Shark Myths: Reeling in The Big OnesBy Jennifer Viegas
 If you close your eyes and listen to some shark tales, you could imagine sharks as mythical creatures, larger than life, like Loch Ness or Bigfoot, their legends becoming more fantastical with each telling. Somehow the falsehoods perpetuated about sharks over the centuries, along with outrageous thriller fiction movie claims, have interwoven with actual information about these magnificent big fish. To separate myth from reality, Discovery contacted Samuel Gruber, a professor of marine biology at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and one of the world's leading shark experts. Here is his take on some common beliefs about sharks.
1. Sharks intentionally seek out human prey. “There is no evidence that sharks preferentially go after humans,” Gruber said. He mentioned that of the 80 some million water-activity participants each year, only a handful succumb to shark attacks. He cited reports issued by the National Safety Council that track the odds of dying from certain injuries. The NSC's latest report can be found at http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm. While you have a 1 in 4,473 chance of dying from falling out of a bed, chair or other furniture, sharks did not even make the list. Contact by hornets, wasps, bees and dogs, however, were significant enough to warrant mentions. Gruber suggested that in the rare instances when sharks do attack humans, usually it is a case of mistaken identity. During World War II, for example, the USS Indianapolis sunk in shark-infested waters. Many men wound up injured or killed by the sharks. “In massive air/sea accidents, there can be a lot of blood, noise and unprotected people in the water,” he said. “To a shark, this strange abundance of food must appear like a bunch of damaged turtles.” |
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