Whenever I can, I dive with sharks. As a teen, I developed a passion for these apex predators. I love to watch and film (Figure 1) these strong, graceful animals beneath the waves. I've come to appreciate the key role they play in the oceans' ecosystems.
Figure 1. The author's up-close-and-personal view from a recent dive. Image from Dr Mandelbaum.
Facts Versus Fears
Recent reports of shark bites in Encinitas, California,[1] and Cape Cod, Massachusetts,[2] have awakened fears. But such incidents remain very rare, and sharks are not the villains depicted in the movies.[3]
Sharks do bite people. These wounds can be deadly and require special care, as I learned when one patient was referred to me. But these bites are nearly all accidents. Humans are not the regular prey of sharks, although in rare occasions they do mistake us for such.
In fact, you're more likely to be killed driving to the beach than by a shark when you arrive, and you're 400 times more likely to die by drowning than by shark attack.[3]There have only been about 5000 recorded incidents of sharks biting people in the past century, and of these, less than one quarter were fatal.
