Great White Shark Attacks: How to Avoid Them

All I needed to know about white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) attacks I learned as a child in Montana, where there were no sharks, but there were grizzly and black bears. Dealing with predators is simple: if you want to be 100% safe from a predator, stay out of its territory. If you want or need to be in a predator's territory, it is safest to stay away from its food and not look or act like food yourself. Be ready for an encounter, know what you need to do, and just do it. Don't expect sympathy from me if you get bitten - it's the risk you take with predators. First aid, yes, but my sympathies are with the shark.

Territory, for a white shark, is cold but not frigid ocean water along the edges of continents. They seldom enter warm shallow water. In the USA, the place that humans are most likely to encounter white sharks is where their preferred water temperatures are found close to shore: the Pacific coast from Washington south to the "elbow" of Mexico at Colima. West Coast beaches slope sharply to deep cold water, so you can see sharks within yards of the beach. The first white shark I saw was in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. On a foggy winter afternoon when big, glassy swells were melting onto the beach my father pointed to a huge fish inside a smooth mound of water about 30 feet away and said, "Look, there's a shark." I watched as the shark magically stayed in position, rising with every swell but never getting closer, then it turned and vanished into the bay.

If you chose to enter the shark's territory, your chances of being bitten in an encounter change depending on your surroundings and activity. To put the chances of being bitten or killed by a great white shark into perspective, George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File says, "Falling coconuts kill 150 people worldwide each year." Very few unprovoked attacks are reported each year. The true feeding frenzy happens on land after one of the rare fatal attacks, with the media circling like grey reef sharks because "shark eats man" brings in readers. Shark attacks are more convenient to report on than grizzly bear attacks; it's usually at a busy urban beach and the reporters can corner the victim's family for intrusive questions and be home for lunch.

Stay with other humans: Most attacks are on solo swimmers or surfers, or on someone who is separated from their group.

Stay away from shark food: Seals are the main white shark food to avoid. The sharks loiter between the "haul out" spots on the beaches or rocks where the seals stay between fishing trips and the deep water where the seals fish. Seals headed to sea have to make it past any sharks that may be waiting. Any swimmer or surfer in the area risks being mistaken for a seal and bitten.

Don't act like food, don't smell like food, and don't argue over food: Shark food will try to dash for safety. If you see a shark, don't flee. That's acting like food. Keep your eyes on the shark and slowly back away from it. Confronted by something that isn't acting like normal prey, the wisest move for a predator is to move on rather than risk injury.

Don't enter water where blood or entrails have been discarded by fishermen. In a breathtaking display of stupidity by both the divers and the dive tour operator, the fatal shark incident off the Bahamas this year involved people free diving where the dive boat operator had been chumming (attracting sharks by dumping blood in the water) to guarantee his clients there would be sharks.

If you are spear-fishing and sharks appear, abandon your catch and back away from it.

Fighting back against a shark: If a shark decides you are food, and if it is hungry, it will attack. Doing nothing means getting eaten, fighting hard may mean escaping with injuries. Predators risk being injured by prey that is fighting for its life, so they may decide to turn you loose and find something less reluctant to be eaten. Successful defenses have included poking at the shark's eyes and gills and shoving a boogie board into the shark's mouth: Food doesn't do that.

Sharks often bite the prey then back off and wait for the prey to die. During this interval, humans can rescue each other. The available data indicates that a shark will concentrate on one individual, so going to the defense of a bite victim is not as dangerous as it sounds. Get the victim into the boat or get to shore. That victim could have been you.

First aid for serious shark bites: Stop the bleeding: use the first aid arterial pressure points, tourniquets, t-shirts or duct tape ... even a small bite is going to be gory. Elevate the bitten site if possible to minimize blood loss. Cover the victim to keep them warm, do not give them any food or drink, and keep talking to them.

Immediately have someone call for emergency medical assistance - let them make the decision of whether you transport the victim of meet them or if they will come to you.