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Although the Hollywood image of sharks has left many people afraid of the water, it is important to be aware of the fact that sharks are not seeking out humans as prey. In fact, shark attacks on humans usually only result in a single bite and they would prefer to eat their typical food rather than humans.

Fish and seals and other various sea creatures make up that fearsome hunter's diet. And they've evolved wonderfully to suit their trade; strong, fast, nimble, and lots and lots of teeth, which is a big part of why we find them so scary.

Sharks will mistake people more often as prey, when they are mimicking the prey's behavior. When people are swimming far away from the shore, splashing around while on their surfboard waiting to catch that next big wave to ride, they are in the position to be mistaken for a seal who has been hurt. Even though the people may not have known it, it is no different that someone who decided to go for a swim and was dragged out to sea by the tide. It is just a matter of wrong time, wrong place, and doing the wrong thing.

Despite this, on a very low number of people out of the millions who spend time at the beach each year get killed by sharks. Also, there are fewer shark attacks each year than you might expect and of the 90 or so that do occur, most only result in minor bumps and grazes. Whilst it is tragic that anyone should get killed by a shark, incidents involving sharks can be considered accidents rather than malicious attacks.

Strange though it may seem, falling coconuts actually cause 10 times as many injuries to humans as sharks do. The Tiger shark and the great white shark may be the most aggressive of sharks but they very rarely attack humans. You'll find yourself more at risk whilst you drive to the beach, bearing in mind that driving kills more than 40,000 people on the US each year.

When a person is bitten by a shark, of course the victim deserves sympathy. But so the hundreds of sharks that will be hunted and killed in revenge. The sharks have no idea what they have done or why we are trying to kill them; unlike humans, they can't be told why they are being subjected to a punishment. We have only two choices: to kill sharks, or to live with them peacefully. Killing them hasn't made us safer, so perhaps we should try the second option.