- 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.
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