Dangers of Shark Diving

There's something about shark diving, deliberately diving around sharks, that bugs me. I have nothing against sharks or diving, but it seems that the whole idea treats sharks like the killing machines of our worst fears. After the dive, people can boast, “I was in the water with a Great White!” Now I might boast that too if it happened during one of my outings, but if I had deliberately sought the sharks out, then boasted about it, that's a different story.

I have been in the water with sharks, BTW. As long as you treat them with respect and keep aware of their behavior, they're not that big a deal.

Now let's also be clear, sharks, especially Great Whites, are no joke to be around. Here's an video of a shark dive gone wrong, which comes from News 24, a South African news service:

Now this is a scary situation, and that's the problem with dives like this. Things can always go wrong, especially when you're dealing with a very large and powerful predator. I want to do some SCUBA diving, but not go thrill-seeking.