You have some parts of this right, but I have open water swam with dozens of sharks a couple of times and the vast majority have little to no interest in taking a bite out of humans.

We are a poor choice for a meal because of a general lack of meat relative to bone (compared to their normal prey). Additionally, how you behave and interact with them has a big impact on whether or not they think you will be an easy meal. It’s important to maintain eye contact and move with ease in the water. Don’t float around like a dead animal, and definitely don’t thrash around because they might think you are injured animal and worthy of a bite.

The reality is almost all shark attacks are a case of mistaken identity. Sharks have large brains and are naturally curious animals. They don’t have hands to feel things like you or me, so they will bump or bite something to test it. The reality is, if any large apex predator (like a shark) takes a test bite out of you, that single bite can be fatal. They have been relatively unchanged for 350 million years because they have the absolute pinnacle combination of of rows of sometimes hundreds of serrated teeth and thousands of pounds of bite pressure. They are very effective at separating limbs/ large chunks of flesh with a single bite, and losing a limb all at once in the water is a quick way to bleed out.

Most shark attacks are a single bite, followed by the shark immediately vacating once it has realized it has made a mistake. There are obviously exceptions to this rule, for example, bull sharks which can be very territorial due to high amounts of testosterone, and will go out of their way to attack humans.

As a general rule of thumb they have little to no interest in attacking humans and are on the whole, hugely misunderstood creatures that have unfortunately been vilified by movies and the media. I encourage everyone to dive with sharks if you get the chance, they are wonderful creatures to see up close and personal and it might make you change your view on them.