Anyone who has followed me over the years knows by now that I have a passion for sharks. My shark spiels to my students at times sound a bit like Hagrid going on about hippogriffs or dragons being seriously misunderstood creatures. They are in a certain respect. Our fear stems from the unknown mixed with information we glean from pop culture. The author of the novel upon which Jaws was based, came out years later with a statement regretting that he ever wrote the story upon which so many of our fears are based. The story was purely fiction. Now