{"id":341,"date":"2025-12-09T13:41:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ballparkplaceapts.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/09\/sharks-fear-and-fascination\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T13:41:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:41:36","slug":"sharks-fear-and-fascination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ballparkplaceapts.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/09\/sharks-fear-and-fascination\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharks: Fear and Fascination"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is adapted from the introductio<\/em>n to LIFE’s new special issue Sharks: Predators of the Sea, which is available here online and at newsstands<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Few words in the American vocabulary inspire fear and fascination the way shark <\/em>does. If shouted too loudly on a sunny Cape Cod beach, it could prompt scores of swimmers to rush to shore. When attached to a movie poster\u2014think Jaws<\/em> and Sharknado<\/em>\u2014the association has reliably led to big box office. More than half of Americans say they are scared of sharks, and a third have said they are so terrified they suffer from galeophobia (the scientific designation for a shark phobia) and won\u2019t even go in the water. <\/p>\n

There are plenty of reasons we are afraid of sharks. From a psychological perspective, being attacked by a shark looms as a particularly gruesome way to die. \u201cWe\u2019re not just afraid of things because of the likelihood that they\u2019ll happen, but [also] because of the nature of them if they do happen,\u201d David Ropeik, who has studied the gap between human fears and reality, told Live Science<\/em> in 2015. \u201cIt may be unlikely that you\u2019ll be attacked by a shark, but it would suck if you did.\u201d On top of that, there have been vastly more unprovoked shark-related incidents in the United States over time\u201428 in 2024 alone, triple that of Australia, which is next in line. <\/p>\n

The odds of dying in a shark attack during your lifetime are incredibly remote\u20141 in 4.3 million. Each year, there are typically around six unprovoked shark-related fatalities worldwide. A beachgoer is far more likely to die of sun exposure (.00007 percent chance) or in a car accident (.011 percent chance) than from a shark attack. According to data compiled by the International Shark Attack File, you\u2019re far more likely to be bitten by a New Yorker than a shark. <\/p>\n

Perhaps because so much of the United States is landlocked, sharks historically were not on the American radar. In fact, for many years, sharks didn\u2019t bite people in the U.S. Or, at least, that\u2019s what the general population and some academics thought. Consider Maryland-born athlete Hermann Oelrichs, who in 1891 felt so sure
that sharks were harmless, he jumped into the sharky waters outside his home in Newport, Rhode Island, to prove his point to some guests. Oelrichs was fine; the fish and sharks scattered\u2014likely frightened by the splash, according to the Pittsburgh Dispatch<\/em>. The upshot: Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History in New York later cited Oelrichs\u2019s stunt as scientific evidence that man-eating sharks did not exist. <\/p>\n

The conviction that sharks posed no threat would not last long. Fast-forward to 1916 on the Jersey Shore, when in the course of just 12 days, five people were attacked by sharks. In an attempt to contain public anxiety, authorities blamed all of the attacks on a single young great white that was found with human remains in its stomach. <\/p>\n

The single-shark messaging led to the \u201cmythos of a rogue killer . . . intentionally moving around and finding victims,\u201d says Janet M. Davis, a professor of American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, who has studied the history of human-shark interactions. \u201cThe fact that these fatal bites [in New Jersey] occurred in such rapid succession really scared people.\u201d Locals fought back, with some tossing sticks of dynamite into a creek where one of the victims was found. President Woodrow Wilson promised federal aid to \u201cdrive away all the ferocious man-eating sharks which have been making prey of bathers,\u201d reported the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>. <\/p>\n

During World War II, anxiety about shark attacks was so pronounced, the Navy began work on a shark repellent, with the help of the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency. Among others who devoted themselves to the repellent was OSS executive assistant and future chef Julia Child, who experimented with combinations of nicotine, clove oil, horse urine, rotting shark muscle, and asparagus in the hopes of preventing shark attacks. Before the end of the war, the Navy introduced Shark Chaser, a pink pill of copper acetate that produced an inky black dye when released in the water, obscuring a serviceman from lurking sharks. <\/p>\n

With the war\u2019s end, it would be another 30 years before fear of sharks again gripped the public. The precipitating events: the publication of the book Jaws<\/em> by Peter Benchley and the release of the Hollywood version, also called Jaws<\/em>.  <\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the summer of 1975 when Jaws<\/em> was in hundreds of theaters across the [U.S.] . . . we could see the fear that it was stirring up,\u201d Wendy Benchley, an ocean conservationist and the novelist\u2019s widow, told National Geographic <\/em>in 2022. For some, that meant avoiding swimming in deep waters. Others were inspired to emulate the film\u2019s heroes and sail out to sea to hunt down these creatures. Across the U.S. East Coast in the mid-1980s, sporting events, such as Monster Shark Tournaments, took place to kill sharks as conquests. \u201cIt horrified Peter and me that some people\u2019s first reaction was to kill sharks,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

But there were also members of the public who found the story thrilling. Thousands of people around the world sent letters to Benchley to describe how the book and film had inspired them to learn more, become marine biologists, or photograph sharks. (One example: Eight years after the release of Jaws<\/em>, a group of scientists founded the American Elasmobranch Society, to promote the study of sharks.) \u201cThere is no question that Jaw<\/em>s made a lot of people scared of sharks, and some responded by killing these animals,\u201d shark scientist Yannis Papastamatiou told National Geographic<\/em> in 2022. \u201cJaws<\/em> had the opposite effect on me. I wanted to work with sharks.\u201d  <\/p>\n

America\u2019s post-Jaws<\/em> reactions to sharks largely centered around another entertainment medium: Shark Week and the rise of television documentaries. If Jaws<\/em>\u2014both the book and movie\u2014taught television and film executives anything, it was that sharks sell. The Discovery Channel\u2019s weeklong Shark Week event, inaugurated in 1988 as a way to spark ratings, soon became an annual mainstay\u2013akin to a secular national holiday. <\/p>\n

Originally, Shark Week programming was educationally oriented, including the 1988 film Caged in Fear<\/em>, about the development of technology to stave off shark attacks. But as ratings for Shark Week grew, Discovery amped up the drama, conflict, and sensationalism. Today, Shark Week tends to feature content like Great White Serial Killer: Sea of Blood<\/em>, which capitalized on a string of fatal shark attacks off the coast of Mexico. In the film, investigators attempted to identify the perpetrator, a massive great white shark, and capture it on film. <\/p>\n

Although sharks continue to be sensationalized in the media, researchers like Papastamatiou work to promote a more accurate understanding of the animals and support conservation efforts. In particular, Papastamatiou, who runs the Predator Ecology & Conservation Lab at Florida International University, is known for his work around sharks\u2019 social and hunting habits. <\/p>\n

Instead of demonizing sharks, the public should follow the example of seafaring communities in the South Pacific, Davis suggests. In Hawaii and Fiji, sharks are not viewed as blood-frenzied serial killers but instead revered as ancestral spirits. Of course, that doesn\u2019t mean these indigenous communities would call sharks cute and cuddly. \u201cThis is an animal that is very powerful and strong,\u201d says Davis. \u201cSo even in a culture that really looks to these animals as central to their cosmologies and spiritual worlds, there\u2019s still respect for the potential power of these animals.\u201d These centuries-old stories and traditions align with what scientists have been discovering\u2013the ocean is better with sharks in it.  \u2014\u2014By Courtney Mifsud Intreglia<\/em> \u25bc \u25bc <\/p>\n

The following is a selection of photos from LIFE’s new special issue Sharks: Predators of the Sea, which is available here online and at newsstands<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Cover photo by Chris & Monique Fallows\/Nature Picture Library<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Cover photo by Brad Leue\/Alamy<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Cultures on seafaring islands in the South Pacific consider the whale shark to be a harbinger of good luck and fortune.<\/p>\n

Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Marine biologists observed a Port Jackson shark about 20 meters below in the surface in the waters off Sydney, Australia.<\/p>\n

Fairfax Media via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Bull sharks, seen above in Western Australia, are found in both saltwater and freshwater. They have been spotted in rivers hundreds of miles from the ocean.<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The 1975 summer blockbuster Jaws, starring Roy Scheider, had plenty of people afraid to go in the water.<\/p>\n

Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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In the 2003 movie Finding Nemo, a shark named Bruce looked intimidating but turned out to be kind and gentle.<\/p>\n

\u00a9Walt Disney Co.\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Tourists paddled a kayak, unaware of the great white shark lurking behind them.<\/p>\n

Shutterstock\/karelnoppe<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Sharks circled in the waters off Cocos Island, Costa Rica.<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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A great white shark leapt against the sunset.<\/p>\n

Getty Images\/iStockphoto<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The post Sharks: Fear and Fascination<\/a> appeared first on LIFE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is adapted from the introduction to LIFE’s new special issue Sharks: Predators of the Sea, which is available here online and at newsstands: Few words in the American vocabulary in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ballparkplaceapts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ballparkplaceapts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ballparkplaceapts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ballparkplaceapts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ballparkplaceapts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ballparkplaceapts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ballparkplaceapts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ballparkplaceapts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}