Shark attack

A shark attack is an incident in which a shark bites or otherwise injures a human. Every year, around 80 unprovoked attacks are reported worldwide. Despite their rarity, many people fear shark attacks after occasional serial attacks, such as the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, and horror fiction and films such as the Jaws series. Out of more than 500 shark species, only three are responsible for a double-digit number of fatal, unprovoked attacks on humans: the great white, tiger, and bull. Humans are not part of a shark's normal diet. Sharks usually feed on small fish and invertebrates, seals, sea lions, and other marine mammals. A shark attack will usually occur if the shark feels curious or confused.

Terminology

While the term "shark attack" is in common use for instances of humans being wounded by sharks, it has been suggested that this is based largely on the assumption that large predatory sharks (such as great white, bull, and tiger sharks) seek humans as prey. A 2013 review recommends that only in instances where a shark clearly predates on a human should the bite incident be termed an "attack," implying predation. Otherwise, it is more accurate to class bite incidents as "fatal bite incidents". Sightings do include physical interaction, encounters including physical interaction with harm, shark bites include major shark bite incidents, including those that require medical attention, and fatal shark bite incidents that result in death. The study suggests that only where an expert validates the predatory intent of a shark would it be appropriate to term a bite incident an attack.

Types of attacks

alt=A photograph of a rectangular sign attached to a wooden post. White text on a blue background reads "Natal sharks board. Warning notice. Shark safety measures have been installed at this beach to enhance protection of bathers but all persons entering the sea do so entirely at their own risk. No liability accepted. Avoid swimming or surfing at dawn, dusk and at night when the risk of shark attack is greater. By order."|thumb|A sign warning about the presence of sharks off [[Salt Rock, South Africa]]

Shark attack indices use different criteria to determine if an attack was "provoked" or "unprovoked." When considered from the shark's point of view, attacks on humans who are perceived as a threat to the shark or a competitor to its food source are all "provoked" attacks. Neither the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) nor the Global Shark Attack File (GSAF) accord casualties of air/sea disasters "provoked" or "unprovoked" status. Rather, these incidents are considered a separate category. Postmortem scavenging of human remains (typically drowning victims) are also not accorded "provoked" or "unprovoked" status.

Sneak attack – the victim will not usually see the shark, and may sustain multiple deep bites. This kind of attack is predatory in nature and is often carried out with the intention of consuming the victim. It is extraordinarily rare for this to occur.
Bump-and-bite attack – the shark circles and bumps the victim before biting. Great whites are known to do this on occasion, referred to as a "test bite", in which the great white is trying to identify what is being bitten. Repeated bites, depending on the reaction of the victim (thrashing or panicking may lead the shark to believe the victim is prey), are not uncommon and can be severe or fatal. Bump-and-bite attacks are not believed to be the result of mistaken identity.

Reasons for attacks

Large shark species are apex predators in their environment, and thus have little fear of any creature (other than orcas) with which they cross paths. Like most sophisticated hunters, they are curious when they encounter something unusual in their territories. Lacking any limbs with sensitive digits such as hands or feet, the only way they can explore an object or organism is to bite it. These bites are known as test bites. Generally, shark bites are exploratory, and the animal will swim away after one bite. Nonetheless, a single bite can grievously injure a human if the animal involved is a powerful predator such as a great white or tiger shark.

A shark will normally make one swift attack and then retreat to wait for the victim to die or weaken from shock and blood loss, before returning to feed. This protects the shark from injury from a wounded and aggressive target; it also allows humans time to get out of the water and survive. Shark attacks may also occur due to territorial reasons or as dominance over another shark species.

Sharks are equipped with sensory organs called the Ampullae of Lorenzini that detect the electricity generated by muscle movement. The shark's electrical receptors, which pick up movement, detect signals like those emitted from wounded fish. For example, someone who is spearfishing, leading the shark to attack the person by mistake.

Statistics

thumb|upright=2|Total shark attacks per year, 1749 to 2018

According to the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), between 1958 and 2016 there were 2,785 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks around the world, of which 439 were fatal. Between 2001 and 2010, an average of 4.3 people per year died from shark attacks. In 2005 and 2006, this number decreased to 61 and 62 respectively, while the number of fatalities dropped to only four per year. By contrast, the 98 shark attacks in 2015 was the highest yearly total on record. On average, there are 16 shark attacks per year in the United States, with one fatality every two years. The US states in which the most attacks have occurred are Florida, Hawaii, California, Texas and the Carolinas, though attacks have occurred in almost every coastal state.

Australia has the highest number of fatal shark attacks in the world, with Western Australia recently becoming the deadliest place in the world for shark attacks with total and fatal shark bites growing from three to 29 total, and from zero to seven fatal bites per five years over the last 40 years. Since 2000, there have been 17 fatal shark attacks along the West Australian coast, with divers now facing odds of one in 16,000 for a fatal shark bite.

Other shark attack hotspots include Réunion Island, Boa Viagem in Brazil, Makena Beach in Maui, Hawaii, and Second Beach, Port St. Johns, South Africa. South Africa has a high number of shark attacks along with a high fatality rate of 27 percent.

As of 28 June 1992, Recife in Brazil began officially registering shark attacks on its beaches (mainly on the beach of Boa Viagem). Over more than two decades, 64 victims were attacked, of whom 26 died. The last deadly attack occurred on 10 July 2021. The attacks were caused by the bull shark and tiger shark species.

The shark attacks in Recife have an unusually high fatality rate of about 37%. This is much higher than the worldwide shark attack fatality rate, which is currently about 16%, according to Florida State Museum of Natural History. Several factors have contributed to the unusually high attack and fatality rates, including pollution from sewage runoff and a (now closed) local slaughterhouse.

The place with the most recorded shark attacks is New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Developed nations such as the United States, Australia and, to some extent, South Africa, facilitate more thorough documentation of shark attacks on humans than developing coastal nations. The increased use of technology has enabled Australia and the United States to record more data than other nations, which could somewhat bias the results. In addition, individuals and institutions in South Africa, the United States, and Australia keep a file which is regularly updated by an entire research team, the International Shark Attack File, and the Australian Shark Attack File.

The Florida Museum of Natural History compares these statistics with the much higher rate of deaths from other causes. For example, an average of more than 38 people die annually from lightning strikes in coastal states, while less than 1 person per year is killed by a shark in Florida. In the United States, the likelihood that a person who goes to beaches will be attacked by a shark is 1 in 11.5 million, and a person's chance of getting killed by a shark is less than 1 in 264.1 million.

However, in certain situations the risk of a shark attack is higher. For example, in the southwest of Western Australia the chances of a surfer being fatally bitten by a shark in winter or spring are 1 in 40,000 and for divers it is 1 in 16,000.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width:auto; float:right; clear:right; margin:0 0 0.5em 1em; text-align:right; font-size: 85%;"

|+ style="background:#66a; color:#fff;" colspan="4"| Confirmed unprovoked shark attacks, 1958–2023

! Region

! Total attacks

! Fatal attacks

! Last fatality

| style="text-align:left" | United States||1106||37||2021

| style="text-align:left" | Australia||647||261||2025

| style="text-align:left" | Africa||347||95||2023

| style="text-align:left" | Asia||129||48||2000

| style="text-align:left" | Hawaii||137||11

| style="text-align:left" | Pacific Islands / Oceania ||129||50||2023

| style="text-align:left" | South America||117||26||2018

| style="text-align:left" | Antilles and Bahamas||71||17||2023

| style="text-align:left" | Middle America||56||27||2011

| style="text-align:left" | Europe||52||27||1989

| style="text-align:left" | New Zealand||50||10||2021

| style="text-align:left" | Réunion Island||39||19||2019

| style="text-align:left" | Unspecified / Open ocean||21||7||1995

| style="text-align:left" | Bermuda||3||0|| —

|- class="sortbottom"

! style="background:#ddf; text-align:center;"| Total:

! style="background:#ddf; text-align:right;"| 2900

! style="background:#ddf; text-align:right;"| 633

! style="background:#ddf; text-align:right;"| 2023

|- class="sortbottom"

| style="text-align:left" colspan="4" | Sources: Shark Attack Data Australia Australian Shark Attack File for unprovoked attacks in Australia International Shark Attack File for unprovoked attacks in all other regions

Species involved in incidents

thumb|300px|left|A [[blacktip reef shark. In rare circumstances such as poor visibility, blacktips may bite humans, mistaking them for prey. Under normal conditions, however, they are harmless and often even quite shy.]]

Only a few shark species are dangerous to humans. Out of more than 480 shark species, only three are responsible for two-digit numbers of fatal unprovoked attacks on humans: the great white, tiger and bull. These sharks, being large and powerful predators, may sometimes attack and kill people, even though all have been filmed in open water by unprotected divers. The 2009 French film Oceans shows footage of humans swimming next to sharks in the ocean. It is possible that the sharks can sense the presence of unnatural elements on or about the divers, such as polyurethane diving suits and air tanks, which may lead them to accept the divers as more of a curiosity than prey. Uncostumed humans, however, such as those surfboarding, light snorkeling or swimming, present a much greater area of exposed skin surface to sharks. In addition, the presence of even small traces of blood, recent minor abrasions, cuts, scrapes, or bruises, may lead sharks to attack a human in their environment. Sharks seek out prey through electroreception, sensing the electric fields that are generated by all animals due to the activity of their nerves and muscles.

Most of the oceanic whitetip shark's attacks have not been recorded, thumb|[[Watson and the Shark by J.S. Copley, based on the attack on Brook Watson in Havana Harbor in 1749]]

Modern-day statistics show the oceanic whitetip shark as seldom being involved in unprovoked attacks. However, there have been a number of attacks involving this species, particularly during World War I and World War II. The oceanic whitetip lives in the open sea and rarely shows up near coasts, where most recorded incidents occur. During the world wars, many ship and aircraft disasters happened in the open ocean, and because of its former abundance, the oceanic whitetip was often the first species on site when such a disaster happened.

Infamous examples of oceanic whitetip attacks include the sinking of the Nova Scotia, a British steamship carrying 1,000 people that was torpedoed by a German submarine on 18 November 1942, near South Africa. Only 192 people survived, with many deaths attributed to the oceanic whitetip shark. The same species is believed to have been responsible for many of the 600–800 or more casualties following the torpedoing of the USS Indianapolis on 30 July 1945.

Black December refers to at least nine shark attacks on humans, causing six deaths, that occurred along the coast of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, from 18 December 1957 to 5 April 1958.

In addition to the four species responsible for a significant number of fatal attacks on humans, a number of other species have attacked humans without being provoked, and have on extremely rare occasions been responsible for a human death. This group includes the shortfin mako, hammerhead, Galapagos, grey reef, blacktip, lemon, silky shark, and blue sharks.

File:White shark.jpg|The great white shark is involved in the most fatal unprovoked attacks

File:Bullshark.JPG|The bull shark ranks as the third most fatal in unprovoked attacks

thumb|The film Jaws gave viewers an unrealistic view of shark attacks

Media portrayals such as the 1975 film Jaws were the cause of large-scale hunting and killing of thousands of sharks. Jaws had a significant impact on people and gave them an unrealistic view of sharks, causing them to fear them more than they probably should. The media has continued to exploit this fear by sensationalizing attacks and portraying sharks as vicious man-eaters.

After three shark attacks on Americans in July 2001, news media in the United States were accused of giving excessive focus to reports of shark attacks, to increase readership and ratings. The period became known as the Summer of the Shark.

In 2010 nine Australian survivors of shark attacks banded together to promote a more positive view of sharks. The survivors made particular note of the role of the media in distorting the fear of sharks. There are some television shows, such as Shark Week, that are dedicated to the preservation of these animals. They demonstrate, through scientific studies, that sharks are not interested in attacking humans and generally mistake humans as prey. A 2013 paper by Robert Hueter and Christopher Neff analyzed how shark attacks were covered in the Australian press. They found that 38% of reported "shark attacks" the shark did not touch the human. It simply swam near a human.

Notable shark attacks and victims

Tsukumo No. 24 ca. 1200 BC, world's oldest documented shark attack victim
George Coulthard (1856–1883), Australian cricketer and Australian rules footballer
Rodney Fox (b. 1940), Australian filmmaker and conservationist
Bethany Hamilton (b. 1990), American surfer
Mathieu Schiller (1979–2011), French body-boarder
Brook Watson (1735–1807), British soldier and Lord Mayor of London
Mick Fanning (b. 1981), Australian professional surfer
USS Indianapolis July–August 1945
NOAAS Discoverer (R 102) March 23, 1994
Tamayo Perry (1975–2024), American professional surfer

Notes

References

External links

International Shark Attack File
Global Shark Attack File — Open database
Tracking Sharks — Current Shark Attack Statistics
Shark Attack Survivors — Shark attack education and prevention