Close encounters of the shark kind on the rise in Australia

In Australian coastal waters, more people are encountering sharks. Human encounters with sharks are on the rise, says the Sydney Morning Herald (January 3-4, 2015).

Since 2000 the average number of shark encounters (i.e. attacks) per year have more than doubled. But this may also be due to the number of increased people visiting Australian beaches.

The Australian Shark Attack File (collected by John West of the Taronga Conservation Society) recorded an average of 15 incidents a year between 2000 and 2009, an increase from an average of 6.5 incidents a year from 1990 to 1999. ‘Attack’ is defined as “any interaction between a person and a shark where the animal attempts to strike the person or their equipment.”

Shark attacks are rare, with about 50% of attacks resulting in no injuries at all. And more than 80% of shark bites do not result in death.

The increase is consistent across all states of Australia (all states in Australia have a coastline). However, the majority of encounters occur on the east coast by three species of sharks: bull shark, tiger shark, and great white shark. The majority occurred when the person was surfing or spearfishing.

However, there has been a significant rise in deaths due to shark attacks in 2014. Last year five people died from shark bites, compared with two people in 2012, and two people in 2013. There were 78 incidents in 2014 with 5 deaths, and more than half ending without injury.

While 2014 spiked in the number of fatal shark attacks, the number of fatalities decreased from an average of three per year in the 1930s to one a year between 2000 and 2009. From 2012 to 2013 fatalities increased to two a year, and 2014 has recorded five deaths.

The death of a person yesterday, on Friday January 2, 2015, at Bondi Beach on the eastern coast of Australia, brings the death count to six for the summer of 2014-2015, and the first for 2015.

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