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, a Shark Week veteran of over a decade, has built a career on surviving the unthinkable. While working as a Navy bomb disposal diver in 2009, De Gelder was attacked by a bull shark, losing both his right hand and leg to the animal.

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.

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.

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