Fish story's new reality is that man bites shark
It's four of us a year — but millions of them

By Juliet Eilperin

Updated: 5:24 a.m. ET May 27, 2007
LAS BARRANCAS, Mexico - Year after year, beach season brings accounts of harrowing shark attacks as people around the world plunge into the surf to escape summer's heat.

But the reality is that these fearsome predators kill an average of four people worldwide every year, while humans kill anywhere from 26 million to 73 million sharks annually, according to recent calculations by an international team of scientists.

With the latter toll mounting rapidly in recent years, there has been a growing realization that something must be done to prevent sharks from disappearing from the planet.