Shark Attack Data is a cool website that complies human and shark interactions around the world. It logs shark attacks by either provoked, unprovoked, fatal, or non-fatal. It describes each attack by date, location, type and size of shark, and the activity the person was doing at the time of the incident. The main goal of the website is to increase understanding, and to promote informed discussions on shark attacks. The data comes from the Global Shark Attack File and is compiled by the Shark Research Institute. The website helps you understand where and how shark attacks occur and how they have changed over time on a global scale. You can click on any country to find their statics and data on shark attacks. However, there are some gaps and missing information in some of the logs, but regardless it still provides useful information.
It’s really interesting that in the United States, the number of shark attacks has only been increasing every year. I wonder what is causing this, and would be curious if it could be connected to higher rates of human interaction with sea life. For example, maybe a higher presence of boats is causing sharks to move closer to the coasts, or if overcrowded beaches are disruptive.
Cool website! I never knew shark attacks were so common in the US and so this website seems great in offering a ton of useful and in-depth information regarding shark attacks around the world.
This is such an interesting resource! I’m especially intrigued by the enormous differences in the proportion of shark attacks to shark fatalities throughout the world. For example, even though the United States has had far more shark attacks than any other countries, Australia has had more fatal ones. I wonder whether that’s just coincidence, or whether it has to do with differences in the shark species in each area. There are a lot of developing countries with fairly low shark attack rates but very high fatality rates, so maybe higher fatality rates can also be caused by insufficient medical care? I similarly am curious about the decreasing proportion of fatalities over time. Are they caused by improving medical care or just the fact that people are getting attacked closer to shore now and thus often have less severe wounds or are able to seek help more quickly?
This is a really interesting source! It’s a little disconcerting being able to know when and where exactly shark attacks occur, but I think it provides interesting information regardless and could be even better once they build up more data. I would also love to see a feature that shows the changes in shark attack frequency and location over time.