Bulldog

 By Jade Perry

     If I were to ask you what the most dangerous animal in the sea was, you would probably say sharks. But what if I told you the iconicity of a bloodthirsty shark was nothing more than a misconception?

      Many people believe that sharks have a natural hunger for human meat, but that simply isn’t true. Sharks are marine animals, meaning that their prey would consist of fish and other sea creatures, not land animals like humans. In fact, Sharks have no interest in eating humans at all. “If a shark sees a human splashing in the water, it may try to investigate, leading to an accidental attack. Still, sharks have more to fear from humans than we do of them.” Writes the National Ocean Service. Unprovoked shark attacks are often caused by the shark mistaking the human for a seal or another natural prey to sharks, and they typically stop after realizing their prey is not a marine animal as they have no desire to feast on humans. On average in America, there is only one fatality to an unprovoked shark attack every two years. You are over 4x as likely to die to a vending machine than a shark. So, Sharks are no more dangerous than a brown bear, but how did the many misconceptions even start?

     In 1974, a novel about sharks called Jaws came out, and was soon adapted into the popular film. This novel/movie iconically featured a great white shark that found its prey on a small beach town, painting the shark as a monster. Before the release of the novel, sharks were seen as harmless, but Jaws instilled a new fear in people of sharks causing sharks to be seen as a threat. This would have devastating consequences for the shark population.

     Since the release of Jaws, the shark population has seen an estimated 70% decline in population around the world. While overfishing does have a part to play in this decline, many people also sought after sharks to kill as trophies. Not much was done for the shark population, as many people only saw them as bloodthirsty monsters thanks to Jaws. The shark population continues to decline even today with 100 million sharks being killed each year.

     Despite sharks being less dangerous than a vending machine, many people still fear them. The misconceptions spawned from Jaws, and similar movies to release since, have instilled a fear in the general population that resulted in 70% of a harmless species to be wiped from the planet. While conservation efforts are in effect, the number of sharks continues to decline steadily each passing year. It is crucial that we work to get rid of these harmful misconceptions through educating the public on the true nature of sharks. Sharks are critical to the marine ecosystem, and their extinction may bring drastic consequences to the oceans as we know them.