Last summer while enjoying a summer day at the beach in Montauk, my wife suddenly recoiled in fear as she spied a silvery fin cutting through the waves near shore. While the fin belonged to a dolphin, like many Americans she could not help but fear a shark attack - a fear acquired four decades ago with the release of the film Jaws and exacerbated through years of scare-mongering videos.

The annual tradition of the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" is a chance to dispel the many myths about sharks and spread awareness about their importance to our oceans and the danger they face. The truth is that sharks have more to fear from people than people do from sharks.

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