Insights about sharks for surfers and ocean lovers
According to Psychology Today, almost 40% of Americans won’t go in the ocean because they’re afraid of sharks. They’re not wrong- sharks are out there, swimming even closer than we thought to swimmers, surfers and paddlers. But those sharks pose little danger to humans. Understanding their habits and lives can soothe fear, and add a dimension of awe and respect to our ocean adventures.
A 2023 Cal State Long Beach study found juvenile great white sharks gathering within 100 yards of the California coast. 97% of the time they were swimming within 50 yards of humans enjoying the waves.
This study was the first to use drone footage to track sharks, so nobody knows if we’ve been swimming with them all along. In the past, late summer and early fall brought sharks, especially the great whites that feature in most nightmares, close to shore as they returned from summer vacation in Hawaii, searching for food. But warming seas allow them to spend more time close to shore, and possibly take up residence where they used to just pass through. “Sharktober” may be a thing of the past. 
The Cal State Long Beach study found that surfers, paddlers and swimmers weren’t even aware of how close they were to sharks clearly visible from the air. But the sharks almost certainly knew humans were nearby — their sense of hearing and smell is much stronger than ours and they have additional senses that allow them to sense water currents, magnetic fields and minute electrical pulses. They can detect a heartbeat miles away.
Despite being so close to humans, sharks still choose not to bother us — in California there was only a single shark fatality in 2023. We are either not on the menu or they’re more scared of us than we are of them. And for good reason.
According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, humans kill 100 million sharks every year. That’s almost a quarter of a million sharks every day, or around three sharks every second. Forty percent of sharks worldwide are endangered and between 25-40% of the annual carnage consists of endangered sharks.
By contrast, sharks kill an average of ten people a year. In about half of those instances the sharks were provoked or harassed. The number of fatalities varies; in 2023, 14 people worldwide were killed by sharks, in 2022 it was five. In the US, sharks kill about one person every two years.
The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that 77 children die every year from choking on hot dogs. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 3,308 people died from distracted driving in 2022. Changing music while driving or feeding your kids processed meat pose significantly more danger than the sharks swimming nearby while you paddle out or catch a wave.
We fear what we don’t know, and protect what we love. As with all wild animals, the antidote to fear is knowledge. When we learn about these sleek cartilaginous fish we can start to understand, appreciate and maybe even enjoy them. We can transform fear into love, the most sacred alchemy.
Sharks have been roaming the seas for over 400 million years, 393 million years before our most distant hominid ancestors appeared on the scene. They are older than Mt. Everest, even older than trees. They’ve survived at least four of the planet’s five mass extinctions, including one 252 million years ago that took out 96% of all marine life.
The key to their longevity is adaptability. Sharks cruise all the world’s oceans, from the subtropics to the subarctic, from southeast Alaska to southern Chile. Some hunt by lying in wait to ambush, some actively pursue their prey, and the second largest shark in the world subsists on just plankton. Some lay eggs, some give birth to live young, and some produce eggs that hatch inside their bodies. Some sharks prefer the surface, some use their pectoral fins to drag themselves along the sea floor, some cruise the depths 4,200 feet below the surface, and some can leap 30 feet in the air. Some are solo travelers, some congregate in large groups, and some have complex social hierarchies. Some filter oxygen through their gills by swimming and some have muscles to pump the water so they can remain stationary.
None of them have vocal cords or bones, but they add calcium salts to their cartilage as they age so they become heavier and stronger. They have rows of teeth which they coat in fluoride and shed throughout their lives — a single shark can shed 30,000! A reflective coating on their eyeballs allows them to see well with little light.
Even though your chances of getting bitten by a shark are much lower than your chances of dying while taking a selfie or getting struck by lightning, humans are hardwired to be afraid of large wild animals that can hurt or kill us. But as we evolve into tech-wielding bipeds capable of complex and abstract thought, our ability to evaluate risk improves. When we understand how little danger sharks pose to us, we can enjoy their presence instead of fearing it.
After all, when we enter the ocean, we enter a home. How would you feel if a stranger walked into your house wearing only a speedo and started rummaging through your fridge?
Wild animals make up less than 10% of the planet’s animal biomass. Coming into contact with them is a privilege. If we cultivate respect and curiosity, we can learn to live with wild animals and maybe even help them thrive. If you love the ocean, consider donating or getting involved with shark conservation efforts. Enter the ocean with respect and awe for these prehistoric marvels that continue to live among us.
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