Shark attacks resulting in human deaths at 20-year low
Wednesday, 13 Feb 2008 13:18
There were 71 shark attacks in 2007
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Fatal shark attacks hit their lowest levels in two decades during 2007.
The sole casualty was a swimmer on holiday in the south Pacific, figures from the University of Florida show.
There had been four deaths as a result of sharks in 2005 and 2006, and seven in 2004.
George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida's Museum of Natural History, described the fact that there had only been one fatality in 2007 as "spectacular".
"It's quite spectacular for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide spending hundreds of millions of hours in the water in activities that are often very provocative to sharks, such as surfing, there is only one incident resulting in a fatality," he said.
"The danger of a shark attack stays in the forefront of our psyches because of it being drilled into our brain for the last 30 years by the popular media, movies, books and television, but in reality the chances of dying from one are infinitesimal," Mr Burgess added.
The number of shark attacks in total increased from 63 in 2006 to 71 in 2007, a statistic the International Shark Attack File director claimed was understandable.
"One would expect there to be more shark attacks each year than the previous year simply because there are more people entertaining the water," he said.
Of the attacks that took place last year, 50 were in US and Hawaiian waters, 12 in Australia, two apiece in South Africa and New Caledonia and there were single incidents in Fiji, Ecuador, Mexico and New Zealand.
The solitary fatal attack in 2007 took place on September 30th and involved a 23-year-old woman from France who was snorkelling off the Loyalty Islands archipelago in French New Caledonia.
It is claimed that she had become separated from a friend.
Mr Burgess offered some advice for preventing an attack by sharks, "we advise not getting yourself isolated because there is safety in numbers".
"Sharks, like all predators, tend to go after solitary individuals, the weak and the infirm, and are less likely to attack people or fish in groups."