Hunt for the Great White Shark.

• Author: Rothenberg, Robert S.

This thoughtful National Geographic Video - despite its somewhat sensationalist title-strives to make the point that "people threaten sharks more than sharks threaten people." Considering the primal fear these creatures strike in many hearts, driven home by Hollywood through "Jaws" and countless imitators, this premise takes some getting used to. The opening sequence - a re-creation of a great white attack on Australian Rodney Fox that left him miraculously alive after having his left lung, diaphragm, and left clavicle punctured; skin and muscle torn from his side, exposing many major organs; and all of his ribs broken by the force of his attacker's jaws - hardly is reassuring.

Yet, despite his near-mortal wounds, Fox has gone on to devote more than three decades to learning about sharks and spearheading worldwide efforts to preserve them from extinction. In doing so, he is photographed swimming among them, actually petting certain species (though not the great white), and even demonstrating how the silky shark can be put to sleep by...