Comment by defrost
2 months ago
I've read that they are down:
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File (ISAF), there were just 47 unprovoked attacks last year (worldwide, 2024), 22 fewer compared to 2023 and below the 10-year annual average of 70.
~ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-12/shark-attack-bite-rep...
> 47 unprovoked attacks last year
What about provoked attacks? And who's going out there provoking sharks?
I also like the implication that the provoked attacks are understandable and don't count
Well, they don't count, really.
If people were honest, we'd likely discover that unprovoked snake bites are almost unheard-of.
Likewise, if every drowning victim were routinely checked for BAC, I think we'd discover that sober people are much more drown-resistant than the stats would indicate. Unfortunately, water + play correlates highly with beer/wine cooler/hard seltzer consumption, in the US at least.
People make a lot of bad decisions, and it has effects.
It's a good question, so good in fact that's it's addressed in the linked article.
Examples of "provoked" attacks that occured while interacting with sharks include bitten while spear fishing sharks, bitten while removing from nets or hooks, etc.
Unprovoked attacks are shark bites while swimming, surfing, generally minding ones own business.
It's explicit in the source that provoked attacks are understood.