It’s been a week of mixed messages about sharks.
On the one hand, there’s a new report making the rounds online, which claims that you’re more likely to die from an ill-advised selfie than from a shark attack.
That’s actually true. Twelve people (globally) have died while trying to take selfies this year, and only 6 people have met an untimely demise because of a hungry shark in 2015 (so far), according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
But that’s only slightly reassuring. It’s a little bit like saying, “Only 6 people were killed by a guy in a hockey mask who broke into their home with a machete.” Only 6? That’s great news. But I’m not so much relieved by the low number of deaths as I am alarmed that GUYS IN HOCKEY MASKS ARE BREAKING INTO HOMES WITH MACHETES!
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Also, lest we forget, not everybody who gets attacked by a shark dies. Which brings us to the second shark moment of the week. A Hawaii spear fisherman was bitten in the leg by a 13-foot tiger shark, and then posted a video of the gaping gash in his left leg to Instagram. The video is harrowing, but here’s a censored, less graphic version.
It’s hard to look at something like this, and then laugh about the selfie comparison. Yeah, yeah, yeah, shark deaths are so rare, but holy lord, did you see that guy’s leg?!
George Burgess, director of shark research at the Florida Museum of Natural History, says there have been 68 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks around the world, and only 39 of those attacks happened in the U.S. So, again, the numbers are low.
But the statistics don’t impress Makua Rothman, a 31 year old pro-surfer. “Sharks are a real threat,” he insists. “There’s no bullcrap about sharks. Sharks will eat you.”
In February, Rothman was crowned the 2015 Big Wave World Champion in the World Surf League’s recent Big Wave Tour. In July, a shark bit rather close to home.
“My nephew just survived a shark attack,” says Rothman. “He’s got over a thousand stitches and scars, but he lived to tell the story.”
The native Hawaiian big wave rider has a simple rule of thumb: “If there’s salt in the water, there’s sharks.”
Related: What To Do When a Piranha Attacks Your Balls
Here’s another reason to be cautious. Thanks to an especially strong El Niño, the Pacific Ocean has been a little warmer than usual. And that’s messed with the migration patterns of sharks.
Since the water has been warmer around southern California, there’s more tropical fish. And with those fish come their natural predators, great white sharks and hammerheads.
Some of those hammerheads can be pretty aggressive, like this kayaker learned just a few days ago, as he tried to fish a half a mile off Gaviota State Beach, near Santa Barbara.
The Atlantic isn’t any less crowded. Check out this video from fisherman Cory Peterson, who launched a drone around a sandbar near Destin, Florida earlier this week.
All of those black things swimming in the water? Yep, they’re sharks. Hundreds and hundreds of sharks.
So let’s approach this logically. Yes, your odds of being bitten or killed by a shark are very, very low. But your odds of being killed in a plane crash are also very, very low, and nobody calls you paranoid for being a little white-knuckled when your plane hits turbulence.
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The only 100% protection against a shark attack is ocean abstinence. But if that feels like too big of a sacrifice, there are steps you should take.
“Should” being the operative word here.
Because if a shark attacks you—if you’re one of those 39 people in the U.S. who gets attacked—it’s in no way the shark’s fault.
This is not like getting on a plane, and the plane goes down, and you’re like, “Damn. I should have been more careful.” A plane crash is just bad luck. A shark attack, however . . . well, not to get all “blame the victim” on you, but it might be a teensy bit your fault.
“We’re thinking creatures,” Burgess says. “We’ve got brains, and our job as the animals that were given the brains are to outthink the animals that were given the teeth. We can reduce our chances, which are already low, by doing some common sense things.”
First rule, never swim alone. “There are good reasons that fishes are in schools and birds are in flocks and antelopes in herds,” Burgess says. “There’s safety in numbers.”
Unlike the sharks in movies, real sharks don’t attack large groups. They go for solitary prey.
Rule two: Stay out of the water between dusk and dawn. That’s when sharks do most of their hunting. It also happens to be when a lot of people go swimming, especially people with jobs who want to take a quick dip before or after work
Rule three: “Leave the bling at home,” Burgess says. That means watches, jewelry, rings, anything made of a metal. The way it reflects off the sun can look very similar to fish scales, especially to sharks—who as we previously noted, aren’t that bright.
“Oh, but my wedding ring isn’t shiny anymore,” you’re saying. “And it’s so small! What could it matter?”
It matters because it’s on your hand, and when you’re swimming, your hands are usually in constant motion.
“Oftentimes sharks are just biting at splashes,” says Burgess. “If there’s a glint coming from those splashes, it makes it even more inviting.”
Here’s something that isn’t a rule, but too many people think it is. Don’t worry about pissing in the ocean.
We don’t mean this as an endorsem*nt, especially if you’re swimming in a group—which, as we stated above, you definitely should be. Nobody wants to swim in your urine. Not in the ocean, not in pools, not anywhere.
(Here’s another good reason not to do it. It's Not Chlorine That Turns Your Eyes Red in the Pool—It’s Pee.)
But don’t abstain from peeing in the ocean because you think it attracts sharks. That’s simply not true.
We understand where the myth comes from. Sharks are legendary for their superior sense of smell. The olfactory bulbs of the great white shark makes up a staggering 18 percent of its total brain mass.
We talked to one M.D. for this story, an actual medical director of a big hospital in California—who told us “a shark’s sense of smell of blood is so sensitive that even blood that you can’t see in the urine can be detected.” (The doctor in question shall remain nameless, because we don’t want to make fun of anybody for repeating a common misconception.)
First of all, if you have blood in your urine, you have bigger problems than sharks. And second, no, this is in no way true.
For one thing, as it turns out, sharks don’t have an exceptional sense of smell after all. In 2010, two biologists at the Florida Atlantic University studied the olfactory capabilities of five different aquatic species, including sharks. How did the sharks compare with the competition? Not so well.
Their findings, published in Journal of Experimental Biology, are a little dense (there are many references to “amino acid odorants”). But lead researcher Tricia Meredioth summed it up this way: “(Sharks) can’t smell a drop of anything in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.”
Need more proof? In 2012, National Geographic hosted a series of shark experiments. One of those experiments included a deep-sea diver emptying an 8-ounce plastic bottle full of fresh, stinky urine into shark-infested waters.
Total number of researchers who were mauled, eaten, or bitten during the test? Zero. Total number of sharks that even noticed all the piss? Zero.
So stop worrying about your pee. It’s not putting you at risk. But again, on behalf of everyone swimming near you, just don’t.
Need more protection? There are several recent innovations, like ankle bracelets that emit electronic signals to repel sharks—there’s the Freedom7, $649, which its website promises is “scientifically proven to reduce the risk of an unwanted shark encounter”—and wetsuits designed with black and white stripes, meant to distinguish surfers from seals, which sharks would much rather be eating. (A company called SAMS—for “Shark Attack Mitigation Services”—has an entire line of these shark-deterrent wetsuits.)
Or you can do what Rothman does—pray.
“If I see a shark, I just say a little prayer and just give it a space and hopefully it gives me my space,” says Rothman. “I respect that this is his place. This is where he lives, and I’m just here as a visitor.”
Hey, good luck with that!
(With additional reporting by Daedalus Howell.)
