Movie depictions of bloodthirsty sharks stalking and eating swimmers have given the ocean predators a bad rap, researchers say. Events that impacted and resulted in the movie Jaws were the famous shark attacks on the New Jersey shore in 1916, where four people were killed by a great white shark.The worst ever recorded shark attack happened in July 1945 during WW2, when the USS Indianapolis was sunk by Japanese torpedoes in the Pacific Ocean. More than 900 men were thrown in the Sea. When rescuers arrived four days later only 316 were still alive, the rest of the crew (579) were chewed to pieces by hundreds of sharks.

Naturally sharks are sometimes misunderstood. Most of the time depending on the kind of shark, they only attack because they are curious. Sharks can mistake a human for their prey. This can be caused by jewelry people are wearing. 

Still there are also sharks that are very dangerous and are known to attack everything. Out of the 500 shark species 30 of them are dangerous to humans. For example, the great white shark the most dangerous species of sharks, being attacked by one is fatal, very few people survive this attack. More than half of the world’s confirmed shark attacks happened in the US.

For example Florida, a region that is more affected than most places around the world where many shark attacks are happening. In Florida 31 of the 88 worldwide shark attacks happened there, reported the Florida Museum of Natural History. This is a problem that needs to be more researched, to find the causes and to handle this problem that affects many countries. Including Florida, which is the most affected state in the U.S were most of the shark attacks are happening.

Despite this problem, looking at data from the last five years, it shows that shark attacks are actually decreasing which can be seen from this data. In 2015 there were 98 shark attacks worldwide compared to the 71 in 2021. This shows that over the years shark attacks are declining. On the other hand, the number of fatalities has stayed at a constant rate, in 2021 ten people died from fatal shark attacks, which more than doubled from deaths in 2018, which was four.

There are many unprovoked shark attacks happening around the world every year. As of Oct. 3, 2021 there have been 71 shark attacks around the world. 39 of 71 shark attacks have been on U.S coastlines, 26 of them in Florida. This brings up the question of, how the U.S and Florida should handle this on going problem. A recent discovery was made, which shows that even back in ancient times people had problems with shark attacks, the oldest known shark attack victim is a 17 year old who was killed by a shark 6,000 years ago.

Sharks are drawn to shore because of their prey, seals which they hunt closer to shore thats why a lot of sharks come close to the beaches. For decades, and after many shark attacks, people came up with solutions to protect people from shark attacks. One idea is shark nets which prevent the shark from getting close to the Beach. 51 beaches around the world already have such nets. While it’s meant to be a protection to people it can actually injure sharks and other animals, who can be twisted up in these nets. This causes Collateral damage, small fish can pass through, but bigger fish like seals, dolphins, dugongs, sharks, and turtles can’t. 

Despite their life-threatening encounters with sharks, the survivors had no animosity toward the predators.”I think they get a bad rap,” Reed said. We are in their territory and they’re animals, so they’re unpredictable,” Johnson another shark attack survivors added.