It’s a normal thing to be afraid of sharks. You wouldn’t be here if your ancestors didn’t go away from anything that has pointy teeth, but this fear shouldn’t prevent you from experiencing the fascination of the underwater world. 

Dogs kill about 25,000 people every year and up to tens of millions of people have a bite from a dog. The big difference in the two numbers says that most dogs are harmless.

In the same way, the majority of sharks are harmless too: only 4 species from the 400 different types of sharks have unprovoked attacks on humans, they include tiger sharks, oceanic whitetips, great whites and bull sharks.

The media has portrayed sharks is mindless killers and that isn’t absolutely the case actually humans are around sharks more often than they can realize and only small cases of interactions between them that result in a bite 

In this article, we will give you five steps to help you overcome your fear of sharks. If you want to get over that fear, this article was written for you.

5 Steps to Overcome Your Fear of Sharks 

To overcome your fear of sharks, it is important to learn more about them to understand their behavior and the actual risks they pose. Gradual exposure through controlled environments like aquariums can help you overcome this fear. 

Here are 5 steps to help you overcome your fear of sharks that will be discussed below in details:

• Acknowledge and accept your fear.
• Learn facts about sharks.
• Watch several shark videos.
• Focus on your motivation.
• Speak to someone who can relate.

Acknowledge and Accept Your Fear 

Movies and TV shows have made us afraid of sharks. So if you get all your knowledge about sharks from the media and what you have seen on TV, it’s a totally reasonable thing to fear them. 

Once you recognize that you have only healed one side of the story which is the bad side you will be ready for the next step.

Learn Facts about Sharks 

Actually when you compare the woods of being killed by a shark (which are one in 3,748,067) and by other reasons you will overcome your feet of sharks for example: 

• The odds of dying from a poison by accident or 1 in 193.
• That odds of dying in car accidents are 1 in 272.

you may not be confident with these states but the point is to understand that your life is full of dangerous activities. You can count about 18 everyday things that can be more dangerous than sharks.

Only 4 percent of shark bites can happen to scuba divers. The International Shark Attack Report have been tracking things that scuba divers have made before they get a shark bite and find that 92% were participating in surface activities, including:

• Up to 61% percent board sports and surfing.
• About 26% percent wading and swimming.
• About 5% percent horseplay and bodysurfing.
• Only 4% percent scuba diving.

Many shark attacks happen around fishing areas. Actually, the shark attack is a defensive bite while trying to escape a hook or net.

When spearfishers and snorkelers may swim into the middle of a bait ball, they may get attacked by a shark while snapping up a fish. You can consider that an attack if you consider sticking your hand into the bowl of a dog a one 

Watch Several Shark Videos 

Exciting shark shows intentionally focus on tiger sharks and great whites, although there are many other types of sharks. 

Search YouTube for shark videos, especially basking sharks, thresher sharks and whale sharks, and you will learn why many scuba divers put these magnificent animals at the top of their bucket lists.

If you are looking for documentary films Shark Girl and Sharkwater can be considered an effective antidote to these negative messaging about sharks.

You will be surprised when you know that Mike Coots, who is one of the shark bite survivors, decided to get back in the water and dive again with tiger sharks after watching sharkwater. He tended to turn his previous negative experience into a positive one.

Focus on Your Motivation 

If you have always been looking for swimming with whales and dolphins or maybe experiencing the manta ray night Dive in Hawaii, you can start a list or even make a YouTube playlist to remind yourself about the reasons you want to learn to scuba dive for. Always keep an eye on the price and never focus on your fear.

Speak to Someone Who Can Relate

If you are still feeling worried, talk to your dive buddy or scuba instructor about your concerns. 

Don’t be shy, as they always get asked whether they have seen sharks or not or they are afraid of them or not.

It will be a good chance to meet a scuba diver who used to be afraid of sharks, then his feelings disappear when he meets one underwater. 

After encountering a shark, you will realize that it has zero interest in humans and may be afraid of you. These scary predators simply become like any other fascinating marine creatures that you look forward to seeing while scuba diving.