People around the world tend to have a fascination with, and an irrational fear of, sharks.

It’s why something like Shark Week on Discovery Channel brings in so many viewers, and why a movie like The Meg (seriously, at least watch the trailer) gets greenlit by the studios.

It’s nearing that time of year where we consider braving the dipping of a toe in Cape Town’s waters (more than that and you risk ending up with a Trump), and that means somebody is going to pipe up about the sharks.

This week, there was a deadly attack in Massachusetts, the first since 1936, which comes after another man was attacked in August just six kilometres up the coast.

The incidents have led to some number crunching from the Telegraph. They pose the question about whether shark attacks on the rise around the world, and if we need to be worried.

So, do we?

…the number of “unprovoked” shark attacks worldwide has been rising steadily over the past century.

Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File (ISAF) has data on shark attacks that stretch back to the 1900s. In the first decade of the 20th century, a total of 39 unprovoked attacks were recorded. One hundred years later, between 2000 and 2009, that number had climbed to 661.

Stats time:

“Unprovoked attacks” are “initiated by the shark—they occur in a shark’s natural habitat on a live human and without human provocation”.

There are three sub-divisions:

Now those 2010-2017 stats above don’t look promising, but there are many mitigating factors for that marked rise.

Firstly, those modern figures are far more comprehensive than back in the day thanks to technological advances. In addition, with the global population explosion, there is a massive increase in the number of people who enter the shark’s domain each year.

2017 saw a total of  88 documented unprovoked attacks, distributed as follows:

Something to soothe the nerves:

The USA has for a long time seen the most attacks, this year accounting for more than 60 per cent of the worldwide total, with 53. It’s followed by Australia (14), Reunion Island (3); and (each with only two attacks last year), Ascension Island, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Indonesia and South Africa.

Are you feeling more relaxed now?

Still, two attacks a year does seem oddly low:

South Africa’s relatively low number of attacks is interesting. Its two, non-fatal attacks in 2017 were slightly lower than its annual average of four total shark attacks and one fatality. But considering South Africa, and in particular Gansbaai, is often referred to as the “Great White Shark Capital of the World”, such are their numbers around the Cape, you’d be forgiven for expecting more.

It’s perhaps because the surfers who take to these waves on a daily basis in South Africa are more alert to their presence, tend to avoid the times of days when great whites are most likely to be hunting (dawn and dusk), and have a strong aerial patrol presence (plenty of helicopters which monitor sightings and issue alerts accordingly).

At this point, we should thank organisations like Shark Spotters, who do a sterling job of keeping Cape Town’s beaches safe for swimmers.

You can’t write an article about shark attacks without weighing up the likelihood of dying from an attack against other causes of death.

I guess this can either make you more likely to swim, or more anxious in general:

Have you ever seen how nimble a seal is under water? If sharks wanted to eat us, they would.

Right – see you at the beach, pal.

[source:telegraph]