Shark attacks on the rise again, research shows

A faculty of fish path a shark within the New York Aquarium’s newest exhibit, Wednesday June 20, 2018, in New York. Shark assaults are growing in quantity worldwide.

Bebeto Matthews, Related Press

Shark assaults elevated world wide in 2021 after three consecutive years of regular decline.

No, the sharks weren’t terrified of COVID-19. However an enormous a part of the decline was seaside closures in 2020, which can make the numbers appear extra dramatic than they're, researchers say, per ABC Information.

• Researchers recorded 73 unprovoked assaults worldwide, in comparison with 52 in 2020 the bottom in additional than a decade, in accordance with a brand new report by Worldwide Shark Assault File.
• The U.S. reported probably the most quantity of assaults with 47, which is 64% of the worldwide incidents.
• Florida accounted for 40% of unprovoked bites on the earth. The state has been main the statistic for many years.
• Australia reported the second most unprovoked assaults with 12 final yr.
• A single fatality from a shark chunk occurred within the U.S. in 2021 in California. A person was attacked whereas boogie boarding in Morro Bay on Christmas Eve.

“Shark bites dropped drastically in 2020 as a result of pandemic,” mentioned Worldwide Shark Assault File supervisor Tyler Bowling, per CBS Information. “This previous yr was far more typical, with common chunk numbers from an assortment of species and fatalities from white sharks, bull sharks and tiger sharks.”

Per the report, sharks have restricted shade notion and spatial resolving energy that's “significantly worse than people.” That is why white shark assaults towards people are sometimes a results of mistaken identification.