Paul de Gelder, who stars in the new Discovery Channel special "How to Survive a Shark Attack," shares tips on how to stay safe during an encounter.

De Gelder is a former Navy diver who survived a near-fatal undersea attack. He became a shark conservation advocate after losing his right arm and leg in a bull shark encounter in 2009. The then-elite Navy clearance diver was on a counter-terrorism exercise in Sydney Harbor when he was attacked.

He was an Australian Navy clearance diver when he nearly died in a bullhead shark attack. This year, he taunts them on Discovery Channel with a series of stunts in his 10th year with the TV event.

How often do shark attacks occur in the US? Here is a look at the data and how it stacks up against previous years.

Discovery’s “Shark Week” has a rival — National Geographic’s “SharkFest,” which also has hours of sharky content. There’s also the unconnected shark horror comedy “Hot Spring Shark Attack” and a movie earlier this summer that added a serial killer to a shark movie — “Dangerous Animals.”