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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