Sharks Do Not Deserve Their Reputation

553 Words2 Pages

A fisherman sits in his boat on the open sea, alone save for the fish below the water’s surface. The calmness of the ocean is disrupted by something underneath, something big. Fear seeps through the fisherman’s heart as he sees the shiny gray dorsal fin pierce the sun-glinted surface of the ocean. The creature stops its ritual and pulls its head out of the water, revealing the face of a great white: scars from countless battles in the ocean’s depths, a mouth full of lethal daggers, and dark, savage eyes.

This image is what a majority of people believe to be the shark. They believe it to be the bloodthirsty sea monster that appears in countless works of literature and films, but science says otherwise. The classic picture painted by the minds of sailors returning from years at sea come from imagination and sharks’ violent methods of hunting and mating. Sharks fear humans as much as humans fear sharks, and most sharks, particularly the “man-eating” great whites, only bite humans because they mistake surfers for seals. In earlier times, the ocean was a source of mystery and adventur...

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