Unprovoked shark attacks across the world dropped last year after a record-breaking 2015. More than half of the attacks involved board sports like surfing, boogie boarding and paddle boarding.
Image: Elias Levy/CC BY 2.0
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Unprovoked shark attacks across the world dropped in 2016 after a record-breaking number the year before, the International Shark Attack File announced on Tuesday.
The University of Florida institution said there were a confirmed 81 unprovoked attacks in 2016, down from 98 attacks in 2015.
File curator George Burgess said global attacks remained on a slow upward trend as the human population grew and aquatic sports became more popular.
"A shark attack is a human phenomenon," Burgess said. "Sharks are a natural part of the ecosystem. The ocean is a foreign environment to humans, and when we enter the sea, we're entering a wilderness."
He said the 2015 spike in attacks was partly caused by El Nino-warmed waters.
Four of the 2016 attacks were fatal, with two in Australia and two in the French territory of New Caledonia.
For the love of sharks
Image: CC BY 4.0/Albert kok
Sharks, sharks everywhere
Blame it on Jaws or blame it on the fact that sharks do have rather a lot of sharp teeth, fact is, many humans have a fear of sharks as deep as the waters in which they swim. Any expert will tell you, we kill by far more of these great fish a year than they do us. So should we really be scared?
Image: Pterantula (Terry Goss) via Wikimedia Commons
The reef shark
There are five species of reef shark, of which this is one. Feasting on crustaceans and fish alike, they are the top predator in the fragile ecosystem from which they take their name. They are no strangers to divers either, and have been known to attack when they feel threatened.
Image: CC BY 4.0/Albert kok
All shapes and sizes
There are more than 250 recorded species of shark in the waters around our planet. They range in size and ferocity. The sand tiger shark weighs up to 159 kilos and can reach a length of 3.2 meters. They are big eaters, have a mouth full of frightening looking teeth, but are generally regarded as being docile and unlikely to attack humans unless provoked to do so.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S.Sauer
Mass slaughter
Though it is impossible to know exactly how many sharks are killed annually for their fins, some estimates put the number around 100 million. Finning, as the practice is known, entails the removal of the fin while the shark is alive. The animals are then cast back into the sea where if not dead already, they succumb to a painful end. The fins are used to make soup, which costs up to $100 a bowl.
Image: Gerhard Wegner/Sharkproject
Growing old gracefully
Recent research revealed that Greenland sharks can live to the extraordinarily ripe old age of 400. These predators have a healthy appetite, but have never been known to go for humans. They like cold waters, through which they move slowly. And that is not the only thing they do at a leisurly pace - they don't even reach sexual maturity until they are around 150.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Oceans Image
Just because it's big, doesn't mean...
...it will hurt you. At 18 meters, whale sharks are the longest species in the family, and indeed the biggest fish in the sea. At that rate, dinner should be theirs for the picking, but their penchant is for plankton. Good news for all the other creatures in the sea. But whale sharks are at risk. Not only are they fished for their fins, oil and meat, but are often hit by eco-tourism boats.
Image: CC BY 2.0/Derek Keats
Lemon sharks
Said to be the best researched sharks, the lemon species is considered non-agressive. To date there have been no recorded incidents of a human fatality as a result of a lemon shark attack. They are social creatures that move in groups, where they rarely display aggressive behavior to each other.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Horst Pfeiffer
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Most attacks in US
The file found that 58 percent of the attacks involved board sports like surfing, boogie boarding and paddle boarding, which disturb the water in a way that could draw sharks.
The US led the tally with 53 attacks, most of them in Florida. It was followed by Australia with 15, New Caledonia with four and Indonesia with two. Single incidents were reported in the Bahamas, Brazil, Japan, La Reunion, South Africa, Spain and Sri Lanka.
The International Shark Attack File defined "unprovoked attacks" as "incidents where an attack on a live human occurs in the shark's natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark."
It excluded incidents involving "sharks and divers in public aquariums or research holding-pens, shark-inflicted scavenge damage to already dead humans (most often drowning victims), attacks on boats, and other incidents involving provocation by humans."
The file investigated 150 incidents of alleged shark-human interaction, of which 81 were confirmed.
