by Jonte Rhodes

Created on: February 04, 2009

Many people have an irrational fear of sharks, and tend to associate them immediately with being man eaters and generally dangerous marine animals to be around. In actual fact however, there are only a few of the hundreds of known species of shark that are thought to represent a significant risk to humans in the water with them. Most species tend to be too small or too passive to be much of a threat to people, however there are a few species that are known to be killers that should best be avoided.

The great white shark is often thought of as the most dangerous shark in the world, although this is largely due to it being the largest and having captured the imagination of the media. In reality although of course the great white is dangerous, it isn't the biggest killer in the ocean, and there are only a handful of fatal attacks recorded each year. Many of the attacks that the great white commits are largely due to the fact that they mistake surfboards in the water as some kind of prey species in distress. This is also thought to be the reason that there are many more attacks on surfers than any other group of people who might be in the water.

The tiger shark, so named because of the colorful stripes it has on either flank, are known as the dustbins of the sea. They will eat anything else in the water with them including turtles, crabs, sea birds and many other species. This being the case they will often also attack and eat humans who stray too near them, although for the most part they tend to inhabit waters too deep for many people to be swimming in them. They have been known to attack people who have fallen overboard or been shipwrecked however, and are probably responsible for many unknown deaths in these cases.

Oceanic whitetip sharks are also known to have attacked and killed people in the past, although are the least of the sharks considered to be dangerous. The main reason that they are less dangerous is that they tend to be found out to sea, which means that their contact with humans tends to be rather infrequent. They will tend to exhibit aggressive behaviors prior to attacking, and are often more curious of humans in the water than anything else.

Bull sharks are probably responsible for more attacks on humans than any other kind of shark, largely due to their ability to live in freshwater as well as salt. They also tend to stay fairly close to the shore, and are known to be very aggressive towards most other large species in the water around them. It

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