Sharks

Quite a few times recently I've been involved in conversations about diving with sharks and the risk of being killed by a shark.

As you might expect most of the people I've talked to believe that it is incredibly dangerous to dive with sharks. I do not. I'm not hugely versed in marine biology but try to have a basic foundation of knowledge about topics that I talk about, but I can't find a lot of solid information on shark attacks.

There are hundreds of results on google talking about things "more likely" to kill you than a shark attack, but of course none of these take into account the number of people exposed to those risks. For example many of these lists include dying by falling out of bed, but of course all of the population has to sleep...

I'm looking for some solid information about the relative risks of shark attacks, or at the very least a rough estimation of the number of people who encounter sharks each year versus deaths just to provide a bit more convincing evidence that sharks aren't as dangerous as everyone thinks they are!

If anyone's got some interesting articles or scientific journals on the subject please let me know!

Thanks

People

Are people dangerous?

It depends on which people and the environment and time of day. Some streets I would not walk down. Some people I trust. Some I do not.

Same with sharks.

We dive with sandbar and sand tiger all the time around here. They are fish eaters. On the other hand if I saw a large seal eating great white I would get out of the water. Know some folks who have accidentally dove with great whites. They all made it. But I think your odds are less.

In NC most shark attacks on swimmers occur in low viz conditions and are of the bite a surfer/swimmer and let go variety.

These might help.
FLMNH Ichthyology Department: World's Confirmed Unprovoked Shark Attacks
Shark attack - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you want a more even comparison, ocean swimmers are equally exposed to both shark attacks and drowning, yet drowning is the second most prevalent cause of accidental death among children aged 2-14 (CDC) and shark attack is darn near last. Shark attacks just make headlines because the idea plays on natural phobias. In fact, that they are featured in headlines at all should infer just how rare shark attacks are. Individual heart attack victims don't make headlines unless they are famous.