Most sharks (and barracuda) are just looking for easy food. And most (of the few) attacks in the Atlantic off South Florida and in the Bahamas are due to scuba divers spearfishing and keeping fish in a bag attached to them. The shark and barracuda want the fish, not the diver, but sometimes the diver gets in the way.

Surfers on a surfboard, with arms and legs hanging in the water, tend to look like a turtle from the shark's perspective looking upward.

And on the Atlantic side of the U.S., I have heard that it is best not to wear bright, tropical-looking bathing suits, because you look too much like a tropical fish. On the Pacific side of the U.S., on the other hand, if you wear a black wetsuit, you tend to look like a seal, their favorite meal.

So just try not to look like food or smell like food or have "shark food" attached to your body.

If you are in clear waters where the sharks can see you, and you don't look like their normal food, you have less worries about being attacked. A lot of attacks seem to occur in murky waters where they cannot actually see the victim -- these are usually cases of mistaken identity.

One time when Rick was running charter trips to the Bahamas, all the passengers jumped off the boat to go for a swim after they were anchored in a peaceful cove. They noticed that a big mako shark was lounging in the shade beneath the boat. They all scrambled back aboard the boat in record time! It's no wonder sharks are kind of antisocial, experiencing this kind of rejection all the time. Maybe they just want to be friends and play.