page_title: Shark
section_title: Attacks
hierarchical_section_title: Shark / Relationship with humans / Attacks
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign warning about the presence of Sharks at beach (South Africa). The sign's text is below. Français&#160;: Panneau indiquant la presence de requins au plage de Salt Rock (Afrique du Sud). Le texte du panneau est en bas.
context_page_description: Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorpha and are the sister group to the rays. However, the term "shark" has also been used for extinct members of the subclass Elasmobranchii outside the Selachimorpha, such as Cladoselache and Xenacanthus, as well as other Chondrichthyes such as the holocephalid eugenedontidans.
  Under this broader definition, the earliest known sharks date back to more than 420 million years ago. Acanthodians are often referred to as "spiny sharks"; though they are not part of Chondrichthyes proper, they are a paraphyletic assemblage leading to cartilaginous fish as a whole. Since then, sharks have diversified into over 500 species. They range in size from the small dwarf lanternshark, a deep sea species of only 17 centimetres in length, to the whale shark, the largest fish in the world, which reaches approximately 12 metres in length. Sharks are found in all seas and are common to depths of 2,000 metres.
context_section_description: In 2006 the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) undertook an investigation into 96 alleged shark attacks, confirming 62 of them as unprovoked attacks and 16 as provoked attacks. The average number of fatalities worldwide per year between 2001 and 2006 from unprovoked shark attacks is 4.3.
  Contrary to popular belief, only a few sharks are dangerous to humans. Out of more than 470 species, only four have been involved in a significant number of fatal, unprovoked attacks on humans: the great white, oceanic whitetip, tiger, and bull sharks. These sharks are large, powerful predators, and may sometimes attack and kill people. Despite being responsible for attacks on humans they have all been filmed without using a protective cage.
  The perception of sharks as dangerous animals has been popularized by publicity given to a few isolated unprovoked attacks, such as the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, and through popular fictional works about shark attacks, such as the Jaws film series. Jaws author Peter Benchley, as well as Jaws director Steven Spielberg, later attempted to dispel the image of sharks as man-eating monsters.
  To help avoid an unprovoked attack, humans should not wear jewelry or metal that is shiny and refrain from splashing around too much.
  In general, sharks show little pattern of attacking humans specifically. Research indicates that when humans do become the object of a shark attack, it is possible that the shark has mistaken the human for species that are its normal prey, such as seals.
caption: A sign warning about the presence of sharks in Salt Rock, South Africa
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