one in Costa Rica, and one in Cuba. Here are 13 more things you never knew about shark attacks.

Sharks are fearsome and fascinating, but it's not always easy to separate fact from fiction when it comes to these cartilaginous fish.

Folklore surrounding sharks encompasses everything from the frequency of shark attacks to the healing properties and culinary usages of their fins. 

To set the record straight, here are 11 myths about sharks that you should stop believing. 

MYTH: Sharks eat humans.

Sharks primarily subsist on smaller fish and invertebrates. Bigger species will prey upon marine animals such as sea lions and seals.

MYTH: Sharks frequently attack people.

Of the more than 400 species that exist, only around a dozen — such as great whites and tiger sharks— have been known to fatally attack humans. On average, sharks attack 70 people a year, but only kill six. In 2017, there were 88 unprovoked shark attacks worldwide, of which five were fatal.

When attacks do occur, it's usually because a shark is curious or confused about why there's a person in the water. Following several attacks on surfers in recent years, some researchers have speculated that sharks might be developing a taste for human flesh. However, many sharks investigate food sources and unknown objects by taking exploratory bites.

MYTH: Sharks need to keep moving or they'll die.

While it's true that all sharks receive oxygen by having water pass over their gills, only some species need to be continuously moving to achieve this feat. 

The ancestors of the sharks we know today breathed via buccal pumping, a method that entails drawing water into the mouth and over the gills. Various species — including angel sharks, nurse sharks, and wobbegongs, which all stay close to the ocean floor — still rely on this method, which does not necessitate that they stay in motion. 

Species that are more active, like the sand tiger shark, can oscillate between buccal pumping and another technique called ram ventilation. By swimming fast, they're able to force water into their mouths. 

But some sharks — such as great whites, whale sharks, mako sharks, and salmon sharks — cannot use buccal pumping at all. Called obligate ram breathers, these species will, in fact, drown if they stop swimming. 

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On Sunday night, "Shark Week" viewers were disappointed to find out that swimmer Michael Phelps, sometimes called the greatest Olympian of all time, did not actually race against a great white shark.

Instead, Phelps raced against a simulation of a shark, using a special swimsuit with a large fin to help him move through the water at superhuman speeds.

Even with the help of that monofin, though, Phelps lost to the shark by two seconds.

That's because great whites are really, really fast. They can speed through the water at 25 miles per hour (mph), potentially achieving 35 mph for short bursts. That allows them to propel their entire bodies out of the water.

Even top Olympians like Phelps are unlikely to surpass 6 mph while swimming in the conventional way.

For the "race," Phelps swam 100 meters alone in chilly open water off the coast of South Africa. Viewers watched a simulation of a shark swim alongside him. Discovery producers calculated that shark's speed by towing a seal-shaped decoy in front of a real white shark for 100 meters, and measuring the shark's time. The ocean swimmer came in at 36.1 seconds, just over 6 mph. 

Great white sharks often go much faster than that, of course, but the producers of Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" pointed out that the sharks don't usually keep their speeds up for distances as long as 100 meters.

Under the conditions set for the race, Phelps did pretty well: He beat the world record for the 100m freestyle (set without special gear) by about 10 seconds. Of course, his monofin made a big difference. 

Phelps says he's down to race again.

Although many fans were disappointed that they didn't get to watch Phelps race a real shark, none of us should really want to watch him attempt that. Such a race might end badly, as evidenced by this Discovery video showing a determined shark chasing down a decoy.

Of course, if Phelps really wanted a challenge, marine biologist Andrew Nosal suggested he take on the fastest shark out there, the mako, which can leave great whites behind in its wake. 

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Do you have what it takes to survive in the wild? These are common misconceptions when it comes to surviving in the wilderness.

Original reporting by Kevin Loria, Dragan Radovanovic.

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A special wetsuit has been developed that is able to make swimmers almost invisible to sharks. 

Known as "Elude", the wetsuit works by obscuring the user's figure with unique colouration and shaping patterns to disguise swimmers in the water.

There has also been another wetsuit developed that does the opposite. With its zebra-like pattern, it actively deters sharks from approaching the swimmer as it could be seen as a dangerous food source.

The wetsuits themselves are not shark-proof but they are designed to reduce the chance of attacks.

You can find out more here.

Produced by Jasper Pickering.

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That sharks represent a risk to swimmers and surfers isn't news to beachgoers. But these predators are not actually looking to feed on humans.

To better understand why a tiny number of sharks do sometimes bite people, we interviewed George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research and manager of the International Shark Attack File. Following is a transcript of the video.

Of course the biggest myth of sharks is that they are all man-eaters. And probably 95% of all shark species have never bitten a human.

My name is George Burgess. I serve as director of the Florida program for shark research at the Florida Museum, which is part of the University of Florida.

There are a relatively small number of sharks that actually get involved in shark bites. Any species that gets about six feet or so in length is a potential danger simply because — whether they intend to bite the human as prey items, or just by mistake — the jaw is big enough to do damage. So those are the ones we are most concerned about.

In the ocean sometimes, humans simply are the right size for those animals to give a shot at because we are in the appropriate size range, and oftentimes were are behaving in an appropriate fashion for the things they normally eat.

In areas where seals or sea lions are found, of course, we look an awful lot like a seal or a sea lion when we are at the water surface, or even more so if we have a black wet suit on. But that said, none of these species are going after humans normally as prey, simply because we are not part of the food chain.

We are not members of the marine environment — heck, we can’t even breath underwater. So we are occasionals when we are there. We are ecotourists when we enter the sea. So as a result, sharks are not looking for humans as normal prey items.

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George Burgess, the director for the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History and contributor to "SharkFest," explains what people can do to avoid a shark attack. Following is a transcript of the video.

Shark attacks have been increasing. They’ve actually been increasing for the last 11 decades.

When we enter the sea, it’s a wilderness experience. If you’re paranoid about getting bitten, obviously stay outside of the water. Work on your suntan, drink a cold one on the beach, enjoy the scenery. But if you go in the water, you know that there’s going to be some risk, and it’s our duty to reduce that risk if we can.

How do we do that reduction? Well, first of all we can go out in groups.

There’s safety in numbers. There’s a reason why fishes are in schools and antelopes are in herds. It’s because there’s safety there. So go together as a group. Don’t become isolated, because carnivores such as sharks go after the lonely person.

Don’t go in the water between dusk and dawn — time periods when sharks are most active in feeding. Avoid certain areas where sharks are likely to be found: inlets, channels. If you see seabirds diving, if you see fishes jumping, if you see humans fishing off of the shoreline, that means there’s fish around. If there’s fish, there’s probably sharks.

So just by doing those common-sense sort of things, we can reduce our risk.

If you see a shark while in the water, of course the first thing to do is get out, if you can. And that seems obvious to most people, but surfers in particular, who swim a lot in the water and see sharks, oftentimes don’t worry about it, because they’ve been with them before. And then sometimes they get bit. So get out of the water if you see a shark.

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Astonishing footage has emerged of dozens of sharks and a whale feeding on baitfish just beyond the surf break in the tourism region of Forster/Tuncurry on the New South Wales mid north coast.

White, bull and bronze whaler sharks are among the predators chasing the fish, while a Bryde’s whale, a baleen feeder, also joins the feast.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries posted the footage, taken from a chopper as part of regular aerial surveillance, on YouTube.

Here’s the footage:

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