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Florida once more had the best variety of shark bites of any geographic area on the earth, and made up 60% of bites that occurred alongside U.S. coasts. (Picture by Jane Dominguez/College of Florida)
Shark bites had been once more on the rise in 2021 as 73 unprovoked incidents had been recorded world wide, with Cape Cod’s seasonal customer main the pack for many fatalities.
Nice white sharks had been chargeable for 5 unprovoked deadly bites out of the 9 whole deaths reported throughout the globe, in line with the Florida Museum of Pure Historical past’s Worldwide Shark Assault File.
The variety of unprovoked bites in 2021 is in step with the five-year world common of 72 bites a yr, however the whole is a serious leap from the 52 confirmed bites in 2020 — the bottom in additional than a decade. Many seashores had been closed in 2020 in the beginning of the COVD-19 pandemic.
“Shark bites dropped drastically in 2020 because of the pandemic,” Worldwide Shark Assault File supervisor Tyler Bowling mentioned. “This previous yr was way more typical, with common chew numbers from an assortment of species and fatalities from white sharks, bull sharks and tiger sharks.”
Nice white sharks, which roam the Cape’s waters through the summer time and fall, had been chargeable for 11 unprovoked bites final yr — together with 4 bites within the U.S. Three of the 5 unprovoked deadly bites occurred off of Australia.
The final shark chew recorded alongside the Cape was in 2018, when a 26-year-old Revere man was killed.
Unprovoked bites are incidents that occurred within the shark’s pure habitat with out human provocation. The U.S. continues to steer the world within the annual variety of shark bites, with a complete of 47 final yr, representing 64% of worldwide circumstances. Of those 47 bites, all however 5 happened alongside the Atlantic seaboard.
Florida once more characteristically had the best variety of shark bites of any geographic area on the earth, and made up 60% of bites that occurred alongside U.S. coasts.
Nearly all of people (51%) bitten by sharks had been surfers or boarders, who spend a major period of time on the water in and round surf zones.
Marine coasts and estuaries are a favourite feeding floor for quite a lot of fishes, which make the most of the tides to scope out new meals and rummage close to the shallow seafloor. These smaller fishes, in flip, entice sharks, which typically mistake people for prey.
“For blacktip sharks in Florida, it’s most frequently a case of mistaken identification,” Bowling mentioned.
Worldwide Shark Assault File’s options on learn how to lower your probabilities of being bitten by a shark embody avoiding splashing in open water, which sharks might mistake for struggling fish. Individuals additionally shouldn't put on reflective jewellery, which can glint in daylight, resembling iridescent fish scales.