Trifter

I bet most people think that all sharks will attack humans.  Actually that statement is wrong.  Out of 360 or more species of sharks only four sharks are a major threat to humans.  Those sharks are the Great White, Tiger, Bull, and the Oceanic white tip shark.  All of these sharks being huge, and powerful predators may sometimes try to attack and kill people: however all of the attacks that have been filmed were in open waters and the diver was unprotected.  Although those four sharks aren’t the only ones who have caused death.  On EXTREMELY rare occasions some other sharks have attacked humans unprovoked.  Those sharks would be the Shortfin Mako, Hammerhead, Galapagos, Gray Reef, Blacktip Reef, Lemon, Silky, and Blue shark. 

Anyways, modern day statistics show that the White tip shark has seldom been involved in unprovoked attacks.  Also, the White tip only lives in open ocean and rarely comes up to shore which is were most attacks nowadays happen.  Some reasons that a shark might attack you is that they might mistake you for a seal.  If you are surfing then from under the water you could look like seal to the shark,(and seals have an energy rich layer of fat) so a seal would be at the of a sharks menu.  Not to long ago on January 11th a surfer was attacked while sitting on his surfboard.  Yet again he was sitting on his surfboard so he might have looked like a seal to the shark but we don’t know that. Anyway he was extremely lucky that the bite was not fatal.  He had received a foot long bite on his leg.  The surfer said that he didn’t even realize that there was a shark in the area.  The first thing he said he saw was a group of dolphins nearby and then he saw that he had received a large bite on his leg.  

Some other reasons that a shark might attack you is that it has sensory organs in its body called Ampullae of Lorenzini electricity from any living thing moving.  So if you are splashing around in the open ocean, I hate to say it but you might get attacked by a shark.  So try to avoid splashing around.

This is not the picture of the man getting attacked but it is a picture of a shark attack.

image source

I have heard many ways to get rid of sharks if you get attack by one.  Some I have heard would be to punch its nose really hard, poke its eyes in, or even rip out its gills.  These should work to ward off an attacking shark, but the main key is to stay calm.  If you splash around it might think of you as an injured fish trying to swim away.  Also, keep an eye on the shark at all times, it may retreat temporarily to try and sneak up on you.  Don’t let it do that.  Even when you are trying to escape keep an eye on it so you know where it is and where you should swim.  If you are in open water than swimming away won’t really do any good so try to keep a defensive position.  If you are diving and there is a reef, piling, or anything else to get your back up against go there.  It will be easier to defend against a shark if it has only one way to attack.  Also, if you watch Mythbusters like me than you’ve probably seen the shark special where they say playing dead will help avoid sharks.  That will most likely not work on an aggressive shark.  If it already has the attention of attacking you and you look dead than only the appetizing you will look.  If there is a boat near you call out to it calmly but loud, once the boat comes get into it as quickly as possible.  If you are near the shore swim very swiftly but do not splash.  Like I said earlier you will only look like a dying animal and you will look more appetizing.  A good stroke with minimal splashing would be the breast stroke, so if you are close to shore get out quick.

Here comes the end of my article I hope you learned a lot and that you will not ever need to use these techniques to get away from sharks.  If you do though that is why I posted this so you don’t be fatally harmed.