In the movie Jaws, a great white shark is depicted as a monster out to kill whomever and whatever it can find in the water.
The US database International Shark Attack File (ISAF) says the risk of being attacked by a shark is “extremely low”. It registered 57 “unprovoked attacks” worldwide in 2022, five of which were fatal: two in South Africa, two in Egypt and one in the United States.
There were also 32 “provoked attacks”, for example because people were fishing in the vicinity of the incident or bait was floating in the water. No overview is yet available for 2023.
So why are we still so afraid of them? Simon Weigmann, a marine biologist and shark researcher, says there are various reasons. One is that we have many films in which sharks are portrayed as monstrous.