Great white shark all shark species, the great white shark is responsible for by far the largest number of recorded shark bite incidents on humans, with 272 documented unprovoked bite incidents on humans as of 2012. More than any documented bite incident, Peter Benchley's best-selling novel "Jaws" and the subsequent 1975 film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg provided the great white shark with the image of being a "man eater" in the public mind. While great white sharks have killed humans in at least 74 documented unprovoked bite incidents, they typically do not target them: for example, in the Mediterranean Sea there have
Shark popular fictional works about shark attacks, such as the "Jaws" film series. "Jaws" author Peter Benchley, as well as "Jaws" director Steven Spielberg, later attempted to dispel the image of sharks as man-eating monsters. To help avoid an unprovoked attack, humans should not wear jewelry or metal that is shiny and refrain from splashing around too much. Until recently, only a few benthic species of shark, such as hornsharks, leopard sharks and catsharks, had survived in aquarium conditions for a year or more. This gave rise to the belief that sharks, as well as being difficult to capture and transport,