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over its eyes and continue on smell and sound alone. This is to prevent a struggling seal from injuring the shark's eyes, but can also lead to disaster if the "prey" turns out to be a human. Once the shark inflicts its first devastating bite, the shark will usually back away and allow the animal to bleed to death before consuming it. This attack method uses the least amount of energy and contains the least risk of injury, in addition to providing the greatest reward for the shark.

Unfortunately all of these things working in conjunction make it a bad day for a human in the area of a hunting shark. It is possible that an erratic swimmer could excite the shark as a possible meal. The shark then decides to bite, and comes away with a mouthful of bone instead of blubber and will usually leave. Unfortunately the damage is already done. Thankfully, most white sharks bites on humans are not fatal. In fact the percentage of fatal attacks by white sharks are considerably less than most other shark species. It appears that white sharks will occasionally make a mistake when biting a human being, believing that we are just another large marine mammal. Or, on occasion, the bite is a mild one that is meant only to investigate. Sharks do not have hands, so cannot touch something to find out if its edible. They have most of they're nerves and sensory abilities in their mouths and bite to investigate and "touch" an object. But for us humans, those investigative bites are equally devastating even if the shark decides we are not on the menu.

As you can see, the great white shark is an advanced and complex predator. But it is not the killing machine that many would like to believe. They have a very specific diet that rarely, if ever, includes us. They use their millions of years of evolution to their full advantage in order to ensure their own survival. As long as we can keep from appearing like prey, our chances of being mistaken for such are slim.

Learn more about this author, Stefani Andrews.
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