Australia has a disproportionately high number of fatal shark attacks, with isolated areas at higher risk of fatalities, an international study has found.
There will be 10 fatal attacks worldwide in 2023, double the five from the previous year, with four of last year’s deaths occurring in Australia.
The data shows surfers are slightly more likely to experience 69 ‘unprovoked’ bites than swimmers, with 42 per cent experiencing ‘unprovoked’ bites worldwide, with 22 per cent occurring in Australia. did.
Spear-phishing was the most common activity with 22 attacks considered “provoked” and excluded from the study.
The study focused on bites that occur in the shark’s natural habitat without human provocation, and the researchers, who are compiling the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File, say this reflects shark behavior. It is said to be the most useful for research.
Gavin Naylor, head of shark research at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said the number of bites is consistent with long-term trends.
“However, I am a little concerned about the number of deaths this year,” he says.
Three fatal accidents occurred off the coast of South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula in 2023. The Eyre Peninsula is a remote area that is home to many great white sharks and the seals that feed on them.
“Seals are really agile, so the only ones that get caught are seals that are playfully flopping around on the surface of the water…that’s like a surfer,” Naylor said.
A bull shark also killed a teenage girl in Western Australia’s Swan River.
The four deaths in Australian waters in 2023 are lower than the 10-year peak of six deaths in 2020.
Population density led to increased interactions between people and sharks and was associated with shark attacks, but swimming or surfing in more populated areas decreased the likelihood of dying during an attack.
Australia’s beach safety was “second to none” at popular, well-patrolled beaches, but beaches in remote areas were isolated and dangerous, says Florida Shark Research Program said Joe Miguez, a doctoral student.
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“If an attack occurs and the beach is safe, we can apply a tourniquet sooner and save lives,” he says.
Sydney resident Lauren O’Neill survived being bitten by what appeared to be a bull shark while swimming near a jetty in the densely populated eastern suburbs in January, the first attack on Sydney Harbor in more than a decade. It became a record.
She thanked her “heroic and very kind neighbors” for the critical assistance they provided so quickly.
The attack sparked a debate on shark control amid concerns that rising water temperatures are drawing more bull sharks to ports, but it was not included in the report, which focuses on bites in 2023. Not yet.
Two people have died from shark attacks in the United States, and four others have died in the Bahamas, Egypt, Mexico and New Caledonia.
Researchers said most of the attacks were “trial bites” by sharks that mistook humans for their preferred prey.
Normally, sharks swim away after such bites, but unusual incidents have occurred where tiger sharks, bull sharks, and great white sharks have bitten victims multiple times, and some sharks are so large that they The bite turned out to be fatal.
