The Jaws movie and its sequels catapulted the shark's notoriety from ocean danger into ocean monster and yet the creature was doing no more than surviving in its own habitat.

Jaws made the Great White a mystery of the deep. Graceful magnificence to some. An evil fish to others.

It is perfectly understandable to want to avenge Damian Johnson's death on Saturday by catching and destroying the predator but, as family said on Sunday, he wouldn't have wanted the shark killed.

Great Whites are protected species. They don't have it in for humans. They swim much faster than humans and are far stronger.

We're in their world and usually swimmers don't see them until it's too late.

We can feel a terrible sense of sadness and sympathy for the Johnson family, especially the daughter who witnessed the attack. We can despair at the lousy timing. In the wrong place at the wrong time.

But the shark is not guilty of murder. Indeed, there have been only a handful of shark fatalities in the 200 years of Tasmanian white settlement.

Surfer Mick Fanning's close encounter in South Africa shows that Great Whites are not always savage killers.

By contrast, humans kill about 100 million sharks a year globally, based on conservative estimates. Some put the figure as high as 300 million.

The best we can do is heed advice on when not to be in the ocean, such as dawn and dusk. Report all shark sightings to police, back the odds and say a prayer.

Electronic tagging of Great Whites has mapped their migratory habits, and shows how their journeys hug our coastline and popular beaches, as far north as the Queensland wet tropics.

As a nation of bronzed sun and surf lovers, we are guests in their backyard.