It's a shark's world and we're swimming in it

Sharks are a group of fish categorized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits that are on the sides of the head, and a pectoral fin that is not fused to the head. To a normal beach-goer, however, they are a set of jaws that can quickly ruin a weekend.

Over 400 species of sharks call the ocean their home, with about 40 species residing along the eastern coast of the United States, the most common being the smooth dogfish shark, hammerhead shark, sandbar shark and the Atlantic mako shark.

They tend to like the simple foods in life: fish, crustaceans, mollusks, plankton, krill, marine mammals and the occasional fellow shark. In addition to the standard five senses that humans are equipped with, sharks also have the ability to detect vibrations and pressure changes associated with currents and other animals as well as electroreception, in which they pick up small electrical fields generated by other animals.

But even with these highly evolved traits, sharks can sometimes make a mistake.

In the year 2014, 72 unprovoked shark attacks occurred worldwide. Only three were fatal, and of the trifecta, only one occurred in the United States. Studies have shown over the years that people are more likely to die from a winged insect, such as a bee, wasp or hornet, than a shark, proving stingers more deadly than teeth. Even though many studies have been done to prove people are more a threat to sharks than the other way around, beach goers still run in terror from the water if a shark is nearby.

According to the organization Greenpeace, humans kill approximately 100 million sharks annually, intentionally or accidentally. That breaks down to about one million per week, or 273,000 shark deaths per day. The World Health Organization estimated in 2012 that nearly half the number of people died, only about 56 million, with cardiovascular disease the main culprit. Sharks only killed seven. With these numbers, humans are more deadly to their toothy counterparts than vice-versa.

While many people may not want to ever see a shark, having them in certain areas may prove the local ecosystem is healthy. "They represent the top predators in the reef food web, and their presence means there are lots of fish present to support them," said University of Delaware marine sciences graduate professor Mark Warner. "Since more fish usually equals a healthy reef, this is a good thing to see."

As of June 29, there have been five shark attacks along the East Coast, four in North Carolina. Now, after these attacks, Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week is poised to take TVs by storm to tell the horrifying tales of beach visits gone wrong.

In a CNN interview following a North Carolina attack, Anderson Cooper interviewed George Burgess of the University of Florida shark research program. Cooper addressed the idea that many swimmers have shared close waters with a shark, but have not known their presence.

"The fact of the matter is that most of these encounters don't result in any bites to humans. The sharks recognized humans as not the normal prey item," said Burgess in response. "Every day there's thousands of sharks swimming in and amongst swimmers along beaches from Miami up to North Carolina."

As reported by other local news outlets and the Ocearch Shark Tracker, the Atlantic states have a couple visitors in their waters but pose very limited threat to the shoreline. A hammerhead has been seen in Ocean City, Md., but in a sickly condition, and Ocearch also documented and tracked the surfacing of an immature mako shark by the name of Cate Ells miles offshore June 20 near Ocean City.

According to many other research models, sharks are less likely to swim in shallow waters where swimmers normally stay. The majority of victims are surfers or scuba divers, and even in those cases, the water tends to be more than a few feet deep and during the early morning or late evening, which is the general feeding time for the oceanic environment.

Much like people, food is a driving force for a shark. Experts have agreed over the past years that the majority of unprovoked shark attacks happen when they mistake a swimmer or surfer for a seal or fish and implement the "bite and release" process common to their species.This is what happened to beach-goer Andrew Vance in 2014 off Cape Henlopen State Park. Scott Newlin, a marine biologist, said it was more likely than not that the shark who bit the boy was going after a fish, and mistook Vance's arm for his food. With this incident, Vance was the seventh recorded shark bite in Delaware since 1909.

Although sharks pose a threat to surfers in nearly every movie, it's rare to meet a surfer who is actively afraid of them. "I'm not afraid of sharks, but I try not to think about it when I'm out there," said avid beach-goer and local surfer Laura Askin. Like many other marine enthusiasts today, she is more concerned about the impact humans have on sharks. "If you look at the statistics of how many sharks kill humans versus how many sharks are killed by humans, it's mind boggling," Askin continued. Burgess held a similar standpoint in his interview with CNN, and concluded that to take action against sharks, people simply need to be more educated about the animals, and when is the best time to be in the water.

Christofer Neff, a doctoral researcher at the University of Sydney, gave an interview with "National Geographic," which discussed some tactics other countries have taken to protect and educate their beach goers, such as exclusion nets, used in Cape Town, South Africa.

"They are different than anything we have in the United States, or anywhere else in the world. These are temporary nets that go out in the morning and come in at night. They are there to provide a nonlethal barrier," said Neff.

Neff discusses the aftermath of a shark attack and the outcome for many families. "[The families] speak about the need to respect the ocean and move away from revenge hunts on sharks," he said, emphasizing that the ocean is the sharks' home.