Attack Statistics - An Overview

Throughout history, shark attacks have always occurred, from the earliest report in the Mediterranean, of around 450BC, to the regular occurrences off of the Florida coastline today. There is no question that the reported number of attacks has increased since the beginning of the 20th century, but the reasons have to be carefully analysed before jumping to the wild conclusion that the number of 'killer' sharks is on the increase. The International Shark Attack File is a cooperation between the American Elasmobranch Society and the Florida Museum of Natural History, that records all known incidences of shark attack from around the world, and is recognized as the sole source of data and statistics for observing trends. The ISAF can only ever be as good as the information they receive, and so therefore, although they have over 3200 individual reports, dating back as far as the mid 1500's, the bulk of data is in relation to the late 20th century, meaning that many shark attacks prior to this have not been reported. Language barriers from Non-English speaking countries, maritime disasters where the victims have all 'drowned' and the general acceptance of shark attacks within certain cultures, have all played a part in non reporting of shark attacks. With all this taken into consideration, the main reason for the increase in incidences is simply the change in the social culture of man. Seaside holidays, water sports such as scuba diving and the general increase of marine recreation and swimming has brought more and more people into the sharks realm.

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