What is so great about a white shark

Posted on Apr 17, 2007

Sarah, my wife, has an unnatural fear of sharks. She is afraid to get into swimming pools and other non shark infested waters even if there are other people in the same body of water. I find this, as a diver and lover of all things deadly underwater, to be a little funny and a little sad.

I have spent a large part of my life in love with sharks and the underwater world. While I didn’t have the grades to pursue marine biology as a profession I do enjoy SCUBA diving and I love shark week. My personal favorite shark has always been the tiger shark. I think that I was drawn to this shark by its over all evil look and the fact that it is probably more dangerous then a great white shark.

It seem to me that most peoples fear of sharks has more to do with misconception then with actual fact. As every book on sharks I have ever read says " More people get killed every year by bees stings then by shark attacks.” This just shows that people are uninformed and afraid of the wrong things.

I have found that people who are afraid of sharks don’t seem to have a good reason, its not like they where covered in spiders as a child or molested by a clown. It seems to have more to do with seeing Jaws at a young age. Now I am all for shark movies, however, I think that people need to realize that if you show it to a kid, he or she is going to be afraid if that is their only experience with sharks.

Unfortunately there are very few shows on television that depict sharks in anything other then a dark\evil light. It seems that, just like the rest of television, nature shows have realized that violence sells. Why make a program that shows sharks doing whatever it is that sharks do when they are not eating. Part of the problem is that shark videographers don’t search for the sharks they instead chum the waters causing the very habits that people are afraid of.