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What Doogie said. An individual person taking no precautions and swimming in the open ocean is at some risk. But very, very small. Sharks are at much greater risk from human beings than mankind is threatened by them.

To individual people? Sure. To mankind as a species? Not a chance.

Not at all, they rarely ever attack humans it is a common misconception. Without them, we would actually be in a far worse position.

Good analysis.

You are at a greater risk of being struck by lightning than being the victim of a shark attack.

Until the repellents are finalized, they are a threat.

So we're about to be overrun by sharks ala the Halloween Special with the Dolphins taking over Springfield without some sort of chemical repellents?

Well Sun Tzu, the scary part about shark attacks is that you don't see them coming. With lightning, you can check the weather, but let's say you are on vacation and you go for a swim, how do you really know if you aren't in shark territory. Everyone thinks that they are okay, but the fact of the matter is that no one isn't.

They say that shark repellents aren't exactly man-made chemicals, but current research shows that sharks don't like the smell of dead sharks, so all a lifeguard would have to do is shoot this thing in the water, and this liquid, which was taken from a dead shark would immediately go into the water and within seconds, no matter what the shark is doing, it would go away.

No my point is that the question specifically asks if mankind is threatened or in danger from sharks. "Are sharks a threat to mankind?" implies that our very survival as a species would be at all an issue. It isn't.

An individual who swims out to sea has some danger from a random and rare attack by a shark. But by and large, individual sharks and sharks as a species are far more in danger from individual human beings and mankind generally.

So far as an individual "not knowing" they are in "shark territory", it is in fact usually well known and extremely well publicized. When is the last time you were somewhere near a beach and DIDN'T hear about a single shark attack when one occurred? People at a beach are far more likely to suffer dangers from things like biological waste disposal, high ecoli counts, or tiny jellyfish. The sharks have been oversold as a threat because a handful of people get bitten or killed a year around the entire globe. Big deal. Thousands of people drown every year and hundreds are killed by lightning (even in spite of complicated warning systems for tidal effects and storm fronts). This is a classic case of poor risk assessments.

Okay, but the problem is that these sharks, they don't stay in one location. Within a month, a shark can travel all the way around the world. There isn't a radar on all of these sharks. They are in creeks, where no one expects them, where children play. You're just saying this because you probably don't live near an ocean or never had a relative who was attacked by a shark.

I don't care if we are a threat to the sharks, if you were put in the middle of the ocean for whatever reason with a life jacket, your biggest threat is a shark attack. Most shark attacks also happen within five feet deep btw, so it's not like you have to go out deep to be bitten.

Actually they do stay in pretty much "one location". It's extremely rare for a shark to show up in say San Francisco or Boston. Or even Virginia Beach. Or even Miami Beach for that matter. I am saying this because the statistics on the number of people who are attacked annually by sharks is in double digits. There are less than 100 people (not just Americans) who are attacked everywhere around the globe by a shark and the number who are killed is very close to being countable by your fingertips. Look it up. There are as a result almost no Americans, much less anybody else around the globe, who have had the situation you describe, either having survived attack or knowing someone who didn't. So your brush won't paint here.

Your biggest threat if you end up in the middle of the ocean with only a life jacket is dehydration, followed by starvation or general exhaustion. A shark still isn't exactly high on my list of worries there (provided I have no major wounds to attract attention as a consequence of the events that put me in open water). By the time sharks show up I'll be either long dead or rescued.

By contrast to the handful of people killed every year, there are over 100 million sharks killed every year.

Who do you think is winning this "war"?

Hmmmmm!?!

I would think that there are only 545 of them that are.

They lurk all around Washington D.C.

Get my drift?

You don't know what you're talking about man. Maybe you should watch shark week one time. Sharks are tracked by GPS these days and most of the research shows that they travel hundreds of miles within days.

It doesn't matter if we are winning the war. Every time a human steps foot in the ocean, he/she is in danger of being attacked. That's a risk that we must eliminate.

I got it lol.

They still don't magically appear in places that they don't normally go to. Which is most of the beach fronts in the US.

That risk, what there is of it, is so minuscule that it's not worth spending a whole pile of money on.

Yes, they actually do go to places they don't normally go to and when the weather is right, they patrol there for a few months of the year. They tracked one shark who was in Florida, and he made his way all the way to the Bahamas within a matter of months.

Wow. All the way to the Bahamas. …..

Please excuse me while I go and cower in fear.

It's okay Sun Tzu, I accept the fact that you were wrong.

Sarcasm detector fail.

Or even worrying about. When was the last shark attack in the US?

There were actually 32 last year in Florida (zero deaths). The US gets far more than any other country, in large part because we have so much coastal development and affluence to use the water for recreation.

But it's still a ridiculously small risk given the millions of hours people spend in the ocean.

You should change up the batteries for your sarcasm detector. Make sure they are Energizer Titanium or something.

Take a swim, I dare you, both of you.

I have. It's called a vacation.

Next vacation, look into Florida.

I believe I was referring to your sarcasm detector being defective.

Given that there were zero deaths and only 32 attacks last year with millions of tourists and Floridians swimming, surfing, and playing in the ocean all year, perhaps I will.

Yes, but until we can fully protect ourselves from sharks, it can still happen to you.

I'll check the batteries.

That's true. But I could also die in a car crash on the way to the beach.

In fact, I'm far more likely to have that occur. I don't sit around worrying about that either.

My grandparents live in Florida. I swam a couple years ago…for quite awhile. Didn't see a single shark.

Yea, but everyone thinks the way you do. What are the odds? It can still happen and if it can be prevented, it should.

Okay. Do it again, and again. It will increase your odds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8272508…

Actually I think maybe the South Pacific sounds good for a vacation.

There are lots of things that can prevented, but happen so rarely that it makes no sense to invest millions of dollars in prevention. It's totally disproportionate. There is no logic that says "if it can be prevented, it should", or at least, there is no logic that says this requires a massive scale investment of public policy. A few simple precautions on a local or individual level might be appropriate (the public scale insanity that shows up when a shark is spotted or has actually attacked someone in recent memory somewhere is sufficient in my view). But nothing like like what you're saying we need.

Florida has and will always be the number one place for shark attacks. No one said anything about investing millions of dollars into preventing shark attacks. There are a lot of promising repellents out there already made by people in little shacks and stuff. I saw it on shark week.

The dice have no memory Jared. Your odds are the same every time, really low. Your lifetime odds may be increasing, but they are doing so at such an astronomically slow rate that it's practically useless to be worrying about. At all.

You can't fight the law of large numbers, which is in fact a phenomenon.

No. You can't fight them, but you can acknowledge that these are REALLY large numbers. Your odds are about 1 in 10 million of being attacked in your lifetime by a shark even if you live by the ocean and enjoy it frequently. Those are excellent odds. As I said, I am in more danger of dying driving on the way to the beach than being attacked or killed by a shark.

It was like these 5 guys in a hut and they said that sharks don’t like the smell of dead sharks in the water. The owner said he buys the supplies off of ebay and they do some liquidation process that comes from a dead shark or something. They put it in a water-triggering containing and then when it hits the water and it is released, the sharks scatter within seconds.

That’s one repellent so far.

hahaha papadawg..always make me laugh

no sharks arent a threat……..dtay out of thier home if your scared if not take a chance

Yes they are a threat.
First they will take over all the 7 elevens.
Then they’ll start protesting for rights, and run for Congress.
Unemployment will rise for humans.
Sharks wil be everywhere; from pumping gas to the executive branches.
Space exploration will come to a dead stop as all efforts will be concentrated on farming the ocean.
Sacrificial rites will be put into place to please the President C.Carcharias.
There will be weeping and Gnashing of Teeth.

I hardly believe that sharks are really that dangerous. They dont kill a human unless they think the human is a seal and the only way that would happen is if the human was on a surf board. And most sharks bite because they are just curious to see what the limb is or what it will taste like, once they bite the limb theyre like "Aw hell no! This is to bony for me!". They dont want a skinny As$ human leg, they want a meaty delicious seal! You are more likely to get struck by lightning rather then get bitten by a shark. Plus they eat most of the trash in the ocean for some reason.

UHhhhhhh………If humans are capable of eating humans I don’t sharks would have any problems there.

BUUUT……. We!! (all those who want to part of the we say Aye)

Having…. Dominion over them!! Can …and by GOD we Will !!…………………convert them all to vegetarians.

Haha, vegetarian sharks! They would have no need to have those sharp teeth anymore, unless they are gonna fight.

Sharks are always going to be around and were never going to get control of them so heres what i have to say DEAL WITH IT! Wild animals have to deal with humans that took away their territory so we have to accept that sharks are the King of the Ocean. Or is that the blue whale?