Denizens of the deep aren’t that dangerous

Is there any more majestic sight in nature than a great white shark rising silently from the depths like a guided missile, soaring out of the water with a seal in its mouth and then deftly pirouetting back to its briny home to consume lunch?

The efficiency of the shark is terrifying and beautiful at the same time. And humans watching it are almost certain to wonder to themselves: What if I were lunch instead of the seal?

We humans have an almost masochistic love affair with sharks. While we fear them to the point that they can make us reluctant to stick a toe in the ocean, we also can’t seem to get enough of them.

That helps explain why “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel, which is taking place this week, has become something like the annual Super Bowl of shark-show binging. Discovery even sells Shark Week accessories, such as shark attack slippers and a seven-foot inflatable shark.

“Shark Week,” for the most part, represents a welcome trend in shark coverage, focusing mainly on hard science and providing needed perspective regarding our relationship with these creatures. This stands in sharp contrast to the era of “Jaws” (great movie, by the way) when the emphasis was on monster sharks biting people in half.

Granted, Shark Week features its share of goofy shark-attack re-enactments and stories about killer sharks. But it also gives us shots of the aforementioned great white seal-eating ritual and many other cool underwater shots of sharks in their world.

And, thankfully, one big takeaway from all this attention to sharks is that they aren’t as dangerous as we might have once believed.

You may have heard that the number of shark attacks increased last year, and that would be right. In fact, it was a record number, with 98 attacks worldwide, 26 more than in 2014.

Six of the attacks were fatal.

And the number of attacks might be on the rise again this year, as millions of people head for the beach. On Monday, a 35-year-old man, wading in knee-deep water off the coast of Sullivan’s Island, was bitten by a shark estimated to be about three feet long, probably a sand shark. He suffered minor puncture wounds.

That was the second attack off the South Carolina coast. So far this year, two people, a swimmer and a surfer, have been attacked by sharks off the North Carolina coast. Neither was seriously hurt.

Several other attacks have occurred off Florida’s Atlantic coastline, one of the most frequent sites of shark attacks. But even in a potentially record-breaking year, shark attacks are rare.

How rare? The risk of being bitten by a shark is estimated to be about 1 in 11.5 million. The risk of drowning on a visit to the ocean is about 1 in 2 million.

When it comes to sharks killing humans vs. humans killing sharks, we’re winning – in a tragic way. While the numbers understandably are hard to calculate with any specificity, the international shark protection organization Shark Project estimates that about 200 million sharks are being caught each year.

Millions of sharks are tossed overboard by professional fishing fleets as bycatch. Up to 73 million sharks are killed each year for their fins alone, which are sold at enormous profit to Asian gourmands for shark fin soup.

The rest of the shark goes over the side.

At this rate of slaughter, we risk wiping out certain species of sharks entirely. That might make some people feel safer, but removing the top predators from any habitat is always a mistake.

We’re better off preserving these fierce creatures and learning to live with our ambivalence about them. As we splash around in the ocean, we need to keep in mind that the chances of being killed, maimed or even nuzzled by a shark are minuscule.

But, at the same time, we also need to acknowledge that it’s their home, not ours.

This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Denizens of the deep aren’t that dangerous."