The increase in shark tagging programs has given fishermen a positive alternative to killing their catches. Catch and release tournaments are a cooperative enterprise that benefits both sport fishermen and scientific research. The media has affected attitudes and also causes a threat to sharks. Films like these have little basis in scientific fact and distort reality in order to entertain an audience. It is extremely rare that a shark will attack a human, and if it does, it is almost always a mistake which occurs because the human is behaving like the shark's preferred prey.
Surfers wearing wet suits and riding surf boards look like sea lions to sharks.
Most often, if a shark does mistake a human for a sea lion, the shark will let go and not pursue the human victim further. While serious scientists are trying to find the real answers to why sharks are resistant to disease, other people have made sensational claims in order to make money. Media coverage of these false claims has helped create a market for these drugs among people who are desperate for a cancer cure and sharks are now being fished in the Pacific Ocean for their cartilage. Finally, beach nets kill sharks and can affect their migration success. Nets to protect swimmers at public beaches from sharks are used extensively along the South African and Australian coastlines.