OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
10:57 AM – Tuesday, February 6, 2024
According to a Florida-based database, there were 69 unprovoked shark bites globally in 2023, resulting in 10 fatalities, slightly exceeding the five-year average for shark-related deaths.
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According to a new report released on Monday, the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File reported that there were 69 unprovoked shark bites last year, the majority of which happened in the United States and Australia.
The investigation looked into 121 shark-human interactions worldwide. According to the report, that figure is consistent with the five-year average of 63 incidents per year between 2018 and 2022.
It was found that 22 shark attacks from the previous year were either purposely or accidentally provoked, according to the report. Out of those, there were four fatalities, the report said.
The report stated that the five-year international average for unprovoked deaths is six, compared to 10 in 2023.
According to the research, humans “initiate interaction” with a shark when spearfishing or trying to feed it, which results in provoked bites. When a shark bites a live person in its natural habitat, it’s considered an unprovoked bite because there was no human provocation involved.
“We’re biologists and so we want to know what the natural behavior of these animals is,” said Gavin Naylor, director of the International Shark Attack File. “When they come closer to shore, is it associated with a full moon? Is it associated with fish spawning?”
“The most conspicuous thing seems to be the number of fatalities,” Naylor said of the 2023 report. Even so, he pointed out that the statistical significance of the rise in unprovoked fatal attacks is minimal because of the small sample size.
According to the report, three of the unprovoked deathly shark bites consisted of white sharks that struck surfers in Australia. The attacks took place in the seas near the isolated surfing spot in Southern Australia, the Eyre Peninsula.
“We’ve had blips in fatalities up and down each year, but I do think that the white shark populations are doing a little bit better,” Naylor stated, referring to healthy groups of seals, which is what sharks feed on.
With 36 confirmed cases of unprovoked shark attacks last year, the United States had the highest number of these attacks worldwide, the report said. That is a decrease from 2022’s 41 confirmed cases.
According to the database, Florida recorded the highest number of unprovoked bites in 2023 (16), followed by Hawaii (eight) and New York (four).
Australia recorded 15, the second-highest number of unprovoked shark attacks in the world last year, after the United States.
However, according to Naylor, there may be shark attacks that are not listed in the database because they were never reported to authorities or the media.
“I think that we do a good job of collecting data for countries with infrastructure that report these kinds of things, and so then it’s comparable from one year to the next because we’re dealing with apples-to-apples comparisons,” Naylor said. “But do I think that we’re catching every single bite that happens around the world every year? Absolutely not.”
The report highlighted that there is a very little chance of getting bitten by a shark. However, it advises avoiding swimming at dawn or dusk, staying near to the shore, and not splashing too much in order to reduce risk.
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