Back in the late seventies I lived in Oman during my oilfield days. It was on the Arabian Gulf. The sea was beautiful with its reefs and fish. I dived twice a week. We did not even use scuba as the reefs were close to the surface. Scuba gear was not needed to see the beauty of the reef. I was “shit scared” of sharks. I realized that to behold the beauty of the reef and the fish and all was worth the small chance of an attack by a shark.
ps
We were snorkeling a few hundred yards offshore one day. The other guys decided to go back in the launch. I wanted to swim some more and see the reef. I told them I would just swim back I played around the reef for a bit than swam back.
While swimming back were many tropical fish. About half way across they all went south and I was alone. It was either a barracuda or shark. My only thought was I hope it is a barracuda. Attacks by barracudas are rare though they can inflict great injury on rare occasions, extremely rare is this.
I swam home with nothing biting me. It was a grand day on the reef.
I had a similar experience on Nonoc Island in the Philippines in the mid 70s. Reefs so shallow you could just flutter your fingertips to skim over them...and hope to God you avoided getting scratched on the Fire Coral. The sheer volume of tropical fish and the color of the anemones was beyond description or imagination. Then funny thing is I never thought once about man-eaters until you just raised the thought!