You've
finally done it, you've saved up enough money for a well-deserved vacation to Hawaii, surf
capital of the world.
As you hit the waves you let all your troubles melt away in the tropical waters and warm
summer sun.
Yet unbeknownst to you there's something else in the water with you, lurking just under
the waves and doing slow circles below you.
Deciding you'll take a dip below the surface to check out some tropical fish, you plunge
under and are shocked to see a large finned shape a small distance from you, growing ever
closer.
Suddenly you realize that you're not staring at an oncoming playful dolphin, but a full-blown
shark!
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Infographics You Versus series, today we're
pitting you, the average joe, against a mature adult shark.
First it's important to note that despite the terror that sharks elicit from humans,
the simple fact is that you're more likely to die from getting struck by lightning than
from being attacked by a shark.
Shark fatalities in the US average at about 1 every two years, yet an average of 51 people
per year die to lightning strikes.
Next time you go to the beach you should be 102 times more worried about what's happening
in the clouds above than what might be lurking in the water below you!
It's also important to note that humans are not prey for sharks, in fact we are rather
confusing for them.
Imagine that for 400 million years you and your ancestors have grown accustomed to eating
fish and seals, and then suddenly in just the last few thousand years- the blink of
an eye in evolutionary terms- the seas suddenly started being invaded by funny little monkey-like
creatures that swim terribly.
Simply put, sharks just don't see human beings as edible, because they don't quite understand
what we are.
In fact, the vast majority of shark attacks are mistakes, with the animal biting into
a human and then very quickly spitting it back out in disgust.
We don't taste the way fish or seal tastes, and when a shark bites into our flesh- specially
a great white- it's quick to spit our disgusting selves back out.
There's also the fact that for larger sharks such as Great Whites, we're just not worth
the effort- a large shark's typical prey is large fish, infant whales, or seals, and by
comparison we have very little fat content versus the rich blubber in say a juicy seal.
Such low energy content in our bodies just isn't worth the effort for a shark, and that's
why many swimmers splash in waters every single day that are infested with sharks, and are
none the wiser for it.
We've debated telling our European viewers this, but thought it best that you be informed:
great white sharks habituate all throughout the Mediterranean.
That's right, despite the illusion that the Mediterranean is free of large predatory sharks,
the only one of the three sharks that regularly attack human beings- the Tiger, Bull, and
Great White- that isn't present in the warm waters of southern europe is the bull shark.
Sorry for ruining your next holiday to sunny Spain, but you should know that you are in
fact swimming in waters frequently patrolled by very dangerous sharks.
Yet as we mentioned, you're simply not on the menu, so try not to worry about it...
But today you definitely are on the menu, and not just by one shark, but by three of
them.
As mentioned the species responsible for the most shark attacks against humans are the
Great White, the Tiger, and the Bull shark.
Of the three the Great White is the one that most captures our imagination.
It is one of the longest lived animals, with fossils dating back to 16 million years.
Yet when you're as well evolved as a Great White, you have little need for additional
evolution, so it's no surprise that the Great White has remained largely unchanged for so
long.
Great white sharks can measure up to 4.9 meters (16 feet) on average, and have been identified
in almost all of the world's oceans.
If you think you'll just go ahead and take your next vacation in Alaska where you can
dip into the chilly waters free of worries, think again, because Great Whites have been
spotted just shy of the Arctic Circle.
Of the three 'killer' sharks, Great Whites result in the most fatalities and yet attack
the least.
This disparity is down to the simple size of the Great White- famous for taking exploratory
bites on unidentified prey, Great Whites have massive jaws that can end in death even after
the shark spits its human prey out in disgust.
The Tiger shark is about three quarters the size of a Great White, but can grow up to
over 5 meters in length at times (16ft 5in).
Famous for a pattern of dark stripes that run the course of its body, these telltale
stripes fade as the shark matures, and they can often be mistaken for Great Whites.
Tiger Sharks are also known as the garbage cans of the ocean, and have been discovered
with all matter of things in their stomachs to include tires, plastic jugs, and sneakers.
A tiger will eat just about anything, and their diet includes anything from crustaceans,
fish, birds, all the way up to dolphins.
The Tiger is the second most dangerous shark for humans, and that's due both to its size
and the fact that unlike the Great White, a tiger is more predisposed to actually eating
a human being.
Their range however is much more limited than the Great White's, though they can be found
off most of the US's coasts stretching down to South America and throughout Asian and
African coasts.
The most aggressive of the three species is the Bull shark.
Growing up to 2.4 meters (7.9 ft), Bull sharks are so called for their stocky shape, broad,
flat snout, and their highly aggressive and unpredictable behavior.
While divers will often swim alongside Tiger sharks and even Great Whites, few divers in
the world will risk hanging around a Bull shark for long- and with good reason, as it's
believed that the majority of shark attacks against humans are actually the work of Bull
sharks, who are often misidentified.
Luckily for most people the Bull shark's range is extremely limited, and typically sticks
close to the shores of the southern US, South America, Africa and some parts of Asia.
Unfortunately if you make like TLC and thought you'd stick to the rivers and lakes that you’re
used to in order to avoid sharks altogether, you should know that Bull sharks are often
called 'river sharks' due to their ability to survive for long periods of time in fresh
water.
In fact bull sharks have been found as far inland as Alton, Illinois, or 1100 km (700
miles) from the ocean!
So now that you know your enemy, how are you going to keep yourself off a shark's menu?
First, try and keep the shark in your field of view at all times.
All three sharks- Great White, Bull, and Tiger- are ambush predators, and do not like to risk
taking on prey unless they have the advantage of surprise.
This means never turning your back to the Shark, as the moment it thinks you aren't
aware of it anymore, it'll strike.
This is a behavior shared by many animals, even those on land- for example, in India
villagers living close to wilderness have routinely been preyed upon by tigers, who
leap at them from behind and drag them off into the jungle.
Then one day villagers started wearing masks on their heads facing backwards so that it
appeared as if the villager had a second face on the back of their heads.
Surprisingly tiger attacks dropped precipitously after villagers literally grew eyes on the
back of their heads, despite the fact that by now the tigers must have known that humans
make for very easy prey.
Yet predatory animals, to include sharks, are not very big risk takers.
While a grazing animal can easily survive with a serious wound or handicap, a predatory
animal will die if it cannot hunt- grass after all doesn't run away, yet a predatory shark
needs every ounce of muscle in its body to outrun and overpower fleeing prey.
If a shark is wounded, it risks not being able to give a hunt its all, and that might
lead to starvation.
What that means is that a predator, it turns out, is incredibly risk-averse.
So keep your shark in eyesight at all times, and don't let it think it's ever got the drop
on you- simple enough, right?
Next you're going to want to make sure that you remain calm, panicky behavior will mimic
the desperate struggling of injured prey and only encourage the shark to attack, making
the shark think that you are too weak to fight back.
Sadly, the shark is right anyways- you are too pathetically weak to fight off a shark
attack- but no need to let it know that.
Instead of flopping and splashing in a desperate attempt to get back to dry land, simply relax
and slowly make your way back towards the beach.
Up against a hungry shark, you're in a battle of confidence- the more confidence you have,
the less the shark will have that you're not dangerous prey.
Remember, to the shark you are weird and strange, sharks didn't evolve eating humans, so the
shark has no clue what you're actually capable of and is going to be wary of any dangerous
defenses you might have.
Let's say however that this particular shark is a bit bolder than the rest, and he's coming
in for a bite.
First of all, forget the advice you've heard all your life of going for the eyes.
Most sharks have special lenses that slide into place as it bites down on prey, and they
are there exactly to protect the eyes from thrashing prey.
You're going to do very little damage to the protected eyes, but most importantly, you've
got a pretty strong chance of simply sticking your hands into the shark's gaping mouth,
full of razor-sharp teeth.
Honestly, don't make the shark's job any easier than it already is.
Instead of going for the eyes, you're going to want to reach along the shark's side until
you hit the gills, and those are what you'll want to attack.
For sharks, gills are as important as lungs are to us, and grabbing a handful of gills
and yanking is the fish equivalent of getting punched in the throat.
If you think that's not so big a deal when you're fighting for your life, go ahead and
give yourself a solid little tap on the adam apple and then tell us how you feel afterwards.
Now imagine taking a full force blow there.
The moment you grab the shark's gill slits, it is absolutely going to spit you out and
try to get away.
It's response is no different than when you hold your breath and are running out of air,
desperately taking a breath of air in a panic.
Having proven that you're not easy prey, you're now going to want to make sure you get out
of the water asap.
Normally in this series we teach you how to defeat your opponent, not just how to survive
it and get away, yet the truth is that if you were in a 1 on 1 deathmatch with a shark,
well- you lose.
You're just not going to survive hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary perfection.
The other sad truth is that sharks are already losing a deathmatch against humans, with them
falling prey to long lines and fishing nets and being pushed ever closer to extinction
every day.
If that wasn't enough, the absolutely pointless practice of finning, or the catching of sharks
and cutting off their fins while dumping them back in the ocean still alive, is driving
the sharks that do remain towards extinction in a hurry.
Every year tens of millions of sharks are caught and finned, all so that their inedible
appendages can sit in the soup bowls of customers across southeast asia, who pay hundreds of
dollars for the privilege of eating crappy soup, perpetuating a barbarically cruel fishing
practice, and driving animals that have survived every major extinction event on earth to their
own extinction.
So relax, because you've already won this death match just by doing nothing- though
we would love to see sharks start to tear the limbs off humans before tossing them back
alive onto the beach just so they can make human arm and leg soup.
Will you ever go back into the water again knowing sharks are literally everywhere?
Why do people pay so much money for dumb soup?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, make sure you check our our other video, You vs 100 baby sharks!
And as always if you enjoyed this video don't forget to Like, Share, and Subscribe.
See you next time!