Why do sharks not bite divers who are right next to them?
In: Biology
Sharks aren’t mindless killers like in Jaws. Sharks won’t attack something for no reason. Humans aren’t familiar to sharks and are not part of their diets, so sharks are rarely interested in humans in the same way you probably wouldn’t east some mystery meal unless you were very hungry. Sharks also won’t expend energy unless they need to, so if the shark isn’t hungry, it won’t attack. Again, this is true of most predators. If you just ate dinner, would you go out of your way to find another meal?
The vast majority of shark attacks happen when the shark mistakes a person for their normal prey or when the shark is provoked by the person and becomes aggravated and defensive. Otherwise, sharks are almost always more afraid of us than we are of them. I’ve seen numerous sharks while diving and they almost always swim away or maintain a safe distance where they can keep an eye on us out of curiosity.
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