This shark is misunderstood.

You are more likely to be killed in a hunting accident, lightening strike or sand pit than a shark. In 2007, one person worldwide was killed by a shark bite. During that same period, 793 people died due to bicycle accidents and 49 died due to dog bites.

In the U.S., the country with the highest number of attacks, your odds of drowning at a beach are 1 in 3.5 million. Your odds of dying from a shark attack are less than 1 in 264 million. Bees, wasps and snakes are responsible for far more fatalities each year.

Many more people are injured and killed on land while driving to and from the beach than by sharks in the water. At the beach, dehydration, jellyfish and stingray stings and sunburn are far more likely to occur than a shark bite.

The extreme rarity of shark bites do not justify out-of-proportion fear of or lack of empathy for sharks.