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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• 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. 

• 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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If shows like those on Discovery's Shark Week or National Geographic's SharkFest make you think "I'd like to see these creatures up close in the wild," you should get yourself SCUBA-certified.

Sharks are fascinating, often-misunderstood, and far more at risk from humans than we are from them.

There are places you can swim and snorkel with sharks, but as a diver, you can hover underwater and watch them in their natural environments.

The following locations for shark diving have been recommended by diving organizations like the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) as some of the best places to see sharks in the wild.

Before you book tickets, however, remember to exercise caution. Even though sharks aren't out to harm people, they might bite in a moment of curiosity or confusion, or if you bump into them. Many sharks are also threatened and endangered species, so it's important to ensure that you're diving with a group that understands the importance of conservation and doesn't encourage harmful behaviors like grabbing onto sharks.

But as long as you keep conservation and safety in mind, you really can get out there and enjoy the company of some of the most fascinating fish in the ocean. Here's where to go.

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In Bajo Alcyone at Cocos Island in Costa Rica, you can watch scalloped hammerheads cruise by above you.

Thresher sharks come in from the deep sea to clean themselves at Monad Shoal, near Malapascua in the Philippines.

At Tiger Beach near Grand Bahama, you can get circled by curious tiger sharks.

• An Etsy shop named BubbleManiaCo sells a "Jaws"-inspired bath bomb.
• Creating blue and red swirls in the water, the bath bomb makes your tub look like the scene of a shark attack.
• The bath bomb smells like bubblegum and retails for $9.74.
• The Etsy shop also sells bath bombs that are inspired by other popular movies and characters, like Harry Potter and Pokémon.

Have you ever wanted to turn your bathtub into a shark attack scene from "Jaws?" Maybe not, but after seeing this bomb, that's exactly what you'll want to do.

Created by UK-based Etsy shop named BubbleManiaCo, the "JAWS Attack Bath Bomb" turns bath water into blue and red swirls.

Retailing for $9.74, the blue bath bomb smells like bubblegum and features a vicious-looking shark head made out of soap on the top.

Speaking to INSIDER, BubbleManiaCo's creator Cordell Sutton explained that the bathbomb was largely inspired by her childhood.

"I've always loved 'Jaws,' and it was one of the first horror movies I watched as a kid," Sutton told INSIDER. "I fragranced it in bubblegum because that also reminds me of my childhood. A movie really has to stick with me for me to create a bath bomb of it."

Out of 175 comments on BubbleManiaCo's Etsy page, many of them are five-star, rave reviews.

"SMELLS SOOO GOOD! I’m so excited to give this to my BF as a gift! Even though he is afraid of sharks 😉 Thank you," wrote one Etsy customer. 

But if sharks and gore aren't your thing, BubbleManiaCo has plenty of other pop culture-themed bath bombs to choose from.

The Etsy shop sells a variety of Harry Potter-inspired bath fizzes and bombs.

Some products — such as the "Pokéball Inspired Bath Bombs"— even feature a small action figure inside.

Although the Etsy store is based in the UK, shipping is available to the US at an additional cost. You can visit BubbleManiaCo's page on Etsy to see more of the store's products.

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• A family was free-diving near Hawaii's Lana'i Island when they spotted a whale shark tangled in fishing net. 
• After noticing scars around the body where the rope had been cutting into its skin, the divers decided to attempt to help the animal. 
• It took multiple dives to finally cut through the net. 

This new National Geographic report is enough to break anyone's heart: A whale shark was spotted offshore from Hawaii's Lana'i Island by free-divers with a thick fishing net rope wrapped around its neck.

With scars around its body where the rope had clearly been cutting into its skin, the two divers – who work on protecting endangered species for the O'ahu Army Natural Resources Program – felt they had no choice but to step in. With the help of their son and a wildlife control manager for Pulama Lana'i, they managed to cut the rope away using a small serrated blade, through several dives, without any breathing equipment.

The rope was covered in barnacles, which indicates that it had been around the whale shark for several months. Generally, very solitary animals that don't like to be prodded by humans, the fact that this one stayed around as the divers painstakingly cut the rope away hints at how cognizant the animal was of its own plight.

Although injured, it looks like it will survive its ordeal. At roughly 20 years of age, it still has another half-century left to go, at least.

It's great that this story had a happy ending, but the fact that it needed to be rescued in the first place becomes all the more tragic when you consider just how magnificent whale sharks are.

Not only are they the largest type of shark, but they are also the largest fish of any kind alive today (sorry, Megalodon). They often move distances of around 10,000 kilometers (about 6,214 miles) every year – to put it in perspective, that's about a quarter of Earth's circumference. We can easily identify individuals, because, like human fingerprints, each whale shark has a unique spot pattern.

According to the WWF, these globally distributed beasties still provide us with plenty of mysteries. Just as an example, they give birth to live young, but curiously enough, this has never been directly observed, just inferred.

Apart from being intelligent, gentle giants, they also provide a useful measure of ecological health for conservationists. Whether hunting alone or (more rarely) in large numbers, they appear wherever their food source – plankton – does. Being the first “link” in a massive food chain, plankton numbers are a proxy for ecosystem health, and whale shark presence is a proxy too, by default.

Sadly, according to the latest assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Rhincodon typus is listed as endangered – and this video gives you a clue as to why.

As it happens, fisheries tend to coincide along points that are popular gathering areas for whale sharks, which means that lethal impacts by boat and accidental catches happen far more often than they should. At the same time, whale sharks themselves are sometimes intentionally caught by certain groups and countries, with various products still proving to be fairly valuable.

Altogether, the damage shows: There has been a population decline of about 63 percent in the Indo-Pacific group of whale sharks, and a 30 percent drop in the Atlantic group in the last 75 years – a huge drop, considering this represents just three generations of whale sharks.

Fortunately, in 2017, governments gave whale sharks much needed extra protection. Now part of appendix I to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), they are currently shielded from domestic killing or capture. Their habitats are secured too – but only time will tell how effective such measures will be.

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Warning: Spoilers ahead for "The Meg."

"The Meg" may have surprised us all with its weekend box-office haul (with an estimated $44.5 million, it's Warner Bros.' top opening of 2018, besting "Ready Player One" and "Ocean's 8"). But nobody will be shocked to learn that the movie — a dream matchup between Jason Statham and a megalodon, the largest shark that ever lived — takes certain liberties when it comes to science.

To fact-check the feasibility of the film's plot and portrayal of megalodons, we spoke with two Meg experts who helped the Discovery Channel critique its own infamous 2013 "documentary"" Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives": Dana Ehret, assistant curator of natural history at the New Jersey State Museum, who did his Ph.D. work on megalodon and fossil great white sharks; and Lisa Whitenack, a biology professor at Allegheny College, whose research includes the biomechanics, evolution, and paleobiology of sharks (and who dressed as Sharknado last year for Halloween).

The movie says: Megalodons were 70 to 90 feet long.

The experts say: The size is exaggerated. Based on what we know about the ratio of tooth size to body length in modern great whites, the megalodon is estimated to have been around 60 feet long, according to Whitenack. Ehret posits a range of 50 to 55 feet: “There are some extremely large megalodon teeth, a few that would show that they might have been bigger than that, but certainly not 90 feet,” he says. “Definitely not.”

Whitenack does applaud the visual effects team for the shark’s dorsal fin, which has a ragged edge: “They got reality points for that over the megalodon documentary on Discovery Channel.”

But she noticed the effects team gave the Meg eight gill slits when it should have had five. “Every living shark, except for a handful of species, have five gill slits. So sixgills have six, sevengills have seven, and everyone else has five, including all the sharks in the same order that megalodon was in,” she says. “They made them flutter very prettily — that’s actually what made me notice, ‘What’s going on with this? Oh, God! No!’ That bothered me the whole time.”

Also distracting to her: If we see the shark’s dorsal fin and back as it chases humans at the surface of the water, we should also be able to view the tip of its caudal fin (read: tail). “Unless it was swimming at a tilt, with just its head and part of its back up, which doesn’t really work for speed,” she says.

(Also: she’d like to know why Statham’s heroic Jonas Taylor didn’t don flippers when he swam out to put a tracking tag on the first Meg: “I leaned over to my husband and I was like, ‘Where are his fins?’ Like, just get in there barefoot?”)

The movie says: Megalodons had jaws strong enough to bite a whale in half, and could potentially swallow an unbreakable polycarbonate dive cage whole

The experts say: They’re skeptical about the Meg biting a whale in half, even with the Meg’s bite force estimated to be between 24,000 to 40,000 pounds per square inch.

"A very, very small whale, like a dolphin or something like that, sure. If they hit in the exact right spot, right between two vertebrae, then they might be able to, but that’s like a one in a million shot,” Whitenack says. “[But] there’s no doubt that they ate whales. There are all sorts of whale fossils that have bite marks that had to be from something large, like a megalodon. So we know that they were strong, and just based on their size, they’re gonna have a pretty hefty bite — definitely bigger than anything we have now force-wise.”

As for whether Meg could have cleanly devoured that cage? Ehret says a real megalodon’s jaws would’ve been six feet across, capable of swallowing a person without taking a bite. So if you ramp up the length of the shark and its jaw size, it’s conceivable.

Whitenack, however, saw another problem with that scenario: “Think about humans: we can’t swallow very well with our mouths open, right? Try it. When you go to the dentist and they’re working in there, that’s why they have the sucky thing.

For the Meg, there’s nothing in there that can move the cage back for swallowing it whole with its mouth so open like that,” she says. “There are sharks that can spit stuff out and suck it back in, but white sharks or megalodons really can’t do that. It would have had to close its mouth completely with the cage inside to swallow that.”

The movie says: Megalodons can breach — not just to attack swimmers on floating docks, but completely out of the water to eat a smaller Meg on the deck of a boat.

The experts say: First of all, Jonas & Co. would have needed a bigger boat. That small research vessel wouldn’t have had a winch strong enough to raise any Meg aboard — or be floating soundly afterward. Some estimates of megalodon’s weight rival that of the blue whale, at 100 tons. “It probably would have brought the boat down with it,” Ehret says.

Both he and Whitenack agree that were Megs to breach — blue whales do, after all — it wouldn’t be completely out of the water, like today’s great whites. Whitenack understands why director Jon Turteltaub would include spectacular breaches — “Who doesn’t love an airborne shark?” — but she had a particular problem with it jumping to attack that smaller Meg.

“How the heck did the bigger Meg know that the other Meg was even there on the back of the boat? Yeah, it’s probably dripping blood and gore into the water, but why would the shark think, ‘Hey, I’m gonna leap out and get that thing’? Could it see up there? I’m guessing not,” she says. “The only time I’ve seen a shark track a person above the water is if they’re up at the surface, or they see you through like a plastic thing or something like that. So I’m very skeptical of the whole premise of going, ‘Hey, there’s food up on that boat. Let me go get it.’”

For the record, Ehret also doubts that a large female Meg, which would have considerable girth, would come close enough to shore at China’s Sanya Bay to encounter swimmers. “It would have been a fairly thick animal and probably would have just run aground if it came in that close,” he says.

• A 61-year-old man suffered puncture wounds to the leg and torso when he was bitten by a shark off the coast of Cape Cod on Wednesday. 
• He was bitten just after 4 p.m. about 30 yards off of Long Nook Beach in Truro, Massachusetts.
• The region's great white population has risen dramatically over the last decade due to an increase in seals.
• Numerous shark sightings have been reported in the Cape Cod area this summer.

The great white shark population near Cape Cod has been spiking in recent years, and now the East Coast region has since its first shark attack since 2012.

A 61-year-old man was attacked by a shark while swimming at the Massachusetts tourist hotspot on Wednesday.

The man, who has not been publicly named, suffered puncture wounds to his torso and legs and was airlifted to a nearby hospital for treatment.

He was bitten at about 4 p.m. off of Long Nook Beach in Truro, Massachusetts, on the Atlantic side of the peninsula.

Experts are now trying to determine what type of shark attacked the man on Wednesday.

The region's great white population has risen dramatically over the last decade due to an increase in seals, which the sharks feed on, according to the Cape Cod Times.

Witnesses said there were about 10 seals in the area when the man was attacked on Wednesday.

The man had been standing in shallow water about 300 yards south of Long Nook Beach. Truro police said he was about 30 yards offshore when the bite occurred.

The beach was closed on Wednesday afternoon, and CBS shared video of a large shark swimming in the area.

Numerous shark sightings have been reported in the Cape Cod area this summer, including several involving great whites.

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy said in a statement that shark encounters where humans are injured are as "terrifying as they are rare."

"While we still don't know all of the details of this particular bite, sharks are not known to target people specifically and when they do bite people it's usually a case of mistaken identity,"the group said in a statement. "Sharks 'test the waters' with their teeth, much like we use our hands. It's how they determine if what they encounter is prey or something to avoid."

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With the release of "The Meg," shark movies are hot right now. So we looked at the Metacritic score for each of these films (not including direct-to-video or made-for-TV movies — sorry, "Sharknado") and critic's reviews to see how these shark movies rank. 

Here are the best shark movies of all time, ranked. 

14. "Jaws: The Revenge" (1981) wasn’t the best.

"‘Jaws: The Revenge’ is not simply a bad movie, but also a stupid and incompetent one — a ripoff." - Roger Ebert

13. "Shark Lake" (2015) seemed like it was edited for broadcast.

"Shark Lake lacks bite. Its audience doesn't even get to revel in blood and guts; the whole thing seems like it was edited for broadcast." - Martin Tsai, Los Angeles Times

12. "Shark Night 3D" (2011) had some disappointing shark attack scenes.

"Unlike his ‘Snakes on a Plane,’ director David R. Ellis' sharks-in-a-lake thriller displays little sense of its scenario's camp potential. Gore, too, is in short supply on account of the pic's PG-13 rating, which renders the attack scenes nearly toothless." - Rob Nelson, Variety

• The megalodon is filling cinema screens worldwide in the new blockbuster, "The Meg."
• Paleontology has inspired film for years — Jurassic Park influenced a generation of dinosaur lovers. 
• There are plenty of other prehistoric creatures worthy of the big screen, including ichthyosaurs, pliosaurs, mosasaurs, xiphactinus, and basilosaurus.

As "The Meg", a new sci-fi horror film about a giant shark, fills cinema screens worldwide, it's worth pausing to appreciate the animal behind the screams. Carcharocles megalodon (or just Megalodon) is one of the most impressive creatures ever to have existed on Earth. Huge, voracious, and beautifully mysterious, megalodons were the largest known sharks to ever exist.

The species itself is only known from the fossil teeth it left behind, which can be as long as 18cm. These relics suggest an appetite for whales, and scientists have used them to estimate a body size of up to 17 metres. But despite their dying out at least 2.6m years ago, the primal fear such a massive creature inspires is very much alive.

No other scientific discipline can fill cinema seats quite like paleontology, but for a long time it has been dinosaurs that have ruled the ancient roost. Films like Jurassic Park influenced a generation, and for many of us the awe and fascination on the faces of the paleontologists was just as captivating as the beasts themselves.

Without a time machine or the budget of a film studio, most paleontologists never get to see the movement, sound, and spectacle of their favourite long-dead animal. Screen time is always biased towards charismatic megafauna, because exalting the charms of species that don't even merit their own Wikipedia page is a hard sell. For people to engage with the complexity of biodiversity we must first pique their interest with the big ticket beasts.

So there's an enduring public fascination with monsters, but those based in reality prompt an especially cold shiver. With over 80% of the ocean unexplored, marine hunters like the megalodon make those inky black waters both terrifying and alien to us. They also beg the question, what else was lurking in prehistoric seas? To the directors of the world I present five of the meanest extinct sea monsters that deserve their own blockbuster.

SEE ALSO: 6 things 'The Meg' gets wrong about the prehistoric giant sharks — and the one it gets right

Ichthyosaurs

A cold-blooded dolphin lookalike from 200m years ago, ichthyosaurs were sleek but deadly marine reptiles which were perfectly adapted for movement through water at speed, reaching lengths of 15-20 metres or perhaps even larger. They were incredibly successful, conquering the world's waters and surviving 160m years of the Mesozoic "age of the dinosaurs".

Pliosaurs

Pliosaurus are another group of marine reptile from the Mesozoic, with brains similar in proportion to a great white's, bodies up to 15 metres long, and a set of teeth that would make a crocodile blush. A few of the larger discoveries have inspired names such as "Predator X" from Norway, and "The Monster of Aramberri" in Mexico.

Mosasaurs

The Mosasaur takes centre stage in the "Jurassic World" films, but it is surely a contender for its own spin-off. At up to 17 metres with rows of conical teeth, they were colossal predators. Mosasaurs were also one of the earliest and largest marine reptiles described, holding a special place in the history of palaeontology.