Swimmers fear sharks, but are they really the predators we should be worrying about?
If you were keeping score last year, it was 6 to 73 million. The International Shark Attack File says in 2010 six people were killed by sharks.
Now compare that to the estimated 73 million sharks conservation groups say are killed by fishermen each year.
"Shark populations have been declining for 2 decades," says Coastal Carolina University Marine Biologist Rob Young.
He says sharks are killed for their meat, but the majority are being killed in a process called finning.
In parts of China the shark fin is worth a hundred times more than the shark meat itself, which is the driving force why fishermen keep only the fins. "They just catch them, remove the fins and just throw them back in the water. It's illegal in this country."
Though the majority of shark killings happen in other countries, it's still effecting our coastal ecosystems.
"A lot of sharks are what they call highly migratory species," says Young. "Which makes them harder to manage because they cross state or national boundaries."
While it may seem like our population would be better off without sharks, Young says not having sharks would have a negative effect on our lives.
"Sharks are top predators and top predators help keep the balance and help keep in check the top competitors in the level below them. So if you remove those predators you lose a lot of diversity in the ecosystem and your whole community starts to look and act very different."
