Shark History

Reasons for Fascination

Anyone investigating the man-shark relationship will be struck by the disproportion between the impact on the subconscious of a few exceptional mishaps and the statistical reality of the facts.  The recently established organization International Shark Attack File, which lists all known attacks since 1560, was unable to find more than 1500.  Even though the true number is much higher, it is nevertheless the case that the number of attacks throughout the world certainly does not exceed 500 per year and of these only 200 will die (if we disregard big shipwrecks).  This is the number of people struck by lightning each year, the consequences of a single reckless weekend on the roads of France, the number of victims in a single air disaster, the number of people dying of AIDS in every two weeks in the United States.  So why this irrational fear?  Why all of the media coverage given to these deaths, which are than talked about in minute detail the world over?

At the root of it there is certainly a phenomenon of projection, that unconscious action which consists of refusing to see or being incapable of interiorizing certain emotion or certain personality traits, and instead "pinning" them on another person, another place, another object.  The classic example is that of the "bad element" which always seems to linger in the great families and drain the guilty conscience of one and all like an abscess.  Dogs, meanwhile, are often an outlet for their master's frustrations when the latter insults them as he would like to dare insult his boss or mother-in-law.

We can each one of us ask ourselves if there are any aspects of our own personality that we project on to the shark or, on the other hand, any shark characteristics which we would secretly like to be able to have at our disposal.

We have seen how island peoples have always attributed both attractive and repulsive qualities to sharks, as if primitive peoples, living in close contact with the earth and the natural cycles, more easily saw both the negative and the positive side in everything.  It is significant that nationals called "civilized", which have lost touch with nature, project onto the shark an almost exclusively morbid, negative image.  The gap is ever wider between our safety-conscious, hyper secure, ever more comfortable and technologized world, and that abyssal, cold and somber world which is that of the shark.  A world which takes us back to the barbarity of early ages when the frail body of man did not count for much faced with physical assaults of every order.  It is probable that the shark will convey more and more frightening images as modern man creates for himself an artificial world which the "hunting instinct" will have disappeared for good.  The "organic" relationship which we maintain with the shark will become increasingly intolerable, and at the same time will be increasingly exploited by the media, as if better to exorcise these hideous reminders of another age.

The fear of sharks embraces a number of phobias: fear of the dark, of heights, of falling into a strange world, of blood, of gaping wounds, of being alone when faced with danger, of physical combat, of the inexorability of death...  These chilly monsters, which glide through the water like serpents and lock you in the stranglehold of their jaws as in the clutches of a spider, take you back to the nightmares of your childhood.

We must not, of course, overlook the "delightful shudder of horror" as a possible reason behind this fascination for the shark.  Sadomasochistic drives still exist in many adults, and whether these drives are active or passive, the subconscious still projects onto the shark or its victim.  The morbid instinct or many readers as well known among editors-in-chief, who know how to distil the horror of an attack cross eye-catching headlines, their tales of suspense and photos often having nothing to do with the actual event.  Do you need proof?  Watch the attitude and reactions of a professional reader of this website when confronted by some of the graphic photos it contains.  And then, how did you yourself react to any of them when you first saw them?

Our fascination may become more admiring, if not wholly positive, when we come to know more about the invulnerability and hyper efficiency of this unpredictable, uncompromising and solitary animal, which trifles with others as it pleases.  Our interest may then turn more towards the animal than towards the victim.

Whatever the reason behind man's current fascination for sharks, it is always accompanied by anthropomorphism, inseparable from the phenomenon of projection, which is encountered every time man is confronted with a problem outside his control.  There was the serpent, there was the bear, there will soon only be the shark left, as long as it retains some of its mystery.  Having arrived on earth 350 million years before man, it will without any doubt outlive him, and the passage of man in the animal world will have been only a minor incident in the history of the shark.