“Less than five people a year die from shark bites, yet every time a human dies because of a shark bite, the media goes on a hysterical binge of shark hatred. It's completely irrational. Approximately 100 people a year die from ostrich attacks. Dogs bite over 50,000 people a year and kill over 100. This makes dogs and ostriches twenty times more dangerous than sharks, yet we don't call for the eradication of big birds and puppies. On the other hand, humans slaughter tens of millions of sharks a year for soup. Which species is the monster?

Diving with sharks is less dangerous than playing golf. More people die each year of lightning strikes or bee stings on golf courses than from diving with sharks. If people are afraid of going into the ocean because of sharks, then they should also stay off of the golf course. Better yet, they should stay off the roads and freeways, where over 40,000 people die each year in automobile accidents. And maybe they should stop smoking, a nasty habit that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year. They should also stop people from hunting, because hunting accidents kill far more people each year than sharks do.

I've swum with sharks all my life, including hammerheads, tigers, bulls, nurses, blues, makos, and great whites, and not once did a shark ever threaten my life. However, I was once robbed at gunpoint three blocks from the White House. I was safer in the sea with the sharks than walking down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Captain Paul Watson”