Sharks get a bad press - 29th March 2024

After Spielberg made the film Jaws in the 1970s, sharks have been thought of as monsters. Nowhere is this more true than in Florida, which is known as the world's shark bite capital.

A quarter of all shark bites take place off the coast of Florida. Although this appears to be a shocking fact, it's really only 16 out of 69 attacks worldwide. It's a tiny number compared to the millions of beach lovers who travel to Florida to swim every year. In 2023, this figure was 135 million.

The Florida Program for Shark Research is hoping to show that these creatures aren't hunting humans. Their scientists are changing attitudes through education. Sharks are actually trying to avoid people, advises the director of the programme, Gavin Naylor.

Gavin Naylor: "So, the sharks are trying to avoid people. We know that they must be doing because there are so many of them and so many people. And people are very easy to, to target. They are a little bit like floating sausages if you're a shark."

And in Naylor's opinion, it's likely that sharks bite by accident.

Gavin Naylor: "So there are a lot of people in the water and a lot of sharks in the water. The sharks are targeting the fishes that they normally feed on. But once in a while, people get in the way, and the sharks make a mistake, and they bite the people.”

A 2021 study revealed that the global shark population's fallen quickly – by 70 percent since 1970. The principal cause has been overfishing.

However, with their scary image, fewer people are fighting to protect sharks than dolphins and whales. Shark diving guide Jonathan Campbell believes the answer is to get to know sharks better. Swimming with these creatures makes people recognise that they have the ability to be friendly.

Jonathan Campbell: "When they come up after that first dive, uh, they're excited. And you can see that they're in shock. They're changed by what they saw because they see sharks on TV, they see sharks on movies, and they're these scary monsters. And in the water, they are actually shy puppy dogs."